CHAPTER FIVE

UNITY AND DIVERSITY

And as imagination bodies iorth

The form of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

(Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream

V,I)

An objective, dispassionate comparison of two authors presupposes a

disposition to investigate common elements as well as divergences. It means
exploring their cultural and social attitudes, the literary techniques they use.
the aesthetics on which they base their literary creations, and above all, their
effort to make whatever they crcate individually distinctive. In comparing
Achebe and Armah the investigator has assigned to herself the above guidelines.
What constitutes the core of the present chapter is these writers' recreation of
their respective societies and .:he use they make of African myths in
characterisation and social portrz iture.
A common trait in both w-iters is that they use myths in their novels,

directly or obliquely, while presenting the conflict between traditional African

values and imported Western culture. Both speak out for and on behalf of
their communities, with an unbiased mind and their objectives are the same.
While carrying out this noble task, they assume various roles as teachers,
moralists and philosophers

Fully aware of their roles as writers and teachers in the African context,
Achebe and Armah bear the stamp of great novelists with a vehemence of
approach and a sense of urgency. This peculiar trait precisely sets them apart
from other celebrated Anglophore African writers. Their close observation
and sincere perception of African life combined with the factors that they
promote such as unity and social transformation lend relevance, coherence
and strength to their fictional coritributions. Their novels appear like close
studies of the African people and the problems occasioned by the collapse of
traditional order. Their far sighted visions regarding the development of the
nation, their social justice and th,zir perception of social realities are easily
discernible in their novels.
Achebe and Armah through their writings contradicted the Western
notions about the backwardness of African people. They had clear definitions
to give of the African society and their writings serve as political propaganda
for national integration. For instan-e, Gikandi comments on Armah's writings
and considers them as "a forum for advocating the unification of African
cultures, of the bringing together of those value systems that inspired the
continent in the past as a prelude to a future of true national independence"

(3). They stressed the need fo- unity and the opposition of European
domination. These new versions of African history and African people
accelerated the process of decolor~isation.
In Politics as Fiction: The Novels of Ngugi Wa Thiong '0Harish Narang
comments on Achebe's novels:

Universalising his theme as any great writer does, Achebe presented

. . . an encounter betwee.1 Africa and Europe, between

two different

races and above all between different ways of life. Through his
sociological details . . . Achebe was proving that Africans were no
'yesterday people' and ihat African history was not . . . one long
night of savagery. (31)
Once the African people took over, power matters became worse than
during the time of colonisation. D~sharmony,social unrest and wide spread
corruption became the lot of the African people. Achebe and A m a h attacked
this wide spread political tyranny. Achebe in A Man of The People and Armah
in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born vigorously attacked the corrupt
political leaders. They also annoi~ncedthat the corruption was due to the
contact with the West.
The image of the pre-colon al African community that Armah portrays
in Two Thousand Seasons is not a perfect one. The society exhibits great
tensions and conflicts and they conmit many follies and foibles. The novelist
takes many examples from history and mingles them with myth, fancy and
fables. The very structure seems mythical as communal memory drawn by
remembrances is closely related v~ithmyth. Derek Wright observes that the
narration in Armah's Two Thousr~ndSeasons draws not only on local tribal
memories but on "the hypothetical race-memory of a fictitious Pan-African
brotherhood whose names are taken from all parts of the cont~nent:the
migrations of the people of the way suggests the legendary origins of the Akan

of Ghana in the medieval Sudanic Kingdom of the same name" (97).

Two Thousand Seasons is a celebration of African values and its
unadultered mores and manners. It is written with African flavour making use
of rich African traditions and myti-s. Images of life and vitality are contrasted

with images of death and inactivity. The colours are used symbolically. White
colour becomes synonymous wit1 alien values and so refers to death and
destruction. The black colour is associated with success and vitality. The
Healersportrays the life of the nineieenth century Asante people. h a h makes
use of the traditional aesthetics, martial arts and religious observances. Armah
brings in detail the political conflict which troubled the nineteenth century
Asante society which culminated in the domination of the Western power.
According to Charles Naama The Healers is "the artistic return of a native son
who has attempted to re-create the Akan philosophical system of life that the
prophetic voice of Anoa suggestecl in Two Thousand Seasons" (26).
Armah in Two Thousand Seasons shows the 'Arabs' (the 'predators')
and the Europeans (the 'destroyers') as responsible for converting Africa from
its earlier stage of gentleness and aeace to a scene of chaos and violence. He
exhorts the Africans to exterminate the predators and destroyers to regain the
ancient ancestral purity and nobility. Inaction is to be dreaded and avoided;
all should strive for the concrete future and failure must not curtail action.
Mala Pandurang observes that Armah writes Two Thousand Seasons
on "racial memory supported by legend and myth" (146).The prophecy of
the young Akan priestess Anoa jorms the basis of the novel. It discloses a

