Half a Yellow Sun

Author: Chimamanda Adichie
HarperPerennial, £7.99

A Vivid Portrayal of Turbulent Emotions and Brutal Conflicts

CHIMAMANDA ADICHE’S second novel Half a Yellow Sun depicts in brutal yet intimate detail the ravaging effects of war on the individual. Her emotive and immediately engaging depiction of the lives of three main characters illuminates the horrifying tragedy of the Nigerian Biafran Civil War up close and personal.

The novel is divided into four sections; the first and third take place in the early
1960s, and the remaining two describe the conflict-filled later years of this decade.
Adichie utilises the narrative of peace-time Nigeria to carefully craft her vivid
characters, whilst the chapters of the book that take place in the late 1960s evoke the
devastating effects of the civil war.

The turbulent history that forms the setting of this novel refers to the Nigerian Civil War that began in 1967 following the establishment of a breakaway state, The Republic of Biafra, by the Igbo people. As Adichie makes painfully clear throughout her novel, this war, together with a Nigerian led campaign of genocide and successive pogroms, cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

Whilst providing sufficient historical context for those readers less familiar with this
period of African history (which I myself admittedly knew little about), Adichie is also able to transcend the historical complexities of this conflict with her powerful and memorable narrative.

Strong-willed, courageous yet sensual characters dominate in Half a Yellow Sun. In
a sympathetic, flowing, third person narrative Adichie switches between three central
protagonists. In successive chapters we see the downward spiral of Nigerian society
through the eyes of Ugwu, a young boy from a local Igbo village; Olanna, the mistress of Ugwu’s much respected academic master; and Richard, a British expatriate and budding writer. In the early chapters, Adichie’s rich, poetic language allows for vivid descriptions of the exotic food cooked up by Ugwu, the passionate progress of his master’s relationship with Olanna, and the heady, intense evenings they spend surrounded by fellow academics debating politics. This same skilful portrayal of sights, smells and intense emotions conveys instead, in the later chapters, scenes of barren landscapes, squalid shanty towns and starving children with ‘taut globes that were their bellies’.

Perhaps within such a harrowing historical context, this book may appear, at first
glance, rather challenging and sombre – this is simply not the case. You are at once caught up in the lives of all the utterly convincing, sympathetic characters; the sweet,
innocent Ugwu and the gentle outsider figure of Richard are particularly likeable.
Although Half a Yellow Sun clearly has a moral and political dimension, there is also a strong spiritual and emotional dimension to the novel. It is an absolute pleasure to
read. With its exploration of ethnic prejudices, a community desperately searching to
affirm its own identity, the relevance of the book for us all is frightening clear.

9/10