• Story Number: 1/134
• Date: Fri 11 Jul 2008 11:41

I was not around during the Biafran war. To me the Biafran story is one I first studied in
primary school. But my Biafran experience comes more from the lips of my mother. Telling her
story in the evenings to me an my siblings after she came back from work as an accountant in
the university. It was strange seeing this woman who represented everything it meant to be
modern to us recount stories of the past in the village, a place we considered 'bush'. My
mother is from the Ebira nation, a people found on the middle belt of Nigeria in the present
day Kogi state. A proud people, my uncles regaled us with anecdotes of how no one ever
conquered them. The validity of that I do not know however I knew the stubbornness of my uncles
who would never back down from a fight without even knowing the cause. During the Nigerian
Civil war the ebiras found them selves in the middle of a battle they knew nothing about.
Politically irrelevant at the time the news of the war was something that filtered down from
the mouths of the wealthy merchants who had radios. "This is Radio Biafra, Enugu!"
I never heard those words, but the chill of the words as they recounted the victories of the
Igbo soldiers as they advanced was passed on to me as my mother told us stories. The fear as
Biafran airplanes on sorties bombed thier town. She told a story of how once they all ran to a
river bed to hide, how her mum, the wife of a well traveled merchant , left food cooking. They
all trembled in fear, wondering who the casualties would be this time. On getting back, the
food had been stolen. She said they all knew who had taken it, a woman known for her
foolishness and ingrained envy. I remember the look in my mothers eyes as she told how it was a
meal she really had looked forward to eating. The Biafran war affected many who had nothing
to do with it, my grandmother died of illness during the war causing my mum to leave the
village.

• Samuel Ifere
• Nigeria

• Story Number: 2/134
• Date: Wed 09 Jul 2008 11:28

It was a stunning revaltion. A hard realization. But that was the first reality of my conscious
self. I never knew I existed before then. Never conscious of the world around me. It was like
watching a stage drama in a dark, pindrop-noiseless theathre, and all of a sudden, the curtain
opens and you are the main actor in a drama that was not fiction but reality. Faced with 4
soldiers brandishing their overused AK-47 at you. I started crying at the sight of these
soldiers. Not because I ever saw a gun or soldiers before nor because I knew the power of this
piece of instrument clenched between their fingers. But the aura of their presence came with
such an overpowering spell of doom that my infantile mind could percieve the danger the
represented. By this time the War had just ended and the Nigeria Soldiers were going from
house to house looking for the left over young and able bodied men to exterminate and for
beautiful young ladies/women to either rape or take back home as wives. Space will fail me to
narrate the sketches of other experiences that my young 3 year old mind could record.
Chimamanda thanks for this opportunity to scratch on this waking moments of my life. I have not
read your book yet, but I certainly will like to read. To read more about this stories that
have not been (fully) told.

• Kalu Oji
• Nigeria

• Story Number: 3/134
• Date: Fri 16 May 2008 21:59

Must confess that I ain't read the book yet. I watched the video of interviews of the main
actors on "you tube"(just type in "Nigerian civil war)" and I could tell
that some of them people were just plain stupid in causing that war. It was just palin
ignorance and stupidity at various levels and a total lack of experience of the stupid
infantile ignoramuses-mind you these idiots were in their 30's who led us into that war.Also
some particular western countries got a lot of blood in their hands.Pay attention to Mobolaji
Johnson's repeated use of words like "the Ibo boys", "Ibo people" etc and
you get the mentality that preveals and still preveals to this day. Also, Mr. Gowon's
understanding of the Aburi agreement smacks of dishonesty. I am Ibo on one parent's side and to
hear all you revisionists trying to rewrite history by pointing out how your people helped many
Ibo poeple is plain laughable.Truth is there was massive killing of people of Ibo extraction by
people of Hausa,Yoruba,Edo,Tiv,Jukun extraction.The whole damn thing was encouraged and
instigated by those who felt economically threatened by the unfolding events in the country.The
use of phrases such as "Ibo coup" and the rest of the nonsense that went on was plain
silly.Some who were involved in the so-called Ibo coup bore names such as Ademoyega, Atom
Kpera, Eghagha.Go figure. Besides ,I met Nzeogwu on two ocassions in the company of Major
Christian Anufuro (one of the conspirators) in late 1965 and I had no clue why these two were
hang together until events unfolded.

• Ekuson Debango
• United States

• Story Number: 4/134
• Date: Wed 16 Apr 2008 23:57

Well done Chiamanda, this book is a great literary piece the characters are so real and I felt
like i was there. I was born two years after the end of the war but had heard several stories
about the war. My parents were in the heat of biafra and one of my sisters was born during the
war and I wept while reading the book as I kept trying to visualize what they went through. I
felt really sad about kainene disappearing at the end of the book but it brings home the
reality of wars and the genocide that is still going on around us. The problems in rwanda,
sudan, iraq. As the book says 'the world was silent when we died'. Chiamanda your book has
opened up my heart to watch the news with sympathy and to get up and make a difference to the
world and not just sit back. Great characters I have read this book twice and never want it to
end. it would be a great film. Wow who would play Olanna and her great revolutionary lover.
Dalu nwannem. Chukwu gozie gi. You are a gem to our country and to the world. more grease
to your elbows.

