Muffled Voices and Scarred Souls: Revisiting the Nuances and Trauma of the Biafran War in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

In the course of human civilization, there has been many conflicts which heralded the doom of mankind and raised the pressing concern of unprecedented and grim events like wars, attacks, massacres etc. Such events based on different factors like race, gender and ethnicity can not only spark violence but it can also traumatize an individual and society collectively. With the second highest death toll of all African conflicts, the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, is deemed as an unfortunate conflict. This research paper endeavors to depict the dehumanizing impacts of the Biafran War and the trauma that not only clutched the victims till the end of their lives, but was also passed to the upcoming generations in the form of transgenerational trauma. It is an attempt to depict that trauma can impinge damage in the life of not only an individual but also in whole community. This research paper also scrutinizes themes like ethnic cleansing, violence and futility of war. To project these issues, the paper is structured on the axes of trauma to delineate the inescapable and scarring fate of the characters of the novel.