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Rating: "And I...I am Africa, I am a sky with free flights, a sea storm and then a ship that never returns..."
This is what Africa is for us Westerners. This (beautiful) song by Ivano Fossati and Oscar Prudente makes us, unintentionally, understand what our vision of this continent is, our concept. Africa is a collection of beautiful landscapes, exotic postcards. Yes, poverty, yes, the dead, ah yes, the wars? I rarely think about it... oh no! I know something about Somalia, then there's Egypt, the pharaohs, of course!, the World Cup, Waka Waka, already poverty, what a scourge... ah, but the scenery!
No, Africa is not just this. First of all, we Westerners must (not should, must) get rid of this generalization when talking about this continent: Africa is like this, Africa does that, in Africa there's that other thing. Africa is a continent, but we conceive of it as one big state. How many of us have ever stopped to think about the cultural and historical differences between, say, Namibia and Sudan? But no, they're poor, the children have kwashiorkor, AIDS... it must be the same! Africa is steeped in culture, contrasting traditions, feuds, alliances, history, and diverse stories. Perhaps similar in some cases, but nevertheless different. Its history is so fragmented and complicated (just like, surprise surprise... Europe!) that there are vast differences even within the same state. Blame our ancestors, who sat around a table with pencil and ruler and drew the borders of African states. This led to deaths and conflicts, some very famous, such as the genocides in Rwanda between Hutu and Tutsi. Another famous case is the war between Nigeria and Biafra, spanning the '60s and '70s. "Half of a Yellow Sun" (Einaudi, Turin, 2008 & 2010) is precisely about this internal struggle that resulted in the death of more than a million people. It's not a treatise, it's not a history book, it's a novel, a novel that revolves around the story of five main characters: Ugwu, a young and loyal servant of Odenigbo, an idealistic university professor of Nsukka, his beautiful woman Olanna, her twin sister Kainene and her man Richard, a white man, English by birth but Nigerian (and later Biafran) by adoption.
The story is divided into two major parts: before and during the civil war. In the "before," the life of the most progressive part of Nigerian society is depicted. In the university town of Nsukka (where Chimamanda Adichie also studied), Odenigbo hosts a kind of literary circle in his home; in the evening, he, his colleagues, and his friends meet to talk and discuss social and political issues. Through these meetings, one senses the almost "revolutionary" nature of Odenigbo, who even sends his servant Ugwu to school, demonstrating considerable mental maturity. Adichie skillfully describes the intertwining among the protagonists, the loves, the betrayals, with Nigeria there as a backdrop. Suddenly, this idyllic balance is shattered when, following clashes between the Igbo ethnic group (to which the protagonists belong) and the Muslim Hausa ethnic group (to which the Yoruba ethnic group must also be added to complete the picture of Nigerian populations), the Igbo decide to proclaim themselves an independent state, under the name of Biafra. The civil war breaks out. The situation deteriorates, even the privileged like Olanna and Odenigbo are forced to flee and live with little. And meanwhile, the conflict, and private frictions, poison the air and interpersonal relationships. Biafra fights, resists, Odenigbo, although not enlisting, stands one hundred percent with the new state, absorbed, like everyone, by the cause for freedom. And with impressive simplicity, Adichie changes register, changes writing style (the pace is faster, the chapters shorter, precisely because the story is more agitated) and describes the events with the effectiveness that only someone who speaks about their own country can have. Born in 1977, she didn’t experience the war firsthand, but her relatives did, so we can be sure we are reading about plausible situations if not, as I personally think, partly true.
In conclusion, "Half of a Yellow Sun" is a story with a thousand facets, from a thousand points of view. The tragedy of the historical novel is skillfully mixed with personal events, with these characters whom one cannot help but fall in love with, their lives and how drastically they change. It could be for you, as it will be and is for me, a good beginning to get to know Nigeria and Africa a little better if you do not already know them, as I hope you don’t.
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