Half of a Yellow Sun

A woman walked briskly up to him and thrust her baby boy into his arms. "Then take him! Feed him until you open again!" She began to walk away. The baby was thin, jaundiced, squalling.

"Bia nwanyi! Come back, woman!" Okoromadu was holding the baby with stiff arms, away from his body.

The other women in the crowd began to chide the mother-Are you throwing your child away? Ujo anaghi atu gi? Are you walking in God's face?-but it was Mrs. Muokelu who went over and took the baby from Okoromadu and placed it back in the mother's arms.

"Take your child," she said. "It is not his fault that there is no food today."

The crowd dispersed. Ola

"Who knows if it is true that soldiers really hijacked their lorry?" Mrs. Muokelu said. "Who knows how much they have kept for themselves to sell? We never have salt here because they keep all the salt to trade."

Ola

"How?"

"She's very strong. She's not afraid."

"She was smoking in that picture you showed me. Like a common prostitute."

Ola

"I am not saying she is a prostitute," Mrs. Muokelu said hastily. "I am only saying that it is not good that she smokes because women who smoke are prostitutes."

Ola

"Mummy Ola!"

Ola

"No, my baby. But I will bring some soon," she said.

"Good afternoon, mah. You didn't bring anything?" Ugwu asked.

"Can't you see that my basket is empty?" Ola

On Monday, she went alone to the relief center. Mrs. Muokelu did not come by to call her before dawn and was not there among the crowd. The gate was locked, the compound empty and she waited around for an hour until the crowd began to disperse. On Tuesday, the gate was locked. On Wednesday, there was a new padlock on the gate. It was not until Saturday that the gate swung open and Ola

He waved. "Beautiful woman. Nwanyi oma!" he said. He still did not know her name. He came over and slipped a tin of corned beef into her basket and then hurried away as if he had done nothing. Ola

The shell-shocked soldier followed her out of the gate. She quickened her pace on the dusty stretch that led to the main road, but five of them, all in tattered army uniforms, soon surrounded her. They babbled and gestured toward her basket, their movements disjointed, their tones raised, and Ola

Ola

They looked surprised at her outburst and for a moment they were still. Then they began to come closer, all together, as if some internal voice were directing them. They were bearing down on her. They could do anything; there was something desperately lawless about them and their noise-deadened brains. Ola

Ola

Mrs. Muokelu stood up. "I came to teach you how to make soap. Do you know how much they are selling common bar soap now?

Ola

Later, Odenigbo shook his head when she told him about it. They were under the thatch awning of the veranda, on a wood bench placed against the wall.

"She didn't need to teach you how to make soap. I don't see you making soap anyway."

"You think I can't?"

"She should simply have apologized."

"I think I overreacted because it was about Kainene." Ola

Odenigbo said nothing. He took her hand and she felt grateful that there were things she did not need to explain to him.

"How much hair does Mrs. Muokelu have on her chest?" he asked. "Do you know?"

Ola

"I've brought the best palm wine in Umuahia! Ask Ugwu to bring some glasses," he said, and put a small jerry can down. There was an optimistic affluence about him and his flamboyant clothes, as if there were no problem he could not solve. After Ugwu brought the glasses, Special Julius said, "Have you heard that Harold Wilson is in Lagos? He is bringing the British army to finish us off. They say he came with two battalions."

"Sit down, my friend, and stop talking rubbish," Odenigbo said.

Special Julius laughed and slurped his drink noisily. "I am talking rubbish, okwa ya? Where is the radio? Lagos may not tell the world that the British prime minister has come to help them kill us, but maybe those crazy people in Kaduna will."

Baby came out. "Uncle Julius, good afternoon."

"Baby-Baby How is your cough? Is it better?" He dipped a finger into his palm wine and put it in her mouth. "This should help your cough."