Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Did you know that 1 million Biafrans died during the 3 year civil war in the late 60s? Adichie grew up in the shadow of Biafra and dedicated the book to her grandfathers in particular who died as refugees and to honour the collective memory of an entire nation.
"If you want to understand a country's soul read its fiction." ( Emily Carter Roiphe) This is precisely what Adichie does and I agree wholeheartedly with her.
In Adichie's second novel what she describes as "emotional truth" an empathetic human quality, hopefully a recognisable trait, is portrayed through harrowing images of torture, mutilation and explicitly graphical images of massacres and human carnage. It is a story but shockingly real and historically accurate and is regarded as one of the most painful episodes in Nigerian history. Half of a yellow sun was an emblem worn by the Biafrans who were hopeful for independence from Nigeria.
The turmoil within African politics was seen as a "brutal bequest" of colonialism and the anger and hostility is still felt today, worryingly rather vehemently and I can endorse this having recently returned from working out there.
Adichie's main characters who we grow to care deeply about epitomise a different strata of society-tribal to a class system that seems more European.
Ugwu was a 13 year old house boy when he was first taken from his village to Odenigbo's household. We are shown interesting contrasts between a "bush" boy, not quite illiterate but wanting to learn, subservient to his "Master " an academic and a radical thinker, full of anti-colonial zeal. Olanna and her twin sister, Kainene come from one of the more affluent and prosperous families and yet they are scarred deeply by the war and its suffering.
The civil war stretches the human capacity to its limits and destroys hope even love, that one attribute of humanity that makes us "good" human beings and not brutal, callous murderers.
Richard, seen as an outsider, is the young shy Englishman determined to write a novel about Igbo-Ukwu art, becomes besotted with Kainene and gets tragically drawn into the conflict. He fails to write his novel or about the war and it is Ugwu surprisingly the Nigerian who completes the African story: " The World Was Silent When We Died."
The book shows how vicious civil war is and how cruel and senseless it all was.
"Did you see photos in sixty-eight
Of children with their hair becoming rust.
Sickly patches nestled on those small heads,
Then falling off, like rotten leaves on dust?" Epilogue.
Adichie wanted to make a strong political point about who should write the stories of Africa-the Africans themselves who will never forget not even the compassionate Richard.
Strongly recommended.
Copyright 2012. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this review is reproduced.
"If you want to understand a country's soul read its fiction." ( Emily Carter Roiphe) This is precisely what Adichie does and I agree wholeheartedly with her.
In Adichie's second novel what she describes as "emotional truth" an empathetic human quality, hopefully a recognisable trait, is portrayed through harrowing images of torture, mutilation and explicitly graphical images of massacres and human carnage. It is a story but shockingly real and historically accurate and is regarded as one of the most painful episodes in Nigerian history. Half of a yellow sun was an emblem worn by the Biafrans who were hopeful for independence from Nigeria.
The turmoil within African politics was seen as a "brutal bequest" of colonialism and the anger and hostility is still felt today, worryingly rather vehemently and I can endorse this having recently returned from working out there.
Adichie's main characters who we grow to care deeply about epitomise a different strata of society-tribal to a class system that seems more European.
Ugwu was a 13 year old house boy when he was first taken from his village to Odenigbo's household. We are shown interesting contrasts between a "bush" boy, not quite illiterate but wanting to learn, subservient to his "Master " an academic and a radical thinker, full of anti-colonial zeal. Olanna and her twin sister, Kainene come from one of the more affluent and prosperous families and yet they are scarred deeply by the war and its suffering.
The civil war stretches the human capacity to its limits and destroys hope even love, that one attribute of humanity that makes us "good" human beings and not brutal, callous murderers.
Richard, seen as an outsider, is the young shy Englishman determined to write a novel about Igbo-Ukwu art, becomes besotted with Kainene and gets tragically drawn into the conflict. He fails to write his novel or about the war and it is Ugwu surprisingly the Nigerian who completes the African story: " The World Was Silent When We Died."
The book shows how vicious civil war is and how cruel and senseless it all was.
"Did you see photos in sixty-eight
Of children with their hair becoming rust.
Sickly patches nestled on those small heads,
Then falling off, like rotten leaves on dust?" Epilogue.
Adichie wanted to make a strong political point about who should write the stories of Africa-the Africans themselves who will never forget not even the compassionate Richard.
Copyright 2012. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this review is reproduced.
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