Linny tells Nancy about her latest acting gig for an indie film, THINGS LEFT UNSAID. She plays a funeral mourner. She was in two scenes, one inside and one outside. Linny says she does it to support the arts. Nancy mentions that the Nebraska Governor’s Lecture for the Humanities this year features Zahn McClarnon and Bird Runningwater. The lecture is coming up within a week of publishing the episode. Nancy serves on the Humanities Nebraska Foundation Board which sponsors the event and that’s how she’s supporting the arts. Today we interview Taiwo Bello about HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. Nancy loves this interview because neither she nor Linda knew anything about the Biafran War. Linny likes that we then talk about lessons we can learn so we don’t repeat those mistakes. Taiwo Bello is an Assistant Professor of African History and an affiliate faculty member of the Africana Studies Centre at Oklahoma State University. His research and teaching interests encompass gender and women's history, war and society, violence and conflict studies, the history of crime, law, and punishment, Black and diaspora studies, genocide, human rights, and humanitarian histories, as well as global and transnational history. He serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION journal, HISTORY IN AFRICA, published by Cambridge University Press; and the CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN STUDIES journal, the CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES, published by Taylor & Francis. He is a founding editor of SCHOLAR’S CORNER, a subsidiary blog of the journal, GENOCIDE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL, published by University of Toronto Press. He is revising his second book entitled SOLDIERS ON RAMPAGE: GENDER, BLOCKADE, VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE IN BIAFRA DURING THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR, 1967-1970. The book examines the impact of the wartime violence between the Nigerian and Biafran soldiers on Biafran women and their families, and the women's responses to wartime atrocities. The book demonstrates how food was central to the constant violence unleashed on women in the heartland of Biafra. His forthcoming book, INVENTING ORDER: CRIME, LAW, AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA AND THE DIASPORA, adopts a multidisciplinary approach to examine the evolution of crimes (armed robbery, immigration fraud, financial fraud, drug trafficking) in Nigeria and their local and global implications. Linda asks Taiwo what led him to become a scholar of African History. Taiwo says he was born in Nigeria and, growing up, he always wanted to be an ambassador, in order to represent his country. However, he didn’t have the connections needed to become an ambassador. Then he realized that obtaining a PhD in African History meant that he could focus on the history of his country and continue his love of research. Nancy mentions neither she nor Linny had ever heard of the Biafran war until they read Chinua Achebe’s THINGS FALL APART and did research on some of his other novels. Nancy asks Taiwo the roots of the Biafran/Nigerian war. Taiwo tells us that colonialism is at the root of the conflict. Nigeria regained its independence in 1960, but was colonized by the British in the late 19th century. During the period of colonialism, Nigerians were discriminated against and deepened divisions between the indigenous tribes. Tribes from the south tended to be more educated and practiced the Christian faith. In the north, people were less educated and tended to be Muslim. Taiwo tells us that the first major coup was led by an Igbo (southern) military officer to overthrow the Nigerian government in 1966. Northerns were killed in this coup, including two key cultural and political figures. These murders fomented a fear of northerners that the south was attempting to take over. Northerns banded together and staged a counter coup and took over the government for the north, essentially. After this coup, civilians in the north spontaneously began killing Igbo people in Nigeria. About 30,000 Igbo civilians were murdered July – October 1967. Linda mentions Taiwo’s forthcoming book, SOLDIERS ON RAMPAGE: GENDER, BLOCKADE, VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE IN BIAFRA DURING THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR, 1967-1970. In this book Taiwo examines the impact of the war on women, especially. In HALF OF A YELLOW SUN, we experience the impact of the war on Olanna and Kainene. Linda asks how their fictional experience similar to or different from what your research uncovered. Taiwo says HALF OF A YELLOW SUN is fictional, of course, so there are embellished elements. But he thinks she did a very good job showing how the war disintegrated families and the society. He likes that she is objective in the atrocities, showing for example that it was not only Nigerian soldiers that raped women, but also Biafran soldiers. Taiwo tells us, however, that the book falls a little short in showing the complicity of Biafra in the starvation of its population. The US, Canada, and the International Red Cross, negotiated a corridor for food that could be searched for weapons by Nigeria. Biafra rejected the proposal because they were smuggling in arms in nightly food shipments, claiming Nigeria would poison the food, even though the US and Canada said any searches would be supervised by our military. Taiwo has shown the role of each government in his book. Nancy says one of the frustrating parts of HALF OF A YELLOW SUN was the obliviousness of the northern Nigerians of the suffering of Biafrans during the war. Mohammed writes to Olanna about his polo games. After the war, Miss Adebayo tells Odenigbo, “We didn’t really understand what was happening in Biafra. Life went on and women were wearing the latest lace in Lagos…” It reminded Nancy of how Russia is using misinformation to fool its citizens in believing Ukraine is the aggressor in this war. Politicians and officials try to divide us by telling us that it’s these other people who are the problem and we just need to get rid of them and our lives will be better. And, generally, politicians lie about many things to make people believe they are doing things to help their citizens that are harmful to them or others. To Nancy, this aspect of the book feels very contemporary and asks Taiwo his thoughts on the resonance of this book today. Taiwo says the book is very relevant to today’s wars in Gaza and Ukraine with the same consequences of starvation, killing of civilians, destruction of infrastructure, disease. He says we hardly learn from history even when it shows us what will come of our decisions. Nancy likes that the book shows the book from the perspective of everyday people and their transformation into people they would never recognize. Taiwo says Adichie’s approach is one of war and society, not the military. It shows how wars destroy lives. Taiwo says his books forward the agency of women during the war. Women searched for food for their family, they smuggled food, they maintained markets. It was on their shoulders that Biafra lasted for as long as it did during the war. Nancy likes how Olanna is eventually strengthened as she finds food for her family and takes care of them when it was clear no one else was going to do this. Linda notes that HALF OF A YELLOW SUN essentially ends with the conclusion of the war. She asks Taiwo what have been the effects of the war. Taiwo tells her that women were essential in rebuilding the country. Most homes had been destroyed. Women and the Christian Council of Nigeria rebuilt homes. Women rebuilt the markets and rehabilitated the farmland. Even today, there are still signs of the war, though it has mostly been put back together well. There remain issues of discrimination and ethnic and religious tensions. There is mistrust between the north and south, and in fact, they see each other as foreigners. Nancy asked Taiwo: What is your prescription for lasting peace and reconciliation in Nigeria? Taiwo laid out a series of recommendations: 1. Stop politicizing the lives of the Nigerian people by pitting one region against the other during political campaigning. 2. There should be a national language of how improvements to one region benefit the entire country. 3. Talk less about one religion being good and the other bad. We need to promote we are all humans, first. 4. Educate people about the impacts of ethnic division and the previous war. Taiwo tells us that in addition to his two forthcoming books, he has a book about the response of Nigeria to other African countries throwing off their colonial governments. He is currently working on a book about the American Committee on Africa, founded during anti-apartheid struggle. He is also working a book about the experience of southern African refugees to Nigeria during fights for independence. People can stay in touch with Taiwo through his Facebook page where he is very active: Taiwo Bello. Listeners may email Taiwo at tbellow@okstate.edu.