Summary
Early in Chapter 7, Ugwu has returned to his home village; he is accustomed to the comforts of Nsukka and is now critical of his rough-hewn upbringing. He talks to his sister Anulika about her intended marriage to a mechanic named Onyeka, and she criticizes Ugwu's "Big Man" presumptions. Soon, Ugwu returns to Odenibgo's household, bringing news of Anulika's engagement and inviting Odenibgo and Olanna to the celebration. In the midst of this conversation, the members of the household are greeted with a radio announcement: the declaration that portions of the Nigerian government have been dissolved. The news does not entirely distract Ugwu from his duties, which now involve caring for Baby, the daughter of Olanna and Odenigbo.
Later, Odenigbo's academic friends gather to drink and debate. There is news that Nigerians of Igbo descent have been linked to the overthrow of the government and that citizens from the North have been killed. Though he follows the news and has developed a disapproving opinion of politicians, Ugwu is also preoccupied with reading novels and with his relationship with Chinyere, a local housegirl who has sex with him but remains emotionally distant otherwise.
Chapter 8 finds Olanna and Baby in the North after the coup. Olanna's cousin Arize is pregnant, and Arize mocks one of the political leaders, Sardauna, who has recently been killed. While Arize finds it funny that this man supposedly bleated like a goat while begging for his life, Olanna does not find the idea humorous. Later, Olanna travels from Kano to Lagos, accompanied by Arize. Olanna's parents have gone abroad by this time, and Olanna notices that crowds have begun harassing people of Igbo descent. Arize, however, believes that Nigerian society will soon grow calmer.
As Chapter 9 opens, Richard and Kainene are attending a party at the house of Kainene's parents. Richard is planning to go abroad to attend his cousin Martin's wedding and contemplates this travel while the party is in progress; Madu also appears and claims that there will not be a second coup in Nigeria. Richard is convinced otherwise. After a second coup does in fact break out two weeks later, Madu himself makes his way to Richard and Kainene's household. There, an emaciated Madu recounts how he was forced to flee from the hostile North; his hiding places included a chicken coop and a water tank.
Chapter 10 finds Ugwu going about his duties in Odenigbo's house, cooking food and caring for Baby. The houseboy has been trying to follow the news, which now carries reports of violence against Igbo civilians. Two men arrive at Odenigbo's door; they bring news that a massacre started in Kano and that refugees are being evacuated. Odenigbo sends Ugwu, bearing bread and tea for the fleeing victims, to the local railway station. Disoriented by sight of the tired, mutilated refugees, Ugwu hopes to see Olanna among them, but she is not there.
In Chapter 11, Olanna is spending time at Mohammed's luxurious house when the sound of rioting breaks out. Realizing that Olanna is in danger, Mohammed resolves to get her to a train station. Olanna, though, wants to save Arize and her other relatives. She and Mohammed arrive and find that the family has already been murdered. Fortunately, Mohammed successfully gets Olanna to a train. During the ride out of the North, Olanna sits near a woman who is carrying a calabash bowl that contains a child's severed head.
Chapter 12 follows Richard as he returns to Nigeria after a quick trip abroad. He is in a blissful state, contemplating a love letter from Kainene as his plane touches down. At the airport itself, Richard has a pleasant conversation with a young official named Nnaemeka, who is surprised by Richard's knowledge of the Igbo language. Soldiers then burst in and kill people of Igbo descent, including Nnaemeka. Distraught but hiding his feelings as much as possible, Richard goes to see Susan. He does not tell her about the airport massacre, but he begins to cry when he has a moment alone.
The chapter ends with Excerpt 3 of The World Was Silent When We Died. According to this short passage, World War II undermined the British empire, with tensions between Northern and Southern Nigeria arising. The nation could be understood as a collection of antagonistic groups even in 1960, when independence was granted.
