Richard is a shy English expatriate who falls in love with Olanna’s fraternal twin, Kainene. Olanna is Odenigbo’s wife she is of the Nigerian elite and attempting to cope with being thrust from her comfort zone while striving to keep her family intact throughout the war. One of the main characters, Odenigbo, is a math professor at a university in Nsukka, a revolutionary thinker and an ardent Biafran who struggles with the psychological impact of war violence. Through Adichie’s prose, we are offered a glimpse into the lives of several very different and multifaceted characters who are all determined to survive in the Free State of Biafra. In light of this, Adichie’s book is all the more relevant today, as the wounds of the war are still fresh for many Nigerians and the fight for Biafra’s independence continues. His arrest has sparked pro-Biafran protests and violence between security forces and civilians, while Kanu remains in detention. Moreover, separatist sentiment lives on through the Indigenous People of Biafra, a movement led by Nnamdi Kanu, who was arrested by Nigeria’s Department of State Services in October 2015 on “treasonable felony” charges. Although the book is a work of historical fiction, it is based on very real accounts and exhaustive research of the Biafran War and continuing conflict. The war was catalyzed by the remnants of British colonialism, which created fragmented national boundaries and provoked ethnic tension between the two groups.
In response, the Nigerian government declared war against Biafra, unwilling to allow the oil-rich south-east to secede. As a result of the massacre of the Igbo people in the predominantly Muslim Hausa North, Igbos of the South sought to establish their own state: Biafra. She places a human face on a war that has been far removed from historical memory outside of Nigeria.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun offers a heart-wrenching account of the Biafran War (1967-1970), beautifully wrapped in a story of love, loyalty, betrayal, resilience, and hope.
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