• Nneka Osibeluwo
• United Kingdom

• Story Number: 5/134
• Date: Mon 24 Mar 2008 20:13

Hi Chimamanda, I'm reading your book for the second time. I love it even more than Purple
Hibiscus. However, I was quite saddened by what appeared to be a certain tendency to depict
non-Igbos as unsympathetic. I was in Ghana during the war, and while my family huddled
together, crying in front of the tv over images of the suffering in Biafra, my Yoruba
grandfather was helping in his own way. He gave shelter to an Igbo family of six children whose
parents were still in Biafra. The children were part of Grandpa's family until long after the
war. I met them in 1973, and they lived with us until they all graduated from college and began
their own lives. This was in 1978 when the eldest said, "I'll never forget your
grand-parents' kindness. Grandpa also went out on a limb to speak against injustice, and one of
my aunties eventually married an Igbo man. I liked your portrayal of Mohammed in your book.
I just wish there had been a kind Yoruba as well. At any rate, I really do love your writing
and look forward to future books you'll write. Bisi Adjapon

• Bisi Adjapon
• United States

• Story Number: 6/134
• Date: Mon 17 Mar 2008 22:33

this was a great piece of literary work but i felt it tended to tilt towards the side of the
igbos in sympathy. I feel for those who sufferred during the time of this war and it wasnt
just the igbos. other nigerian tribes also faced raids and starvation. am from the middle belt
part of nigeria igala to be precise and my mum told me that during the time of the war, their
village was bombed severally and people had to start mutilating their faces just to distinguish
themselves from the igbos and there was also a shortage of food and some of the men from their
place went to fight the cause of biafra. i say this because this isnt the first time i am
reading a book about the war, i have read all articles in every place i could find them. i
wasnt born in the time of the war but i have always wanted to know what really went on in those
years and seperate fact from opinions. this is merely my opinion but i think maybe the way
forward for everyone is to put behind the gory days that was biafra and move on maybe make a
better nation for ourselves, and stop apporting blames or trying to garner sympathy. we always
sympathise with the nation which was biafra.

• ufedo abubakar
• Nigeria

• Story Number: 7/134
• Date: Sun 09 Mar 2008 23:29

My Dad and Mom were 19 and 15, respectively during the Biafra war. I remember my dad telling us
stories about how he used to farm small plots of land of cassava, maize and other vegetables
during the time of starvation. He also told us stories of how there were tales of neighbouring
villages that resorted to cannibalism during the worst period of hunger; of how traps were set
for people and how to detect human meat from animal meat. The stories were mostly scary and
gory but I remembered being excited all the while. The idea of the perils in Biafra marvelously
presented in your book have taken me back to time I wasn't born to virtually experience the
reality of the times. While I was reading I felt many of the prejudices described in this
book against the Hausa or the Yoruba and even the Igbo. My parents are Efik and Kalabari from
Cross-river and Rivers state respectively and started considering the marginalization of these
minority tribes even within the state of Biafra. I started hating Ojukwu for running off to
cote d'Ivoire, I started thinking that Biafra held on to the South-South of Nigeria mainly
because of our Oil. In all of this, I began by embracing the notion of Biafra. Then
relinquishing any ties to Biafra because if were being used as pawns between the war of Nigeria
and Biafra we should have as well seceeded from both camps to become the republic of Delta
Yenogoa or something like that. Then this so called Nigeria will just be one giant fragmented
entity of sorts.

• Anya
• Canada

• Story Number: 8/134
• Date: Sun 09 Mar 2008 21:27

Ngozi more grease to your elbows. You have inspired so many souls with this books that'll never
get erased by the sands of time. I will tell my story some other time.;

• Nicholas Onyekachukw
• Nigeria

• Story Number: 9/134
• Date: Sat 01 Mar 2008 00:47

Thank you so much for the wonderful book. It helps complete the story for me about what
happened in Biafra after I left. I went to Nigeria in 1966 with my baby daughter Jane. I was
teaching Geology (colleagues included Silas Nwachukwu, Ike Ogbukagu, Stephen ? and Prof. Roy)
at Nsukka campus, University of Nigeria when the Biafran war broke out. I lived in Ikejiani
Avenue, had house boy Emanuel, gardener Everistus Eze and babynurse Beatrice, from a village on
the border between E and N, Abol Afor (?). I played tennis with Donatus Nwoga (English dept) in
staff team on the courts mentioned in book. We were very aware of Ibos returning to E from rest
of Nigeria, many academics coming to the university, but didn't see much of the pogram -
heard awful tales of atrocities on radio and from Enugu. Concerned about evacuating women and
children - road between Nsukka and Enugu could easily be cut - American and Dutch staff were
in s/w radio contact with their embassies. But all British got from our officials, who we had
to contact by eratic telephone, was 'We have contingency plans'. So men 'manned' the radio
round the clock. When the Dutch and Americans got word to evacuate, we went too, in a Peugeot
404 taxi convoy from Nsukka to Port Harcourt. General Gowon allowed 3 evacuation flights a day
to Lagos for 3 days. Unfortunately Jane, 20 months, stopped breathing in Port Harcourt, rushed
to adjacent Delta Clinic, holding her by her feet, bashing her back. She started breathing and
was hospitalised until last flight out with note from Dr Abengowe - fantastic ! - allowing her
to fly. It's a long story, isn't room here. The men stayed behind to organise and mark Finals
examinations. Then had to make their own way overland to Lagos but Niger Bridge was down. After
I'd got home the University sent a bill for the outstanding loan on our car!

• Margaret Mackintosh
• United Kingdom

• Story Number: 10/134
• Date: Mon 18 Feb 2008 14:08

I have read books,listened to music and have seen stuffs but nothing has ever touched me like
this eerie painful history of Nigeria.I was not born in the time of the biafra and was never
told about it but when i read the book HALF OF A YELLOW SUN i was gripped,chilled that such an
unhaman,unethical and cruel time is a reflection of my Nigeria.Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie has
unlocked the labyrinth of my subconscious mind and that of my Nigeria contemporaries,i pray
daily that Nigeria and Nigerians would never wake up to a time like that again........Amen

• hader otaki
• Nigeria