Performance and Memory: Theatrical Representations of the Biafra War in Post-Millennial Nigerian Drama

This study analyses how post-millennial Nigerian dramatists have represented the Biafra War (1967-1970) in theatrical performance, investigating the relationship between dramatic representation and collective cultural memory. The Biafra War remains one of the most contested and traumatic events in Nigerian history, and its theatrical representation is inherently political, shaped by ethnic affiliation, generational distance, and national reconciliation imperatives. The research examines six plays produced between 2000 and 2024 by playwrights from diverse regional and ethnic backgrounds, applying memory studies theory and postcolonial trauma analysis to the dramatic texts and available production documentation. The study finds that post-millennial dramatic treatments of the Biafra War are characterised by a shift from triumphalist or victimological narratives toward complex, multi-perspectival engagements with war trauma, civilian experience, and questions of accountability. Female characters are increasingly centred as bearers of war memory, reflecting feminist interventions in conflict narrative. The research fills a notable gap in the scholarship on Nigerian dramatic memory and concludes that theatrical representation of the Biafra War constitutes an important site of national reckoning with historical violence. Keywords: Biafra War, collective memory, Nigerian drama, conflict representation, trauma theatre.