Setting

The physical setting of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Chinasa” is a town in Nigeria. The story mentions different Nigerian towns such as Enugu, Uke, Okija, and Abagana, which adds authenticity to the setting. The narrator provides a vague description of the time setting: “I think it happened in January. (…) I know it was in 1968 but it could have been December or February”. Still, most of the story takes place during the Nigerian Civil War from 1968 until the war ends. 

The narrator lives in a house with other people who are trying to escape the war: “I was sitting on the verandah of the house I shared with two families”. The living conditions seem to be suffocating since there are so many people crammed and with no access to a more comfortable l...