OPEN WOUND AND THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR: A METAPHORICAL READING OF KAINENE’S LOSS IN CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S HALF OF A YELLOW SUN.

Abstract

Notwithstanding the diverse motivations behind wars and the justifications given by their
perpetrators, the magnitude of agony, suffering and trauma which culminate into loss as
experienced by war victims are quite monumental. Hence, after wars, efforts are made towards
reconciliation through which healing is predicted. In Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), therefore,
Chimamanda Adichie through the character of Kainene metaphorically demonstrates the sociopolitical, cultural, economic and psychological loss the Igbos experienced collectively during
and after the Biafran /Nigerian war. The notion of traumatized individuals has dominated the
criticisms of the novel so far. However, in seeking to advance this opinion, this paper
interrogates the collective wound/loss the Igbos experienced during the war and how this
wound is still ongoing as an open wound that refuses to be healed, which the critics of the novel
have paid little attention to. Therefore, focusing on Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory, which
depicts trauma as an open wound, and through which this paper is analyzed, this article
concludes that the disappearance of Kainene after the war symbolically embodies an open
wound in the lives of the Igbos as a group that is yet to be healed indicating a denial of closure.