This document provides a comparative analysis of two works about the Nigerian Civil War - Chinua Achebe's 1972 short story collection "Girls at War" and Leslie Ofoegbu's 1985 memoir "Blow the Fire". Both works tell stories of women's experiences during the war from different perspectives: Achebe focuses on ordinary Igbo citizens, while Ofoegbu shares her personal account as an expatriate wife and mother living in Biafra. The works illustrate the hardships of displacement, daily life struggling with shortages, and the impacts of war on families and social structures. While having different styles, the two works both provide intimate witness accounts of suffering during the conflict from a gendered perspective.

1. Women in the War Zone – a comparative study of Achebe Girls at War (1972) & Ofoegbu Blow the Fire (1985) Francoise Ugochukwu The Open University (UK)

5. Chinua Achebe Girls at War and other stories London, Heinemann 1972, 123p.

6. Leslie Ofoegbu Blow the Fire Enugu, Tana Press 1985, 167p.

24. Since then, “some of the most powerful aspects of Igbo culture and demography are reinforced through the production and circulation of collective memories of Biafra.” D.Jordan Smith, “Legacies of Biafra: marriage, ‘home people’ and reproduction among the Igbo of Nigeria” Africa 75(1) 2005: 30