My father lost his younger brother(my uncle) to the war. He was not shot, his body was not found. He got missing, and no one knows anything about his where about, up till date. My elder brother told me how kind hearted he was, jovial, loving, a hustler, buys a lot of goodies for the villagers anytime he comes back from the city!

My dad talked so much about him when I was in the university.......now, this is to show he still misses him and that vacuum cannot be filled for ever!

Chimamanda wrote that book based on her own experience! It's a true life story.....not a fiction! It was not written to please the reader!

I would have written one for my dad, based on his experience! I cried tears when he told me biafran war stories.

#iIlsofwar
#warnogood

willibounce1:


Where you there to witness the war? So if someone says the different stories are being exaggerated, why should you doubt. Your forefathers could have exaggerated to get sympathy and probably foster hate towards others. Whatever the case may be, the war shouldn't have happened in the first place. War is not nollywood movie where you expect both waring sides to be fair to the other. Indeed we all need to SAY NO TO WAR because when it happens, there is always no mercy.

The families that lost their loved are still their mourning their dead and you tell me about exaggeration, what's exaggerated about it? The way they died.


If you cannot find evidences to counter the story of the eyewitnesses don't say it is exaggerated., because you come from the opposing divide.


And there are indeed rules governing war, civilians are not slaughtered and thrown in open pits, that is not war.


IT IS GENOCIDE.

Sandyyyyy:
I usually don't comment but this guy got me. This is her fucking story. It is her real life sad story. She was the little girl. Was she supposed to lie or something? Please make your findings before criticism. That book is nearly perfection

Which little girl please?

NobleRomm:






Go and watch the video..... "HALF OF THE YELLOW SUN" you will like it... . i love the video.

The novel is better

RaggedyAnn:


Wow, I feel the movie doesn't do the book any justice at all.

exactly...

Sandyyyyy:
I usually don't comment but this guy got me. This is her fucking story. It is her real life sad story. She was the little girl. Was she supposed to lie or something? Please make your findings before criticism. That book is nearly perfection

Oga, she was born 1977 and the war lasted between 1967-1970. So, how she take be the little girl in the novel?

HRich:
B932CZWTZEWSE-2598255 when you win small you still have to smile

Fun Sunday

abeg send today's booking for me. Even 5hundred I never win

bennymark:





accept my apologies and sympathy for the inhumane treatment and trauma

you might be very correct with what your father told you (remember there will be 'heresay') but your last paragraph clearly defines the current agitation
for a perceived Independence

'the reason why the president still remain wicked to igbos'

the above statement you made is just a belief and not necessarily reality. Biafrans should learn to preach peace. holding on to past grudges will only improve stagnation

I can bet my life that if GEJ had won again. there won't be this burning zeal for separation, it is all about the fact a northerner is ruling. you guys should always remember not every northerner is a Muslim or hausa/fulani.

if we read the same Bible as Christians, how come you hate us so much because we are northerners with no affiliation to Gowon



nobody is saying there should be no agitation for a perceived segregation, but doing it without sentimental attachments will yield faster results.

The agitation has been on not because Buhari won GEJ.This is not the first time a northern is ruling. IBB ,Abacha,Shagari, etc ruled and there was no agitation.

In 1970,the war ended and the igbo population embraced one Nigeria spread everywhere and investing including learning and speaking other tribes languages because we believed in ONE NIGERIA.

Looking back what do you see,the ruling class treated the igbos as a conquered people marginalizing them,shuting all development including sea ports in areas of the SS and abandoning roads network and other infrastructures which would bring development to the region because they feel it is Biafra land.

Then came GEJ who is not igbo,simply because he had igbo backing became hated morethan Abacha who stole the Nation dry and OBJ who ransacked and sold most of the nation's assets.

The agitation for a separate entity by the igbos has been on from uwazurike to Nnamdi KANU and so on, it has nothing do with GEJ loss.infact when GEJ was in office he was heavily insulted and lambasted on radio Biafra but the difference is that he ignored all but Buhari made the agitation skyrocket by fighting the collective will of a people.

As heart breaking as it may seem, it also drew strength from her to be able to write out the realities that occurred. Someone had to tell the present generation the truth so they know just what the ask for, the next time a civil war is called for. @Oyalunasamuel

Ralphlauren:
Change your heading.

It's "too" and not "to".

