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Symbols
The title of the novel comes from the image of the Biafran flag, which is composed of half of a yellow sun over stripes of red, black and green. In the novel Olanna teaches her students about the flag – the red symbolizes the blood of the Igbo slain in the 1966 pogrom, the black is to mourn their deaths, the green is for Biafra’s future prosperity, and the yellow sun is for the country’s “glorious future.” Adichie often points out the yellow sun on the uniforms of Biafran soldiers, and sometimes contrasts this image of hope with scenes of violence or tragedy. The flag ultimately comes to represent the optimism of the Biafrans when they first seceded from Nigeria, and then the horrors of starvation and war that came to crush that hopefulness.
The Biafran Flag Quotes in Half of a Yellow Sun
The Half of a Yellow Sun quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Biafran Flag. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2, Chapter 13
Quotes
Odenigbo climbed up to the podium waving his Biafran flag: swaths of red, black, and green and, at the center, a luminous half of a yellow sun.
“Biafra is born! We will lead Black Africa! We will live in security! Nobody will ever again attack us! Never again!”
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Part 4, Chapter 25
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She taught them about the Biafran flag. They sat on wooden planks and the weak morning sun streamed into the roofless class as she unfurled Odenigbo’s cloth flag and told them what the symbols meant. Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future.
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Part 4, Chapter 29
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The skinny soldiers – with no boots, no uniforms, no half of a yellow sun on their sleeves – kicked and slapped and mocked Ugwu during physical training… the casual cruelty of this new world in which he had no say grew a hard clot of fear inside him.
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Get the entire Half of a Yellow Sun LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Biafran Flag Symbol Timeline in Half of a Yellow Sun
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Biafran Flag appears in Half of a Yellow Sun. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2, Chapter 13
Odenigbo gives a speech and waves the Biafran flag , which is red, black, and green, with half of a yellow sun in the...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 15
...he was one of the soldiers. They look proud and brave in their uniforms, with half a yellow sun on their sleeves. The road is crowded, and Ugwu laments that he has again failed...
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Part 4, Chapter 25
...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...
(full context)
Part 4, Chapter 29
...a “training” of beating and mockery. None of the other soldiers have boots, uniforms, or half of a yellow sun on their sleeves. Ugwu starts to grow terrified of the “casual cruelty of this new...
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Part 4, Chapter 33
...and Kainene wake up early to see a crowd kicking at a young soldier – half of a yellow sun still visible on his torn uniform – who had been stealing food. Kainene stops the...
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