Abstract
The colonial invaders and their repressive means of governance in Africa were not the only reasons that could be solely held accountable for the fall of indigenous African society during the colonial invasion. Native weaknesses, socio-cultural conflicts and hegemony were equally responsible for the falling apart of native social setups when confronted with colonial alternatives. Native people had had their own covert religious and cultural limitations long before the colonizers entered their soil. The colonial powers cleverly used such inherent societal flaws of African people as excuses to impose European religion and traditions on them. Chinua Achebe does not blindly idealize native African traditions in his writings. He frequently narrates his doubts on flawed socio-cultural practices and moral dualities in the native society, too. This paper is an attempt to explore how innate weaknesses of native Igbo people, socio-cultural conflicts and domination in the native society have also made it easier for the colonial administration to prolong their supremacy in the Igbo land, as depicted in Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. It also elaborates how Ezeulu, the chief priest of god Ulu, falls from dominance in his society because of his intent to execute personal desires which jeopardize his societal role in the Igbo land.
Highlights
This paper is an attempt to examine how some distinctive factors of colonial ascendancy including prevalent weaknesses of native people, different layers of cultural conflicts and cultural dominance of colonial forces helped in the establishment of colonial rule in the African continent as reflected in Chinua Achebe’s one of the most famous novels of the colonial period
This paper is an attempt to explore how native weaknesses, widespread cultural conflicts and dominance by a privileged section of indigenous people in the native society have made it easier for the colonial powers to perpetuate their colonial domination in this region, as represented in Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
The novel Arrow of God recounts the decline of native ethnic philosophy, traditions and social beliefs when confronted with the European cultural alternatives after the colonial invasion
Summary
This paper is an attempt to examine how some distinctive factors of colonial ascendancy including prevalent weaknesses of native people, different layers of cultural conflicts and cultural dominance of colonial forces helped in the establishment of colonial rule in the African continent as reflected in Chinua Achebe’s one of the most famous novels of the colonial period. One of the most extensively read African writers in English around the world, attempts to raise awareness against the misrepresentation of African natives and their social lives in the Western narrative through his writings He examines the indelible impact of colonial onslaughts and the cultural dominance of Western colonial forces on African soils from the perspective of a native African. Bhardwaj’s comments that Achebe in his novels “writes about Igbo life as an insider and dispassionately mirrors the strengths and weaknesses of the Igbo traditional society” (118), is quite apt in this context It was not merely the colonial rulers and their oppressive outlooks towards Africans that could be solely held responsible for the downfall of native society during colonization. This paper is an attempt to explore how native weaknesses, widespread cultural conflicts and dominance by a privileged section of indigenous people in the native society have made it easier for the colonial powers to perpetuate their colonial domination in this region, as represented in Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
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