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Traditional Society In West Africa based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God One of the most highly known African authors today is the Nigerian born Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe's main focus in his writings was to tell about the African experience, but in a completely different way previous authors wrote. The works of Achebe painted a picture of how life changed for Africans due to the impact of European culture on African society, and described the struggles of his people to free themselves from European influences. Many critics saw Chinua Achebe as a visionary, while others saw him as a voice for the Nigerian culture, giving him the reputation as the father of the African novel in English. When England sent colonizers and missionaries to Africa, it had great affect on African tribal life and traditional foundations of the society. Achebe became slightly interested in British culture, and began reading English writings; only to be disgusted with the message British authors were trying to get across.
Achebe learned that English authors saw Africans as inhumane savages that needed to be saved (Gikandi 68). With the advent of the white man there was a loss of native values such as communal harmony, placing society above self, respect for the aged, and reverence for achievers, which resulted in the absence of self analysis and a stable code of ethics in the society of pre-Independent Nigeria. Lured by western education and well paying jobs, the youth of the country did not hesitate to stoop to the levels of immortality and dangerous permissiveness (Moore). The author saw the growing new generation of Nigerians who have been exposed to education in the western world and therefore cut off from their roots in traditional society, only to discover upon their return, that the demands of tradition are still strong, and are hopelessly caught in the clash between the old and the new (Conrad 19).
Being unhappy with that kind of situation Achebe decided to answer back by writing his own novels. Writers idea is to propagandize the historical and traditional values of his nation to these new generations. One of the most famous novels of Chinua Achebe that deals with colonization and its effects on the society is Arrow of God. The novel takes place in the 1920 s after the British have established their presence in Nigeria.
The arrow of god mentioned in the title is Ezeulu, the chief priest of the god Ulu who is the patron deity of an Ibo village (Egejuru 43). As chief priest, Ezeulu is responsible for initiating the rituals that structure village life, a position vested with a great deal of power. In Ezeulu, Achebe presents a study in the loss of power (Egejuru 46). After his village rejects his advice to avoid war with a neighboring village, Ezeulu finds himself at odds with his own people but praised, however, by the British administrators. The British, seeking a candidate to install as village chieftain, make him an offer, which he refuses. Ezeulu, now caught in the middle with no allies, rapidly loses his grip on reality and slips into senility.
In Arrow of God Achebe uses Ezeulu as a strong willed man of tradition who cannot adapt, and is crushed by virtues in the war between the new, more worldly order, and the old conservative values of an isolated society (Innes 96). In some viewpoints, the character is portraying an African society losing its grip on its own reality, with nowhere to turn to for help. Basically, The Arrow of God is the story about the conflict of the two different worlds and cultures. Achebe portrays the disrupting effect an externally imposed power system (the British) has on an internally imposed power system (African tradition and customs). Conflicts within the Igbo society coupled with repercussions from external invasion result in disaster for the Igbo society, which disintegrates from within and reorients itself to Christianity. This reorientation will lead not only to the assimilation of Western values and beliefs, but also to the eventual loss of the Igbo cultural identity.
Ezeulu, the main character, the chief priest of Ulu, a god created by the people almost a century before when the six villages of Umuaro united to withstand the Am slave raiders. As chief priest, Ezeulu is responsible for safeguarding the traditions and rituals of the people. For example, Ezeulu watches each month for the new moon. He eats a sacred yam and beats the one to mark the beginning of each new month.
Only the chief priest can name the day for the feast of the Pumpkin Leaves or for the New Yam Feast, which ushers in the yam harvest. Ezeulu considers himself "merely a watchman" (Achebe 3) for Ulu. "His power was no more than the power of a child over a goat that was said to be his" (Achebe 3). Achebe is interested in investigating this power and how a priest determines the gods' decrees. Ezeulu has four sons-Edge, Obika, Oduche, and Nwaka.
Ezeulu sends Oduche to study Christianity with the white missionaries led by Mr. Goodcountry. Ezeulu initial motive is so that Oduche might learn the wisdom of the white men (Achebe 42). Later, he realizes that if the white men take over the country, as it seems obvious they will, it would be prudent to have one of his own sons in the inside circle. "I have sent you to be my eyes there" (Achebe 189) he says. Ezeulu's old friend, Akuebue discourages Ezeulu's decision to send Oduche to the white men. "When you spoke against the war with Okperi you were not alone... But if you send your son to join strangers in desecrating the land you will be alone " (Achebe 134).
Nevertheless, Ezeulu sends his son. Oduche is instructed by Mr. Goodcountry to kill the sacred python. Oduche places a python in a footlocker, but the snake is discovered and is released unharmed. Even though everyone in Umuaro knows that Oduche is responsible for this desecration of a sacred symbol, Ezeulu does not punish his son. The incident further fuels the divide between Ezeulu and his enemies.
Shortly after this, Ezeulu is summoned to Okperi to Government Hill for a meeting with Winterbottom who wants to make Ezeulu a "puppet" chief. The British attempted to instigate a policy advanced by Lord Lugard, governor-General of Nigeria from 1912 - 19. The idea of indirect rule allows the colonizers to rule the colonized people through appointed native chiefs (Maja-Pearce 18). Before Ezeulu leaves for Okperi, Ezeulu's enemy, Nwaka draws attention to Ezeulu's friendship with the white men who are taking the Igbo land. Ezeulu angers Winterbottom by delaying his departure for Okperi.
