KIU Journal of Humanities
KIU Journal of Humanities Copyright©2021
Kampala International University ISSN: 2415-0843; 6(4): 21–30
War as Postcolonial Metonymy: A Comparative Study of Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Roses
and Bullets and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
OLUWAKEMI ABIOLA KALEJAIYE
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria
Abstract. This study examines war as
postcolonial metonymy in postcolonial Nigeria.
Obviously, the cause of the Nigeria - Biafra war
has been reverberated by different writers in
recent and past fictions but Akachi Adimora-
Ezeigbo and Chimamanda Adichie succinctly
reveal the incidents that led to the civil war.
Specifically, the research attempts at locating a
point of convergence of Roses and Bullets
(2011) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). The aim
of this research is to undertake the aggregate of
social and personal problems which culminates
into the Nigeria Biafra war. This is with the
intention of delineating the many possibilities
which mankind is capable of inflicting on its
fellow as expressed through the interplay of
different textual features. The study uses
Postcolonial theory, to suggest that war in Africa
and Nigeria specifically is an aftermath of
postcolonialism. We locate a point of
convergence and peculiar artistic traits peculiar
to both Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo and Chimanda
Ngozi Adichie. The findings re-direct our minds
to the fact that war is only a symptom of a
general failure with roots deeper than the sudden
eruption of violence in postcolonial Nigeria. The
study recommends that war narratives should be
studied if we are to understand the problems of
Postcolonial African countries and to re-envision
a future free of violence and genocidal
tendencies.
Keywords: War literature, Neocolonialism,
Metonymy, Postcolonialism, Igbo genocide.
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1. Introduction
War is a contest between nations, states or
parties. It is often an action that emerges from a
perceived wrong. War in postcolonial Africa
cuts across geographical boundaries and it is
often triggered by myriads of personal and social
experiences. It is a well-known fact that the
African continent has a peculiar history and
experience. War in several nations of post-
independent Africa is also as a result of the
competition among the various ethnic groups
and the rude manner Africa‟s political leaders
have completely disregarded the sacredness that
traditional African societies have for their
institutions. Adedeji (2008) has pointed out that
at the beginning of the 21st century, there were
18 countries facing armed rebellion while 11
were facing severe political crisis. He added that
19 countries were enjoying more or less various
states of stable political condition. During the
four decades between the 1960s and the 1990s,
there were about 80 violent changes in
government in the then 48 sub-Saharan African
countries. During the same period, Adedeji also
notes most of these countries had experienced
different types of civil strife, conflicts and wars.
Suffice it to say that several Post-colonial
African societies were plagued with conflict as a
result of severe external colonial manipulation
and differential support of internal groups and
minorities by the erstwhile super powers. It is
also noteworthy that the indifference of the
colonizers to the various civil strives in their
 KIU Journal of Humanities
former colonized nations lead to genocides
which we have witnessed in African countries.
This is why Kinlock and Mohan suggest that
“The colonial heritage has been particularly
murderous in its impact on the minorities”
(2005: 24). Moreover, when external control and
manipulation is visible in a post-colonial state,
the negative consequences often involve
“pluralistic rivalries; instability, attempted
secession and civil war” (Kinloch, 2005: 23).
Thus, while drawing on the reasons for wars in
Post-independent Africa, one must recognize the
influence of colonialism against the backdrop of
the various crises which have riddled the
continent. If not, what explanations can one give
the limb chopping horrors of Sierra Leone and
the debacle regime of Juvenal Habayarimana of
Rwanda? The atrocities committed in these
nations make it clear that in war, all sorts of
inevitability and political apostacies could
happen. Angola, too, had a protracted civil war
which was triggered by ethnic rivalries, cold war
politics and the activities of greedy compatriots
who traded diamonds with the whites in
exchange of money and arms.
At this juncture, one will agree with Nwankwo
(2008) that “global market forces and ethnic
interests, mostly driven by greed” (10) has been
the reason for the structure of the political
leadership in post-independent African
countries. Invariably, one begins to make a sense
of the eruption of war in Angola, Uganda and
Zimbabwe. In addition, when there is war, there
is conflicting interest between “national
structures and spaces…so, power bases need to
be revisited comprehensively in order to
establish the root cause of national crises.”(9-
10).
