the world was silent when we died

recently finished “half of a yellow sun” by afro-lit’s current superstar chimamanda ngozi adichie. i devoured the first 300 pages of the book in one sitting; rare given my magazine article-like attention span. her writing is as vivid as the documentary images of children with kwashiorkor, the most enduring legacy of the biafran war (visual or otherwise).

Did you see the photos in sixty-eight
Of children with their their hair becoming rust:
Sickly patches nestled on those small heads,
Then falling off, like rotten leaves on dust?

Imagine children with arms like toothpicks,
With footballs for bellies and skin stretched thin.
It was kwashiorkor — difficult word,
A word that was not quite ugly enough, a sin.

You needn’t imagine. There were photos
Displayed in gloss-filled pages of your Life.
Did you see? Did you feel sorry briefly,
Then turn around to hold your lover or wife?

Their skin had turned the tawny of weak tea
And showed cobwebs of vein and brittle bone;
Naked children laughing as if the man
Would not take photos and then leave, alone.

highly recommended read.