When Ezeulu arrives on Government Hill he is imprisoned. Winterbottom has become ill and is in the hospital. Assistant District Officer Tony Clarke makes the offer to Ezeulu that the British would like to make him a ruler. Ezeulu declines to be "a white man's chief" (Achebe 175). Ezeulu angers the British administration, which detains him for two more months. During his imprisonment, Ezeulu cannot eat the sacred yams or announce the new moons.
Angry with his people for letting the British detain him, Ezeulu refuses to eat the yams. When he is released he stubbornly moves the New Yam Festival forward two months. By refusing to announce the feast, the yams cannot be harvested and they rot in the fields causing av famine. "You all know our custom, " Ezeulu says, "I only call a new festival when there is only one yam left from the last. Today I have three yams and so I know that the time has not come" (Achebe 207). Aware that he is punishing and hurting his people, Ezeulu likens himself to the arrow in the bow of Ulu. The people become divided between their loyalty to Ulu and their loyalty to the survival of the community.
They begin to question the chief priest and ask that the custom be altered. While the people argue and starve, Ezeulu's son Obika dies suddenly while performing as Ogbazulobodo, the night spirit, in a ritual for a funeral. The people take Obika's death as a sign that Ulu had either chastised or abandoned his priest and "that no man however great was greater than his people; that no one ever won judgment against his clan" (Achebe 230). Ezeulu is a tragic hero who imperiled his community to make a point.
Because Ulu failed them, the people of Umuaro turned to Christianity, harvesting the yams and taking a sacrificial offering to Mr. Goodcountry who received them with open arms. Of the ending John Updike says that the events of the conclusion "proved unexpected and, as I think about them, beautifully resonant, tragic and theological. That Ezeulu, whom we had seen stand up so invincibly to both Nwaka and Clarke, should be so suddenly vanquished by his own god Ulu and by something harsh and vengeful within himself, and his defeat in a page or two be the fulcrum of a Christian lever upon his people, is an ending few Western novelists would have contrived (Maja-Pearce 56). Achebe's achievement, then, in this novel, is to portray his obvious love and respect for the Igbo people balanced with an honest representation of their lives, conflicts, and culture. Achebe's characters have both good and bad traits, which are equally exposed and explored in the novel.
Achebe's point is that the Igbo people were in some way susceptible to assimilation by Western culture because they could not reconcile the internal discord within their own culture. However, Achebe never blames the colonizers directly. His intent is rather to focus on the reasons why the Igbo culture put up so little resistance to Western ways. He speculates that "the society itself was already heading toward destruction... [but] Europe has a lot of blame... [T]here were internal problems that made it possible for the European to come in. Somebody showed them the way.
A conflict between two brothers enables a stranger to reap their harvest" (Egejuru 125). People of African origin have tried to "center" themselves in the face of European imperialism and colonialism, the racism in the countries to which they immigrated, and their treatment as a global underclass. In his struggle for own people, Chinua Achebe appeared to many as calm and idealistic. For instance, Achebe peacefully talked about equality for blacks and whites. Achebe urged blacks to win their rightful place in society by gaining self-respect, high moral standards, hard work and leadership, that is, in his opinion, innate to the true African soul. In his work, the writer especially wanted to teach impressionable black youth that they are born unique and should be proud of their nationality.
The historical roots of Achebe's motherland go very deep into the history of worlds development. Achebe is committed to helping create a national African culture through African literature (Finley). "The worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The writer's duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost. There is a saying in Ibo that a man who can't tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. In his novel, and as an African writer, Achebe shows his people where and how they lost their identity.
He can also assist them in reclaiming it. "I'm an Igbo writer, " he says, "because this is my basic culture; Nigerian, African and a writer... no, black first, then a writer. Each of these identities does call for a certain commitment on my part. I must see what it is to be black-and this means being sufficiently intelligent to know how the world is moving and how the black people fare in the world.
This is what it means to be black. Or an African-the same: what does Africa mean to the world? When you see an African what does it mean to a white man? Achebe's goal, then, as a writer is to instruct. He says, "I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past-with all its imperfections-was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them" (Innes 45).
Achebe's novel Arrow of God not only teach Africans, they also enlarge the knowledge and understanding of non-Africans about the Igbo culture, as well as about universal truths of human nature. Bibliography Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. New York: Anchor Books, 1969. Maja-Pearce, Adewale. A Mask Dancing Nigerian Novelists of the Eighties.
London: Hans Zell Pub. , 1992. Gikandi, Simon. Reading Chinua Achebe. London: James Current, 1991. Egejuru, Panel Akubueze, ed.
Towards African Literary Independence: A Dialogue With Contemporary African Writers. Westport: Greenwood, 1980. Moore, Gerald. "Achebe's New Novel. " Transition. 4 (May/June 1964): 52. Innes, C. L. Chinua Achebe.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Ross C. Martin.
Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's P, 1989. Finley, Michael. Traditional African Writers. Science et Vie. 5 (June 1975): 46.
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