Besides, this book is rather old. Are you just reading it or are you trying to start another tribal thread that would lead to another e-war between their biafrians and the other enlightened tribes in nigeria

Make sure you c*m after this 'mastobesion'

The book was boring jooor.

OGA OP, the author gave you a chance to decide what happened to Kainene. If you like, imagine she became a superhero and flew to Manhattan. Just fill in the gap yourself. No be Indian film. IMO, the story ended well.

and it made FP

The Biafra story was a painful experience to many igbo families .I always wondered as kid why my father walking was always skewed only for my mum to tell me how as a teenager, he truncated his education and had to fight for the biafran Army. I saw scans upon scans, receipts of various operations he has underwent as a result of bullets wounds he sustained during the war. He couldn't finish his education because of the war before the war he was based in ondo state with his maternal uncle who died during the war.

olab059:


I have read many many stories like this here on Nairaland, and I know some are exaggerated stories. I know we are supposed to learn from our pasts, but how do we move forward when people tell their children stories to make them hate and never to trust a certain people cos of what was done to them by those people's forefathers like half a century ago? How are we to love when we preach hate. The cycle will only continue.

why would you say a true life story told by people who saw the war first hand 1967-1970 are telling exaggerated stories. were you there when the war crimes were perpetrated by illiterate soldiers of the Nigerian army on innocent people caught in a war? Between you and those who saw the war who is in a better position to relate the events of the war?

oyalunasamuel:
I hate reading fiction novels because most times the writer toil with the emotions of the reader with suspense, tragedy and grey endings. So my friends got my a Book by Chimamanda, Half of a Yellow sun. Of course before now, i have read several books on the rise and fall of the Biafran State, my favourite was Chinua Achebe "There was a country". For some reasons however, i avoided Half Of A Yellow Sun. until i got it as a gift and I could not close the book until i finished reading it
The author was very cruel, i asked myself if she ever took it into consideration that its humans with emotions who read the book and not robots. Of course i totally understand the tragedy of war stories but this is different.
In the book I shed tears when Kainene brought the news that Ugwu had died. It was much easier for me to deal with it -after all its one of many war sad tragedy tales- until i read the part that he survived and i felt thankful. Other characters that died like Eberechi, Okeoma felt normal to me even if i felt sad what made me really upset was how the book ended without writing what exactly happened to Kainene. I felt she was mean and not fair, at least the novel was filled with so many tragedy, an happy ending would not have been a bad idea or even if Kainene had die everyone would know exactly how the story ended and mourn her death or something. The pictures were so vivid that certain characters remained constant to me and Kainene was just like Olanna, Odenigbo, Richard and Ugwu. I think proper sending has to be written at least to satisfy my curiosity of what ever may have happened to Kainene.
Am aware lots of people got missing during the war in correlation with the vivid picture Chimamanda painted but why Kainene?
Anyway, This is such an evocative and poetic. The language, the story, the characters, the setting—this is nearly a perfect novel. I was truly engaged and greatly informed.

I will implore you to read Akachi Eziegbo's Roses and Bullets. it's so much like Half of a Yellow Sun, but this is more substantive, because the writer experienced the war and also portrayed her own self in the novel under a major character. it's left for you to find that out yourself.

MarieSucre:


Please do not watch the movie. I went to the cinema to watch it and I was greatly disappointed.
I think this is her only book I am yet to read. I need motivation to pick it up.

I read the epub version on my phone. By the time I was a few pages in, I put off my data and couldn't leave my phone even to charge. If you have read Achebe's Arrow of God, you will understand what I mean.

Bridget95:


Looking back what do you see,the ruling class treated the igbos as a conquered people marginalizing them,shuting all development including sea ports in areas of the SS and abandoning roads network and other infrastructures which would bring development to the region because they feel it is Biafra land.

This part here is part of the reason why Nigeria and Africa is still backward, always blame other people for our problems.

Can you point out one Government in Nigeria that didn't have an Igbo person in it?

Can you point one tribe in Nigeria that doesn't claim it's marginalised?