thousand seasons wandering amidst alien roads and another thousand leading
to the way. Thus it talks about two thousand seasons, a thousand dry and the
other thousand moist.
Lindfors observes that both Achebe and Armah write "as responses to
European racism . . . that assumed Africans to be inferior creatures incapable
of high civilization" (54).S o they smphasised that the Africans should be in
control of their own future and must be their own masters. They exhorted
them to rise against the white poKer.
Palmer in The Growth of the African Novel writes of Two Thousand
Seasons:
It is a rousing call to Africans to liberate themselves from all those
alien forces--economic, political, spiritual-which initially led to the
destruction of African traditional values and are the real cause of
the present decadence cln the continent. It also urges Africans to
make a spiritual and psychological journey back to the origins to
rediscover and to re-establish that pure African system unadulterated
by alien values. Only in the possibility of such a rediscovery can
there be any hope. (238- - 39)
In Things Fall Apart and, .4rrow of God Achebe uses "an African
vernacular English which stimulates the idiom of Igbo. In the narrative and
descriptive passages, similes and idiomatic expressionsare frequently employed
to convey the feel of an agricultural and hunting society" (CP 111).
Achebe and Armah have succeeded in creating an awareness by showing

that the worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity
and self-respect. They found it their duty to help them regain their original
status. Commenting on Achebe, Lndfors rightly remarks that "Achebe's concern
with colonial stupidity led him to present a dignified image of the African past,
an image that corrected European stereotypes of the Dark Continent" (55).
In Recent Cornrnonwealtj' Literature Dhawan remarks on Achebe's
purpose of writing, which is to teach. This the writer could perform in two
ways. "First by asserting the bem~uty
and dignity of his own culture, and
secondly, by educating the masscs in the new directions the country must
take as a mature, independent nation" (14).
Chidi Amuta in The Theo~yof African Literature throws light on the
special aspects of Achebe's Amok of God. He asserts that Achebe focuses on
"institutional (supernatural) aspects of the encounter between colonialism
and the African society" (128).
While comparing these two novelists, it is good to see them through
the eyes of critics. John Povey firids Achebe "the best novelist" among the
Anglophone writers as his works have "a structural strength and architectural
coherence unmatched by other novelists" (Post Colonial African Writers27).
According to C.L. Innes, Achebe i:; "the father of the African Novel". Nadine
Gordimer asserts that Achebe

"

is gloriously gifted with the magic of an

ebullient, generous, great talent' and T.A. Hale calls him "Africa's most
significant black novelist" (Post Colonial African Writers 27).
Eldred Jones, in African Literature Today writes that Achebe "is a

careful and fastidious artist in full c:ontrol of his art, a serious craftsman who
disciplines himself not only to write regularly but to write well. He has the
sense of decorum, proportion and design lacked by too many contemporary
novelists, African and non-African alike" (3).
Achebe beautifully expresses his artistic credo in "The Novelist as
d
as " a teacher who reflects as
Teacher". He views himself, first a ~ foremost
well as shapes the communal visions and values of his people" (Post Colonial
African Writers 20). To Achebe, ,3n artist is an integral part of his or her
community. According to Armah, the role of a writer is "to inspire Africa to be
true to its own spirit" (Armah's Hijtories 94).
Achebe emphasizes that "society is an extension of the individual"
(Anthills99). In South Asian Responses Lindfors assesses Achebe's literary
output and concludes that Achebe writes in the tradition and mode of great
writers. He comments:
Achebe is an artist, not a metaphysician or theorist. His politics,
therefore, in the tradition of poets and novelists such as Whitman,
Eliot and Yeats, Joyce and Lawrence, is the politics of vision, a
vision which, though idealistic and utopian, is at the same time
authentically African in its open-hearted generosity, warmth and
humanity. (102 - 103)
Arrnah defines community in terms of shared sufferings and shared
hopes. He emphasizes on the interaction and in Two Thousand Seasonsand
The Healers Armah speaks from hese aspects of society. While instructing

