Half of a Yellow Sun: Part 4, Chapter 25 Summary & Analysis

The story returns to where it left off at Part Two. Since the air raid, Olanna now fears thunder and is very jumpy. She and Odenigbo trade all their money for Biafran currency, and Odenigbo promises that they will get their life back soon when Biafra is free. He doesn’t seem to realize how little money they have left. Odenigbo does mindless work at the Manpower Directorate, but he comes home inspired about Biafra’s greatness.

Olanna makes Ugwu guard Baby all the time, as she heard a story about soldiers kidnapping children to work all day. Olanna makes Baby practice running to the bunker, and she has nightmares about air raids. Later Baby gets sick, and Olanna is almost relieved, as it seems to her that misfortunes should only come one at a time.

Olanna takes Baby to the crowded hospital, and she gets in first because she speaks English. Dr. Nwala is there, and he says that they are low on medicine and have run out of antibiotics. He writes her a prescription, and says she should find someone who can trade her for some. Olanna asks her friend Mrs. Muokelu, who says she can find someone. Mrs. Muokelu says she had a vision of ancient warriors defeating the vandals. Olanna likes her because her fearlessness reminds her of Kainene. Olanna shows her a picture of Kainene, but Mrs. Muokelu says the twins don’t look alike.

Baby eventually gets some antibiotics, but she stops wanting to eat. Olanna uses most of her money buying candy and treats, but Baby won’t eat anything and Olanna fears she will die soon. Mrs. Muokelu brings her some dried egg yolk, which Ugwu and Olanna think looks repulsive, but Baby eats all of it.

Olanna goes to the relief center, which used to be a girl’s secondary school. She waits with the crowds to get free food. When the gates open there is a stampede, and Olanna gets in the egg yolk line but it is gone by the time she reaches the end. The supervisor recognizes Olanna, and it turns out he was a member of the family she met at the airport years before, when she comforted the old woman who thought the plane wouldn’t stop.

The supervisor, whose name is Okoromadu, sneaks Olanna some dried egg yolk as she is leaving. The next time Olanna goes to the relief center there is no food at all. Mrs. Muokelu says that it might just be the soldiers keeping the food for themselves. The next time the gates open, Okoromadu slips Olanna a tin of corned beef. Olanna is overjoyed.

A shell-shocked soldier sees Olanna get the can, and he starts to follow her home. Four more ex-soldiers join him, and one of them takes the corned beef. Olanna considers fighting them, but then recognizes that the meat “had never been hers.” She starts to cry.

A couple of weeks later Mrs. Muokelu teaches Olanna how to make soap. That night Special Julius brings some palm wine and says that the British army has come to fight for the Nigerians. Then the air raid alarm goes off, and the family rushes into the bunker.

Many people are in the bunker panicking, but when the air raid ends they sing a victorious song about Biafra. That evening the alarm goes off again, and Olanna doesn’t see Odenigbo in the bunker. Olanna rushes out into the open and sees Odenigbo bent over a wounded man. She is suddenly struck by the fragility of his mortality, and she hugs him.

The next day Olanna feels paranoid, and she wants the family to spend the whole day in the bunker. Ugwu tells her that Baby has lice, and Olanna angrily says it is from playing with “those dirty neighbors.” Olanna picks at her hair and Baby starts to cry. The Biafran national anthem comes on the radio, and then Olanna tells Ugwu to take Baby outside.

Olanna goes out to talk to Mrs. Muokelu, who tells her that Special Julius sells forged army exemption passes and sleeps with young girls looking for money. Olanna jumps at the sound of a door closing, while Mrs. Muoleku praises the greatness of the Biafran soldiers and the ogbunigwe bombs. She says that the Nigerians have refused to let the Red Cross bring food to Biafra, but God will help Biafra win anyway.

The air raid siren goes off again, and when they come out of the bunker everyone sees that the school has been bombed. Olanna wanders through the wreckage, and notices that a piece of shrapnel has dug a beautiful-looking hole in the ground.

In the early morning there is another air raid, but this time the siren doesn’t go off. Olanna rushes to the bunker. She has an out-of-body experience, and realizes that if she and all her family dies, life will still go on in the world. This feeling pushes her from fear to anger, and she decides to make her existence matter. When the raid is over she comes out of the bunker and immediately starts making soap.

Olanna no longer runs and panics at loud noises, and she starts teaching her students about the Biafran flag – the red is for the blood of the massacred Igbo, the black is to mourn them, the green is for coming prosperity, and the half of a yellow sun is for a hopeful future. She shows them pictures of Ojukwu and Gowon.

One of her students tells Olanna that she wants to kill all the vandals, and Olanna is shaken by this. Odenigbo tells her that this is just patriotism. Odenigbo brings home some food from the Red Cross, and Olanna says they should have a dinner party. Then she and Odenigbo joyfully have sex.