Writing the Biafra War: Identity and Women’sRepresentation in Half of a Yellow Sun By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to examine postcolonial issues of identitycrisis and women’srepresentation in NigerianWar narratives, namelyHalf of a Yellow Sun (2006) by novelistChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whichpresents a personalaccount of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War. This dissertation aims to highlight the role of the femaleauthor not only in documentingNigeria’sidentitycrisis, but also in challenging the predominantnationalist model of Nigerianwomen in the BiafanWaraccounts. Applying postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminist critique on Adichie’s narrative, thisstudyaims to depict postcolonial issues thatpreceded and accompanied the Biafra Civil War, such as issues of identity, nationhood, ethnicity and women’s double oppression, whichweconsider a result of British colonialism. Since the novel’s time-line is set between the 1967 and 1970, whichmeansprior to and during the BiafranWar, postcolonial theoryis important here as a way to investigateAdichie’stext. Wespecifically use a postcolonial feministapproach to interpretNigerianwomen’sprecolonialrepresentation as well as to challenge theirpost-colonialmisrepresentation. Therefore, weconcludethatAdichie’s narrative aims to create a femalenationalistdiscoursethat challenges the nationalist masculine discourse for ignoringNigerianwomen’sstruggles and survivalduring the ethnicconflictiveWar of Biafra. The dissertation also uses the gynocriticismtheory to studyAdichie’sexperience as a femaleauthor in herattempt to document the Biafra Civil Warfrom a female Igbo perspective.