Okparanta tells Rath that issues of sexuality have high stakes in modern-day Nigeria, which recently criminalized same-sex relationships.Ĭlick on the audio link above to hear their full conversation and an excerpt from the book. As she comes of age, she struggles to balance her mother's expectations with her own homosexuality. She's referring to the 1967 Biafran War in Nigeria - a civil war that was catastrophic for the Igbo people, who had tried to secede from Nigeria and form their own nation of Biafra.įor the novel's protagonist, Ijeoma, that war is just the beginning of her long journey of self-discovery. "My mother watched her father die in the war, the same way my protagonist does," the Nigerian-American author tells NPR's Arun Rath. Inspired by Nigerias folktales and its war, Chinelo Okparanta shows us, in graceful and precise prose (New York Times Book Review), how the struggles and. When Chinelo Okparanta started writing her novel Under the Udala Trees, she didn't have to look far for inspiration into her main character's tragic backstory. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. But when their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this. They are from different ethnic communities. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Under the Udala Trees Author Chinelo Okparanta Born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria.
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