Award winning author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has condemned the recent ban on the public viewing of the film adaptation of her book,’Half Of A Yellow Sun’ by the Nigerian Video Films and Censors Board.
Recall that the censors board delayed the release of the film adaptation of “Half of a Yellow Sun” because, according to them, it might incite violence in the country.
While agreeing that the political atmosphere is tensed, chimamanda is of the opinion that Nigeria’s political culture is averse to openness.
In an article, ‘Hiding From Our Past,’ she described the “the censors’ action as unreasonable and emphasized the need to revisit the past as a prerequisite to moving forward.
Agreeing that Nigeria is on the edge, with upcoming elections, religion and ethnicity increasingly politicized; and Boko Haram committing mass murders and abductions, she wrote that Nigerians cannot hide from history.
“Many of Nigeria’s present problems are, arguably, consequences of an ahistorical culture…The past is present, and we are better off acknowledging it and, hopefully, learning from it”
In stating her support for the public viewing of the film, Adichie wrote that the Nigeria-Biafra civil war was still wrapped in a formal silence and hoped that the final arbiters of Nigerian security will approve the film released as part of the final healing process.
“A novel about human relationships during the war, centered on a young, privileged woman and her professor lover. It was a deeply personal project based on interviews with family members who were generous enough to mine their pain, yet I knew that it would, for many Nigerians of my generation, be as much history as literature.
CHIAMANDA ADICHIE
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