ßÙßÇÂþ»­

Content warning: This article deals with the subjects of war, famine, and child refugees.

October marks Black History Month and the theme for 2025 is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, which urges us to examine how the agency of Black people has often been misrepresented. One of the theme’s guiding pillars, ‘Service and Sacrifice’, highlights the vital contributions of individuals in healthcare, education and humanitarian efforts which have too often gone unrecognised.

In this month’s Marvel, Naomi McGuire, an undergraduate history student and ßÙßÇÂþ»­ Heritage volunteer, has used the theme as an opportunity to highlight the remarkable humanitarian efforts made by Biafran civilians during the Biafran war (also known as the Nigerian Civil War), a brutal conflict fought from 1967 to 1970. Using the archives of Woking refugee charity, Ockenden International (formerly the Ockenden Venture) her research sheds light on the Biafran diaspora in ßÙßÇÂþ»­ and examines Ockenden’s role in supporting displaced individuals and resettling families.

Ockenden and the Biafran War

Ockenden was founded in 1951 by local schoolteachers Joyce Pearce OBE, Ruth Hicks and Margaret Dixon to help displaced children after the Second World War. The charity took its name from Miss Pearce’s family home in White Rose Lane, Woking, and it worked for 50 years helping refugees from around the world. Letters, newspaper articles and images in the Ockenden archives challenge conventional narratives of aid, and recentre Biafran voices in the telling of their own history. The unwavering commitment of individuals to their community and country also invites us to reflect upon the representations of African conflicts in media and historiography.

This is particularly true in discussions of the Biafran War, where the portrayal of aid efforts and its recipients has often been centred around international charities conducting large-scale operations. Humanitarian discourse of this nature tends to overlook the work of individuals and grassroots organisations that often have a more immediate and direct impact on communities experiencing conflict.

The Biafran War began as a result of Nigeria’s efforts to regain control of the secessionist state of Biafra. As a former British colony, the Nigerian Federal Government received arms and financial aid from Britain, and the war resulted in an exceptionally high death toll and caused extreme starvation. Though intended to increase support for Biafra, media coverage of the war helped construct the view of post-colonial Africa as dependent on the Global North. This often failed to recognise the constructive efforts of Biafran civilians and community groups and the negative impact on Nigeria’s image lingers, obscuring the reality of aid work during the conflict. Ockenden’s archive helps dispel these historical inaccuracies, particularly surrounding aid work and the experiences of Biafran civilians more generally.

The Igwe family’s experiences

The Igwe family’s story has been uncovered through newspaper articles and letters in the Ockenden archive exchanged between Grace and Egemba Igwe, their family friend, Margaret Green, and Joyce Pearce (as Ockenden’s lead). The Rev. Egemba Igwe and his wife, Grace, applied their respective skills to crucial active roles in the Biafran domestic humanitarian response to serve their country and people.

The records are important for telling the Igwe’s story in their own words. Grace, a trained teacher, chose to retrain as a nurse after the war broke out, to meet the urgent medical needs of her community. Under the constant threat of aerial and ground attacks, Grace worked in volatile conditions, leading a children’s ward of over 100 beds on the frontline at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Umuahia. She describes trenches being dug to escape bombing whilst on shift and navigating working in the bush with limited equipment. Her versatility in the face of war saved the lives of countless children who would otherwise have succumbed to their injuries. Her contributions challenge conventional narratives about the role of women in conflict, which often paint them as passive victims of wars waged by men. Grace also refused to let war stop education and she trained teachers to send to refugee camps in Gabon to ensure displaced children could still receive a decent level of education.

Egemba’s faith and prominent role in the Biafran Methodist Church shaped his war contributions as an army pastor and as Secretary of the Biafran Refugee Council. Margaret Green’s letters are less detailed about his work but do shed light on his role in moulding international discourse on Biafra, often acting as a spokesperson abroad during the war in locations such as London and Portugal. Post-war, Egemba led a newly-opened Ockenden office dedicated to reuniting Biafran families torn apart by the war, demonstrating his relentless dedication to continued advocacy for the Biafran people and their cause.

