Violence in Postcolonial Nigeria

‏Al Ahmad Muhammad 19‏‭ ‬April‭ ‬2015 ‏War and Violence in Adichie's‭ "‬Half of a Yellow Son from ‏‭ ‬a Postcolonial Perspective ‏‭ ‬According to the Novel,‭ ‬across Nigeria,‭ ‬people are afraid of war and violence.‭ ‬This fear is shared by all Nigerians,‭ ‬those who live in the large cities,‭ ‬and those who live in suburban communities,‭ ‬and even small towns and rural areas.‭ ‬Violence is a serious problem that challenges society at every level.‭ ‬It has two sides affects,‭ ‬the first one is physically and the other one is emotionally,‭ ‬so it effects the people's life in any society.‭ ‬For many,‭ ‬the violent actions of the‭ ‬1960s starts during the colonization era and after post-colonial era.‭ ‬When the war takes place,‭ ‬there seem to be no safe places in Nigeria‭; ‬the violence extends into houses,‭ ‬neighborhoods,‭ ‬schools,‭ ‬hospitals and markets.‭ ‬Wars never distinguish between soldiers and civilians,‭ ‬between women and children,‭ ‬or young and elderly.‭ ‬So much of the Nigerian violence seems to be randomly according to certain criteria‭; ‬either racial or religious killings. ‏‭ ‬Historically,‭ ‬humans have experienced a lot of wars and a lot of violent actions that accompanied the wars and lead to people's sufferings in different parts of the world and in several periods.‭ ‬The ugliest war that causes a lot of death and violence,‭ ‬is the one between different ethnic and religious groups,‭ ‬especially in countries that are still under colonialism or in the period after the colonialism.‭ ‬This period is called the postcolonial or the aftermath of colonialism that is,‭ ‬according to some critics,‭ ‬is the period from the start of‭ ‬the colonialism up to‭ ‬the present day.‭ ‬Some countries in Africa,‭ ‬Asia and Latin America were colonized by the European countries for more than two hundred years.‭ ‬A good example of the long colonialism is India which is occupied by Britain for more than two hundred and fifty years.‭ ‬Such these long periods of exploitations and confiscating of the nations‭' ‬resources,‭ ‬affecting the people by different ways-‭ ‬socially,‭ ‬linguistically and culturally.‭ ‏‭ ‬Adichi's Half of‭ ‬a Yellow Sun is one of the novels that covers the period of the Nigerian civil war that takes place after the British colonization which is by one way or another is one of the reasons behind this war.‭ ‬Violence is one of the important characteristics of the post-colonization which is according to Fanon is‭ "‬the replacing‭ ‬of a certain‭ "‬species‭" ‬of men by another‭ "‬species‭" ‬of men.‭ ‬Without any period of transition‭" (‬35‭)‬.‭ ‬The colonizer opposes different techniques on the colonized such as,‭ ‬his violence,‭ ‬the denial of the identity and subjectivity of the colonized,‭ ‬social injustice,‭ ‬the racism and discrimination.‭ ‬This paper aims to investigate the violence during the Nigerian civil war as social practices from a postcolonial perspective.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬the characters have shown their resistance and their willing to peaceful life and at the same time they have shown their different reactions toward the violence. ‏‭ ‬The independence of any country is achieved by natives who might call it the national liberation or renaissance,‭ ‬or they might call it the restoration of natives.‭ ‬According to Fanon,‭ ‬these dramatic changes that take place after the departure of the colonizers are accompanied with‭ "‬violent phenomenon‭" (‬35‭)‬.‭ ‬The inability to establish their own regimes based on the economic and political developments as well as providing equality and liberation for the individuals,‭ ‬makes some of the independent countries face violent actions,‭ ‬civil wars and mass killings.‭ ‬This is due to‭ "‬Racial consideration‭" (‬Barry‭ ‬193‭)‬.‭ ‬This inability of the colonized is due to the‭ ‬colonizer's failure in establishing democratic societies and political awareness.‭ ‏‭ ‬Nigeria was occupied in‭ ‬1861‭ ‬after the‭ "‬port and Island Lagos transferred to the British Crown‭" (‬Arikpo‭ ‬32‭)‬.‭ ‬It had been occupied for a hundred years.‭ ‬After the independence,‭ ‬Nigeria encounters difficulties that lead to the civil war.‭ ‬According to Frantz Fanon,‭ ‬the colonized encounter‭ "‬Difficulties in the development of his bodily schema‭" (‬qtd.‭ ‬In Carry and Lynn Festa‭ ‬95‭)‬.‭ ‬These difficulties lead to civil wars,‭ ‬military coups and chaotic actions that caused a lot of devastating results.