A Picture that Changed the World

If I asked you to point out the nation of Biafra on a map, the odds are you wouldn’t be able to- not just because this nation no longer formally exists, but because the American people have largely forgotten the people of Biafra and their struggles, even though they continue to impact our lives today. If I asked you whether you had heard of the organization Doctors Without Borders, the odds are you would say yes. The photograph featured in this post depicts several Biafran children, prominently featuring an exhausted young albino boy, visibly starved and dangerously underweight. This photograph, taken in 1969 by Don McCullin, had a profound impact on both the international and American populaces, remaining one of the most iconic and powerful images of this century.

• Context
  • What is it?
    • Photograph of a young albino Biafra boy, standing apart from his peers, holding a small tin.
    • The children are clearly starving and dramatically underweight
  • Who made it?
    • Photograph by British war photographer Don McCullin, 1969.
    •  “To be a starving Biafran orphan was to be in a most pitiable situation, but to be a starving albino Biafran was to be in a position beyond description,” McCullin wrote. “Dying of starvation, he was still among his peers an object of ostracism, ridicule and insult.”
  • What is Biafra?
    • Biafra was/is a small nation part of Nigeria
      • 1960: Nigeria gains independence from UK
      • 1966: Muslim Huasas begin murdering Christian Igbos
        • Igbos move to the East, where they are dominant ethnic group
        • May 30, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and other non-Igbo representatives of the area established the Republic of Biafra
        • Diplomatic efforts by Nigeria failed to reunite the country, war between Nigeria and Biafra broke out in July 1967.
        • Biafra creation threatens Nigeria’s access to oil
        • Nigerian army cuts off Biafra’s access to food, no money to buy food, Biafra initially refuses aid from Western countries, around 1 million civilians die of starvation
• Problem
  • Highlighted the struggle of the Biafran people during the war against Nigeria, dramatic image influenced governments and private organizations to fund relief efforts and send aid to Biafra
  • One of very few pictures of the war, neither side allowed press to enter/document
  • Responds to the rhetorical exigence/kairotic moment of the Biafran struggle for independence in a tangible and emotional way
  • Highlights the devastation of war in a new and previously undocumented way
  • One of the first pictures of starvation shown to first world countries
• Commonplaces
  • Overturns commonplace of apathy in international affairs and indifference towards the Nigerian wars for independence by forcing the audience to acknowledge the horrors of conflict that they refuse to alleviate
  • Audience: British people, UK/US and United Nations, voting/newspaper reading populace , readers of TIME magazine
• Concepts
  • Most important: kairos. Unique moment during the apex of the Biafran struggle where people were struggling the most
  • Appeals strongly to emotion; audience should feel disgusted, shocked, disturbed, and upset; should be compelled to aid the children
    • McCullin hoped that such stark images would be able to “break the hearts and spirits of secure people.”
  • Bring together international community in outrage
• Conclusion
  • Importance/ impact as a rhetorical concept: created strong demands for international involvement in the struggle, launched the organization Doctors Without Borders, inspired hundreds of airlifts of food/water/medicine
  • One of the first widely publicized images of the devastation of war on civilians

Sources

• https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/history/founding
• http://100photos.time.com/photos/don-mccullin-albino-boy-biafra
• https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/republic-of-biafra-proclaimed
• https://lalitkumar.in/blog/biafra-famine-famous-photograph/