Rethinking Nationalism: A Discourse on Ethno-political Strife in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

A number of African writers have written about African history but rarely we do find the boldness and explicit details as presented in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) which depicts the recently independent state of Nigeria unveiling the problems of once colonized countries mainly focusing the issue of postcolonial identity; a torn between ethnocentrism and nationalism. This paper aims to investigate the factors for the emergence of ethno-nationalism to counter state nationalism; an issue which exists in many postcolonial African and Asian countries where ethnicity is given privilege over modern European concept of nationalism. In the light of Fanon’s concepts of national consciousness and decolonization, this article aims to understand the struggle of the marginalized people to re-claim their autonomous identity and their unwillingness to merge in the so-called nationalist socio-political milieu after “decolonization” because of the injustices on the part of ruling elite which has led to the Ethno-political strife in multi-ethnic society of Nigeria resulting in the world’s worst civil war called Biafran War. This paper delineates the complex correlation between status quo and native intelligentsia and the problems of postcolonial third world countries especially the issue of peaceful coexistence of multiple ethnicities within a state.