Densu in the seven sacred rules, .Armah gives priority to community values.
In his essay on "African Socialisn~Utopian or Scientific?" Armah speaks for
the society, a s a socialist. In his last two novels, specially in the Two Thousand
Seasons he shifts his interest from the individual to the community.
According to Bemth Lindfors, "at a moment when other African writers
were insisting that the creative artist come to terms with contemporary African
realities, Armah appeared to be swimming against the tide by immersing
himself in times gone by" (86).
The theme of quest for identity is very vivid in his novels. It is the
African identify before the intrusion of the colonizers and the Africans believe
that they can regain this lost identity through the implementation of 'the way'.
Emmanuel Ngara comments on Armah's Two Thousand Seasons: "The
amount~ofmaterial covered and the vision given to the African people are
fantastic and admirable. There is nothing so far written in African fiction to
surpass its excellence of language, its epic splendour, its immense moral
earnestness" (Rao, 90).
Izevbaye in "Ayi Kwei Armiih and the 'I' of the Beholder" writes of Two
Thousand Seasons:
It is important to see it rlltimately as fiction, a mytho-poetic system
accepting and making use of the archetypal dream of total liberation

. . . [and] is constructed after a Marxist mytho-poetic model: it locates

an imaginaty African Eden, the way of Reciprocity in the pre-migrations
part of the Africans in the novel, and projects a socialist heaven too, in

its hope for the recovery of the way

. .

. Two Thousand Seasons is

manifestly intended as Yifrica's Bible' because of the explicitness of its

moral exhortation and the Pan-African

manner in which it draws its

characters' name from ail over the continent. (242)

Achebe's novels speak about the specific political situations unfolding
the developments of the Nigerian history. It is vividly traceable that the first
two novels set in an earlier period before independence bring to light the
internal and external attack upon the traditional Igbo way of life. The last two
novels describe the results of the co lflictin the modern state. With full conviction
he presents the details of his pe,3ple, their mores and manners. In South
Asian Responses Rao Writes:
Achebe's political creed :;eems to be a radical form of populism, but
it would be more enlightening to see it a s belonging to a richer and
more venerable tradition of thought-the

tradition of philosophic

conservatism represented by Burke, Coleridge, Disraeli, Arnold and

Gandhi. (96)

A v e y remarkable cultural trait in Achebe and Armah is their application

of myths. There are remarkable adaptations of Greek tragedies by the African
writers. "Ola Rotimi's adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex in The Gods
are Not to Blame .

. .

Efua Sutherland's Edufa and Wole Soyinka's The

Bacchae of Euripedes are adaptations of Euripide's Alcesits and The Bacchae

respectively" (Asgill 175). Similarly Achebe uses lgbo myths so as to reproduce
the Igbo life while A m a h applies Akan myths and these myths serve various

functions. Through these myths they effectively and adequately embody their
community values. In Achebe's novels myth is a powerful cultural force that
helps the natives to live in unity and harmony. For instance, in Arrow of God,
Achebe portrays how various fcsrces contribute to the modification and
recreation of the community. Alan Dundes in Flood Myth observes that
myths may be defined "as a sacred narrative explaining how the world or
human came to be in their present form" (1). In every work of art one can
trace mythic elements embedded in it and it provides the raw materials for
literature.
Achebe gives the official vcbrsion of the 'creation myth' regarding the
origin of the six villages and the (qpointment of Ezeulu as the chief priest.
According to this myth, their ancestors in six villages united together when the
hired soldiers of Abame attacked them. During this raid at night many were
taken as slaves. While invoking tht! protection of the God from their enemies,
these six villagers unanimously selected a priest from the smallest village and
that is how the priest Ezeulu carre to be appointed. Achebe's short stories
also disclose many of the Igbo r~yths.For example "The Sacrificial Egg"
shows how old beliefs and custom; influence even young educated members
of the society who denigrate tradition.Armah's Two Thousand Seasons provides
the most comprehensive vision of the catastrophic aspects of slavery and
disunity. The natives were ready to sell even their brothers as slaves. This
reminds one of the Biblical passage where Joseph was sold as a slave by his
own brothers in Genesis (37:28).