‭ ‏‭ ‬Nigerian civil war failed to fulfill the promises and the liberations movements of its people because‭ ‬the authority and the power was exclusively in the hand of one race or tribe over the others who have lived in one country.‭ ‬The paper also intends to explore Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Son uses of the protagonists,‭ ‬flashbacks and stream of consciousness to show the readers the huge amount of killings and violence in the Nigerian civil war after the independence that causes poverty and starvation. ‏‭ ‬Since the paper is about the violence of the Nigerian civil war,‭ ‬it is very important to provide historical background about the ethnic divisions in Nigeria.‭ ‬There are three main tribes in Nigeria‭ "‬The North is said to be inhabited by Hausa-Fulani‭; ‬the West,‭ ‬by Yoruba‭; ‬and the East,‭ ‬by Ibo‭" (‬Arikpo‭ ‬23‭)‬.‭ ‬Adicie's Half of a Yellow sun is the best example for the tribal corruption in Nigeria.‭ ‬It also shows some difficulties that the independent countries such as Nigeria goes through.‭ ‬The social and political issues are one of Adichie's main concerns that causes the civil war. ‏‭ ‬The Nigerians try to adopt federal system‭ ‬instead of a unitary government,‭ ‬but the main issues are the size of the country and the ethnic and cultural diversity.‭ ‬The Nigerian tribes become‭ "‬Apprehensive at the adoption of a loose federation‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬and demanded the establishment of separate states as a means of protecting their interests‭" (‬Arikpo‭ ‬88‭)‬.The novel covers several themes such as,‭ ‬alienation,‭ ‬the empowerment of Nigerian women,‭ ‬dislocation,‭ ‬the lost of identity.‭ ‬Besides,‭ ‬the novel focuses on the colonizer's failure in establishing democratic rules in the occupied countries.‭ ‬It also indicates that the colonized people can not stand alone without the help and the need for the colonizer‭ "‬Africans are not ready to rule themselves in Rhodesia‭"‬. ‏‭ ‏‭ ‬The Nigerian novelist Ngozi Adichie‭ ‬was born in the city of Enugu in Nigeria.‭ ‬She is the fifth of six children in an Igbo family and grew up in the university town of Nsukka where the University of Nigeria is situated.‭ ‬Her father was a professor of statistics,‭ ‬and her mother was the university's first female registrar.‭ ‬At the age of nineteen,‭ ‬she left Nigeria to the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia.‭ ‬In‭ ‬2003,‭ ‬she completed a master's degree in creative writing at John Hopkins University and in‭ ‬2008,‭ ‬she received a master of arts degree in African studies from Yale University.‭ ‬Adichie published a collection of poems in‭ ‬1997‭ ‬titled Decisions and a play titled For the Love of Biafra in‭ ‬1998.‭ ‬Half of a Yellow Sun is her second novel after Purple Hibiscus which published in‭ ‬2003.‭ ‬Half of a Yellow Sun is set before and during the Nigerian civil war.‭ ‬Although she writes about the aftermath of postcolonial Nigeria,‭ ‬but she considers her self as a feminist writer in the way she looks at the world. ‏‭ ‬The novel takes place in Nigeria before and during the civil war from‭ ‬1967‭ ‬to‭ ‬1970.‭ ‬It explores the realities of the people during the wars and their reactions toward it.‭ ‬It also questions the characters relationships-love and loyalty.‭ ‬The affiliations and events of the war are obviously shown through the dramatic relationships of characters‭' ‬lives.‭ ‬One of the strongest elements of the novel that it is narrated by three different characters that help the readers to rely on them.‭ ‬The novel starts with Ugwu who is thirteen years old and works as a houseboy for an intellectual man Odenigbo‭ "‬the revolutionary lover‭" ‬who frequently meets with some intellectual friends and discuss the political issues in Nigeria.‭ ‬Olanna who moves to live with Odengibo,‭ ‬has a twin sister,‭ ‬Kainene,‭ ‬who is very busy in running her father companies.‭ ‬Kainene has a British lover,‭ ‬Richard who comes to Nigeria to explore Igbo-Ukwu art. ‏‭ ‬They characters have gone through dramatic changes especially when Biafra is announced to be a new republic after the fight between the Hausa and Igbo which causes massacres led to hundreds of deaths,‭ ‬including some of the characters‭' ‬relatives.‭ ‬Olanna's lover,‭ ‬Odenigbo slept with Amala,‭ ‬a village girl who came with his mum to visit him.‭ ‬Olanna gets rage at his betrayal and sleeps with her sister's lover in a moment of weakness,‭ ‬but later she moved to live with Odenigbo and when Amala refuses to keep Odenigbo's child,‭ ‬she decides to keep her.