Framing victimhood, making war: A linguistic historicizing of secessionist discourses

Abstract

As separatist yearnings resurge and gain traction in Nigeria, the agency of language and digitality in spreading dissident discourses has come under scrutiny. In this study, I investigate the linguistic-historical dimension of the Biafran movements, exploring the rhetorical frames by which the actors curate ethnic victimhood and sustain the secessionist struggle. Drawing on a corpus of memoiristic narrative of the Biafra war and digitally mediated discourses from a new Biafran movement – Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), I identify and discuss the central topoi of warspeak in both narratives across space and time. In this context, the notions of linguistic framing and atrocity propaganda are fruitfully integrated to analyse the range of rhetorical strategies for incentivizing the struggle and for animating its social capital. While both narratives draw on shared belongings, historical precedents, cultural frameworks, and atrocity stories for incitement, they vary in style and audience. I attribute the shifts to changes in actors’ demographics, discursive contexts, and Nigeria’s ethnopolitical cartographies.