Chapter 13 begins with a description of the aftermath of Olanna's return, particularly the moments of distress and weariness that she experiences. These episodes are known as Dark Swoops, and her ongoing trauma is accompanied by the loss of her ability to walk. Through her own initiative, Olanna eventually regains the use of her legs. In the meantime, the political situation has become more intense, with members of the university demanding secession from the North as a security measure. On the radio, the political leader Ojukwu declares the formation of a new country: The Republic of Biafra. There is a rally in Freedom Square soon after; the red, black, and green Biafran flag - with its iconic half of a yellow sun in the middle - is flown, and the Nsukka academics and students feel a new and powerful energy.
Early in Chapter 14, Richard visits Nnaemeka's family to pay a condolence visit but makes the mistake of not bringing gifts. Reflecting on this trip, Richard feels that his gesture was a futile response to the loss of the family's son; the Englishman is also increasingly annoyed with the uncomprehending and inaccurate foreign press coverage of the conflict in Nigeria. He attempts to write about the chaos himself, but his article is not accepted. Richard also heads back to Nsukka and hears Ojukwu speak to a group of students, all of them ready to fight. When Richard returns to Port Harcourt, Kainene notes that the city is agitated by the prospect of war. Richard, however, believes that a war will not break out.
Chapter 15 begins with Ugwu and Odenigbo working with Mr. Ovoko, a man who handles the food donations for refugees from the North. Donations have dropped off after an initial outpouring of enthusiasm, and other tensions have begun to arise. Back at home, Odenigbo gets into an argument with Miss Adebayo, one of his academic friends who is of Yoruba descent; he accuses her of having no sympathy for the Igbo victims of recent violence. The possibility that war will break out disrupts plans in Ugwu's own family, and his aunt arrives to explain that the marriage festivities for Ugwu's sister Anulika is being moved forward in case the fighting arrives. During a seeming peaceful moment - Ugwu and Olanna preparing a meal at home - fighting begins moving towards Nsukka. Odenigbo's household evacuates quickly, with Olanna, Odenibgo, Ugwu, and Baby piling into Odenigbo's car and heading for the professor's hometown, Abba.
In Chapter 16, Richard attempts to return to Nsukka to check on his houseboy Harrison and to retrieve his manuscript; Biafran soldiers force him to turn back but indicate that the situation will soon be under control. When Richard gets back to Kainene's house, he receives a call from Susan, who wants him to follow her example in going abroad for the sake of safety. Richard hangs up on her. He then talks with Kainene, whose own cynicism - based on stories of extortion and deficient training among the Biafran soldiers - contrasts with Richard's idealism about the new nation.
As Chapter 17 opens, Olanna is trying to adapt to the rural lifestyle in Abba, and finds that Odenigbo's mother is no longer hostile as she was years before. Odenigbo, for his part, is preoccupied with political meetings. Olanna's own mother then arrives in the village; she and Olanna's father are planning to go abroad and have secured plane tickets for Olanna and Kainene as well. Olanna is not interested in leaving, though. Olanna's mother also brings a well-intentioned letter from Mohammed. When Odenigbo learns of the letter, he is furious, claiming that Mohammed bears blame for the suffering in the North. These comments cause tension, and Olanna soon leaves for a meeting with her relatives in Umunnachi. Here, in a meeting watched over by the strong-minded Mama Dozie, Olanna testifies that Arize and the rest of the family in Kano were murdered. She then drives back to Abba.
Chapter 18 finds the fighting drawing closer to Abba; Odenigbo and his household are determined to leave for the safer community of Umuahia, but Odenigbo's mother refuses to abandon her hometown. Odenigbo and his family depart for a house that, with thatch roof and outhouse, displeases Ugwu, who views it as primitive. More pleasing to Ugwu is Eberechi, a young woman who lives nearby and whose rounded buttocks Ugwu finds alluring. In the meantime, Odenigbo and Olanna have decided to get married. The ceremony and subsequent celebration are not elaborate, but the appearance of the poet Okeoma is reassuring. Still, the wedding party is disrupted by an air raid. After the danger passes, Odenigbo talks to Ugwu and resolves to build a bunker.