Sometimes they convey mythic consciousness by retelling an

acknowledged myth as 'the Promef hean Myth' which A m a h uses in his novels.
Similarly Achebe uses the 'Oedipi~smyth' to cite Okonkwo's pride and deeds
against the will of gods. In The Emergence ofAfrican fiction Palmer writes of
many western readers who interpret the fall of Okonkwo as going against the
will of the gods . .

and the ending as tragic and inevitable citing

. . .

parallel to Oedipus" (61).

At times mythic apprehensiion of reality is presented through literary
archetypes, archetypal situations, pre-figurations and culture specific names.
Achebe's presentation of the rivalry between Ulu and Idernili gives a classical
touch to Arrow of God. In classical mythology one reads about the rivalry
among gods.
In Indian Response to African Writing Rao writes of Achebe's novels.
He compares the protagonist Okonkwo to great heroes. Rao writes:
He [Okonkwo] emerges as a representative of the lgbo culture,
possessing the very be:;t of the qualities glorified by that culture,
valour, fearlessness and physical powers. The calamity and the tragic
events at the end raise the protagonist to the levels of classical Oedipus
or Orestes or King Lear. (66)
Both Achebe and Armah have incorporated ritualistic features in the
selected novels. By introducing ritualistic elements, they affirm their links with
the ritual roots deeply embeddei in African literature. The incorporation of
myths and rituals in their novels serves also the purpose of giving a distinctive

Africanness to them. It recreates the cultural and religious ambience of life in

their respective societies and thus becomes part of the evocation of the
background of the story.
In The Emergence of African Fiction Palmer observes that in Things
Fall Apart Achebe presents "an clverview of traditional lgbo customs" and
that it can be called "an archetypal African novel" (28). Besides, the novel
begins with the myth concerning the origin of the clan and uses similes and
metaphors distinctly African in origin. For example, Achebe describes the
mounting fame of Okonkwo in Af.ican terms when he writes that Okonkwo's
fame was spreading all around like "bushfire in harmattann(17), where
'harmattan' is a unique African word referring to the hot dry wind blowing
from the Sahara in West Africa.
In the portrayal of the unic!ue native traditions, Achebe seems a step
ahead of Armah. For example, A c ~ e b writes
e
in detail about the native rituals
like the wrestling match, the rituals !nvolved in arranging a traditional marriage,
the birth of Ogbanje children, the traditional rituals attached with the burial of
a dead body, the sacrifice of Ikemefuna according to the prophecy of the
Oracle, Okonkwo's reparation for his sins against the earth goddess, the ritual
incineration of Okonkwo's house otc.
Achebe writes about both the native religion and Christianity, the White
man's religion. The native festivals such a s the New Yam Festival, and the
Festival of the Pumpkin Leaves that is associated with nature come alive in
Achebe's novel. Armah in Two Tt ousand Seasons and The Healers disclose

the rituals and festivals of the Esuano and Asante societies. These festivals
were 'reminders' as they reminded them of their ancestors: "Our clearest
remembrances begin with a home before we came near the desert of the
falling sun" (TH4).
Achebe skilfully employs the traditional rituals and customs which
symbolize the nature of the Igbo society. The way guests are received is an
expression of their generosity and hospitality. Similarly the breaking of kola
nut symbolizes the good will and friendship between the guest and the host.
Another symbolic expression is th 3.t the guest on entering a house is provided
with a white chalk. The guest draws his personal emblem at the entrance of
the house as a sign of respect ancl friendship.
The mask symbolically represented the great power enjoyed by the
elders. In Indian Response to African Writing Rao writes that " in the death of
Okonkwo Achebe symbolizes the death of what is traditional in Africa and the
collapse of the entire society" (75).Obierika, Okoknow's friend speaks of the
white men and their intrusion

iii

symbolic terms: "the white man is very

clever. He came quietly and peaczably with his religion. Now he has won our
brothers, and our clan can no l o q e r act like one. He has put on the things
which held us together and we hiwe fallen apart:" (TAT 145).
Achebe presents Ezeulu as a man of pride and dignity. The White men
failed to give due recognition though Ezeulu is inseparable from the native
life. The ritual eating of the yam i ~ n dthe announcing of the new moon being
his sacred responsibility, he perfs3rmed it with all possible devotion. Ezeulu

after his confinement feels that he can re-establish his power.

