Nigerian children suffering from kwashiorkor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWe saw pictures of starving Biafran children, their stomachs bloated with a lethal form of malnutrition that we could hardly pronounce\u2014kwashiorkor<\/em>. But most of us didn\u2019t even bother to consult a map to see where this place called Biafra actually was.<\/span><\/p>\nThe book\u2019s title refers to the rising-sun logo on the Biafran flag. The author, Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie is Nigerian. She is too young to have lived through those terrible years, so she based her novel and her characters on contemporaneous accounts and on the stories told to her by older relatives and others who were there.<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a story that left me feeling sad: not sad in the way one might feel at the end of a romantic tear-jerker; sad in a more global sense; sad for the real people who experienced the inexorable downward spiral and unimaginable hardships thrust upon them by war. <\/span><\/p>\nThe main characters represent the spectrum of social and economic strata in 1960s Nigeria: The privileged families of tribal royalty, living a comfortable life that mimics that of the British, who were Nigeria\u2019s colonizers; middle-class Nigerians\u2014members of the Igbo tribe\u2014whose entrepreneurial abilities earned them both respect and hatred; Nigerian academics, who pushed back against colonialism and created the philosophical rationale for secession; and rural Igbos who worked as \u201chouseboys\u201d for both British and Nigerian \u201cmasters.\u201d Another key member of the cast of characters is a British writer, whose fascination with Nigerian tribal art moves him to learn to speak Igbo, to fall in love with an Igbo woman, and ultimately to see himself as a Biafran. <\/span><\/p>\nThe plot covers the early 1960s through 1970. In the beginning, Adichie focuses on the peaceful, comfortable lives of the characters. But when Biafra secedes from Nigeria, their lives slowly and steadily deteriorate. At first, they are in denial, believing the puffed-up propaganda delivered on official Biafran radio. Eventually, reality takes hold: The world abandons Biafra. England sides with Nigeria. The US refuses to engage. The principals of the story\u2014Olanna, Kainene, Ugwu, Odenigbo and Richard\u2014are forced to flee again and again, as Nigerian airplanes strafe and bomb them. Their lives are reduced to subsistence. Their relatives are killed; their young men are forcibly conscripted into the Biafran army; their children starve to death. <\/span><\/p>\nThe writing is vivid. The characters are alive. You keep hoping for redemption, but there is none. There is no happy ending. Sorry, if I\u2019ve spoiled it. But this is the reality of war, and Adichie refuses to sugar-coat it.<\/span><\/p>\nTo get back to the difficulty of reading this book: One of the challenges is the author\u2019s use of Igbo phrases. She is, of course, justified in employing indigenous language in a book that is so much about tribal identity. As a reader, you just have to invent your own way to pronounce some of the characters\u2019 names, and you might even attempt to pronounce some of the words. But they are there for a reason, and they give the book a certain flavor that would be missing without them. Something that I could have done, that might have enriched my own reading experience, would have been to search for an on-line pronunciation guide, just to hear how these words would really sound. <\/span><\/p>\nPart of the pleasure of reading a book like \u201cHalf of a Yellow Sun,\u201d is to be taken away from one\u2019s own life and to become acquainted, if only for a little while, with a completely different culture. This novel goes on my personal list of books that achieved that for me. Even if it made me very, very sad.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHalf of a Yellow Sun\u201d is a difficult novel to read, but well worth the effort. It\u2019s not difficult in the sense that you\u2019ll<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,1363,784],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cHalf of a Yellow Sun\u201d is a difficult novel to read, but well worth the effort. It\u2019s not difficult in the sense that you\u2019ll\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Occasional Planet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Occasional-Planet-325800656245\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T12:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-28T16:20:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1278\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gloria Shur Bilchik\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Occas_Planet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Occas_Planet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gloria Shur Bilchik\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/\",\"name\":\"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-02T12:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-28T16:20:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/7257fb92fde9344f61be5ebfb8ddcbe8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1\",\"width\":1278,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember — Biafra\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/\",\"name\":\"Occasional Planet\",\"description\":\"Progressive Voices Speaking Out\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/7257fb92fde9344f61be5ebfb8ddcbe8\",\"name\":\"Gloria Shur Bilchik\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/283a0a7167cfd841ffdc523ad82ceb25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/283a0a7167cfd841ffdc523ad82ceb25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gloria Shur Bilchik\"},\"description\":\"Gloria Shur Bilchik is a freelance writer and community volunteer in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the editor of Occasional Planet. She views the preservation of democratic values and progressive programs as vital to making the US a humane, livable place for her children and grandchildren.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/author\/gloria-shur-bilchik\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet","og_description":"\u201cHalf of a Yellow Sun\u201d is a difficult novel to read, but well worth the effort. It\u2019s not difficult in the sense that you\u2019ll","og_url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/","og_site_name":"Occasional Planet","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Occasional-Planet-325800656245\/","article_published_time":"2016-11-02T12:00:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-28T16:20:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1278,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gloria Shur Bilchik","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Occas_Planet","twitter_site":"@Occas_Planet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gloria Shur Bilchik","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/","url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/","name":"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember - Biafra - Occasional Planet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1","datePublished":"2016-11-02T12:00:43+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-28T16:20:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/7257fb92fde9344f61be5ebfb8ddcbe8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1","width":1278,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2016\/11\/02\/half-yellow-sun-story-war-americans-hardly-remember-biafra\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember — Biafra"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/","name":"Occasional Planet","description":"Progressive Voices Speaking Out","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/7257fb92fde9344f61be5ebfb8ddcbe8","name":"Gloria Shur Bilchik","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/283a0a7167cfd841ffdc523ad82ceb25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/283a0a7167cfd841ffdc523ad82ceb25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gloria Shur Bilchik"},"description":"Gloria Shur Bilchik is a freelance writer and community volunteer in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the editor of Occasional Planet. She views the preservation of democratic values and progressive programs as vital to making the US a humane, livable place for her children and grandchildren.","url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/author\/gloria-shur-bilchik\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Flag_of_Biafra_forum.jpg?fit=1278%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35042"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36570,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35042\/revisions\/36570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"kwashiorkor\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kwashiorkor.jpg?resize=166%2C199\")
<\/a>