Half of a Yellow Sun: Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis

Richard is enraged at Harrison, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. In the process of boasting about his own cooking, he told Kainene that Odenigbo yelled at Richard, and Richard isn’t allowed at Odenigbo’s anymore. Kainene asks about this, and Richard decided to tell the truth. Kainene immediately stops eating and calls Richard’s actions “unoriginal.”

Later that night Kainene tells Richard that she spoke to Olanna. She says it would have been forgivable with anyone else, but not with her sister. She tells Richard to sleep in the guest room, and he worries that she will immediately leave him for Madu.

The next morning Richard wants to talk, but Kainene says they will talk when she is ready. Later in the day Olanna and Odenigbo arrive, and Olanna tearfully apologizes. Kainene says “it is stupid to expect me to forgive this,” and she sends them away. Richard remembers how Odenigbo had showed up at his house and yelled at him, demanding that he stay away.

Kainene then tells Richard that she took his manuscript and burned it that morning. Richard is upset at the loss of “The Basket of Hands,” which was nearing completion, but he is also joyful, as he recognizes that this act means Kainene will not leave him. He wonders if he should be a writer after all, as love is more important to him than his work.

In The World Was Silent When We Died, the author writes about how other nations ignored the suffering of the Biafrans. The United States and Canada decided to stay out of the conflict, while Britain and the Soviet Union provided arms to Nigeria. Many other Black African countries also supported Nigeria, as they feared secessions of their own. Only China and France approved of Biafra, but they offered little real support.