Nigeria is not exempted from the tragedy of war
which has besieged the continent. After
partitioning Africa, Britain was allotted two
separate territories--- the South and North
respectively which they ruled with different
administrators. However, in 1914, the two
protectorates were merged into a single entity
named Nigeria. Despite this, the colonial
administration did not institute a single
administrative system for the entire nation. The
Southern protectorate encouraged western
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civilization while the North continued to
practice Islam. Subsequently, indirect rule was
established in the North for administrative
purpose. Britain encouraged this system of
administration until the nation attained
independence in 1960. At independence, a
federation was formed with the North having
more population than the Western and Eastern
regions merged together. This arrangement
obviously became a source of contention among
the different tribes. While analyzing the theme
of war across geographical boundaries in Africa,
Nwankwo (2008) points out that “war is Africa‟s
muted index…The index could guide the
insightful reader towards the foundations of
Africa‟s numerous perennial or still unfolding
tragedies.”(13) The multi-ethnic diversity of
African societies and newly developing African
politics, translated into protracted hostility
among individuals who were once neighbours.
Consequently, the assemblage of different
entities bounded into conglomerates gave rise to
volatile actions as a result of different
ideological perspectives.
2. Theoretical Framework
Discourses of domination have resonated in
most circles as a major factor why the Igbos
attempt to secceed from the Nigerian state. In
the specific case of the Igbo, marginalization by
other ethnic groups has been discovered to be a
major trigger of the Civil War. In the context of
political identity, alterity and otherness reinforce
the state of being other or different. In them,
power and its contestation which is dominant in
postcolonial societies comes to play especially
among the colonial institution and their
subjugated African counterparts. Alterity stands
to oppose the same and other “inside and
outside, old and new” (Attridge, 1992, cited in
Ezeliora 2011:31), and this sense of otherness is
assumed through „fashioning‟, especially of the
invented by the „We‟ who invented the „Other‟.
(Derrida, 1992: 342) Derrida further argues that
“the other is always of another origin of the
world and is to be invented” (342). In discussing
otherness, therefore, it should be noted that it
subsumes doubleness in both identity and
difference. The „other‟ is completely different
and excluded by the way he is dialectically
 KIU Journal of Humanities
created, especially from the values and meaning
of the colonizing culture despite the rejection of
its power to define. As such, alterity (otherness)
between the Western world and the subalterns
they have created is a dominant factor which has
aggravated war and civil unrest in postcolonial
Africa.
The link between postcolonialism and war,
colonialism and neocolonialism as well as post-
Independent experiences have shown the
monumental impact of war on human condition
in Africa. Scholars over the years have shown
interest in re-echoing the peculiar experience of
war on the continent. War as a postcolonial
metonymy, therefore subsumes development in
post-Independent African nations. War as a
postcolonial metonymy, then, consist in the
many crises in post conquest Africa which has
reached a level where the defining idiom of
socio-historical events on a continent is
understood in the context of various violent
clashes. In other words, to mention Africa is to
insinuate a crises-ridden continent where „War‟
becomes easily associated with the peoples of
the continent. It is in this respect, that „Wars‟ are
perceived in terms of metonymy. Thus, war as a
postcolonial metonymy is a broad term alluded
by an aggregate of personal and social
experience like religious alienation, civil unrest,
unemployment, terrorism and corruption in
postcolonial Africa. Invariably, war emanates
from the effect of the reality of disenchantment,
estrangement and inhumanity.
In the specific case of Nigeria, war as a
postcolonial metonymy is the upheaval in the
country‟s political and social history. These
experiences range from the unusual assemblage
of the various ethnic groups, ethnic rivalry,
corruption by political office holders, and
marginalization. War in Nigeria consequently
becomes a postcolonial metonymy with the
decimation of 3.1 million Igbo citizens Ekwe-
Ekwe, H. (2006). Unfortunately, postcolonial
metonymy in Nigeria has been linked to the
various „religious riots‟ which had bedeviled the
nation since its creation.
