Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) by Chimamanda Nzgozi Adichie centres on the lives of two Igbo intellectuals, Olanna and Odenigbo and their houseboy Ugwu. It is set amidst the civil war between Nigeria and secessionist South Eastern Nigerian state Biafra, a war and subsequent blockade that occurred from 1967-1970, and which was considered at the time by the Red Cross as the greatest humanitarian disaster since WWII.

The first section of Half of a Yellow Sun details the halcyon period before the war (1962-1963) when revolutionary academic Odenigbo falls in love with the wealthy, Oxford-educated Olanna, who leaves her privileged lifestyle to live with him. They are joined by Odenigbo’s new houseboy Ugwu, a clever youth from the bush who exhibits an innate talent with words. At the same time, an aspiring writer and Englishman, Richard Churchill, becomes the lover of Olanna’s twin sister Kainene. The narrative then jumps to the beginning of the bloody conflict between the Northern side of Nigeria (mainly comprising of the Muslim Hausas) and South-Eastern side where the ethnic tribal group, the Igbos, and the intellectual elite of Nigeria reside. The lives of Ugwu, Olanna, Odenigbo and Baby (Olanna and Odenigbo’s young daughter) are thrown out of equanamity by the war, but also by a series of unexplained personal tragedies. Olanna witnesses the massacre enacted on the Igbos by the Hausas to revenge the assasination of Hausan politicians. She is severely traumatised and temporarily paralysed by the event. We discover that Olanna and her sister Kainene have not spoken for some years. Olanna and Odenigbo joyfully celebrate the seccession of the South-East from wider Nigeria and the creation of a new nation-state: Biafra.

The book then returns to the years 1964-1966 and explanations for the mysterious conflicts between the characters soon emerge. Olanna discovers that Odenigbo has impregnated his mother’s servant Amala. In retaliation she sleeps with Kainene’s lover Richard in a desultory one-night-stand. Olanna decides to adopt Odenigbo and Amala’s child, Chiamaka who she calls Baby.

In the final third of the book (1967-1970), we see in visceral detail the destructive and nihilistic forces of the Biafran-Nigerian conflict. Odenigbo and Olanna are forced from their luxurious home in Lagos to a decrepit compound. Odenigbo is soon disillusioned by the Biafran state and becomes an alcoholic. Ugwu is conscripted as a soldier for Biafra. He survives the experience, but at great psychological cost. We discover that the excerpts of notes for a book titled The World Was Silent When We Died that are interspersed at the end of several chapters have been written by Ugwu. He plans to dedicate his book on the Biafran war- with a certain degree of irony- to his master, Odenigbo. After witnessing a violent death first hand, Kainene- who has profited from the war as an army contractor-builds a refugee camp and reunites with Olanna. By the end of the novel, more tragedy befalls the sisters whilst Nigeria bleakly rebirths itself.