Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short visit to Ireland was remarkable. The young Nigerian novelist is described as the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe, a title given to her by the Washington Post Book World. A lot has been said of her great story-telling talent, her power to control words, her courage, her eloquence. Indeed, she is all these and more.

Listening to her talk at Trinity College, Dublin, and interviewing her afterwards, confirmed my opinion of her. She opened up a discussion forum after reading an excerpt from her second novel: Half of a Yellow Sun, which is set during the 1967-70 Nigerian-Biafran civil war. It was a horrific war that claimed the lives of up to two million Nigerians and traumatised many expatriates, especially some Irish missionaries who witnessed it. But why is it so significant to write about a war that happened 39 years ago? What kind of a war was it anyway?

According to Abubakar Atofarati the war was the culmination of an uneasy peace and stability in the nation after independence in 1960. This situation had its genesis in the geography, history, culture and demography of Nigeria. The immediate cause of the civil war itself may be identified as the coup and the counter-coup of 1966 which altered the political equation and destroyed the fragile trust existing among the major ethnic groups. In a bid to hold the country together it was divided into twelve states from the original four regions in May 1967.

The former Eastern Region under Lt Col Ojukwu saw the act of the creation of states by decree without consultation as the last straw, and declared the region an independent state of Biafra. The Federal government in Lagos saw this as an act of secession and illegal. Several meetings were held to resolve the issue peacefully but without success. To avoid disintegration of the country, the central government was left with only one choice of bringing back the region to the main fold by force. The Federal side expected a quick victory while the Biafrans saw the war as that of survival and so were ready to fight to the last man. Half of a Yellow Sun captures it all and well; it is a must read novel!

Chimamanda is not the first to have written about this war; lots of books have been written about Biafra dating back to the late ‘60s up to the present day. But hers has a different flare. For Chimamanda the past is present, the past isn’t past as the old formula goes. “It wasn’t really past; it seems very present to me. People of my generation don’t know much about Biafra, and there is no way they would if it is not talked about. Our history needs to be told. I have been haunted by Biafra; I grew up knowing that my family had experienced this, both my grandfathers died during the war but I was never told how they died. My parents didn’t talk about the bigger picture of the war. This is why I became almost upset by Biafra.”

Her passion for writing about Biafra isn’t as recent as her novel; she began writing poetry about Biafra when she was only 12. She wrote a play when she was 17 titled: For Love of Biafra. “I became so interested in the history of my country that I began reading about it and asking questions too. Growing up I heard of lot of regrets about the war; I heard people saying, ‘I had this or that before the war.’ So my childhood became a time that I was aware that things would have been much better if the war hadn’t happened.”

She has been described as a courageous writer. She challenged the taboo of silence by giving her readers the real picture of the war which is often left out. She has also challenged the Nigerian government through some of her write-ups in Nigeria’s newspapers. The Church is not left out; she challenges the Church in different ways.

“In my writing I was keen not to let someone else dictate my agenda or to react to somebody else’s agenda, I just wanted to be real and honest. What is important is to tell my stories in a way that is most truthful to me and about the places and people I am writing about. I had difficulty getting a publisher for Purple Hibiscus. I was told by some publishers I approached in the US, ‘Nobody knows where Nigeria is’, ‘I’ll publish your book if you are willing to change the African material/background to American, Oh! I really like your writing but nobody knows about Biafra.’"

"I refused to let anyone dictate my aim. I also don’t write thinking about an audience that will be opening room for self-censorship. I will be limited if I do that. For example if I thought about my parents I wouldn’t have written the sex scenes; I was interested in giving my readers the real picture as much as I could. I like being real, maybe that’s where my courage comes from. I hate to lie! I must have acquired this virtue from my father, who is a very courageous man; he never lied, not just that he said it but he did it. He believed in honesty. I literally adore him. We are obliged to tell the truth even if it is uncomfortable. And that is what I try to do – no matter the consequence.”

Chimamanda is not just courageous but practical. Some people are more interested in making theories than seeing those theories work out. “There is a part of me that is so desperate to apply things, to make things work … a bit of a crusading reformer. I want to engage in the real world, not just theories; I don’t believe in theories that never work. The real world is here and those theories are high up”.

Chimamanda lives in the United States but she has not forgotten her roots; she loves being African and she is still interested in all that goes on there. “I’m interested in politics especially Nigerian politics. I follow it wherever I am. But sometimes I feel that the issues often talked about aren’t the real issues; for example proposing a bill on indecent dressing is impractical. Why regulate women’s dress code at the expense of protecting ‘weak’ men? There are more pressing challenges concerning women and children that have not been attended to. Why lay emphasis on dress code while ignoring critical and life-threatening issues affecting the nation that need urgent and immediate attention?”

The issue of indecent dress has been contentious among some Nigerians – there are those who see it as a contributory factor to immorality in the society. But Chimamanda wonders, “Have we forgotten that in the past Africans were going about almost naked? Of course there wasn’t much immorality then. It’s not logical therefore to think that forcing a dress code on women is a solution to immorality.”

“Unfortunately the Church sometimes synchronizes such ideas. I had a funny experience two years ago when I went home. I was almost stopped from entering the Church because a priest felt I wasn’t properly dressed. He was attempting to bring ‘morality’ into the campus. I took a second look at myself and I felt I was well dressed with my lovely African attire, but he felt my arms were a bit exposed. I told him that it was not his church but God’s house and that everybody should be allowed in."

"Authentic values are better than mere appearances! God looks more at the heart. Sometimes Christianity makes us devalue ourselves; there is a whole world out there besides Christianity: Islam, traditional worship, Hinduism, etc. People should be respected in any way they decide to worship God. People need freedom to be! In my first novel, Purple Hibiscus, I wrote about how I wished that people would be more accommodating in their faith and beliefs. It is nice to be Catholic, but people who choose to follow other ways of ancestral worship shouldn’t be seen as devils.”

Chimamanda is influenced by all kinds of writings and writers amongst whom are Chinua Achebe, the Indian writer Narain and Edith Wharton, the American author. She counts herself lucky for winning the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and Commonwealth Writers Prize. She said “I didn’t expect I could win a prize. I feel that there is an element of being lucky. I’m really pleased, but the prizes are not more important than being read. The most important thing for me is to be read. It feels nice to get prizes, but I want to be read. Not withstanding that, I would still be writing even if I wasn’t published because I just have a passion for it.”