Haunts and Specters in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Biafran (Re)visitations

Abstract

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes about the Nigeria-Biafra war and its effect on the Igbo in more than one novel in her oeuvre, which is written entirely in English as a cosmopolitan Nigerian diasporic author currently residing in the United States of America. In Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie memorializes the intellectual and artistic culture of Nsukka before and during the Nigeria-Biafra war. This article postulates that the seed for this bestselling novel is also evident in the play For Love of Biafra, penned by Adichie in her teens. This English-language play focuses directly on the effects of the Nigeria-Biafra war upon the personal life of the protagonist, Adaobi. I examine the manner in which the play demonstrates the function of memory upon second-generation descendants of the Nigeria-Biafra War survivors by examining the impact of postmemory through the lens of Derridean hauntology which I have expanded as a postcolonial feminine hauntology, examining the manner in which the specters of Biafra are conjured in Adichie's Biafran texts. I connect this to the ways in which Adichie's narration of the Nigeria-Biafra war evolves in Half of a Yellow Sun to problematize the question of who may witness, bear testimony and author narrative. The article's findings tie the act of narration to empowerment, identification, the experience of trauma to unearth the myriad ways in which the specter of the Nigeria-Biafra war is recreated in fictions by second-generation diasporic and cosmopolitan authors such as Adichie.

Navigating Sri Lankan Identity in A State of Crisis: The Role of the Creative Imaginary

“…Eagleton's notion of the intertwining of the craft of fiction and personal as well as collective wounds (of war) is also explored through the role of memory, as discussed in Anita Harris Satkunananthan's exploration of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's works. Satkunananthan (2018) writes on the function of memory upon second-generation diasporic writers who are able to convey the impact of postmemory based on the traumatic experiences of their ancestors. She draws from Marianne Hirsch (2012) who sees postmemory as memories that are more "directly connected to the past" and are able to "characterizes the experience of those who grow up dominated by narratives that preceded their birth" (188).…”

Perspective Chapter: The Female Body on the Phallocentric Altar – Appropriations of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Feminist Manifesto

“…Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is perceived by some scholars as a novelist par excellence [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], making her part of what Ayodabo [10] delineates as "a recent and interesting period in Nigerian literature" in the postcolonial context. This period views issues such as "identity and displacement, political conflict, postcolonial disillusionment, multiculturalism and globalisation, cultural shock and poverty" in a serious light ( [10]:549).…”