Interview: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Molara Wood interviews Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of 'Half of a Yellow Sun', shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize.
I understand you first saw the hardback edition of 'Half of a Yellow Sun' at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2006?
I enjoyed myself at the festival. But Edinburgh was less about the event than about seeing this book for the first time. I was almost in tears. All those weeks and months when I didn't sleep, here was the result. It was really an emotional moment.
Was it different from how you felt at the publication of your debut novel, Purple Hibiscus?
I really did not question Purple Hibiscus, but you might say I questioned Half of a Yellow Sun. I knew how much work I had put into Purple Hibiscus, how difficult it had been to get an agent even. So it was remarkable in that sense. I still look at the very first edition that came out with a special feeling. That said, I didn't really have any expectations. Remember, that when the book was published I was prepared to be ignored. And so I am proud and grateful for all that happened with that novel. I love Purple Hibiscus; it’s a book I would write again.
Can you relate that sense of pride to the publication of Half of a Yellow Sun.
Half of a Yellow Sun is much more important in the sense that it doesn't belong to me alone. It’s different because, amongst other things, it goes beyond any sense of personal accomplishment. Half of a Yellow Sun is a book that I felt I had to write, in way that I can’t even describe. I was happy to see it come out at last, because I know how difficult it was to write, what it took.
How long did it take to write?
A: It took four years to do the actual concentrated work. As I said, I’d known I would write it long before, and so I started working on it right after Purple Hibiscus was finished. I knew I wanted Half of a Yellow Sun to be a multi-person book, a multi-perspective book. I kept most of the early draft of the manuscript, because Binyavanga Wainaina (2002 Caine winner) tells me that when I’m 60, it could be worth something!
You won the David T. Wong Prize for a short story, Half of a Yellow Sun - also about the Biafran war. Is the novel a way of developing the story further?
Half of a Yellow Sun the story was really a way of taking small steps, taking a giant issue piecemeal. It wasn’t alone. I explored the theme of the Biafran war in other short stories. My story,‘Ghosts’ is another take on the war, as is ‘That Harmattan Morning'. So in a sense I’ve been preoccupied with this in my fiction for some time, and to that extent the short story is somewhat similar. That said, the novel is quite different from the story. The characters are different; there’s also a difference in how I think in my approach to the work. Then there is the scope, which is so much bigger. It’s a huge canvas. It’s about how people change.
How did you go about showing this change in people?
I wanted the characters themselves to drive the action. There is the outsider Biafran, in the character of Richard. Then Olanna and Kainene, wealthy Nigerians and Odenigbo, the academic and then finally Ugwu, the houseboy who is the soul of the novel. When we see them immersed in war we feel for them, because we have come to know them intimately.
What was it like for you the writer, creating these characters?
There were times when I would feel a character had left me - Olanna especially - so I'd have to go back and try to listen to that character. I went through a lot of self doubt, nervousness. I guess in the end it was a good thing. Also, I'm very stubborn. It was very difficult to do but I felt that it was worthwhile.
You’ve enjoyed great success, starting with the wide acclaim that greeted Purple Hibiscus. That raised expectation, concerning what you would do next. Did you feel this pressure while you were working on Half of a Yellow Sun?
I was not consciously thinking about success, failure or pressure. A woman at the BBC asked me: what is it like to be you? I had no answer, because I am just me. I don’t think about some other public persona beyond that. As for pressure, sure, there was nervousness when I was working on Half of a Yellow Sun, but it was more about, I’m going to do this book. I knew that if I failed, I would not have done justice to this very important subject. I didn't want to write some polemical book that is more or less a bit of propaganda. It’s so easy to get it wrong.
You were working on Half of a Yellow Sun all the while, yet you maintained an impressive form in short story publications.
The short stories published - those were the times when Half of a Yellow Sun was refusing to work. I would take a break by writing a short story. Besides, I’ve always written short fiction. Short stories are my refuge. I sometimes write essays also, largely because people ask me to. I don’t know anything about music, and yet I managed to write something for an American journal on music! I recognise, of course, that essays are good publicity if one has a book out.
The Biafran war remains a sore subject in Nigeria, still under much contention. Could Half of a Yellow Sun prove divisive within the Nigerian context?
Biafra is a subject that we are not honest about, don’t talk about. We should be asking WHY the war remains a sore subject. I have received some responses from defensive Nigerian readers who ask – oh, you didn't write about the people who suffered in Lagos. And some Igbo readers who say – oh, why did you show our warts as well? But what makes me happiest is getting feedback from Nigerians, Igbo and non-Igbo, who found the book meaningful, who read it without imposing their own preconceived notions on it. It has Biafran sympathies for which I don’t apologise but it does not romanticise the war and what I’ve tried to do is hold on to the human angle in telling the story.
What do you hope for Half of a Yellow Sun?
What I hope this book will do in Nigeria is get us to examine our history and ask questions. I hope that my generation of Nigerians in particular will talk about this period. Beyond that, I just want the book to be read. I hope people everywhere will read it.
What are you doing next?
I am doing a week of workshops in Lagos and Enugu this summer with ordinary Nigerians who are interested in writing, and my friend the Kenyan writer, Binyavanga Wainaina has graciously agreed to come and co-teach the workshop with me. I am thinking of the next book, working on short fiction and struggling to understand the academic texts I have been reading!
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be at the Orange Prize Shortlist Readings at the South Bank Centre, London, on 5 June. The winner will be announced on 6 June.