The warped consciousness that war is a
postcolonial metonymy has forced writers to
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speak on the political and social issues facing
the continent. The driving force with which
these writers share their vision in the 21st
century have shown that they are resolute to
speak against the various ills which have
resulted in civil unrest. On the commitment of
African writers on the challenges facing the
continent, Achebe in „The African Writers and
the Biafran Cause‟ (1975) states clearly that:
It is clear to me that an African creative writer
who tries to avoid the big social and political
issues of contemporary Africa will end up being
completely irrelevant- like the absurd man in the
proverb who leaves his burning house to pursue
a rat fleeing from the flames (78)
It is in the context of showing that war is a
postcolonial metonymy in Africa that
AkachiAdimora-Ezeigbo and
ChimamandaAdichie wrote their narratives of
the Biafran experience. At the same time they
suggest that we should always nip in the bud the
incidents which heralded the 1966-1970 Civil
War. Metonymy is used in this context to refer
to a thing as the other. It is a defining paradigm
of the prevalence of various social oddities
across post-independence African nations. These
vices are so ubiquitous that they now constitute
an idiom of the socio-historical and political
condition of the continent. The history of
instability and constant turmoil now seems to be
understood in the context of war. War thus
becomes a metonymy in diagnosing the ills of
the continent. Achebe has stated clearly that
there can be no art- for- art sake in postcolonial
literature because of the traversal of the text. The
(social) condition under which these texts are
written becomes so clear and crucial that the
ideas of art existing for its own sake or of
literature appealing to some transcendent human
experience are both rejected.
3. Akachi-AdimoraEzeigbo: Roses and
Bullets, Postcolonial Metonymy
Post-Independent Nigeria is bedeviled with
animosity and disunity among the major ethnic
groups. Roses and Bullets clearly depicts that
war is a defining idiom of the socio-historical
and political condition of the continent
 KIU Journal of Humanities
especially of Nigeria. African countries are
infected with different ills such as civil unrest,
ethnic violence, under-development and
corruption. Through a careful presentation of
these events, Adimora-Ezeigbo explores the
devastating effects of war. Hence, the following
questions are what we should be asking: What
are the oddities that made war a metonymy in
post-colonial Africa? How are individuals
abused and degraded during the war? These and
several others are what Adimora-Ezeigbo has
tried to explore and highlight in the novel Roses
and Bullets. A major reason for civil strife in
post-independent Nigeria is the January 1966
coup which claimed the lives of powerful
Northern elites. The coup was believed to be
spear-headed by high ranking officers of the
Igbo descent. Thus, Easterners living in every
part of the country were massacred in their
thousands. Ginika informs Nwakire:
They said many officers from the East have been
slaughtered like cattle and the coup plotter did
not stop there; they have started killing people
who are not soldiers…People who managed to
escape are returning to the East. Most of the
people they are killing are Igbo. If the coup were
an act of revenge, as the plotters claim, why are
ordinary people being killed? Why are they
killing innocent civilians who knew nothing
about the January coup? (R&B,151)
As a result of this unrest, Ginika also remarks
that “thousands (are) fleeing the North and
Lagos and storming Portharcourt.”(R&B,163)
The pogrom which rocked the North also led to
the death of Onagu, Udo‟s father. Those who are
not dead have been battered and their bodies
shattered into pieces by machete cuts. While at
the train station, Ginika is crippled with fear and
haunted psychologically at the sight of the
dismembered Biafrans who are brought home.
Then she too saw- an open carriage filled with
human debris. Ginika saw severed hands and
legs chopped, lying like pieces of wood on the
floor of the carriage, there were dead bodies
that were whole but with deep gashes in
different places- the neck chest and belly. Some
of the bodies seemed to be covered with rust, but
Ginika knew it was not rust but discoloured
blood. Ginika began to tremble when her eyes
caught the figure of a woman lying naked,
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disemboweled; a dead fetus was hanging from
her abdomen, its umbilical cord still attached to
its lifeless mother. (R&B,166)
Obviously, this incident further destroys
Biafrans‟ hope. The systematic dominance and
subjugation of (former colonies) the Igbo and
the rest of the Biafrans is not only peculiar to
Nigeria. They are characteristic of what obtains
in most, if not all post-independent African
countries. This anomaly eventually culminates
in war in post-independent Nigeria. The Nigeria
-Biafra war also recorded many cases of death
both in the Nigeria and Biafra camps due to air
raids, face-to-face confrontations of opposing
army and starvation within and outside the
camps. Senseless killings continued unabated.
Bombs are detonated in places where innocent
civilians are. The Nigerian side detonates bombs
during the day that civilians leave town “troop
into the bush or surrounding villages and return
home at night.”(R&B,.393). This height of
inhumanity is shown through a careful
presentation of the air-raid at Orie market.