‭ ‬A lot of changes happen during the war,‭ ‬Olanna,‭ ‬Odengibo,‭ ‬Ugwu and the baby have to move for several cities and towns,‭ ‬escaping from the war,‭ ‬but finally,‭ ‬they settle with Kainene who works in a refugee camp.‭ ‬The lack of the medicine and food forces Kainene to trade across enemy lines,‭ ‬but she doesn’t return even after the end of the war. ‏‭ ‬Adichie tries strongly to show the readers the miserable conditions of the Igbo people who lives in the Biafran regime.‭ ‬This paper will focus on the main three characters as witnesses of the war and the violent and chaotic incidents that take place at that time.‭ ‬The novel starts with Ugwu the peasant houseboy.‭ ‬He is warmly received in Odenigbo's house and treated very well.‭ ‬Later,‭ ‬his master helps him to continue his education.‭ ‬Throughout the novel,‭ ‬Ugwu's character develops very well,‭ ‬he is very loyal to his masters and he takes care of their adapted baby,‭ ‬but at the end of the novel he is conscripted into the army and witnesses the cruelty of the war and the violence which make him committed a rape. ‏‭ ‬Olanna is the daughter of Chief Ozobia who is a businessman.‭ ‬He depends on illegal ways such as bribes to runs his business.‭ ‬Olanna graduates from the United Kingdom as a professor of sociology and works for Nsukka University.‭ ‬During the war,‭ ‬she is an example of an empowered woman who helps people and works as a school teacher in Umuahia where she escaped with her family.‭ ‬Because she is very beautiful‭ "‬Illogically pretty‭"‬,‭ ‬her father tries to offer her sexual relationship with men as a bribe to help him in his business.‭ ‬Later,‭ ‬she gets married to Odenigbo whose mother at first refuses to marry him to Olanna because according to his mother,‭ ‬Olanna is not from the Igbo and education ruins the woman and makes her insulting her husband.‭ ‬This is an evidence about the struggle between the old generation represented by Odenigbo's mother‭ "‬I do not want a Wawa woman,‭ ‬and none of those Imo or Aro women,‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬Who told them that we are all the same Igbo people‭"‬.‭ ‬and the new generation represented by Olanna‭ ‏‭ ‬Kainene is Olanna's twin,‭ ‬seems to be very strong and independent and she helps her father with his business.‭ ‬She lives in a city called Port Harcourt.‭ ‬She loves a white man called Richard who betrayed her with her sister Olanna.‭ ‬Her character is sometimes very cold because sometimes she does nonsense things‭ "‬I once spat in my father's glass of water‭"‬.‭ ‬After what she has gone through during the war,‭ ‬her character has changed completely and she runs the refugee camp with the help of Richard and Olanna. ‏‭ ‬In the first part of the novel,‭ ‬Adichie puts the readers on the whole peaceful situation by describing every specific details of the Igbo characters‭' ‬lives.‭ ‬How they live in peace and travel easily from one city to another.‭ ‬she shows the reader how they use the English language with each other and at the same time the denial that they are like the white people.‭ ‬But in fact,‭ ‬Olanna's father wants Kainene and her to be like Europeans.‭ ‬He even sends them to the British Secondary School‭ "‬It is so exclusive many Nigerians don’t even know it exists‭"‬.‭ ‬Olanna's sister,‭ ‬Kainene makes great efforts to live the style of the white people's life and she mocks the Nigerian upper class‭ ‬by describing them as‭ "‬collection of illiterates who read nothing and eat food they dislike at overpriced Lebanese restaurants‭"‬.‭ ‬Kainene's friend,‭ ‬Madu denies the existence of minorities in Nigeria and declares that‭ "‬Those Syrians and Lebanese already own half of Lagos‭"‬.‭ ‬Then,‭ ‬Adichie continues with the political and social expectations in the future of Nigeria after the colonization.‭ ‬the national enthusiastic speeches from Odenigbo's meetings with the intellectuals,‭ ‬talking about the Igbo union,‭ ‬raising money for building schools,‭ ‬and the attempt to persuade the northerners to admit Igbo children.‭ ‬They also talk about the corruption system and ignoramuses in Nigeria.‭ ‬Fanon states that‭ "‬the native who decides to put the program into practice,‭ ‬and to become its moving force,‭ ‬is ready for violence at all time‭" ( ‬37‭ )‬. ‏‭ ‏‭ ‬Odenigbo doesn’t believe in new Nigeria because it is created by the White man and he is the one who gives him the new identity‭ "‬My point is that the only authentic identity for African is the tribe‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬But I was Igbo before the white man came‭"‬.