Life in Woking

The letters also tell how the Igwe family left Biafra for Britain leading to their eventual reunion in Woking in January 1970. The Igwe's wanted to help their children leave Biafran for Britain and Margaret Green, who was living in England at the time, contacted Joyce Pearce on behalf of the family in August 1968. Joyce offered to assist with the relocation of the family and began regular contact with both Green and the Igwe's, as well as relevant officials with whom she argued their case. Leaving Biafra was a complex process, made increasingly difficult by the Biafran government which was concerned that allowing migration might raise alarm within the country.

The relocation of the Igwe children was formally approved in April 1969, with proof of Ockenden’s commitment to their care until their safe return could be guaranteed. The Igwe children travelled to Britain in December with Grace and Egemba arriving in ßÙßÇÂþ»­ the following month. The family initially lived together in the Ockenden house in Woking, until they moved to London, where Grace restarted her teaching career.

Support in Gabon

Ockenden’s Biafran venture also included sponsoring work on the ground in Libreville in Gabon, one of the few countries to support and formally recognise the Republic of Biafra. Ockenden supported the work of Claire Glorieux, a Belgian social worker who travelled to Libreville to work in a centre set up there for Biafran refugees run by (a global confederation of Catholic charities dedicated to providing humanitarian aid). As soon as the green light was given for Ockenden to extend support, former patron and chairman of Ockenden, Dr Christopher Woodard, and five Biafran nurses already working in London, flew to Lisbon, and from there to Biafra on a Caritas plane.

By the end of the war Claire was responsible for the care of over 700 children and she regularly wrote to Pearce, providing rich descriptions of her work in the centre. Ockenden also published many images of education in Libreville in is newsletters. Having been established by schoolteachers, it was only natural that most of Ockenden’s work focused on increasing access to educational opportunities both at home and abroad.

Ockenden support after the war

Ockenden’s post-war concern to reunite Biafran families demonstrates its understanding that the impact of the war would not simply disappear after the ceasefire. The majority of families housed in Ockenden properties returned home and those living in Caritas centres were also repatriated. Ockenden’s campaign shifted its focus towards tracing families of Biafrans who had been separated during the war which was run out of the new office headed up by Egemba Igwe. He used his own experience in this new role to help fellow Biafrans, providing counselling for separated families who were being supported through the reunion process.

The Ockenden archive at ßÙßÇÂþ»­ History Centre has not only offered an opportunity to re-examine the Western perception of the Biafran war and to illuminate the experiences of Biafran civilians but also to reveal a more complex situation than the dominant imagery of struggling, hunger-stricken post-colonial Nigeria often portrayed in Western media and humanitarian discourse.

.

Access requests

Please note: Ockenden files which include material relating to named refugees or which contain sensitive information about individuals are closed for 100 years but accessible to those individuals through the Data Protection Act enquiry process.

Sources

• Film excerpts from BBC TV News Library: 'BBC News Programme: Biafra: date 1968' (reference F/69/2 Film 10)
• Articles from the ‘Woking News and Mail’ featuring the Igwe family’s reunion, 24 January 1970, and other news  cuttings relating to the Biafran campaign (reference 7155/4/6/16)
• Letters from Margaret Green to Joyce Pearce, January 1969 (reference 7155/6/4/6)
• Ockenden Venture annual reports, 1968-1971 (reference 7155/4/1/9-14)
• Ockenden Venture Biafran Crisis appeal leaflet (reference 7555/4/3/4)
• Pamela Watkin, ‘Joyce’s Ockenden: The Story of a Vision That Became a Venture for Refugees’ (London: Broadmead Press, 1993)
• Marie- Luce Desgranchamps, ‘Biafra: At the Heart of Postcolonial Humanitarian Ambiguities’, Humanitarian Alternatives, 9 (2018), 8-19

Images

Select image to view a larger version.

• Biafran War aid campaign leaflets, 1968-1969, from the Ockenden International archives (reference 7155/6/4/13)
• News cutting from the Woking News and Mail reporting the story of the Igwe family’s reunion, 24 January 1970 (reference 7155/4/6/16)
• Front cover of the Ockenden Venture annual report, 1968-1969, captioned ‘In Ockenden’s garden a Tibetan refugee girl looks after Anglo-Biafra children evacuated from the war zone of Nigeria’ (reference 7155/4/1/9)
• Photographs from Ockenden’s Biafran Crisis appeal leaflet showing displaced children in a school in Gabon, run by Ockenden representative, Claire Glorieux (reference 7155/4/3/4)