Nigeria blockades all aid to Biafra, and most foreign countries ignore the conflict. The situation in war-torn Biafra rapidly declines, and there is starvation and violence everywhere. She burns the manuscript Richard was writing but doesn’t leave him. Kainene then finds out about Olanna and Richard, and she stops speaking to Olanna. Olanna names the child Chiamaka but calls her Baby.

Olanna decides to adopt as her own Amala’s child, which is a girl and unwanted by Amala and Mama. Richard and Olanna both agree not to tell Kainene, though Olanna soon tells Odenigbo. She gets drunk one night and seduces Richard. Olanna learns that Amala is pregnant with Odenigbo’s child. Odenigbo sleeps with Amala, and when Olanna returns home she finds out. Olanna goes to London, and while she is away Mama visits Odenigbo with a girl named Amala. The story returns to the early sixties, to the time before the war. The narrative is sometimes interrupted by a book called The World Was Silent When We Died, where an unknown author describes the larger political forces at work in the war. Odenigbo and Olanna get married, but there is an air raid during the reception. Their living situations get progressively worse as the war continues and Biafra’s food and money runs out. Nsukka is evacuated, and Olanna, Odenigbo, Ugwu, and Baby move to the cities of Abba and then Umuahia.

Britain and Russia supply arms to the Nigerians, who advance against the confident Biafrans.

Nigeria then declares war on Biafra to annex it. All the characters are overjoyed at this. Colonel Ojukwu, the Igbo leader, announces that Southeast Nigeria will secede and become the Republic of Biafra. Meanwhile Richard watches Igbo civilians being murdered at the airport. She escapes on a train to Nsukka and sees a woman carrying her daughter’s severed head in a basket. The violence against the Igbo becomes a pogrom, and Olanna’s relatives are brutally murdered. Olanna now has a child she calls “ Baby,” and she takes her to Kano to visit her relatives. There is then another coup, and this time many Igbo soldiers are killed. The Northern Hausa blame the Igbo for the coup. The narrative jumps a few years ahead, when the Nigerian government is overthrown. Olanna and Odenigbo start trying to have a child. Odenigbo’s mother “ Mama” visits and calls Olanna a witch, which upsets her greatly. Richard moves to Nsukka and befriends Odenigbo and Olanna. Meanwhile Richard, a white Englishman in Nigeria, leaves his girlfriend Susan when he falls in love with Kainene, Olanna’s sardonic twin sister. Ugwu becomes an excellent cook and goes to school. Olanna moves in with Odenigbo and meets his friends, who argue about politics every night. Odenigbo is in love with Olanna, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Nigerian. The book begins when Ugwu, an Igbo boy from a bush village, goes to Nsukka to work as a houseboy for Odenigbo, a professor and radical. Half of a Yellow Sun takes place in Nigeria in the 1960s.

Chimamanda ngozi half of a yellow sun