Stop this victim mentality.

oyalunasamuel:
I hate reading fiction novels because most times the writer toil with the emotions of the reader with suspense, tragedy and grey endings. So my friends got my a Book by Chimamanda, Half of a Yellow sun. Of course before now, i have read several books on the rise and fall of the Biafran State, my favourite was Chinua Achebe "There was a country". For some reasons however, i avoided Half Of A Yellow Sun. until i got it as a gift and I could not close the book until i finished reading it
The author was very cruel, i asked myself if she ever took it into consideration that its humans with emotions who read the book and not robots. Of course i totally understand the tragedy of war stories but this is different.
In the book I shed tears when Kainene brought the news that Ugwu had died. It was much easier for me to deal with it -after all its one of many war sad tragedy tales- until i read the part that he survived and i felt thankful. Other characters that died like Eberechi, Okeoma felt normal to me even if i felt sad what made me really upset was how the book ended without writing what exactly happened to Kainene. I felt she was mean and not fair, at least the novel was filled with so many tragedy, an happy ending would not have been a bad idea or even if Kainene had die everyone would know exactly how the story ended and mourn her death or something. The pictures were so vivid that certain characters remained constant to me and Kainene was just like Olanna, Odenigbo, Richard and Ugwu. I think proper sending has to be written at least to satisfy my curiosity of what ever may have happened to Kainene.
Am aware lots of people got missing during the war in correlation with the vivid picture Chimamanda painted but why Kainene?
Anyway, This is such an evocative and poetic novel. The language, the story, the characters, the setting—this is nearly a perfect novel. I was truly engaged and greatly informed.

Informed by whom? Someone who didn't know the nitty gritty of the war.

If you want to really know about the war, happenings and doings, read Why We Struck by Adewale Ademoyega. He's among the coup plotters.

It is always wonderful to read/hear from the source, don't you think so?

avalontony:
odenigbo vs the house girl .......


You are illogically beautiful *

illogically pretty

sisisioge:


Thanks for the review, I think I will pick a copy soon. Just like you, I'm usually unhappy with gloomy stories. That's why I have refused to read or watch the movie...I'm too lilly livered to watch so much sorrows.

When you do read the book you will discover that the movie was bad.
Too much entertaining scenes and no proper interpretation of the book.

glossy6:
Her book is very educating and vividly captured what happened during the war

I'm very sure I can quote you without infraction...

Don't be so sure to call anyone a kid, there is chronological age and there is mental age. Those who behave like kids to you might be in your age bracket.

I meant no harm...

Warned! Not to be quoted

HRich:
B932CZWTZEWSE-2598255 when you win small you still have to smile

Fun Sunday

That atletic bilbao B you played outright win would have caused havoc if u had tried over 1.5 in all
Congrats,keep my share

Is this the only Nigerian book that is worth FP abi na only her be writer? make una try something new kwanu.

padiga047:
The families that lost their loved are still their mourning their dead and you tell me about exaggeration, what's exaggerated about it? The way they died.


If you cannot find evidences to counter the story of the eyewitnesses don't say it is exaggerated., because you come from the opposing divide.


And there are indeed rules governing war, civilians are not slaughtered and thrown in open pits, that is not war.


IT IS GENOCIDE.

Rules governing war? My dear stop deceiving yourself. That's what they tell you. But when the war starts, Nobody gives two phucks about civilians. When they throw bombs, they don't care if it hits civilians or military men. If a war breaks out in Nigeria today, it will be gruesome. It will be a war of hatred and bitterness. There will be nothing like civilians, children or babies. When you go to war the aim is to destroy your enemy totally. Destroy them so much that they'll never in their life time think of confronting you anymore that's if you spare any of them. Even the press/camera men who cover wars are not safe.

k199192:
why you no post the game here?

Many do blame me if theirs cut,

k199192:
why you no post the game here?

Many do blame me if theirs cut,

chymevicks:


That atletic bilbao B you played outright win would have caused havoc if u had tried over 1.5 in all
Congrats,keep my share

No be small thing,

German league wasn't favourable yesterday,

thanks

KOKOwonder:
abeg send today's booking for me. Even 5hundred I never win

Have booked that of today already, maybe next time,

Midweek game

MarieSucre:


Wow your comment cuts me up. It's sad that while we live in relative peace now, there was a time when people could literally be alive one second and be dead the next, a gruesome death at that. The East has recovered beautifully tho.

Relative peace?

Op
There's this thing with all Adichies books that I've read, from purple hibiscus to half of a yellow sun and Americana. They never end well. She leaves u with a lump under ur throat, u forever keep wondering what happened next, always one mystery that remains unraveled and u hear wishing to see to be continued at the last page but it's sadly the end. I think Alicia needs to learn how to end her stories better.

Can any1 help me wit d Softcopy or PDF goat of d book ?.. tanx in advance..