Literary representations of the Biafran War : history, trauma, and the violent legacy of colonialism

Abstract

This dissertation explores literary representations of the trauma endured during the Biafran War, as this gruesome conflict acted as both a backdrop as well as a central shaping force in the lives of the Igbo people. It examines how Elechi Amadi’s Sunset in Biafra, Buchi Emecheta’s Destination Biafra, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun depict the war as a source of generational and postcolonial trauma in addition to the disillusionment that was experienced on both a national and personal level. This dissertation dissects how each author interprets, in a literary medium, the legacy of colonialism in relation to the violence, trauma, and fragmented identity brought about by the Biafran war. Through a comparative literary analysis, this dissertation highlights the different narrative strategies utilised by these aforementioned authors in order to bear witness to the relentless and senseless violence endured by the colonised and the trauma that subsequently followed. In doing so, this dissertation argues that literature serves not only as a mode of historical testimony but also as a space for reimagining identity, resistance, and the possibility of healing in the aftermath of collective, physical, and psychological trauma. Elechi Amadi takes an autobiographical stance in his non-fiction account Sunset in Biafra, wherein he recounts the events which he personally took part in during the Biafran war. The retelling of his accounts over the years highlights the desecration of the Igbo people and their land. His non-fictional stance contrasts with the fictionalised depictions of the war in both Destination Biafra and Half of a Yellow Sun, yet all three novels criticise the existing neocolonial power whilst simultaneously striving to document both the psychological and physical trauma resulting from this brutal war. Irrespective of whether the work is fiction or non-fiction, these authors provide their own interpretations of the Nigerian Civil War. While each author employs different literary strategies to underscore the sociopolitical realities of that particular period, they also manage to elucidate the enduring impact of neocolonialism on Nigerian society. Amadi, Emecheta, and Adichie reveal how, despite the country’s independence in 1960, colonial influence persisted as it was still intertwined with the unstable political system, as well as psychologically, through the still-present, internalised colonial ideologies within the Nigerian populace. Frantz Fanon states that it is the coloniser who introduces violence into the mind of the native by forcing himself upon their native land. Is it possible for the colonised to know anything else apart from violence when it has been forced upon them for centuries? The overarching concern of this dissertation is the role of fiction and non-fiction in prompting healing in society after undergoing such traumatic and violent experiences.