Half of a Yellow Sun: Part 4, Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

Richard is traveling with two American journalists, both named Charles. One is a redhead and one is “plump.” They have been traveling a long time, and the Americans smell bad. Richard dislikes the redhead, who asks about the war’s one dead white man – an Italian oil worker – and ignores the thousands of dead Africans. Richard has learned that a rule of Western journalism is that “one hundred dead black people equal one dead white person.”

The Americans ask about the women in Nigeria, and Richard defensively mentions Kainene. They reach the refugee camp and the Americans are horrified to see a group of children roasting two rats. The redhead mutters racist comments and says he wants to see the “real Biafrans,” who will want to talk about the cause instead of just food. He demands that Richard take him to another refugee camp.

The redhead interviews a woman and marvels at her patriotism, saying “the Biafran propaganda machine is great.” Richard says that there is no propaganda – the resistance is strong because the Nigerians kill civilians. The redhead mocks Richard for saying “we” when he describes the Biafrans, but the “plump one” tries to befriend Richard and seems embarrassed by his colleague.

Richard takes the Americans to lunch and then to the airstrip. A plane flies by and fires at them as they wait for their plane, but the airport manager acts like it is nothing to worry about. They watch a plane flying in relief, and the “plump one” comments on how mean the pilots are to the men unloading the planes, as the pilots are being paid thousands for their work.

Richard gets angry at the redhead about America, which is doing nothing while Biafrans are dying. The redhead retorts that people are dying everywhere – his own brother’s body was just returned from Vietnam. After the two Americans get on their plane and leave, Richard comes up with the title for his book: “The World Was Silent When We Died.” It will be an angry condemnation of how the world ignored Biafra.

Richard goes home and tells Kainene his title. She is wary of the word “we,” and he counters that the Nigerian bombs do not care about British passports. Kainene has been happier and laughing more lately, and she and Olanna are close again. She wasn’t even angry or resentful when Richard and Olanna finally saw each other again.

There is a section from The World Was Silent When We Died. The author’s epilogue is a poem, modeled after one of Okeoma’s. The poem is about children with kwashiorkor, and rich Westerners looking at pictures of them and then returning to their happy lives.