Colonial Violence and Cultural Memory in Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

Aims: This study investigates the representation of colonial violence and cultural memory in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). It aims to demonstrate how the novel reconfigures the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70) as the historical afterlife of British colonial cartography, ethnic stratification and epistemic domination.

Methodology and Approaches: The research adopts a qualitative textual analysis grounded in postcolonial theory, trauma studies and memory studies. The study engages theoretical frameworks proposed by Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Cathy Caruth, Marianne Hirsch, Paul Ricoeur, Pierre Nora and Jan Assmann. Through close reading, the paper analyses narrative structure, characterisation, temporality and symbolic motifs to explore how colonial legacies shape post-independence violence and mnemonic reconstruction.

Outcome: The analysis reveals that the novel situates the Biafran War within a continuum of colonial structural violence. Adichie employs fragmented chronology, polyphonic narration and embedded testimony to depict trauma’s disruption of linear history. The narrative reclaims subaltern voices, particularly women and marginalised civilians and challenges official historiography that suppresses Biafran memory.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The study concludes that Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) functions as a counter-archival text that transforms personal trauma into collective cultural memory. It suggests further comparative research on African post-memory narratives and interdisciplinary studies integrating literary trauma with archival historiography to deepen understanding of postcolonial remembrance.