“Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a charming book that describes how life looks like from multiple vantage points in Nigeria’s society not long after independence in 1960.
Although it is a work of fiction it is inspired by real-life characters and it perfectly depicts the 1960s society in a historically accurate manner. It is written in an emotionally engaging way that lures us into the story and making us feel the emotions of the characters, from the heart warming encounters to the difficult emotions in a ravage conflict.
The story is told through the point of view of several main characters, all of whom are impressively interconnected in a growingly complicated web, but somehow easy to link due to the way the clear writing introduces them slowly. The main vantage points are (without spilling their developments as the story progresses):
- Ugwu: An innocent young boy from the village, seeking to work as a house errand boy in a big city Nsukka (at the South East part of the country) for a rich master. From my understanding, his role in the story: the innocent eyes.
- Odenigbo: Ugwu’s master, a math professor at University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN); the first indigenous university in Nigeria since independence. Odenigbo is frequented by fellow intellectual guests at his house, talking about history and current affairs. His role in the story: the intellectual voice of reason.
- Olanna: A beautiful woman from a wealthy family, who has just finished her master’s degree in England. But she almost resent her high class status and her politically-connected parents, and finding more happiness when visiting her uncle aunt and cousins up North in Kano living the simple life, and living away from Lagos and settled in Nsukka in the South (with Odenigbo). Her role in the story: the moral voice.
- Richard Churchill: A Caucasian journalist initially living in the expat bubble thanks to a racist Caucasian named Susan (but crucially, her brief role in the story: who provides the honest ugly truth about the stereotypes of the different tribes). Richard would proceeds to spend years in Nigeria, go local, and able to speak Igbo fluently. His role in the story: the impartial observer that explains the big picture of what is really happening.
- Kainene: Olanna’s twin sister, an indifferent person who takes care of their father’s business empire. Her role in the story: the detached skeptic who turned into a reliable strong character.
- Many other strong characters, such as Kainene’s friend Colonel Madu; Anulika (Ugwu’s sister); Olanna’s uncle Mbaezi, aunt Ifeka, cousin Arize; fellow house boys Jomu and Harrison; Odenigbo’s mother and her errand girl Amala; Muhammad (Olanna’s wealthy ex boyfriend who is a Muslim from Kano); Chief Okonji, Chief Ozobia, Aniekwena, several of Ugwu’s love interests; and Odenigbo’s intellectual guests such as Dr. Patel, Okeoma, Professor Ezeka, and Miss Adebayo. Even Nnaemka, a passing character (a worker at an airport who had a brief conversation with Richard) can play a pivotal role in the story.
- Real-life political figures like Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon, who were both central in the early days of post-independence Nigerian politics, and pivotal in the story of this book.
As the story progresses, we get to learn a lot about Nigerian traditional society: such as the way the social hierarchy is structured; or how villagers still heavily rely on “Dibia”, a traditional doctor (or in a bad connotation: a witch doctor); or how they see polygamy as a normal custom, with senior wife and junior wife living together in the same hut as the husband and the kids.
We also get to learn about various ethnicities in Nigeria, with the big tribes of Christian majority Igbo in South East (with Port Harcourt as the biggest city), Christian majority Yoruba in South West (including capital city Lagos), Muslim majority Hausa in the North (with Kano as the biggest city), and the many minority tribes in the center part of the country (including the new capital city Abuja since 1991).
Moreover, inserted between the stories of these 5 characters (and their web of human connections), the book also paints a picture of how Nigeria developed since the early days of the independence, the history lessons on how the British colonized the land and mashed together several ethnic groups and forced them to live as 1 nation, shows how ethnic tensions began to develop in some parts of the country, and shows the potential future of the country through conversations filled with hopeful and heated talks between the intellectuals about what political or economic system suits Nigeria best as a newly independent country.
