"Half of a Yellow Sun" is both a love story and a story of war,
and I’m not certain which of the two makes more of an impact on the
reader. I decided to read this novel after I listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi's speech at Narratives for Europe in Amsterdam. A very entertaining and natural speaker, Ms.
Adichi, in the most affable manner, cut President Sarkozy’s speech to shreds!
Still reeling under that impact of Ms Adichi’s impeccable articulation, I came
across “Half of a Yellow Sun” in my school library, and I couldn’t help but pick
it up.
Ms Adichi claims she wrote the novel “because I grew up in
the shadow of Biafra, because I lost both grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra
war, because I wanted to engage with my history in order to make sense of my
present, many of the issues that led to the war remain unresolved in Nigeria
today, because my father has tears in his eyes when he speaks of losing his
father, because my mother still cannot speak at length about losing her father
in a refugee camp, because the brutal bequests of colonialism make me angry,
because the thought of the egos and indifference of men leading to the
unnecessary deaths of men and women and children enrages me, because I don't
ever want to forget.” With so many goals
to achieve, Chimamanda set herself up for a difficult task of presenting a war
that the world didn’t remember or recognize, and a story of love that unfolds
within that unacknowledged war. 
Set in the backdrop of the three year war fought by the
secessionist state of Biafra against the Nigerian Federal Military, the novel is
stark and even gory in it’s depiction of the senseless slaughter and vitriolic
violence that happened in South East Nigeria even as the rest of humanity watched
unashamedly, or as Adichi’s alternate storyteller in “The Book” states, “The World
Was Silent When We Died.” Admittedly, majority of readers will come out of this
reading with a new awareness of the legacy the British left behind in
post-colonial Nigeria.
The reader will know how Biafra came to be; who were
these Biafrans; why did they choose to secede from the rest of Nigeria;
why did Biafra last only three years, and what happened
to it at the end of those three years? With her vivid portrayal of a strife
torn nation, Adichi compels the reader to wonder why no one intervened to stop
this massacre which cost the world a million lives!
The backdrop of the Biafran massacre would not have been as
compelling had not Adichi woven some dynamic characters into this conflict
ridden landscape. There are the twin
Igbo sisters, Olanna and Kainene, who being born into wealth and status, choose
diametrically opposite lifestyles but share a common zeal for independence
and a highly evolved sense of justice.
Ugwu, the thirteen year old houseboy and narrator of the story for
the major part, represents the poorer sections of Igbo society. Richard, the
shy white British journalist and the world’s only real window into Nigeria
at the time, is the paramour of one of the twins. Then there is the
revolutionary academician Odenigbo, who lives through the tumult of secession,
desperately holding on to his vision of an independent Biafra.
The Biafran experience is enmeshed in the lives of these characters as they
negotiate peace for themselves and for their people in post colonial Nigeria.
It is in the story of their lives in those three Biafran years that love takes on a new meaning as does the definition of loyalty. The characters take on an environment that is hostile, relentless, and in flux from one
moment to the next. Their relationships evolve in this uncertain atmosphere where
betrayal is expected but not forgiven, and love lies in the stealth of darkness and death, but there is no silver lining
that awaits!
An enchanting and informative read.
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