Achebe's protagonists, thc~ughheroic in the beginning, seem to lose
their dignity. The chief priest in Arrow of God is 'half man and half spirit'. As
a man he tries to find a solution tc the problems by judging his own emotions
and feelings. Unlike Okonkwo, Eztx~luis wise, witty and clever. It is his attitude
that one should adjust one's behadiour to the situation. S o he sends one of his
sons, Oduche to the mission school. His people misinterpret this action, which
leads to his tragedy.
The relations of Ezeulu anti his family members also reveal the flaws of
his character. His pride and haughtiness make him extremely contemptuous
to his opponents. At the same time there are many impressive touches given
to Ezeulu's personality. For exarrple, Ezeulu is an intellectual and the clarity
of mind with which he analyses the issues make him impressive. He is honest
and is very much concerned about truth and justice. He exhibits nobility in his
attitude towards traditional valuczs and could influence his inferiors through
his impressive speeches.
In The Writings of Chinua Achebe G.D. Killam rightly remarks :
Ezeulu possesses the characteristics of the classical tragic hero--a
man of power and influence in his community, a leader who
epitomizes the spirit oft- is times. A man with a tragic flaw, arrogance
and pride which causes him to commit an error in judgement when
he lets his personal feelings interfere with his usually keen assessment
of circumstances. (81-32)

Thus Achebe presents hirr a s an embodiment of the values of his

society. From that exalted position Ezeulu falls to the pit, loses his vitality,
recognition and the society sees him as treacherous and ambitious. In The
Theory ofAfrican Literature Chidi Amuta rightly remarks:
Ezeulu's principal flaw consists in a certain egocentricity,which places
individual self-assertion above the will of collectivity and even the
imperatives of public office. But. . . what constitutes his undoing is
that he responds to the pressures of colonialism

. .

. in a rather

individualistic manner. His tragedy, then is essentially one of a basic

dislocation between individual action and the demands of a historical
imperative requiring col.ective assertion, (135)
Charles Naama notices thiit in the Akan tradition 'the supernatural' is
part of their everyday being. So the role of a supernatural means a kind of
saviour figure. The audience m2y come across the supernatural facts of the
hero. In the novels of Armah he tries to fictionalise categories of supermen
who consider it as their noble mission to save or rescue the society from the
clutches of evil.
Charles Naama aptly quo :es:
In the superman, who may be a great hero, a great warrior, or a
great statesman, a great religious leader, a great thinker-we

sense

the consciousness of an evangelising spirit or reforming mission to

save the community

0 1even

mankind in the name of God. .

. . In

him the consciousne~sof something sublime comes near to

experience. This sublimity means there is now something at work

which is more pervasive or extensive than the accustomed horizon
of the community. (95-96)
The qualities that Naama asserts in a super man are exemplified by
s
adds that "this transcendence
Densu. Commenting on Densu C h ~ l eNaama
of the superman beyond the acknowledged ethos of the community is precisely
one of the spectacular traits which Densu portrays in The Healers" (28).
Lal observes that myth is "a product of the deepest urges of man

...

manifestation of his efforts made in solving the problem of basic physical

needs, and religious wants, facilitating his survival and adjustment with the
hostile milieu" (2).
Both Achebe and A m a h present the colonialist attitude with irony.
White people overcome all resistace and the natives gradually bend their
necks to the colonial yoke. Armah's heroes in the last two novels come out
victoriously proving their extra crdinary prowess, while Achebe's heroes
Okonkwo and Ezeulu meet with utter failure. The saying, "the wise man
adjusts himself to the world, the fool tries to adjust the world to himself" is
applicable to these characters.
In 'Armah's Histories" Bernth Lindfors quotes Armah's observation
on the precolonial African society:
Africa, before being polluted by contact with the outside world, was a
Garden of Eden . . . . People lived in harmonious communities, sharing
the fruits of their labour (ind never striving to compete against their

neighbours for the acquisition of superior status or material goods.

