Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Novel

The events of the novel take place before, during, and after the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, which is known worldwide as the Biafra War, and which claimed more than a million human lives. It was a bloody civil conflict that lasted from 1967 to 1970, an attempt by the southeastern Nigerian states to gain independence from the federal government of Nigeria and declare the Republic of Biafra, which adopted the symbol of a "half yellow sun" as its emblem and a separate flag they fought to raise over their land. Therefore, Chimamanda dedicated her novel to her grandparents who died in the war, and to her grandmothers and parents who told her the horrors of the war, and finally "to love" which she hopes will prevail in the world. In this, Adichie said: "My maternal grandfather, and my paternal grandfather, both were remarkable men, both born in the early twentieth century in the land of the Igbo tribe under British rule, both decided to educate their children, both were light-hearted, and both were proud. I learned all this through the stories told to me. Eight years before I was born, my grandfathers were killed in Biafra as refugees after fleeing from their hometowns that fell under federal forces. I grew up in the shadow of Biafra. I grew up hearing stories about: (before the war), and (after the war); as if the war had somehow divided my family’s memory in two. I always long to write about Biafra — not only to glorify my grandfathers but also to glorify the collective memory of the entire nation. Writing (Half of a Yellow Sun) was like redrawing something I had not seen, but I carried its legacy. It is also, as I hope, my tribute to love: that magical, irrational thing that connects people, and that makes us human."