Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Notable Characters: Olanna, Odenigbo, Keinene, Ugwu, Richard.

Set in the period of the Biafran Civil war in Nigeria, the book takes us through the turmoil of a spectrum of population- how it affects them, and how they face it. On one end is the very affluent parents of Olanna and Keinene (twins), Olanna and Odenigbo are faculties in an University – so you get the drift, and then we have Ugwu’s family. Keinene is a convert, so to say – she begins in a complacent tone emboldened with the affluence of her parents, and then converts to an activist. The book very profoundly depicts the transformation of individuals, as they pass through the narrow paths of their lives.

The book shook my insides through casualties inflicted upon civilians during the civil war (estimated close to 2M deaths), more so, as it helped to associate myself with the victims- they are common people like you and me. I think it was a deliberate attempt by the author, as she sets the stage with careful characterization in the early chapters, depicted in (sometime boringly) detail about each person involved: their mundane activities, principles and ideologies, desires and aversions, family and relationships. Such characterization helps us to understand the depth of agony that is the consequence of the turmoil they are subjected to. For example, one can understand the agony of Olanna/Odenigbo as they transit from holding regular evening dinner meetings with friends to having to queue up at the refugee camp, fighting with fellow people for an egg. Also, quizzically, catastrophies (rape and/or murder), when told in numbers don’t affect us much, but when told in second person spreads an anxiety.

Incidentally, the Biafran war had been a double war – first there’s a military coup by Biafrans, and then there is a retaliation. Defense during retaliation caused the maximum casualties- and the enormity of anguish is seen through depiction during this time while Nigeria captures one region after another. Close home, this is more like the Srilankan Civil war, and all the while as I read the book, I couldn’t help think of the compelling analogies (Only saving grace being that although Biafrans were discriminated from Northern Nigeria, they were less humiliated). And like any Civil war, the support from international community for either sides, and the polity that motivates such support- very clearly, here, it is the oil wells of Nigeria!

Although there is war and casualties throughout the book- there is humanity, grace and beauty. For one, my heart was squirming in delight as Ugwu- the uneducated, undernourished 13yr old house-boy who hides chicken legs in his shorts on his first day at Odenigbo’s house- joins Olanna in teaching English and Maths to a group of primary kids, during the war times. He is being taught to read and write by Olanna and Odenigbo during peace times, and towards the end of the book- he has written a book in scrambles of paper.

Quotable Quotes:

“There is no such thing as greatness”, Ugwu said. ‘Greatness depends on where you are coming from.

‘Education is a priority! How can we resist exploitation if we don’t have the tools to understand exploitation?’

It came with never having had much, she knew, the inability to let go of things, even things that were useless.

‘The new Nigerian upper class is a collection of illiterates who read nothing and eat food they dislike at overpriced Lebanese restaurants and have social conversations around one subject: ‘How’s the new car behaving?” ‘What matters is whatever will make our people move forwards. Let’s assume that a capitalist democracy is a good thing in principle, but if it is our kind – where somebody gives you a dress that they tell you looks like their own, but it doesn’t fit you and the buttons have fallen off – then you have to discard it and make a dress that is your own

She thought about how ephemeral life was, about not choosing misery.

‘God is fighting for Nigeria,’ Alice said. ‘God always fights for the side that has more arms.’

‘You’re burning memory,’ he told her. ‘I am not.’ She would not place her memory on things that strangers could barge in and take away. ‘My memory is inside me.’

‘We never actively remember death,’ Odenigbo said. ‘The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all di

e.’ ‘Yes,’ Olanna said; there was a slump to his shoulders. ‘But perhaps it is the whole point of being alive? That life is a state of death denial?’ he asked.