Through a close analysis of Adichie’s choices in Half of a Yellow Sun, I aim to show that Adichie’s construction of an African novel that assigns authorship in varying degrees to different characters constitutes an appropriate response to Ng ū gi’s call for African authenticity, even as it deviates from the measures he lays out for achieving it. This paper compares different ideas regarding authenticity in African literature: those put forth by Kenyan author Ng ū gi Wa Thiong’o, and those expressed in Half of a Yellow Sun, a book centered around the Nigerian Civil War, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In Africa especially, language choice is often at the center of these debates. Within the world of postcolonial literature, there are ongoing debates regarding authenticity-what it means to produce adequate and genuine representations of human stories that occur within a postcolonial context.

He pulled off his glasses.Voice of Authority and Language of Authenticity: Understanding Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun Holly Gibbens

His complexion was very dark, like old bark, and the hair that covered his chest and legs was a lustrous, darker shade. 'Good afternoon, sah! This is the child,' Ugwu's aunty said. He was not sitting upright but slanted, a book covering his face, as though oblivious that he had just asked people in. Master sat in an armchair, wearing a singlet and a pair of shorts.

They went past a sign, ODIM STREET, and Ugwu mouthed street, as he did whenever he saw an English word that was not too long. Ugwu wondered if she, too, could feel the coal tar getting hotter underneath, through her thin soles. His aunty walked faster, her slippers making slap-slap sounds that echoed in the silent street. He would never be able to describe to his sister Anulika how the bungalows here were painted the colour of the sky and sat side by side like polite well-dressed men, how the hedges separating them were trimmed so flat on top that they looked like tables wrapped with leaves. He had never seen anything like the streets that appeared after they went past the university gates, streets so smooth and tarred that he itched to lay his cheek down on them.

Adichie half of a yellow sun