Rulers did not exist; the communities were acephalous, completely
democratic and devoted to the principle of reciprocity. (89)
Amah's heroes are more epic and heroic in nature, as his heroes grow
and mature in the course of the story. In close analysis, his heroes like Densu,
Damfo and Isanusi take a positiv,. stand against all that is false, absurd and
valueless. For example, Densu in The Healers emerges triumphantly out of
the quagmire of a tainted and troubled society. He exhibits heroic stamina
when he encounters the evils ha,ched by Ababio with great equipoise and
unusual fortitude. He asserts his true value and is noble, outspoken and
ingenuous. Densu leaves the world in search of a greater reality and his quest
proves an escape from the external attractions of the world like power, position
and wealth. In ThingsFall Apart, tile protagonist, Okonkwo is madly in search
of such pursuits.
Joseph Campbell's The k'ero with a Thousand Faces describes the
mythological hero passing througrl three main phases-separation,

initiation

and return. He writes:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region
of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and
a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious
adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men. (30)
In Achebe and Armah's novels, the heroes pass through these phases,
though there are certain visible differences. Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart

goes into exile for seven years and comes back to his village with great
expectations. He exhorts his people to rise against the white men. Though
they failed to give him necessary ,;upport, he fights against the white men and
proves his valour.
In The Healers, A m a h places Densu in the group of heroes mentioned
by Joseph Campbell. He forsakes the world behind, gets initiated into the
healer's group and returns at th? peak moment to save his people. He too
exhibits his heroism.
In Two Thousand Seasonsalso Armah's characters are models of selfless
love and self-sacrifice. lsanusi and 'the group of twenty' are noted for their
strong will and strict adherence to morality. Achebe's heroes in the selected
novels prove that they are psychc~logicallyunfit to maintain healthy relationship
with others. The main reasor is that, Okonkwo and Ezeulu, Achebe's
protagonists, suffer from their o'Nn inner flaws.
In The Growth of the African Novel Palmer observes that Ezeulu is
"embattled against tremendous iorces, external as well as internal; these forces
contribute to his downfall. But his own faults of character play a very important
contributory role as well" (100)
Obika's death gives a swere blow from which Ezeulu could never
recover. Though this can be interpreted as the merciless act from the gods, it
is a disaster due to Ezeulu's pride and wavering from the bounds of authority.

To the people Ezeulu appears to oe ill-tempered, proud, haughty and vindictive.

To the leaders in Umuaro it was clear that " their god had taken stdes

with them against his headstrong and ambitious priest and thus upheld the
wisdom of their ancestors - that rlo man however great was greater than his
people, that no one ever won judgement against his clan" (TAT555)
Achebe presents Ezeulu a:; a mad man after the death of Obika. But
madness is very much visible frorn the beginning of the novel itself. The term
madness is first introduced during the conversation between Akuebue and
Ezeulu and Akuebue suspects mildness in his behaviour. "It made him afraid
and uneasy like one who encounters a madman laughing on a solitary path"
(TAT454).
There are ample references to Ezeulu's mother's madness. Moses
Unachukwa refers to the madness in the family. Nwaka, his enemy, hearing
that Ezeulu has declined chieftair cy retorts: "The man is as proud as a lunatic.
. ..

This proves what I have always told people, that he inherited his mother's

madness" ( TAT500).
Edgar Wright in The C~.iticalEvaluation of African Literature writes:
The tragedy of Ezeulu, high priest of Ulu, depends upon the nature
of the deity himself ant1 on the realization that he is created by men
in the image of the organic spirit of the clan. The inter play of the
theme of culture conflict and the break-up of the organic society
with the spiritual decline and eventual madness of Ezeulu equals
anything in Things Ed1 Apart, where the tragedy, not essentially
different in the dependence on cultural values for effect, is more
mannered. The subject on of the medium to a point of greater balance

in Arrow of God makes a fine piece of craftsmanship into a powerful

novel. (41)
In Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God Achebe presents ambitious
men trapped by their own contri~dictions.For example, Okonkwo in Things
Fall Apart is the opposite in nature to Densu in Armah's The Healers. Okonkwo
is alienated, lonely, disillusionzd, and unable to maintain harmonious
relationships with others. He alienates himself from his family and society
while Densu is chaste, untainted, perfect and unflawed. He unites the
disharmonious society into a sol~done through his tremendous courage and
selfless love. Okonkwo embodies anarchy, while Densu symbolizes order and
harmony.
Ideal love transforms Denju into a noble figure while Okonkwo suffers
as the rift between his intention and realization grows wider. Because of his
intense inner conflicts, he encloses himself within a narrow world of his own
self and private concerns. As a result he experiences deep frustration and
pangs of alienation.
Religion is a dominant metaphor in Achebe and A m a h and the strong
moral tone of their writings gives the plots a kind of ritual movement. The
,.

