Few book endings have hurt African readers more than the disappearance of Kainene in Chimamanda Adichie‘s Half of a Yellow Sun. An instant fan favourite, Kainene was the kind, witty, less attractive sister of Olanna; who went missing while on a trip to get supplies.
As a fan myself, 16-year-old me was heartbroken. But finally, we get some answers from Adichie as to why she made the decision to axe such a beloved character.
Speaking to Ebuka Obi-Uchendu in an interview on January 3, Chimamanda gave a concrete answer as to why no one knows the whereabouts of Kainene; and this was to reflect the realities of the survivors of the war.
“There are many people today who got lost during the Civil War and we still don’t know their whereabouts. I think it’s important to honour that,” Adichie said. “There are people today, women today who are still thinking ‘maybe that son who disappeared in 1969 will appear.”
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In the movie adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun, Anika Noni Rose plays Kainene. Despite its huge commercial success as a novel, many, including me, considered the movie adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun underwhelming and not a huge commercial success.
Although Chimamanda didn’t think it was underwhelming, she admitted that she believes a one-off movie could not have done justice to the book; as is the case with almost every movie adaptation of a book.
“The book is a lot. To try and make it into a movie; it would have been much better as a mini-series but at the time they weren’t a thing,” she said. Adichie disclosed that film director, Biyi Bandele had made it very clear that he had to make some hard choices. For instance, “In the novel, Ugwu was the soul of the book”, she explained. “But in the movie, he wasn’t.