Images play as important a role as guns in the Nigerian civil war. The Biafran secessionists, among Africa's most sophisticated peoples, have known from the beginning that their chances for success depended as much, on evoking world sympathy as on holding back the federal army. Now, after twenty months of war, it is clear that the Biafrans have been far more adept at propaganda than soldiering. If they survive in some sovereign form, they will owe it to their skill with images. Part of the Biafran success in public relations stems from the federal Nigerian Government's failure at it.