ritual eating of yam in Arrow of God is an instance. Similarly, Achebe's

Things Fall Apart abounds in imagery from religion. Armah in Two Thousand
Seasons and The Healers speaks in detail of sacrifices, offerings and other
religious observances.
African religion has no stable appearance as it has no written scriptures

in the beginning. Both writers apply mythic consciousness in the religious

level as myth and religion are closely related. Satynarain Singh, in "Towards
a New African Aesthetic: A Note on Myth and History in Achebe and Soyinka"

writes of African religion:

It is a living religion written in the lives of people and its source is the
strong oral tradition of m>.ths, folk tales and proverbs, which embody
the wisdom of the race. Religion is the richest part of the African
heritage embracing all arzas of human life and activity. It dominates
the thinking of African people, shaping their culture and worldview.

(134)
Achebe and Armah presert a variety of myths and rituals during the
portrayal of the African people's modes of worship. In both these novelists
one can discern a similarity, whici- ultimately reveals how they think, speak or
act in different situations of life, which is an expression of their interest in
religious matters.
Achebe gives a closer picture of the Judeo-Christian myths. Achebe
speaks of the Christian concepts of God, Trinity, Eucharist etc. Besides, many
Biblical quotations and parable:; are integrated in the text. For example,
Achebe writes of Mr.Brown, t h ~successor of Reverend James Smith. Mr.
Brown talked about "sheep and goats . . . [and] he believed in slaying the
prophets of Baal" (TAT 150). In the Bible a detailed account of prophet
Elijah and the followers of Baal is given ( I Kings 18:l- 46) and it is echoed in
Things Fall Apart. As Satyanarain Singh observes, "In many African societies

their myths aver that at the beg~nning,God and man were in very close
contact and the heavens and the earth were united" (135).
Both Achebe and A m a h portray the invisible world linked with the
visible physical world. In the Igbo culture there is no special abode set up for
the gods. They see divinity in everything. Each man is endowed with the Chi,
a personal god who is the force behind every action.

The Igbo people have deep faith in medicine and magic. Achebe and
A m a h carefully construct their plots and characters giving a comprehensive
view of their religious observances. Besides in Achebe's novels the gods are
described in humanistic terms. For example, when Obika, Ezeulu's son
returns home late at night, he reports that he had a vision. From the details
given by Obika, Ezeulu comes to jhe conclusion that Obika met Eru, the God
of wealth. He says:

You have seen Eru, the magnificent, the One that gives wealth to
those who find favour with him. People sometimes see him at that
place in this kind of weather. Perhaps he was returning home from a
visit to Idemili or the otber deities. Eru only harms those who swear
falsely before his shrine . . . When he likes a man wealth flows like
a river into his house; his yams grow as big as human beings, his
goats produce threes and hens hatch nines. (TAT 327)
The religious beliefs and practices of the people were based on their
Belief in the supernatural forces was one
conception of gods and goddessc?~.
of the remarkable aspects. In Things Fall Apart, Unoka, Okonkwo's father,