Through these events, Adimora-Ezeigbo
explores the devastating consequence of war:
The explosions rocked the ground, assaulted the
air again and again.. Ginika saw two jets
turning directly overhead… she saw one of them
release some objects she could not identify ; the
objects fell from the rear end of the plane like
the droppings of a goat. (R&B,211)
Colonial hegemony is also reflected in the way
the Nigerian army exercised their power. The
Nigerian army used other strategies to suppress
the Biafran army. Following the persistence of
the Biafra army despite their limited resources,
the Nigerian army took recourse to air raids to
intimidate and control the Biafrans. One of such
enactments of the air raids is that of Orie market
in which Ginika and Udo were among the few
survivors. Perplexed by what happened, Ginika
takes hold of Udo‟s hand and leads him home.
As they find their way home, Ginika
sympathetically says:
The dead and the wounded littered the ground.
Many had died instantly and might not have
suffered any pain…As she passed, one woman
moaned, ‘Please, help me, it’s my leg.’ Ginika
lookedand saw a bloodied leg, looking pulpy like
 KIU Journal of Humanities
a sponge. She averted her eyes. There was
nothing she could do. (R&B,212)
The intensity of the destruction of life and
property is due to Nigeria‟s determination to
humble the Biafrans at all costs. Not too long
after the market air-raid, a Nigerian plane bombs
EjikeOkoro‟s house because they thought it to
be a military camp. This attack ends
EjikeOkoro‟s life and instills more fear in the
hearts of the Biafrans. All these killings and the
general abasement of mankind came to define
developments in Africa after 1960 that it readily
assumes the identity of a postcolonial
metonymy. The annihilation of Easterners living
in the North resulted in most easterners fleeing
the troubled spots to come back home.
Evidently, the people are displaced as a result of
the civil unrest. One of the old men in the
refugee camp Ginika works told her “You
remind me of a daughter I had before this
terrible war. I don‟t know where she, her two
brothers and my wife are now. We ran in
different directions when the enemy entered our
town.”(R&B,.300).
Adimora- Ezeigbo, through the character of
Ginika, shows the pain and agony of one who is
treated as the Other. Ginika protests and
denounces her father‟s strict and domineering
attitude towards her. She asserts herself just like
the subaltern „Other‟ will react to the Centre.
DrEzeuko, Ginika‟s father and Aunty Lizzy, her
step-mother shows the strong grip the centre has
on the margin. Their attitude to Ginika shows
lack of affection towards her. This lack of
parental affection made Ginika find solace in the
hands of Eloka. Also, the character of Monday
depicts the writing back culture Adimora-
Ezeigbo has put up in her narratives. She leans
on the Western innovations but “refuses to
accept the Western prose convention as binding”
(Susan Arndt 2008:22).She deploys the literary
medium to express her own cultural experiences.
Monday continually speaks in his language to
assert himself.
Thus, Nigerians chose to attack the Biafrans
through economic starvation. This act vividly
highlights the postcolonial question of
marginality. Here, the Biafrans, treated as
25
subordinate citizens, challenge the Nigerians by
seceding. Hence, the Federal Government‟s
launching of the war can be seen as evidence of
their recognition of the relevance and economic
strength of the Biafrans. There is a shift from the
margin to the centre where all the activities of
the Federal Government are now geared. This
was meant to frustrate the Biafrans declaration
of independence. Though this Centre position is
short-lived as a result of Biafra‟s submission to
Nigeria‟s demand, they succeed in threatening
Nigeria and awakening the conscience of other
nations in the world to the marginalization to
which they are being subjected. This state of
desperation is characteristic of most
marginalized groups of every postcolonial nation
in Africa.
The eventual yield of the Biafrans attests to the
difficulties entailed in separating Biafra from
Nigeria as a nation. The collapse of the foreign
state of Biafra also shows the strong grip that the
centre has on the margin. Thus, the margin
needs some extra effort in order to fully assert its
identity which is seemingly yet to be.
4. Adichie’s: Half of a Yellow Sun and
Postcolonial Metonymy
Half of a Yellow Sun is a beautifully written
piece whichprojects war as a postcolonial
metonymy. Apart from ethnic disparity which
resulted in the pogrom of the Easterners, civil
unrest and corruption are re-enacted in this
fictional narrative. Furthermore,
ChimamandaAdichie explores the implication of
war on the psyche of individuals and the nation
through the four major divisions in the novel.
