Confusion, Misjudgment and Dissonance: The Fall of a Priest, a People and a God in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God

Tanzir Ahmed

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2022.5.2.16

Abstract

Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God portrays the gradual downfall and the ultimate doom of the protagonist, Ezeulu, of the entire Igbo community and even their deity, Ulu. Ezeulu’s tragedy happens in numerous stages influenced by various factors stemming from personal, communal and religious conflicts and his misinterpretation or misunderstanding of himself, his people, his deity and institutions and circumstances. Set in the 1920s Nigeria, Arrow of God portrays a period when colonial machination is well underway, and the native beliefs and institutions are crumbling under its grueling pressure. This paper seeks to show how Arrow of God shows that the main reason for the debacle of Igbo society lies in their internal conflicts, failure to stick to their tradition and the helplessness and dilemma to which colonialism has subjected them. Achebe asserts that for the sake of maintaining age-old traditions, some flexibility in judgment must be there, and any kind of absolutism should be avoided for the greater interest of the people.

Highlights

Chinua Achebe has always been an avid champion of African culture and heritage, seeking to uphold the depth, potency and assertability of African culture and tradition through his writings
He is especially critical of the European claim that African people have no culture and can only be civilized through European intervention
Achebe’s writings show how, through cultural invasion, Europeans at first created cracks in African culture and tradition, which led to disintegration and indignity for African people

Summary

Introduction

Chinua Achebe has always been an avid champion of African culture and heritage, seeking to uphold the depth, potency and assertability of African culture and tradition through his writings. Achebe attributes the success of the European cultural invasion to this disunity resulting from ignorance and confusion among Africans caused by colonialism. He is not dreaming of going back to the pre-colonial Africa and starting things anew, but he feels that it is his duty to make Africans aware of what was at the root of their loss of dignity to Europeans: The worst thing that can happen to any person is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them (Achebe, 1964b, p. 159)

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Discussion

Conclusion