The chapter ends with Excerpt 4 of The World Was Silent When We Died. Here, the narration explains that the British maintained heavy-handed control of the Nigerian economy before Independence. Mismanagement and factionalism then led to conflicts, and the eventual bloodshed brought Igbo Nigerians together in loyalty to Biafra.
Analysis
Political tensions have by no means been absent from Part 1 of the novel. With Ugwu's life in academic settings and Richard's life in a country far from his native England, readers have learned much about the discordant social forces that are shaping Nigeria. The novel has emphasized the tensions between the new world and the old and some of the legacies of colonialism, but if anything has skirted the issue of ethnic strife in favor of presenting an increasingly cosmopolitan world. An Igbo Christian such as Olanna can seriously consider a relationship with a Hausa Muslim such as Mohammed; the Yoruba Miss Adebayo and the Indian Dr. Patel are among Odenigbo's dinner guests. In many respects, political violence in Part 1 exists mainly as an issue to be discussed over drinks, an ugly and increasingly distant imperial legacy.
With Part 2, the approach changes entirely. Some distant rumination and armchair theorizing carries over at first, when Adichie's central characters contemplate the first coup that roils Nigeria. Odenigbo, in the course of one of his social gatherings, criticizes the British who "put the Northerners in government to dominate everybody" and speaks in favor of "whatever will make our people move forward" (159). He is not oblivious to the violence, and neither are Arize and Aunty Ifeka when they mock some of the coup's victims. While Adichie is not by any means suggesting that a few callous comments justify the harsh wartime fates of these characters, there is a sense that these Igbo civilians have few suspicions of how quickly and how soon violence will become more than a topic of argument or sarcasm.
The sense of just how unprepared for the traumas of war the characters are is underscored by Adichie's use of split perspectives. In earlier chapters, dividing the narrative point of view among Ugwu, Richard, and Olanna allowed Half of a Yellow Sun to offer a panoramic view of a society split between village tradition and global modernization. Now, the use of perspective shows the different levels of horrors that these three characters witness. Ugwu is quite upset when he brings food and water to the wounded at the train station near Odenigbo's house: "The man tuned. Ugwu recoiled and nearly dropped the flask. The man's right eye was gone, in its place a juicy red pulp" (183). Ugwu's shock is understandable, since his life before the arrival of the refugees has centered around everyday matters of social esteem - his relationships with women, his studies at the local school, his duties to Odenigbo. In the next chapter, the murder of Olanna's relatives will reveal a dramatically worse side of the hostilities, a set of atrocities that dwarf those that Ugwu has just seen.
Richard's own exposure to war involves a quick and terrifying loss of innocence - one that shows his sense of humanity and that places him in opposition to prejudiced and uncomprehending white observers. Though the attempt to connect to Nnaemeka's family ends in disappointment, the loss of this acquaintance intensifies Richard's dedication to his chosen homeland, lending new focus and journalistic purpose to Richard's writing: "[Richard] began to write about Nnaemeka and the astringent scent of liquor mixing with fresh blood with an airport lounge where the bartender lay with a blown-up face" (211). Richard's well-intentioned journalism goes unpublished at this point. Nevertheless, his desire to write through the recent traumas and provide a truthful account underscores his dedication to a country - even at its most chaotic - that he reveres for its culture.
When Richard, Odenigbo, and Olanna reflect on the formation of Biafra, they are filled with hope in spite of the new nation's violent origins. Richard, contemplating his relationship with Kainene, considers proposing marriage and eagerly anticipates "a new start, a new country, their new country" (211). In the midst of their marriage ceremony, Olanna and Odenigbo are even able to move past the deaths and displacements that are increasingly part of their life. Depressed and debilitated not too long before, Olanna finds herself "smiling and glowing and laughing" as the celebration proceeds (253). Moments later, an air raid will disrupt the festivities. Adichie's depiction of the war will run its deadly course - as events glimpsed in portions of The World Was Silent When We Died intrude upon the lives of the characters - but Half of a Yellow Sun has already suggested the final fragility of its characters' idealistic and joyous moments.