The book-within-the book succinctly points out
how the nation, Nigeria, was formed and the
roles Britain played in sustaining the crises in
post-independent Nigeria. The first part of the
novel focuses on life afterindependence; the
second part describes the bizarre events that led
to the war; the third section shows the
relationship between the Ozobia twins - Olanna
and Kainene, and their lovers, Odenigbo and
Richard Churchill. The fourth one the other hand
recounts the war experience of the major
characters: Odenigbo, Olanna, Ugwu, Richard
and Kainene. The author intimates us of the
 KIU Journal of Humanities
challenges confronting the newly independent
nation-Nigeria, through the discussion between
Odenigbo and his erudite friends from the
University of Nsukka.
The novel suggested that the root cause of the
Nigeria-Biafra crisis is the conglomeration of
the different ethnic groups in Nigeria and the
alienation of the Igbo in post-independent
politics of Nigeria. In Odenigbo‟s discussion
with Miss Adebayo, he points out: “I am a
Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria
and gave me that identity” (HAYS, 20). To this,
Professor Ezeka adds that tribe is a colonial
product. More importantly, Pa Anozie
reminiscing over how life was for the average
Igbo in pre- independent Nigeria informs
Richard:
The people of Igboland do not know what a king
is.We have priests and elders…It is because the
white man gave us warrant chiefs that foolish
men are calling themselves kings today. (HAYS,
71)
This incident establishes the hierarchy and
inequality between the ruler and the ruled. It is
remarkable to know that the re-enactment of this
inequality led to agitation among several
minorities in postcolonial Nigeria. Furthermore,
as a result of the need to resist exploitation and
domination of few minorities in post-
independence Nigerian politics, a coup was
staged which overthrew the corrupt and
Northern dominated government. Prior to the
Nigerian civil war, the people of the Eastern
region, particularly the Igbo, felt marginalized
and relegated in the national polity. The
declaration of the state of Biafra was a
manifestation of their lack of a sense of
belonging to the national entity called Nigeria
and a climax of their feeling of dissatisfaction.
As declared in the broadcast after the Biafrans
surrendered to the Nigerian sides, “We took up
arms because of the sense of insecurity
generated in our people by the massacres. We
fought in defence of that cause.”(HAYS, 411).
The pogroms of the Igbo and the announcement
of disappearance of the premiers of the North
and West led to civil unrest. The spate of
lawlessness was further incited by ethnic
26
intolerance. The guests who troop in to see
Olanna told her of families who are estranged
and others who have lost loved ones in the war:
The Okafors had lost a son and his family of
Four in Zaria, the Ike daughter had not returned
from Kaura-Namoda, the Onyekachi family had
lost eight people in Kano…British academics at
the university in Zaria encouraged the
massacres and sent students out to incite the
youths. (HAYS,157)
The agony of desert, pain of separation of
fleeing Biafrans and the eerie echoes of political
instability in the country also inflamed the war.
The Biafrans buffeted by marginalization, lack
of safety across the nation, pessimism and the
need to stand for a just cause propelled them to
secceed and take up arms to remain a sovereign
state.
Excessive corruption is also a catalyst to the
outbreak of the war. The events in the country
reached a peak of insanity that the Biafrans
decided to go a separate way. Olanna‟s position
on the state of corruption in the country is note-
worthy:
My father and his politician friends steal money
With their contracts, but nobody makes them
Kneel to beg for forgiveness. And they build
houses With their stolen money and rent them
out to people
Like this man and charge inflated rents that
make It impossible to buy food.(HAYS,221)
Olanna‟s shocking revelation shows that petty
thieves such as the Ozobia‟s driver are merely
scape-goats of bigger men in the society who are
able to get away with one form of proxy
participation or in other crime. Olanna‟s parents
also offered her to the finance minister in a bid
to get contract. “She wondered too, how her
parents had promised Chief Okonji an affair
with her in exchange for the contract (HAYS,
32). The corruption and ethnic bigotry which
pervaded the country is also reflected in the
discussion between Richard and Kainene. She
informs him: “I‟ve just got the contract to supply
army boots for the battalion in Kaduna.‟ „The
man in charge was Igbo, and Madu said he was
keen to give the contract to a fellow Igbo. So I
was lucky. And he‟s asking only for a five
 KIU Journal of Humanities
percent cut” (HAYS,81). The social oddities in
Adichie‟s Half Of a Yellow Sun is like the
paradigm drawn in Chinua Achebe‟s Man of the
People, corruption of the political class and high
ranking civil servants mangled by the chicanery
of international politics amounts to postcolonial
metonymy. Most crimes are perpetuated by
