Half of a Yellow Sun: Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The narrative now follows Ugwu, and a few weeks have passed since the second coup. Odenigbo and his guests no longer laugh and argue, but instead they discuss troubled reports from the North. Ugwu is worried because Olanna is still in Kano. Odenigbo listens to the radio say that five hundred Igbo civilians have been killed in a town, and he says it is “rubbish.”

Meanwhile Baby laughs and tells Ugwu that she saw baby chickens in her dreams, and she asks about “Mummy Ola.” Then there is a knock on the door, and Ugwu hides Baby away. Some men enter, looking shocked, and they say that Igbo people are being massacred everywhere in the North. They say that the slaughter began in Kano, and Ugwu panics.

The radio keeps talking, telling horrifying stories of a full church being set on fire and a pregnant woman being cut open. The radio says that “the lucky ones” are returning to the Southeast by train, so people should bring whatever food they have to spare to the railway stations. Odenigbo sends Ugwu to the station with some tea and bread.

Ugwu arrives at the railway station and sees people covered in dirt and blood. He hands out the bread and tea to wounded people, including a man missing his right eye. One man says that it was soldiers who saved him from the angry mob. Ugwu does not see Olanna among the crowds, and finally he runs away from the horrifying place.