Movie Review: Half of a Yellow Sun

I have always wanted to time travel.

The past has always been fascinating to me and I have often dreamed of going back in time to meet great historical figures like Winston Churchill or Gandhi. I imagined what I would say to them and what sort of questions I would ask. Even more fascinating to me is imagining meeting the younger selves of people I know right now. Like my Dad. What I would do to meet my dad as a 20 year old whilst I am in my 30’s. And whilst Michael J. Fox did exactly this in the classic Back to the Future movies, I have to say I kind of felt transported back in time at the media screening event of the screen adaptation of the book, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by the erudite Chiamamanda Adichie

The invitation had come 2 weeks before and I actually went out and borrowed the book planning to read it before I watched the movie. But then I never actually got round to reading it. Which was a shame because screen adaptations are usually constrained by having to fit rich flowing narratives into 2 hours of on-screen story-telling. Screen adaptations take huge creative licenses and it’s always hit and miss, especially with fans of the books who build diverse and different (but no less valid) landscapes in their mind’s eye. It’s inevitable that some fans are left bitterly disappointed with the execution of their favourite story on the movie medium.

I would not be hampered by this and had to take the story at face value. Which is what a lot of people seeing this movie are going to do anyway. My review includes minor spoilers so be warned.

Back to time travel.

The movie opens with actual news reports doubtless gotten from the archives, of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Lagos in celebration of the independence of the Nigerian state from its colonial masters the British in 1960. The 60’s were swinging in so many ways and more so for the young Nigerian nation. The opening black and white montage made me wish I could time-travel to the streets of Lagos with its colonial style buildings, funny looking cars and even funnier fashion. The montage segues perfectly into the homes of the 2 young sisters of a prominent and successful business man. The opening scenes manages to capture the upper middle class lifestyle of a newly emerging nation who had the world at its feet and hope in its heart. From the butler-attended dinner hosting the Finance minister to the independence party the twin girls later attend, that sense of privilege, education and snobbery is perfectly captured.

Thandie Newton plays the female lead, Olanna and one half of the twins whilst Anika Noni Rose plays Kainene. Their British and American accents are accounted for early on when it is revealed they are Yale and Oxford graduates. Ms Newton attempts to affect an Ibo accent and I immediately wished she would stop. To my Nigerian ear, it felt forced, not at all correct and a little bit phony. But I guess to non-native speakers, it might seem to be a plausible attempt. But Leonardo Di Caprio as a South African diamond smuggler in Blood Diamond, she was NOT.

Noni never made a stab at sounding like a Nigerian born and raised girl, keeping her Oxford trained British accent for the entire length of the film. What these two actresses did well however was capture the essence of that bourgeoisie class that permeates a country like Nigeria and sits on one side of a wide gulf between the haves and have nots.

This bourgeoisie theme runs through the entire film and is demonstrated as well in the University surroundings depicted in the movie. Here Odenigbo played by the supremely talented Chiwetel Ejiofor entertains his friends in his university quarters and they debate Marx and the effects of tribalism on economic development of the fledging country. Odenigbo has a ‘house help’ Ugwu who is a teenage boy from the ‘village’ and who acts sort of like a major-domo to Odenigbo. Their interactions were some of the highlights of the movie for me and I would have liked to see a bit more character development for Ugwu. The movie hints at how easily the two strata of society interact but are separated by the aforementioned gulf in social class.

A word on Chiwetel Ejiofor. I have now seen him in Kinky boots, where he plays a London drag queen who saves a shoe factory; in Inside Man as an American detective alongside Denzel Washington in the American crime thriller; and now as the lead role in this movie. He proves once again his considerable talent and a very strong connection to his Nigerian roots. His depiction of Odenigbo is nuanced and shows the quite seemingly diverse (but not mutually exclusive) character traits of an African man who is probably the first graduate in his family and not just a graduate but a doctorate degree holder. He is brilliant, passionate about national politics and well read. He drinks brandy and smokes stylish cigarettes and is quite ready to blame another person for his own inadequacies and irresponsibility. Mr Ejiofor’s performance has convinced me to finally go and see the movie: 12 Years a Slave.

The role of Odenigbo’s mother is played by the timeless Nigerian actress and musician Onyeka Onwenu. “Mama” is an illiterate busy-body who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what is best for her son. She embarrasses her son’s live in lover in the person of Thandie Newton and calls her a witch before raising a ruckus with the neighbours. And whilst at times, she seemed a little bit of comic relief and a caricature, I whispered to my seat partner that her over the top pronouncements and aggressive actions were typical of mothers in Nigeria. Literate or Illiterate.

Her manipulations in Odenigbo’s life leads to him being unfaithful to Olanna and fathering a child with the ‘cousin’ from the village who accompanies his mother on her visits to Nsukka. He freely confesses his lapse to Olanna and tries to organize an abortion but his mother is having none of it and when the child is born and revealed to be a girl, Odenigbo’s mother abandons the baby with him and Olanna takes in the child and raises her as her own. Reconciliation is to be had between the two women a few years after and it is touching to see Odenigbo’s mother ask Olanna to marry her son.

This is essentially a love story set against the backdrop of the Nigerian civil war and the maxim that all war is a crime is shown when after fleeing the University town Nsukka for Odenigbo’s home town in Aba and then again to another smaller village, Odenigbo’s and Olanna’s wedding reception is bombed out by advancing Federal forces determined to stop the breakaway nation of Biafra from seceding from Nigeria. The Nigerian civil war was a 30 month conflict that killed millions (mostly through starvation) and still reverberates down in the Nigerian polity today.

The politics of the time are however incidental to our story and only serve as a backdrop for the interactions between the twins and their lovers. One is the afore-mentioned Odenigbo, a fiery young intellectual and the other an Englishman Richard who falls in love with the erudite Kainene. Richard’s horror and distress at the airport when the counter-coup of 1966 sees armed military personnel enter an airport and slaughter people of a certain ethnic group is reminiscent of the scenes from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Africa has had its fair share of genocides and outsiders with no understanding of the underlying context would stare in horror at otherwise benign groups of people committing atrocities in a manner as to suggest mass psychosis.

SO when you watch this movie – and I would strongly recommend it – do not expect to be fully informed on the complexities of the Nigerian political situation. But you will be convinced of the horror of war and how it tears families and the fabric of society apart. It is nice to see so many local talent in the film and the director acquits himself very well with the pacing of the movie and telling the story. The ending was a bit ambiguous but I understand this is how the original book was set. I am not sure how much oversight the author had over the screenplay but she should be happy at this version of her wartime love story.