Construction of Community as the Cause of Communal Violence: A Study of Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

The novel Half of a Yellow Sun belongs to the genre of postcolonial fiction. The novel centers on the trauma of ‘communal violence’ due to ‘construction of community’ making explicit link between colonialism and the ethnic and political strife of the new nation (Biafra). The traumatic legacy of colonialism is not only evident in search for ‘collective identity’ in the name of ethnicity but also in the daily lives of citizens from peasants to intellectuals, i.e. Ugwu to Odenigbo. The results out of colonial legacy in postcolonial situation decipher in multiple ways- -especially into historico-cultural trauma. Thus, the historico-cultural trauma in the form of Civil War resulted out of ‘construction of community’ is the main concern of the research. Major Nigerian tribes’- -the Igbos and the Hausas’- -construction of community causes traumatic Nigerian Civil War. Adichie in her novel appeals for ‘thin morality’ and ‘ethics of coexistence’ for the ‘working through’ of historico-cultural trauma.