Biafran War Quotes

I was born in 1966, at the beginning of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, and the war ended after three years. And I was growing up in school, and the federal government didn't want us taught about the history of the war, because they thought it probably would make us generate a new generation of rebels.

Nigeria was once a land of great hope and progress, a nation with immense resources at its disposal. But the Biafran War changed the course of Nigeria. In my view, it was a cataclysmic experience that changed the history of Africa.

I was attracted to 'Half of a Yellow Sun' because of the story.

My parents lost everything, all their savings, because we had to run from the Nigerian side to the Biafran side. We were Igbos.

From 1967 to '70, Nigeria fought a war - the Nigeria-Biafra war. And in the middle of that war, I was 14 years old. We spent much of our time with my mother cooking. For the army - my father joined the army as a brigadier - the Biafran army. We were on the Biafran side.

When I was young, and I wouldn't eat, my parents would say, 'Eat, or else you're going to become a little Biafran.'

While writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' I enjoyed playing with minor things: inventing a train station in a town that has none, placing towns closer to each other than they are, changing the chronology of conquered cities. Yet I did not play with the central events of that time.