Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Why I liked it.
Last Updated on August 22, 2024 by Ingrid
One of my favorite contemporary writers is the Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I stumbled upon her last summer when I read in a flight magazine about her highly acclaimed “Americanah.” This is how I discovered the author and her other book, Half of a Yellow Sun.
Since then, I have read everything Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written.
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Table of Contents
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The highly acclaimed Half of a Yellow Sun is the one book that captivated me.
“Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
The book is so full of life that you feel like living with the characters through the happy and sad moments.
It is not a happy book, but life is not always happy. Happy endings are a rarity, especially in rough circumstances like war.
Synopsis
I like how the story goes from everyday life in Nigeria in the early sixties to depicting people trying to cope with the losses after the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War, which lasted from 1967 until 1970).
The book describes the lives of people from different social classes:
- Olanna and Odenigbo – both university professors, have studied abroad and had westerner visions of Nigeria’s future;
- Ugwu – the boy who serves in Odenigbo’s house from a small village in rural Nigeria and has no studies. Through his eyes, the reader can discover how it was, at the time, to go through adolescence in Nigeria and learn basic things such as running water, books, and political views until serving in the war against his wish.
- Kainene – Olanna’s very different twin sister, an independent Nigerian woman running her father’s business, has no problem negotiating with the state’s corrupt officials. Until the end of the book, even through the lowest times, she is the most driven character, fighting for food and medicine for the local community, risking everything (including her life) for other women’s and children’s lives.
- Richard – Kainene’s British fiancée. A writer wannabe who decides to come to Nigeria in the early sixties to study African art and write a book falls in love with the African life and Kainene and chooses to stay there, even during and after the war.
Most of the book’s characters are Igbo, who were on the losing side of the Biafran War. The Igbo tried to create their own country based on political, territorial, ethnic, and religious reasons but failed to do so, having to surrender in early 1970.
They all experience love, hate, and war and, most of all, make a lot of compromises to live.
“…my point is that the only authentic identity for the African is the tribe…I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
Why I liked the Book
Several strong images and scenes stuck in my mind.
For instance, the Igbo lady that had to hold her baby’s head in a basket when traveling on a train full of refugees going from the north of Nigeria to Biafra.
Or the scene in which Olanna is surrounded by young men and harassed for a can of meat.
Or when Richard prevented a group of Igbo people from being shot in the Kano airport by the Yoruba guards because they spoke their language and did not know the Coran.
Not to mention the grown man sitting in front of the relief center sucking his thumb.
But I will leave you to discover the touching story on your own and perhaps watch the movie afterward. I know that’s what I’ll do 🙂
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