‭ ‬Olanna's cousin,‭ ‬Arize,‭ ‬tells Olanna that her father would refuse to marry her from any Hausa man,‭ ‬Hausa is another tribe in Nigeria‭ "‬Papa would kill me first of all if he knew I was even looking at a Hausa man like that‭"‬.‭ ‬Even Richard‭ –‬the white man,‭ ‬feels uncomfortable with‭ "‬they were mostly English,‭ ‬ex-colonial administrators and business people‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬and United African Company‭"‬.‭ ‏‭ ‬The racial language is clear through the novel.‭ ‬There is difference point of views regardless the establishing of New Nigeria.‭ ‬New Nigeria means united tribes and one official language for the all Nigerians,‭ ‬but this idea is refused by some characters who prefer tribal regime and even encourage political options to achieve their goals.‭ ‏‭ ‬The novel tries to show the readers the image of the natives in the eyes of the colonizer‭ "‬The White‭"‬,‭ ‬how the natives were treated as subjected,‭ ‬dehumanized and oppressed people.‭ ‬She gives the example of an African man who is walking a dog and a Englishman asks‭ "‬What are you doing with that monkey‭" ‬the African answered him that this is a dog not a monkey while in fact the Englishman has been talking to the dog not to the African. ‏‭ ‬She also represents the native woman in the eyes of the colonizer as they are a tool in his hand.‭ ‬They are manipulated by the white men who have sexual relationships with them and they will never marry them,‭ ‬in fact they are just‭ "‬Fantastically desirable bottoms‭"‬.‭ ‬This kind of treatment is called a new slavery,‭ ‬because such these relations could be broken by the white man any time.‭ ‬He is able to travel easily to his own country while the native women couldn’t.‭ ‬Whoever,‭ ‬the novel relies on Odenigbo and his African intellectuals friends to represent the danger of the colonizer.‭ ‬According to Odenigbo,‭ ‬the white man is a devil and he is responsible for many issues that happened with the colonized people.‭ ‬The colonizer‭ "‬Dehumanizing blacks in South Africa and Rhodesia,‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬they won't let Australian Aborigines vote‭"‬.‭ ‬Then,‭ ‬he states that the colonizer's project in Nigeria is worse than the apartheid and segregation. ‏‭ ‬All the novel's events and dialogues encourage the readers to expect that there will be huge matter in the progress of the novel.‭ ‬The violence starts with several military coups,‭ ‬the first one‭ "‬Nigeria's first military coup occurred in January‭ ‬1966‭" (‬Bienen‭ ‬10‭)‬,‭ ‬is‭ ‬considered an Igbo coup‭ "‬It was mostly Northerners who were killed‭"‬.‭ ‬They suspended the constitution and dissolved regional government and elected assemblies.‭ ‬Their goal is to establish‭ ‬a nation free from corruption and stop bribes and the demanding of ten percent.‭ ‬Odenigbo and his intellectual friends cant hide their satisfaction for this coup because it somehow fulfils their desire of New Biafra‭ "‬Those North Africans are crazy to call this an infidel versus righteous thing‭ "‬.‭ ‬Regardless their enthusiastic feelings and speeches,‭ ‬but they are very certain that there will be another coup.‭ ‬Several weeks later,‭ ‬their expectations become true.‭ ‬The Northern officers have taken over the Igbo officers according to some radio reporters.‭ ‬People go out in the streets and‭ ‬start ethnic violence‭ "‬against Ibos in northern and western cities‭" (‬Bienen‭ ‬10‭)‬.‭ ‬Some of the Igbo people don’t sleep in their houses since the coup because they are surrounded by Yoruba and Hausa people.‭ ‬Other people sends their children to other countries because they feel scared and they don’t expect what is going to happen.‭ ‬the Northern officers are killing Igbo officers in their own cities as a result for the first coup.‭ ‬The scene is represented with full of chaotic feelings and actions with regard to the Igbo.‭ ‬Kainene's friend,‭ ‬Madu is considered to be dead.‭ ‬Lagos the capital city is in chaos and Olanna's parents leave to England. ‏‭ ‬The violence is increased and people are killed according to their identities‭ "‬Any Igbo man whose feet were clean and uncracked by har-mattan,‭ ‬they took away and shoot.‭ ‬The military coups create conditions that make it impossible for the Igbo people and the Northern people to live together.‭ ‬Madu who is one of the Igbo people,‭ ‬refuses the idea that a northern man can be the head of the state.‭ ‬He also states that the problem is‭ "‬The ethnicity balance policy‭"‬.