politicians. “They pay thugs to beat opponents,
bought land and houses with government
money, they imported fleet of long American
cars, they paid women stuff their blouses with
fake votes and pretend to be pregnant.”(HAYS,
126)
Another defining expression that made war to be
perceived in terms of metonymy is withdrawal
of the colony in the administration of the
country. Nigeria seems not ready to attain
independence. Reacting to the sudden departure
of the colonial masters, Odenigbo confirms:
The real tragedy of our postcolonial World is
not that the majority of people had no say in
whether or not they wanted this new world;
Rather, it is that the majority have not been
given tools to negotiate this new world.(
HAYS,101)
He also points out that “where somebody gives
you a dress they tell you looks like your own,
but it doesn‟t fit you and the buttons have fallen
off – then you have to discard it and make a
dress that is your own size” (HAYS, 126). This
new world order is not only applicable to
Nigeria, but also to most post-independence
nations. Odenigbo and Professor Ezeka point out
that the Northern Prime Minister is only a stooge
to Britain. Consequently, he dances to their
tunes whenever they command him. To them,
the “Whites have become great evils controlling
Africans from behind drawn curtains” (127). As
a result of this, disillusionment sets in and the
people began to agitate for a change in
government. Unfortunately for the Biafrans, the
coup which they had hitherto thought will bring
a change in leadership and a new phase of life
for them resulted in the massacre of the Igbo
across the nation:
ENBC Radio Enugu recounted eyewitness
accounts From the North: teachers hacked down
in Zaria, a full Catholic Church in Sokoto set
27
on fire, a pregnant woman split open in Kano.(
HAYS,144)
Yet more disturbing is the number of the dead,
wounded and destitute Biafrans who are
returning in droves from the North. As a result
of homelessness, the number of refugee
increased drastically. Food and basic necessities
of life became a luxury. When Olanna visited
the refugee camp Kainene was running, she
observes:
About twelve people were lying on bamboo beds,
On mats, on the floor…(the children) were
naked; The tautless gloats that were belies could
not fit their Bellies could not fit in a shirt
anyway. Their buttocks
And chests collapsed into folds of rumpled skin.
On their heads, (are) spurts of reddish
hair.(HAYS, 348)
As a result of food deficiency, children, women
and old people suffer from kwashiorkor (a
protein deficiency disease).The disease was
termed Harold Wilson‟s disease. It is named
after the then British Prime minister whose
diplomatic support in terms of military
intelligence and weaponry to the Nigerian side
led to malnutrition and eventual loss of Biafra to
the Nigerian side. On the role of Britain, Special
Julius reports:
They are surprised because the arms Harold
Wilson gave those Muslim cattle rearers have
not killed us
off quickly as they had hoped… our boys
brought some Nigerian shell cases from the
Nsukka sector for analysis. Every single one had
UK WAR DEPARTMENT on it. (HAYS, 199)
Also, Kainene succinctly points out the interest
of Nigeria and Britain and the reason they won‟t
allow the Biafrans who have seceded to remain
an independent state. “it‟s the oil,‟ she said.
„They can‟t let us go easily with all that
oil.”(HAYS.180) Moreover, the oil boom Nigeria
experienced after she attained independence
made Britain hold fast to the grip of her former
colony by not allowing division among the
minority groups especially the oil producing
areas.
 KIU Journal of Humanities
Families are estranged as a result of the forced
conscription of young males into the army as
child soldiers. The emotional trauma and
psychological in-balance into which individuals
are thrown is overwhelming. Ugwu,Odenigbo‟s
house boy, struggled psychologically with the
rape in which he participated . Olanna lost her
limbs and could not speak temporarily as a result
of the dismembered bodies of the Mbezi‟s
family she saw while in Kano. Also, Odenigbo
started drinking heavily because of the loss of
the Biafran dream.
Man‟s inhumanity to a fellow man is another a
disturbing phenomenon which has led to war in
post-independent Africa. The spate at which
innocent lives are lost and valuable properties
destroyed contributed to the clamour of ethnic
groups to struggle for their separate and
independent identity. It is this singular act which
made the rulers exploit the ruled, purchase
weapons of mass destruction, engage in violent
killings and participate in attacks which has led
to the loss of innocent lives. Several air raids
were carried out by the Nigerian soldiers and
bombs are exploded. The Biafrans constructed
bunkers as a means of escape whenever they are
attacked. Primary schools which are used for
accommodation for the refugees are targeted and
bombed by Nigerian Federal Forces:
…the crowd hurr(ied) towards Akwakuma
Primary School. Two men walked
past…carrying a blackened corpse. A bomb
crater, wide enough to swallow a lorry had
splitted the road at the school entrance in two.
