Depiction of civil war in Half of a Yellow Sun

In this week’s column, we would examine how famed Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie depicted the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70 in her literary masterpiece Half of a Yellow Sun.

A significant aspect of the novel is that it offers an object lesson for prospective writers who wish to deal with similar issues through the depiction of civil war closely woven into an enthralling family saga and the loyalties among its principal members riven apart and once again, fall into line in a charged atmosphere of uncertainties during the course of the Biafra war.

The story commences in peace time and in the university town of Nsukka which later turns out to be the epicentre of Biafra war. The novel commences with a 13-year- old village boy Ugwu moving into Odenigbo’s house as a servant boy. Odenigbo entertains his intellectual friends in the university and outside to discuss the unfolding political turmoil in Nigeria. However, Ugwu’s world changes as Odenigo’s girlfriend Olanna movies into the household. Olanna has a twin sister, Kainene, a woman of few words with a dry-sense of humour. Richard, an Englishman who came to Nigeria to study Arts, is her boyfriend.

Although the novel is political and, in a sense, post-colonial, the author has skilfully integrated political elements into the narrative in an organic manner. Odenigbo described as ‘the revolutionary freedom fighter’ has enrolled Ugwu at the University Staff School. The affects of colonialism, particularly, on education are alluded when Odenigbo advices Ugwu, “There are two answers to the things they will teach you about our land: the real answer and the answer you give in school to pass. You must read books and learn both answers. I will give you books, excellent books’. Master stopped to sip his tea. ‘They will teach you that a white man called Mungo Park discovered River Niger. That is rubbish. Our people fished in the Niger long before Mungo Park’s grandfather was born. But in exam, write that it was Mungo Park”.

Civil war

What is significant in Half of a Yellow Sun is that the author does not simply chronicle the Biafra war through the organically-knitted incidents but depicts the adverse impact of civil war on the masses in general and the marginalised segments of the society in particular. It was the marginalised or vulnerable segments of the population who had been worse affected by the civil war. Ugwu after being conscripted by the Biafra army was rescued badly-wounded by the Nigerian army. The author uses the wounded Ugwu to represent the plight of thousands of youth who caught up in the fighting.

“Ugwu wanted to die, at first. It was not because of the hot tingle in the head or the stickiness of blood on his back or the pain in his buttock or the way he gasped for air, but because of his thirst. His throat was scorched. The infantrymen carrying him were talking about how rescuing him had given them a reason to run away, how their bullets had finished and they had sent for reinforcements and nothing was forthcoming and the vandals were advancing. But Ugwu’s thirst clogged his ears and muffled their words. He was on their shoulders, bandaged with their shirts, the pain shooting all over his body as they walked. He gulped for air, gasped, and sucked but somehow he could not get enough. His thirst nauseated him”.

The author narrates the devastating effects of civil war not as a report inserted into the plot but through its impact on the population. For instance, the peaceful life in the university town of Nsukka was terribly shaken forcing Odenigbo, Olanna and Ugwu to flee to lead a miserable life as refugees. In addition to deprivations, the life as refugees was spent in an environment of anarchy. The lawlessness is common characteristic during a civil war in any part of the world. The author craftily depicts the lawlessness through series of incidents involving the protagonists of the novel.

Unexpected pleasure

“Olanna looked down at the long, red tin and nearly burst out laughing from sheer unexpected pleasure. She brought it out, examined it, ran a hand over the cold metal, and looked up to find a shell-shocked soldier watching her. His stare was blunt; it did not care to disguise itself. She put the corned beef back into her basket and covered it with a bag. She would ask Ugwu to make a stew with it. She would save some to make sandwiches and she and Odenigbo and baby would have an English-style tea with corned beef sandwiches.

The shell-shocked soldier followed her out of the gate. She quickened her pace on the dusty stretch that led to the main road, but five of them, all in uniform soon surrounded her. They babbled and gestured towards her basket, their movements disjointed, their tone raised.

Then, they began to come closer, all together, as if some internal voice were directing them. They were bearing down on her. They could do anything; there was something desperately lawless about them and their noise-deadened brains. Olanna’s fear came with rage, a fierce and emboldening rage, and she imagined fighting them, strangling them and killing them. The corned beef was hers. Hers. She moved a few steps back. In a flash, done so quickly that she did not realise it until afterwards, the one wearing a blue beret grasped her basket, took the tin of corned beef, and ran off. Others followed.”

The air-raids by the Nigerian government virtually destroyed the infrastructure on the short-lived Biafra state. Often civilians were the victims.

Turmoil

“They joined the crowd hurrying towards the Akwakuma Primary School. Two men walked past, in the opposite direction, carrying a blacked corpse. A bomb crater, wide enough to swallow a lorry, had split the road at the school entrance in two. The roof of the classroom block was crushed into a jumble of wood and metal and dust. Olanna did nit recognise her room. All the windows were blown out, but the walls still stood.”

What the author seek to convince the readers is that many of the issues which led to the Biafra war are still unsolved issues and war is spoken about in ‘uninformed and unimaginative way’ and that the war is still important for the Igbo people of today as it was then. Among other things, the author demonstrates through ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, how a gifted author would revisit history in an informed and imaginative way, codifying the saga of the men and women who caught up in the turmoil.