Half of a Yellow Sun

From the book cover

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of Nigeria in the 1960s. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor's beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna's twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

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Half of a Yellow Sun won Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007. She made the shortlist in 2004 for her first novel The Purple Hibiscus.

Half of a Yellow Sun centers around Biafra's fight for independence during the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-1970. The title comes from the emblem on the Biafra flag - half of a yellow sun. On the Biafra flag it represents the glorious future. The story shifts back and forth between the early 1960s pre-war period and the late 1960s war period.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's decision to structure the novel in four parts (two parts in the early 60s and two parts during the war) and to employ three narrators from varying socio-economics classes ensures the reader gets a complete picture of this tumultuous decade in Nigerian history.

Ugwu is a village boy who left primary school early to help care for his family. When his aunt gets him a job with the professor an entire world of limitless learning opens up to him. He is able to continue his education and eventually develop a genuine desire for knowledge. Olanna, the professor's mistress, is the daughter of a 'big man.' She and her twin sister, Kainene, have had all of the benefits of money and power. They were raised in an opulent mansion with lots of servants, attended the best schools in Africa and abroad and have been set up for a life of ease, if they choose to take the paths offered by their parents. Richard is an English writer in Africa to conduct research for a book he hopes to write about Igbo art. When Richard meets Kainene he becomes enthralled with her and everything else becomes secondary, including his writing.

Adichie does a wonderful job with character development. Her characters are multi-dimensional. Almost all of the primary characters grow and evolve as they struggle to survive the war. Some of the characters discover hidden strengths, others are shown to be weak, and others prove capable of extreme cruelty. This is a truth of war. People who live through war are seldom the same people they were going into said war.

One of the most shocking plot developments belong to Ugwu, who is conscripted in the Biafra army and willingly takes part in the gang rape of a young woman. One doesn't expect the main character to be involved in a crime so detestable. Despite his crime, Ugwu remains a somewhat sympathetic character. It's clear that he would not have committed the act on his own but simply acquiesced to peer pressure. Ironically, at the end of the war, Ugwu returns to his village to find that his favourite sister, the one he was closest to, was gang raped by five Nigerian soldiers during the war.

My only squabble is the lack of a happy ending. But, I guess that too is a reality of war. At the end of the day, Half of a Yellow Sun taught me about a former country (Biafra), an ethic group (Igbo) and a war I had never heard of , and that's what a good historical fiction should do - teach and entertain.

5

Flag of the Republic of Biafra (1967-1970)