‭ ‏‭ ‬The characters are lost and feel frightened because they hear about the huge amount of killings between the Igbo people‭ "‬We have confirmed reports that up to five hundred Igbo people have been killed in Maidugurui‭" ‬and‭ "‬They are killing us like ants‭"‬.‭ ‬The war is represented as a religious war because any one who wants to survive should act as Muslims according to the Igbo characters.‭ ‬The soldiers block the roads so that Olanna has to wear a long scarf given by her Muslim Friend Mohammed‭ "‬I look like a proper Muslim woman‭"‬.‭ ‬Although the novel presents‭ ‬two Muslim perspectives,‭ ‬the extreme one and the moderate one presented by Mohammed who refuses the killings under the name of religion because according to him‭ "‬Allah doesn’t allow this‭"‬. ‏‭ ‬Olanna's journey to Nsukka is awful because she experienced severe feelings.‭ ‬Specially,‭ ‬when she set on the floor of the train.‭ ‬She has seen the people who escaped from the war,‭ ‬strapped to the coaches and some stood on the steps holding on the railings.‭ ‬The urine was spreading on the floor of the train.‭ ‬Olanna sits against a woman who is holding a bowl in her lap,‭ ‬when they woman notice that Olanna is staring at it,‭ ‬she asks her to come and see.‭ ‬It is an awful scene,‭ ‬a little girl's head with the ashy-gray skin and according to the woman‭ "‬It took me so long to plait this hair‭? ‬She had such thick hair‭"‬.‭ ‏‭ ‬It is obviously appeared in the novel that the novel accuses the Westerners especially British for this war‭ "‬When it is he and his fellow British who collected the firewood for it in the first place‭"‬.‭ ‬The importance of Nigeria is due to the reason that it‭ "‬Became a major oil exporter in the‭ ‬1970s‭" (‬Bienen‭ ‬65‭)‬.‭ ‬It seems that they accuse‭ ‬the Western countries in general and Britain in particular.‭ ‬When the Igbo cities fall,‭ ‬it is said that the British is behind that falling because they support the Northerners‭ "‬The vandals are coming with many ships from Britain,‭ ‬They are shelling outside Port Harcourt now‭"‬.‭ ‬Whenever Richard,‭ ‬a white character in the Novel,‭ ‬stops in the checkpoints,‭ ‬he has been told that him and the white man are behind the massacres that happened to the Igbo people in the North.‭ ‬The Nigerian Intellectuals and literates are agreed that the West and Britain are the real cause for their sufferings‭ "‬It is you white people who allowed Gowon to kill innocent woman and children‭"‬.‭ ‬At the same time,‭ ‬some of the characters‭' ‬admiration of the White people culture is seen many times through the progress of the novel-‭ ‬Using the English language and eating the white man food that is full of sense not like the Igbo's‭ "‬The food of the white people makes you healthy,‭ ‬it is not like all of the nonsense that our people eat‭"‬.‭ ‬Using the European cars by some of the characters makes them feel that they are in high social positions‭ "‬She would be so impressed to see him arrive in a white man's car‭"‬.‭ ‬Even children are impressed by Richard as a white man and they surround him and chant‭ "‬Onye ocha,‭ ‬white man‭"‬.‭ ‏‭ ‬During the war,‭ ‬the situation becomes unbearable and miserable.‭ ‬Chaos is everywhere in Nigeria,‭ ‬burning cars and shops,‭ ‬killing innocents people and questioning everybody.‭ ‬No matter who you are,‭ ‬the question is are you with us or against us.‭ ‬Adichie tries to show the readers the reasons behind the chaotic situations from the both sides,‭ ‬the Igbo side and the other.‭ ‬The people are no questioning their faith by asking themselves why such this killings are happen‭? ‬Why do people die from the starvation‭?‬.‭ ‬When Olanna states that she believes in a good God,‭ ‬Odenigbo answers her with‭ "‬I don’t believe in any gods at all‭"‬.‭ ‬Regardless all their miserable conditions,‭ ‬no money,‭ ‬the delaying of salaries,‭ ‬poverty and starvation,‭ ‬and hijacking food supplies,‭ ‬but people still believe in the hope and future‭ "‬We'll get our life back soon,‭ ‬in a free Biafra‭"‬.‭ ‬They dream of the future and hope and this what is meant by the title Half of a Yellow Sun,‭ ‬each color of the Biafran flag mean something,‭ ‬the red means blood,‭ ‬the black means mourning,‭ ‬the green means the prosperity and the half of the yellow sun means‭ "‬The glorious future‭"‬. ‏Richard,‭ ‬the white man,‭ ‬who comes to Nigeria to explore and to write about the Igbo heritage and culture,‭ ‬refuses the war and decides to join his lover Kainene with her resistance by writing a book titled‭ "‬The World Was Silent When We Died‭"‬.