‘Those Who Did Not Have A Voice’

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Historical Novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and its Identity as a Literary Monument and Counter-Monument

‘The novels I love, the ones I remember, the ones I re-read, have an empathetic human quality, or “emotional truth”. This quality is difficult to define, but I always recognise it when I see it: it is different from honesty and more resilient than fact. [...] When I started my second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, set before and during the Nigeria Biafra War of 1967-1970, I hoped that emotional truth would be its major recognisable trait’ - Adichie

Read the full essay here