Knowledge and Its Significances in African Worldview: The Case of Igbos of Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of GodIhejirika, Cardinal

Abstract

An individual’s wealth of knowledge among other virtues determine his choices and in the case of a leader, how well he leads. The problem of leadership is a theme which runs through Achebe’s trilogy namely, No Longer at Ease, Things Fall Apart and our present Text. In Arrow of God, Achebe decries the wane of both Igbo customs and traditions which followed the advent of colonialists and Christian missionaries into Africa. Ezeulu (who epitomizes Igbo customs and traditions) finds his traditional authority being challenged. This constituted an affront to the spirituality, social cohesion and stability of Igbo society. Even Ezeulu lost his life despite his ready receptivity of some pertinent ideological changes demanded by the times. The worrisome problem becomes: how could the reliable and stable Igbo worldview succumb to a divisive foreign epistemology? The battle of these two worldviews and cultures culminated in violence and death. Achebe condemns such violence and creates the need for a knowledge system that will engender societal development by harmonizing the positive elements of African and European worldviews. In order to bridge this epistemological gap, our study examines the notions of knowledge among the Igbos of Arrow of God, identifies their significances and proposes the idea of cultural integrativism as a panacea for cultural and ideological conflicts. The researcher adopted the analytical and hermeneutical methods of inquiry.