Africa 77 (3), 2007 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES DURING THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR Egodi Uchendu Children caught in war-torn areas the world over are depicted as both victims and perpetrators of violence (Caroll-Abbing 1952; Proud 1995; Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994; Werner 2000; Boyden and de Berry 2004). Most commonly they are portrayed as feeble, helpless, neglected and brutalized, with some becoming heads of households or supporters of elderly relatives. In the accounts of Cohn and Goodwin- gill child recruits are represented as merciless killers and persons ‘whose innocence is exploited’ in the pursuit of war to win emotional support for the cause of warring factions (1994: 23–7). Child victims of the Nigerian civil war (1967–1970) shared experiences comparable to those of children in other war-torn areas who suffered neglect and various degrees of brutality, yet, within the limits of their capabilities, also assisted their families to survive the conflict. Despite the salience of this topic in reportage of recent conflicts in and outside Africa, little is known about the young Nigerians who lived through a civil war about which so much else has been written. 1 This article is about present-day middle-aged people’s memories of that childhood. During the civil war all these narrators were under the age of eighteen. 2 The focal point of the discussion is the narrators’ recollections and childhood opinions of the war and life during hostilities. Much of the discussion will focus on those in the Igbo section of Biafra, then Eastern Region, the major theatre of the war. 3 Others whose opinions and lives during the conflict are recounted were at the time of the events in Anioma – the Igbo homeland west of the River Niger and situated in the old Midwestern State – and in Idoma and Tiv ethnic communities of the old Benue State, then part of Northern Nigeria and Biafra’s northern neighbours. Oral data for this article were collected between December 2004 and February 2005 from informants between the ages of forty-two and fifty-five: persons who from 1967 to 1970 were between the ages of five and eighteen. A few older persons were also interviewed, mainly EGODI UCHENDU teaches History at the University of Nigeria. She has held various research fellowships and is presently a Humboldt Research Fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. 1 See Alade 1975; Akpan 1972; Madiebo 1980; Obasanjo 1980; Odogwu 1985; Achuzia 1986; Ogbemudia 1991; Harneit-Sievers et al. 1997. 2 Children are persons under the age of eighteen according to the Nigerian constitution and the categorization of children by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 3 Nigeria in 1967 had four regions – Northern, Eastern, Western and Midwestern. Eastern Region comprised five ethnic groups. The Igbo were the dominant group, while the Ijaw (Ijo), Efik, Ekois and Ibibio were the minority groups.