Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about her interest in the 1960s Nigeria-Biafra civil war, which provides the background for her stunning novel Half of a Yellow Sun, and in what ways modern-day Nigeria is still influenced by the war.

What led you to write a book about the Nigeria-Biafra war?
I wrote this novel because I wanted to write about love and war, because I lost both grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra war, because the war changed the cause of Igbo history, because “Biafra” is still an incredibly potent word in Nigeria today, because many of the issues that led to the war remain unresolved, because my father has tears in his eyes when he speaks of losing his father, and my mother has never spoken at length about losing her father, because almost every Igbo person alive in the 1960s was affected by the pre-war massacres, because colonialism makes me angry, because the thought of the egos of organizations and men leading to the unnecessary deaths of children makes me angry, because I think we are in danger of forgetting.

I have always been fascinated by Biafra. I have always wanted to write about it. It was not just because my parents told so many stories of how they lived through the Nigeria-Biafra war but because I realized how central Biafra was to my history. Because I grew up in the shadow of Biafra.


Given that, at the time of the war, you hadn’t yet been born, what sort of research did you do to prepare for ...