Half of a Yellow Sun: Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The narrative now follows Richard, who is eating spicy pepper soup at Odenigbo’s house. The other guests marvel at his ability to eat it, as most white people can’t handle the spice. Richard has brought some English food that Harrison made. After dinner they move to the living room and discuss High Life music and Odenigbo’s love of classical Western music. They talk about Balewa, the prime minister, and Odenigbo calls him a puppet of Britain.

While Odenigbo argues with Professor Ezeka, Okeoma asks Richard about his novel. Richard is embarrassed that he has hardly been writing, but he says he wants to put the roped pots and Igbo-Ukwu art in his book somehow. He describes how marvelous this ancient art was, and Okeoma says Richard sounds surprised that “these people” were “capable of such things.” Richard suddenly feels ashamed and angry, and he leaves soon afterward.

Richard goes home feeling dispirited and irritable. He crumples up all the pages of his manuscript and throws them away. Richard sleeps poorly, and the next morning he thinks about his interaction with Okeoma and the distrust in Okeoma’s eyes. Richard reassures himself that he is not “one of those Englishmen who did not give the African the benefit of an equal intelligence,” but he worries that there will always be an irreconcilable distrust between Africans and Europeans.

Richard goes to Port Harcourt to see Kainene, and on his second day there she asks him what’s bothering him. He tells her about Okeoma, and about his first love for the roped pots he saw in a magazine long ago. Kainene tells him that it is “possible to love something and still condescend to it.” Richard responds that he doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life, and if he can even write.

Kainene cancels their dinner plans with Major Madu so they can stay in. She tells Richard about how once she spat in her father’s water glass for no reason. Richard wants to reply with an equal confession, but he says he “didn’t have the confidence to do horrible things.” Instead he tells her about how his parents didn’t seem to love him very much because they loved each other too much. He refrains from telling Kainene that he thinks he loves her too much.

There is another description of the book The World Was Silent When We Died. The author is still unnamed, but he writes about how the British created Nigeria and arranged it so that the Northern Hausa would have the most control of the government. The British preferred the Hausa, as they had a strict hierarchy and were easy to rule indirectly, while the Igbo in the Southeast had many republican communities. The British sent Christian missionaries to the South, but kept them out of the Muslim North. In 1914 North and South were united and Nigeria was created.