The roof of the Classroom block was crushed
into a jumble of wood and metal and dust
(HAYS, 279)
The bombing of non-military zones is obviously
a means of demoralizing the Biafrans and
forcing them to surrender. With this action,
Biafrans are convinced that Nigerians want to
wipe them off completely. They also believe that
the war is an extention of the genocide
committed against them in Northern Nigeria. As
part of Nigeria‟s ultimate victory over Biafra,
the troops made desperate efforts to capture
more towns in Biafra. Port Harcourt, which is
the last sea-port in Biafra eventually fell into the
28
hands of the troops. The inhumanity of the
conqueror troops is further demonstrated in the
manner Ikejide was killed during the air raid in
Port Harcourt:
Ikejide kept running…Then came the cold
whistle of a mortar in the air and the crash as it
landed and the boom as it exploded…A piece of
shrapnel, the size of a fist wheezed past. Ikejide
was still running
And, in a moment …Ikejide’s head was gone.
(HAYS, 317)
The horrors of the war continued unabated while
the Western World watched silently. The few
journalists who captured children with blown
bellies as a result of kwashiorkor reported that
the war was an indictment on all those who had
the power to intervene but did nothing:
In Canada, the prime minister quipped, ‘Where
is Biafra?’ The Soviet Union sent technicians
and planes to Nigeria, thrilled at the chance to
influence Africa without offending America or
Britain. And from their white-supremacist
positions, South Africa and Rhodesia gloated at
further proof that black –run governments were
doomed to fail. (HAYS, 258)
The prime minister‟s question apart from
revealing him as being inhuman shows that
European powers are only interested in a place
they can explore and exploit. If not, how does
one justify the fact that the prime minister
doesn‟t know that Biafra is one of the entities
that makes up Nigeria? Would one be wrong to
assume that the prime minister has concurred
with Joseph Conrad‟s racist position? It seems
appropriate, at this point to note that Nigerian
civil war is fueled by the attitude of Britain. The
book –within- the book captioned „The World
was Silent When We Died‟ recounts various
incidences such as the conglomeration of
European nations at the Berlin conference,
introduction of indirect rule, mimicry by post-
independent African leaders, ethnic disparity,
starvation-which is Nigeria‟s weapon of war and
the horrors which took place during war. The
instances of German women, Rwandan women
and the Biafran woman who carried the head of
her dead child in a calabash further testifies that
war is a universal problem which only erupts
after aggravation of personal and social issues.
 KIU Journal of Humanities
The excerpt from book-within-a-book, recounts
that the nation, Nigeria, was born through
forceful assemblage; the collection of disparate
ethnic groups. As a result of this, power tussle
emerged between the minority and majority
ethnic groups. Unfortunately for Britain, they
picked a candidate from the majority Northern
populace to assume leadership after
independence. War assumes a postcolonial
metonymy in the political condition of the
continent, especially Nigeria in Richard‟s
opinion because of the „divide-and –rule –
policies of the British colonial exercise. “These
policies manipulated the differences between the
tribes and ensured that unity would not exist.”(
HAYS,167). Furthermore, Richard argues that
Britain developed her „post-war economy‟ from
the economy of Nigeria ( HAYS,205). Like most
of the war-torn post-independent nations,
Nigeria was exploited through loans and foreign
aids. More so, post-independent leaders of post-
Independence African nation are shown to be
more interested in aping the British and in taking
over their superior attitudes. Consequently, a
sense of anger and bitterness arose among the
minority groups.
