Why Half of a Yellow Sun is a special, relevant proposition

So much has been said and written about Half of a Yellow Sun, the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning book of the same name, a story primarily focused on the Nigerian civil war.

Opinions differ on whether or not it was right for the National Film and Video Censor’s Board to withhold the movie from the Nigerian public for as long as it did.

Exploring on one hand the lives of Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Rose), glamorous twins born into a wealthy Nigerian family from the southern part of the country, and on the other,  the complex exigencies that are thrown up in the country following the outbreak of the civil war, Half of a Yellow Sun comes as a complete package.

Having just returned to Nigeria from the United Kingdom a few years after the country’s independence in 1960′s Nigeria, the paths the twins are to take are carefully laid out by their affluent parents. That is until Olanna shocks her family by going to live with her fiance Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who is a lecturer at the newly-established University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

But when Mama (Onyeka Onwenu), Odenigbo’s mother comes into the picture, a markedly unbearable tension begins to build between the pair, especially with Mama’s pointedly damaging accusation that Olanna is a witch.

A complex unfolding of events leaves the characters reeling and dealing with personal demons, even as the civil war and events surrounding it throw them into physical danger.

The movie features some of Nigeria’s finest actors, such as Tina Mba, Onyeka Onwenu, Gloria Young, O.C Ukeje, Genevieve Nnaji, Zack Orji, Jude Orhoa and the Hollywood contingent, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anika Rose, Thandie Newton, John Boyega, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Joseph Mawle, Rob David and Wale Ojo.

Being the biggest budget movie to be associated with Nigeria and clearly the most anticipated on the Nigerian cinema scene, it is not for nothing that Half of a Yellow Sun is commanding so much attention at cinemas across the country.

Whatever people say, the film, directed by Biyi Bandele, actor and filmmaker; is a daring effort, which will always have a strong sense of attachment for those with a profound sense of history and those who appreciate their identities as Nigerians.