Nigeria, despite being the African country of greatest strategic importance to the U.S., remains poorly understood. John Campbell explains why Nigeria is so important to understand in a world of jihadi extremism, corruption, oil conflict, and communal violence. The revised edition provides updates through the recent presidential election.

From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and the world's eighth largest oil producer, but its success has been undermined in recent decades by ethnic and religious conflict, political instability, rampant official corruption and an ailing economy. Toyin Falola, a leading historian intimately acquainted with the region, and Matthew Heaton, who has worked extensively on African science and culture, combine their expertise to explain the context to Nigeria's recent troubles through an exploration of its pre-colonial and colonial past, and its journey from independence to statehood. By examining key themes such as colonialism, religion, slavery, nationalism and the economy, the authors show how Nigeria's history has been swayed by the vicissitudes of the world around it, and how Nigerians have adapted to meet these challenges. This book offers a unique portrayal of a resilient people living in a country with immense, but unrealized, potential.

This story is about an African American businessman who embarked on what he thought would be a promising business trip to Nigeria in 1978. Although that first business trip was unsuccessful, he would eventually make four more trips, with the hope that the next trip would bring him that elusive financial success. I am that African American businessman, and in the process of making these trips, I lived in the country for more than fourteen years. My experiences included living under military rule, a strained union, corruption, and other social problems. Despite these difficulties, I had the opportunity of sharing the warm and friendly relationships with members of the three major ethnic groups (Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba) and some of the over 250 minorities. After witnessing Nigeria's problems for more than fourteen years, it left me with a strong urge to write about their situation in a constructive way. My journey touched on various levels of the Nigerian society, and I would like to share these experiences with you in "It's Time" for A Country Called Nigeria.

A global history of 'Biafra', providing a new explanation for the ascendance of humanitarianism in a postcolonial world.