It is also evident in the novel that most countries
in the Western World encouraged the cold war
between Biafra and Nigeria. The position of
Britain towards her former colony influenced
Canada, France, United States and China to
remain aloof while the Igbo are massacred on a
daily basis. The fear of quick succession by
other ethnic groups and the ego of remaining at
the Centre further encouraged war in
postcolonial Nigeria. We read for instance that:
British and the Soviets are in unholy alliance
giving more and more arms to Nigeria, and…
the Americans have refused to help us,… our
relief flights come in at night with no lights
because the Nigerians will shoot them down
during the day. (HAYS,305)
However, this „unholy alliance‟ results in
interminable deaths for the Biafrans contrary to
their belief that their being recognized by
African nations of Tanzania, Gabon and Ivory
Coast will guarantee their survival as a new
state. The inability of the Biafran soldier‟s to
destroy the formidable Nigerian side,
29
demoralizes them. Crippled by starvation,
decline of the civilian populace and
overwhelmed by its bigger adversary, the
Biafran leader left the country to seek for
asylum. Above all, in Half of a Yellow Sun,
ChimamandaAdichie deftly portrays that the loss
of the Biafran dream made survivors of the war
see things only in shadow. Kainene‟s
disappearance and the no victor-no vanquished
mantra declared by the Nigerian side created
individuals whose memory of the war will
continually haunt for a life time. The
transformation in Olanna aptly captures the
Biafran story: A nation that has been through
turbulent moment but whose spirit is not
crushed.
5. Postcolonial Metonymies, Nigerian
Civil War Narratives: Conclusion
This study has been concerned with the
exploration of political and social oddities which
led to the Civil war in post-independence
Nigeria. The focus has been on the novels of two
Nigerian novelists: Akachi-Adimora Ezeigbo‟s
Roses and Bullets and Chimamanda Adichie‟s
Half of a Yellow Sun. It is the thrust of this
investigation that post-independent fictions
especially from Third generation of Nigerian
writers is fundamentally a narrative of the
excavations of the inhumanities suffered from
both our since the country attained
independence. Whether these injustices are from
political violence, religious crises and the
massacres from the Civil War. 21st century
Nigerian narratives maintains a recognizable
cadence on memory retrieval of the Civil War
instead of its annihilation. While postcolonial
metonymy assumes an understandable primacy,
both novelists focused on the factors which
contributed to the large scale of violence which
engulfed the young Nigeria nation. The Nigerian
Biafran war did not only create internal tensions
which had national impact but also international
impact as revealed in the cold conflict between
Britain and France. This is seen in France‟s fear
of the possible influence of the Nigerian crises
on the countries depending on her in West
Africa. This pushed her to support Biafra during
the war. At the national level, the relationship
between Nigeria and Biafrans continued to
 KIU Journal of Humanities
collapse as the Nigerians failed to meet with
Biafra‟s expectations.
In other words, Adimora-Ezeigbo hopes to
sensitize the public through projecting the
consequences of war on individuals and
families. This indirectly gives credence to the
fact that the idea of writing about war in Africa,
and Nigeria in particular, is not limited to a
generation when one considers the fact that both
writers do not belong to the same generation as
writers. Adimora-Ezeigbo in Roses and Bullets
examined the deteriorated relationships which
ensued as a result of the war. Chimamanda
Adichie concentrated more on the colonialist
and the various ways they have contributed to
the large scale of violence which engulfed the
young Nigeria nation. Adimora-Ezeigbo on the
other hand directed her attention on individuals
and families using the atmosphere of war as an
arena for destroying peaceful family
relationship.
Both writers have written literary works that call
for attention, especially because of their position
as postcolonial writers. Chimamanda Adichie‟s
Half of a Yellow Sun features the intertwining
perspectives of three different characters –
Ugwu, Richard and Odenigbo. The structure of
the novel is not chronological. Events are
chronicled from the early sixties to later sixties
and, again, from early sixties. There is also
book- within -the- book, poems and radio
reports. This chaotic structure symbolizes the
disorder in Nigeria due to the legacy of
colonialism and Civil War. Adichie also
captures the intolerance and subsequent
massacre of thousands of Igbo in the north. This
is evident in the character portraiture of
Mohammed, Uncle Mbezi, Aunty Ifeka and
several others On the other hand, Adimora-
Ezeigbo‟s Roses and Bullets moves ahead of
Adichie‟s novel by not only depicting
postcolonial metonymies which led to the war
but also the effects the war has on individuals
and families. The novel derides the rich for
using the war as a means of enriching
themselves without bearing in mind the
consequence of starvation on the whole
populace. This is represented by Chief Odunze
and Kainene. In the end, both writers fore-
30
grounded the fact that the relief materials which
ought to have been used to cater for the welfare
of the starving people are diverted for personal
interests. Hence, it takes high moral values and
ethnic tolerance to combat the tragedies which
have come to be fictionally represented as
postcolonial metonymy in post- independence
African countries.
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