But then the charming tone of the book suddenly turns dark with the boiling point of the ethnic tension: firstly through a presidential coup by Igbo generals, followed by the counter coup by Hausa militants; with all the massacres and terrors that felt too real, and culminated with the birth of the separatist Republic of Biafra in Igbo area.
It is during these dark days, and only after chapter 13 (out of 37), that we get to learn what the title of the book really means: Half of a Yellow Sun is taken from the symbol of the flag of the short-lived Republic of Biafra that existed for 3 years between 1967 and 1970.
This is what the book, and the rest of the chapters, is really about. The story of Biafra.
It vividly depicts how a separatist movement looks like, it shows how messy and chaotic a civil war really is, how horrific it feels as civilians moving around towns to avoid bombings and raids leaving behind their house and possessions, how refugee camps barely get by, how the Western media is trying to biasly frame the civil war from their ex-colonizer point of view, how food scarcity becomes the norm, or how separated or missing people are common especially in the 1960s with no direct communication means.
And these stories are told through the human eyes, through these 5 characters and all of their web of human connections that we get to know intimately in the past 12 chapters.
And hence, with a heart full of worry, we witness a scene of a wedding in the middle of a war, leaving behind a stubborn mother that doesn’t want to evacuate and chose to stay alone at her home, seeing a rich person clinging to their jewelry and fly out of the country, scenes where electricity is starting to fade, basic food ingredients at markets disappear and food scarcity begins, mass starvations ensues, the epidemic of kwashiorkor, scenes where diseases starting to appear but medicine are depleting, where rape and pillages are rampant, scenes where the characters are reminiscing of the good old simple days in the middle of ruins, risking their lives by going across the border into enemy territory to buy goods, living as a refugees queuing for food ratio, the inability of growing anything without fertilizer, the scarecity of money and the little that people have are being robbed, book burning and the prosecution of intellectuals, dictatorial military commanders, and many more; all of which are the concerns and horrors of wars that would make instant death looks like an easy way out.
Moreover, the book also shows the way different characters deal with the trauma of the war, how people process the horror of witnessing a mass murder, the horror of forced civilian recruitment to become a fighting soldier, and showing how those same innocent recruits can grow to become a violent soldier, or those little details that seem too small to be significant but later reappear 7 years later as a good karma during war time.
But perhaps the most brilliant thing about this book is how the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, constructs the book into 4 parts: 1. Early 1960s 2. Jump straight to late 1960s but with some information missing (which at first prompted me to scan back the book just in case I was skipping something) 3. Only to return to early 1960s with more twists that make me wonder how can all of this turn out to be the events in late 1960s? 4. And after the twist have been showed, we then switched back to late 1960s with a much richer back story. This is just simply a masterclass in storytelling.
All in all, it took me slightly more than 2 weeks to finish this book (while I usually read 1 book a week) because I read every single word of the gripping sentences, take it slow, and emersed myself in the story. With that kind of time spent and that kind of slow pace, I became strangely familiar with the characters and felt what they feel, got sad with the deaths, scared when the bombing came, tensed when the soldiers march towards them, worried with the missing persons.
Love, lust, death, hope, regret, loss, violence, kindness, panic, naivety, envy, respect, lies, cowardice, courage, intellectual stimulation, innocense, resentment, trauma, injustices, jealousy, reconsiliation, hypocrisies, and despite all of this, happiness. The book has it all. And that quiet but bombastic ending? No spoiler, of course, but let’s just say I can’t believe that I can have such a tremendous emotion over a fictional character. No wonder that Ms. Chimamanda has won multiple awards for her books.
The Nigerian civil war formally ended on 15 January 1970 following the surrender of Biafra, after their leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu fled to Ivory Coast. Around 1 to 3 million people reportedly died during this war, with the majority of them were Igbos who died from starvation due to the blockade of the Biafran region by the Nigerian army. It remains one of the deadliest famines ever recorded in Africa’s long history.
THE CHAOS THEORY 