Half of a Yellow Sun Page #6

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Mama? I thought we agreed

you are going to Uke.

Hm-mm. Don't say that!

You told me that we have to run,

that it is better that I go to Uke.

But did you hear me agree?

Did I say 'oh' to you?

You want to come with us

to Umuahia, then?

But why are you running?

Where are you running to?

Can you hear any guns?

Mama, people are fleeing

Abagana and Ukpo,

which means the Hausa soldiers

are close and will soon enter Abba.

Who am I running away

from my own house for?

Do you know that your father

will be cursing us now?

We are going to Umuahia soon

for him to start work at the Directorate.

What's that?

I am leaving for Uke.

Send word when you get to Umuahia.

As soon as Nsukka is recovered,

though, we're going back.

I will wait and watch the house.

After you all have run, you will return.

I will be here.

How can I leave my children

and run to safety?

Give me the keys to your house.

I might need things there.

You can still change your mind,

the four places are paid for.

Wedding? What wedding?

Mama...

Come with us.

Please come with us, Mama.

'Seven weeks ago Colonel Ojukwu

was on the receiving end

'of a federal police action to prevent

'his pulling the former eastern region

'out of the federation.

'Now, it's a full-scale civil war. '

Where's Baby?

She hasn't gone out to play, has she?

I don't want her getting any dirt

on that dress.

She is in the living room.

I sent a message

to Port Harcourt for Kainene.

She won't come.

I just wanted her to know.

It's still too big.

(Knocking

- Olanna, are you ready?

- Yes, I'm ready. Please come in.

Did you bring the flowers?

What is this?

I wanted fresh flowers, Okeoma.

Nobody grows flowers in Umuahia.

People here grow what they can eat.

I won't hold flowers then.

I caught you dancing?

Hail Biafra!

Ah, the cake.

Come with me now.

Was it you?

Come on, get some.

Everybody, I want you together.

OK, let's do one, two...

Okeoma! Okeoma!

No!

No!

Mummy!

Enunciate. Ike, you say it.

Setru.

Ah, "set-tle".

"Set-tle".

The word has no R in it.

OK, let's try...

B for?

Ball.

- C for?

- Cat.

- D for?

- Dog.

- E for?

- Egg.

Mama...

Come with us.

- H for?

- House.

'Seven weeks ago Colonel Ojukwu

was on the receiving end

I have to bury

what the vultures left behind.

- Sah...

- Yes, yes, yes.

'Out of the federation.

Where's Baby?

She hasn't gone out to play, has she?

I don't want her getting any dirt

on that dress.

What am I going to do?

Why are you using the kerosene stove?

Are you stupid?

Haven't I told you

to save our kerosene?

But, mah, you said

I should cook Baby's food.

I did not say that!

Go outside and light a fire!

Do you know how much

kerosene costs?

Just because you don't pay

for the things you use

does not mean

you can use them as you like?

Is firewood itself not a luxury

where you come from?

Sorry, mah.

His mother is dead.

They shot her in Abba.

The Biafran soldiers at the roadblocks

kept asking me to turn back.

So I parked the car, hid it,

and began to walk.

Finally, one Biafran officer...

...cocked his gun...

...told me he would shoot me...

...and save the vandals the trouble

if I didn't turn around.

I'm fine,Nkem.

I'm fine.

I hear there's a lot of free sex here,

but the girls got some kind of disease.

The Bonny disease?

Guess you guys gotta be careful

what you bring back home.

This refugee camp is run by my wife.

- Really? How long she been here?

- She's Biafran.

- Do you speak Igbo pretty well?

- Yes. Kedu.

There is food in Sao Tom

crawling with cockroaches

because there's no way to bring it in.

Would it be all right

if I gave you some letters?

To my wife's parents in London.

We'll get something better soon.

- Welcome. Nno.

- Thank you.

I live down the corridor.

Your husband is not here?

He's still at work.

I wanted to see him

before the others do.

It is about my children.

Three of them have asthma.

- Asthma?

- The landlord called him "Doctor".

Oh!

No, he has a doctorate.

He's a doctor of books,

not a doctor for sick people.

Oh...

Erm... there is a woman

in a car asking for you.

Kainene?

I went to your old house

and somebody told me to come here.

Our landlord kicked us out.

Come in.

Sit down.

So, how have you been?

Things were normal

until Port Harcourt fell.

I was an army contractor, and I had

a license to import stock fish.

I'm in Orlu now. I'm in charge

of a refugee camp there.

Oh...

Are you silently condemning me

for profiteering from the war?

Somebody had to import the stockfish.

No, no, I wasn't thinking that.

You were.

I was so worried

when Port Harcourt fell.

- I sent messages.

- Yes, you said you were teaching.

Do you still?

Your noble win-the-war effort?

The school's a refugee centre now.

Sometimes I teach children

in the yard.

And how's the revolutionary husband?

He's still with the Manpower Directorate.

You don't have a wedding photo.

There was an air raid

during our reception, and...

I came to give you this.

Mum sent it through a British journalist.

I also brought two dresses for Baby.

A woman who came

back from Sao Tom

had some good children's clothes

for sale.

- You bought clothes for Baby?

- How shocking, indeed.

It's about time

the girl began to be called Chiamaka.

This Baby business is tiresome.

Will you drink some water?

It's all we have.

No, no, I'm fine.

Yes, please.

I'd like that.

I thought about

changing your money for you.

But you can do it at the bank

and then deposit, can't you?

Haven't you seen all the bomb craters

around the bank?

- My money's staying under my bed.

- Make sure the cockroaches don't get it.

Life is harder for them these days.

I'll come on Wednesday.

- Will you drive?

- No. Look, it's not that far.

Greet the revolutionary for me.

Madam.

I am bringing drinks?

The way he goes on,

you'd think we had a grand cellar

in this half-built house

in the middle of nowhere.

- Madam?

- No, Harrison, don't bring drinks.

We're leaving now.

Remember, lunch for three.

Yes, Madam.

Harrison is the most

pretentious peasant I have ever seen.

- I know you don't like the word peasant.

- No.

- But he is, you know.

- We're all peasants!

Are we?

It's the sort of thing Richard would say.

Odenigbo too.

Grandfather used to say about

difficult things he had gone through,

"It didn't kill me,

it made me knowledgeable. "

I remember.

There are some things

that are so unforgivable...

...that they make other things

easily forgivable.

'At precisely half past one every day,

they come over the town

'as the market place is full,

'as patients are sitting out

'on the lawns at hospitals.

'Here comes the next one.

'He's flying the other side of the Mission

Church. Sweeping to the right.

'Strafing the ground as they move.

'Dropping incendiary bombs

and fragmentation bombs

'in the market places around here. '

We are sure to win the war

We are sure, we are sure...

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