Essays on Half of a Yellow Sun

The book tells the story of the Biafran War through the eyes of Ugwu, a young houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor, and his beautiful mistress, Olanna. Odenigbo and Olanna are part of a group of educated Nigerians who support the Biafran cause. The book also follows the story of Richard, an English writer who comes to Nigeria to teach at the same university as Odenigbo and falls in love with Olanna’s twin sister, Kainene.
The book chronicles the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and the aftermath of the war. The Biafran War was a conflict that took place in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970. The war was fought between the Nigerian government, which was made up of mostly Muslim northerners, and the Biafran secessionists, who were mostly Christian and animist southerners. The war resulted in the death of over two million people, mostly through starvation and disease.