‭ ‬He sarcastically declares that‭ "‬I'll make sure to note that the Nigerian bombs carefully avoided anybody with a British passport‭"‬.‭ ‬He is also considered himself as one of the native who resist the rule of the western journalism‭ "‬One hundred dead black people equal one dead white person‭"‬. ‏‭ Starvation is a weapon used in the Nigerian civil war to achieve the Nigerian officials their goals. Poverty and hunger control people minds and make them doubt of everything and at the same time motive them to commit violence. People have nothing to eat and they fight each other for a piece of bread "If you have tea and bread to spare, please take it to the stations. Help a brother in need". People depend on the international organization for food and other things such as shelters and refugee camps to sleep in "All the school in Umuahia have become refugee camps or army training camps". The situation in Biafra is catastrophic and this help Biafra to be noticed through demonstrations in different capital cities "Starvation made the International Red Cross call Biafra its gravest emergency since the Second World War". Some countries like Tanzania has recognized Biafra, other countries want to but they don't because of America "America is the stumbling blocks". When the starvation become as phenomena that means hunger on the large scale among the Nigerians. People feed their children what is available in their environment such as blizzards and bush rats "As though they were rack lamb". Children are lost in the war, they play with some parts of the weapons and they are carrying sticks and making shooting sounds with their mouth as they are soldiers. One of the awful scene when the children sit around and roast "Two Rats around a fire". No one can deny the fact that children eat "Garri" and water once a day instead of two and the number of dead children is increasing "Three children died in one way". Finally, The novel shows the resistance of some of the characters in the progress of it. The characters try to make a difference in the chaos. Olanna, the main protagonist, works very hard to teach children in the ruined school and she does some efforts to feed them with the available food she can afford. She adapts a baby and regardless all the circumstances she has been through, she affords him all his needs. Also, when she feels that Odenigbo is unhappy in his directorate, she asks professor Azeka, who is in charge, to transfer Odenigbo somewhere else "The words moved slowly . . . she realized how much she hated to ask". In addition to this, she refuses the immorality of Father Marcel who takes advantages of some women because he is responsible for their pregnancy. Kainene, Olanna's sister, runs the refugee camps and she sacrifices of herself when she goes behind the enemies line. The novel shows the readers how the Kainene and Olanna deny their current miserable realities through using face cream as a kind of resistance. Ugwu does great efforts to become an educational person and he helps Olanna in teaching the children. It is Ugwu who insists to use his pen to write about the war when Richard refuses "The war isn’t my story to tell really,". The novel concludes with what is mentioned in the first pages of this paper about the failure of the black people to curb the white man who according to Odenigbo-the revolutionary lover- "Brought racism into the world". It also gives hope to the people of Nigeria through remembering a poem about making the sun rise if it refused to rise. The novel can be interpreted in many ways, the dominant interpretation which focuses on the people on the time of war and how they react for the violent actions happened with them. The second one is the deep interpretation. To look deeply between the lines and beyond the events. This novel might be characterized as an encounter between the two sisters who represents the colonizer and the colonized. Their relation has gone through different stages and end with the disappearing of Kainene who represents the colonizer. One of the important image of resistance in this novel is the use of some words of the native's language. Adichie tries to show the readers the power of the African languages and how it is survival regardless the death of the people who use it. The importance of African languages should be one of the people's top priority because "With the loss of our languages will come the loss of our entire naming system and every historical intervention" (Nugugi 1827). 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