During the Nigerian Civil War, the secessionist Republic of Biafra faced a blockade causing mass starvation. Children suffered kwashiorkor, and populations ate unusual plants, insects, and in extremes, resorted to desperate measures. Over a million died, drawing global attention to humanitarian crises.

The famine influenced African literature and poetry on civil war, identity, and neocolonialism. Nigerian and Igbo poets used imagery of hunger to critique conflict and global indifference, enriching post-colonial verse with themes of suffering, resilience, and cultural loss in modern African literary movements.