READ ALSO: Half of a Yellow Sun Summary: Chapter 11 & More
Table of Contents
READ ALSO: Half of A Yellow Sun Summary: Chapters 17 – 37
Half of a Yellow Sun SparkNotes: Chapter 7
Chapter 7 of Half of a Yellow Sun begins a new section of the book entitled The Late Sixties.
The Chapter begins with Ugwu visiting his family in the village and talking to his sister Anulika.
Anulika, who Ugwu suspects is pregnant, is set to marry Onyeka, a mechanic who works in town.
Ugwu has become used to his life in Nsukka and sees his old home through new eyes, evidenced in, for instance, that he now finds the food there unpalatable.
On the day that he returns to Odenigbo and Olanna’s home in Nsukka, a military coup takes place in Nigeria.
The academics who visit Odenigbo and Olanna’s home that evening seem in support of the coup because they think it will put a stop to government corruption as well as to north Nigerian supremacy.
This support is unanimous, despite those present coming from different parts of Nigeria.
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Half of a Yellow Sun SparkNotes: Chapter 8
In Chapter 8, Olanna visits Kano to pick up her pregnant cousin Arize to go shopping in Lagos for her soon-to-be-born baby.
In Kano, people around Olanna’s uncle and aunt’s compound are happy about the new political developments, particularly the death of the Sardauna, the premier of the North and Muslim spiritual leader.
Some of his followers, though, reluctant to believe that he is actually dead, believe instead that he escaped safely to Mecca.
Things continue to be tense between Olanna and Kainene.
In Lagos, Olanna and Arize witness Igbos being attacked for their ethnicity.
They pretend that they themselves are not Igbo and instead speak loud Yoruba as they make a quick getaway.
It turns out that this has been happening commonly in northern Nigeria because the coup that took place has been being called an Igbo coup.
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Summary of Half of a Yellow Sun Chapter by Chapter: Chapter 9
In Chapter 9 of Half a Yellow Sun, a second coup takes place in Nigeria, 6 months after the first coup.
When word of a possible second coup begins to go around, Olanna and Kainene’s parents plan to go to London to avoid it.
Before the coup, Richard and Colonel Madu have a bit of an argument with Richard talking about the possibility of a second coup and Colonel Madu saying that there would be no second coup.
The second coup does indeed take place finding Colonel Madu in Kaduna, northern Nigeria.
During this second coup, North Nigerian officers take command and kill Igbo officers.
Kainene worries that Colonel Madu has been killed.
For more than two weeks, no one hears from Colonel Madu.
He eventually appears at Kainene’s house and tells Kainene and Richard that he was tipped off by a military friend of his who was in the know about the coup before it happened.
This friend helps Colonel Madu hide and escape to safety.
Half of a Yellow Sun Summary: Chapter 10
Igbos continue to be slaughtered in the north of Nigeria.
Some kinsmen of Odenigbo arrive at his home telling him of the horrors they’ve seen elsewhere in the country.
While tales of the attacks are being aired on ENBC Radio Enugu, there is a call for good Samaritans to take tea and bread to railway stations because people are arriving en masse there for safety.
Ugwu takes tea and bread to the closest railway station and indeed finds people in horrific states, including a man with a knife wound in the head and another whose right eye has been gouged out.