From London daily The Morning Star:
Top fare from a Nigerian gem
(Sunday 20 August 2006)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(Fourth Estate, £14.99)AFTER her outstanding first novel Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s new novel was eagerly awaited and doesn’t disappoint.
It is again set in her homeland of Nigeria, but, this time, during the 1960s and the fratricidal Biafran war.
Nigeria has the largest population of any African country, estimated at over 100 million.
It is also one of the wealthiest, with its large reserves of oil, but this wealth has scarcely touched the majority of the people.
The country has been riven by wars, saddled with military dictatorships, endemic corruption and is characterised by huge economic disparities.
It has, though, also produced more than its fair share of Africa’s best writers and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is undoubtedly among them.
This is not an “African” book in the narrow or parochial sense, but belongs in the mainstream of humanitarian world literature, even though it is firmly rooted in Nigeria.
Adichie writes with a maturity which belies her mere 29 years.
In her eloquent and passionate prose, the heat, the smells, sensuality and colour of Africa leap from the pages.
Her characters are finely drawn and vibrantly alive.’
Review of film based on this book: here.
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Dear Kitty. Some blog 
SOAS Friends of Africa (FoA)
invites you to
Nigeria at 46
Is Nigeria Really Independent?
Saturday 7 October 2006, 2pm
Presentation on Nigeria’s Independence,
the Zikist movement, and Pan-Africanism
Poems & exhibition
Room G52, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1
Russell Sq tube, buses 7, 68, 91, 188
Further Info : tel 079 49 53 93 94
friendsofafrica_soas@yahoo.co.uk
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CAVITIES
That woman, the mother of Nyevero
Has a tooth that needs a filling.
Her husband has been in London
Since Nyevero was 2, now she is 7
Who can blame the mother of Nyevero
For having so many cavities?
Mai Nyevero, carefully chooses her seat.
She sits carelessly opposite me,
Exposing plump thighs, and grins
“Look Mhizha, the forest is full of trees
But your axes are old, rusty and blunt”
She winks at me, gathers her skirts and swishes off,
Laughing like a happy hyena in the dead of night.
Night finds her in bed with that fool Gandari.
But woman, Gandari was caught last week
Naked in bed, with the new teacher’s wife.
This Aids – python, myth or phantom
Will surely finish us all off . . .
© 2006, Ignatius T. Mabasa
Poem of the Week : http://zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=7817
Ignatius T. Mabasa page : http://zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=7808
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