USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Adichie Responds to Censorship of Half of a Yellow Sun Film

In a post on the New Yorker blog titled "Hiding from Our Past," Adichie scolds the State Security Services for holding back the release of the film adaptation of her novel Half of a Yellow Sun. 

See full blog post: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/05/hiding-from-our-past.html

Excerpt of the commentary below:

"But the Biafran war is still wrapped in a formal silence. There are no major memorials, and it is hardly taught in schools. This week, Nigerian government censors delayed the release of the film adaptation of "Half of a Yellow Sun" because, according to them, it might incite violence in the country; at issue in particular is a scene based on a historically documented massacre at a northern Nigerian airport. It is now up to the State Security Service to make a decision. The distributors, keen to release the film before it is engulfed in piracy, are hoping that the final arbiters of Nigerian security will approve its release. I find this absurd—security operatives, uniformed and alert, gathered in a room watching a romantic film—but the censors' action is more disappointing than surprising, because it is part of a larger Nigerian political culture that is steeped in denial, in looking away.

"Partly the result of an unexamined past and partly of the trauma of years of military dictatorship, a sustained and often unnecessary sense of secrecy is the norm in Nigerian public life. We talk often of the "sensitivity" of issues as a justification for a lack of transparency. Conspiracy theories thrive. Soldiers are hostile to video cameras in public. Officials who were yesterday known as thieves are widely celebrated today. It is not unusual to hear Nigerians speak of "moving forward," as though it might be possible merely to wish away the unpleasant past."