visits the oracle and finds an explenation for the poor harvest. This reveals
the relationship between deity and society: "when a man is at peace with his
gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the
strength of his arm" (TAT28).Thus in Achebe, explanations for human adions
and mishaps were sought in the oracles. According to Chidi Arnuta, the African
world is a "conflation of the mundane world of working, waking and sleeping
and a supra-mundane world of spirits, gods and other numinous influences
intricately matriied in a complex c3smogonic" (38).
Usually the seasons responti favourably when man acts harmoniously
and the vice versa. The seasons together with nature turns against man when
Okonkwo, the protagonist in Things Fall Apart breaks the sacred laws of the
society. Barthhold in Black Time observes that "Okonkwo has offended the
goddess of the earth and potentially disrupted natural process" (10). Besides
the society becomes aware of the consequences of his murder. They see "his
act as jeopardizing the cyclic continuity of the seasons" (10).Achebe visibly
or symbolically expresses the consequences of man's relation with nature.
Similarly the different seasons or cycles in nature are symbolically
used. "In Pre-European Africa the view of time as cyclic was inextricable
from beliefs and practices regarding birth, marriage and death" (10).
Chidi Amuta differentiates between Judaeo-Christian and Achebe's
description of the Umuaro concepts of God. In Achebe's novels "man creates
god to serve his social and econ~micneeds" while Judaeo-Christian belief
depicts god as one who "prececles human existence" (132).For example,

Achebe in Arrow of God shows Lllu, the supreme deity, as fashioned by the
people of six villages to meet their need for security against the attack of the
slave raiders.
In the very distant past, . . . the hired soldiers of Abam used to strike
in the dead of night, set fire to the houses and carry men, women
and children into slaver\. Things were so bad for the six villages that
their leaders came togetTer to save themselves. They hired a strong
team of medicine-men to install a common deity for them. This
deity, which the fathers of the six villages made was called Ulu.

(TAT 333)
The details of 'ancestor cult' are another visible trait in both. Ancestor
cult symbolically represents their belief in life after death, though they openly
confess no faith in heaven or hell. They revered and worshipped the ancestor's
spirits and these spirits were 'the guardians' in life. The ancestors performed
major roles in their day-to-day lives, either it be spiritual or social needs. For
example, these ancestors settled issues and their verdicts were indisputably
accepted.
The concept of Chi is ano:her common aspect in Achebe and Armah.
It is supposed to be the 'guardian angel', the personal spirit or the soul of an
individual. Achebe in " Chi in Igbo Cosmology" writes, "a person's Chi is his
other identity in the spirit land" (93).This is further stressed in Arrow of God:
"No man, however great, was greater than his people; that no one ever won
judgement against his clan" (555).The material progress and personal profits

are related to the Chi. In portraying the concept of Chi Achebe discusses it
more elaborately than Armah. In C3mmonwealth Literaturesatyanarain Singh
writes that "the gods in the Icbo tradition are more immanent than
transcendental" (138)and Achehe "conceives of God primarily as a moral
postulate" (138).
Achebe and Amah use numerical imagey in their novels. Both novelists
frequently use numbers like three, five, seven, nine. For example in Arrow of
God Achebe writes: "On the day, five years ago, when the leaders of Umuaro
decided to send an emissary to Okperi with white clay for peace or new palm
frond for war, Ezeulu spoke in vain" (334).
In Two Thousand Seasons and The Healers Armah uses number seven
frequently. There are seven chapters in both novels and the first paragraph
in Two Thousand Seasons repeats number seven thrice. Armah writes in the
Akan context where number seven has great significance and it is a number
which is regarded as accurate or complete. The novel begins with the
paragraph:
We are not a people of yesterday. Do they ask how many single
seasons we have flowed from our beginnings till now? We shall
point them to the proper beginning of their counting. On a clear
night when the light of the moon has blighted the ancient woman
and her seven children, on such a night tell them to go alone into the
world. There, have them count first the one, then the seven, and
after the seven all the other stars visible to their eyes alone. (TTS1)

Number six according to tbe Akan mythology is "a symbol of death

and resurrection or rebirth, and it has the derivative symbolism of strength"
(Sackey 396).In The Healers and Two Thousand Seasons Armah uses this
number through which he may have in mind the idea of promoting national
integration, leaving all disharmony and disputes.
Number five is regarded as an unlucky number. In Fragments, Naana
the grandmother gets angry wher she comes to know from Baako that 'the
outdooring ceremony' of Araba's child is on the fifth day. The conversation
follows:
"Araba's son is coming out today" Baako answered.
"But it is not possible", she said . . .

" Five days," The old woman whispered in her astonishment. "Five
days. The child is not yet with us . He is in the keeping of the spirits
still, and already they a-e dragging him out into this world for eyes
in heads that have eaten flesh to gape at". (Fragments 138)
Achebe and Armah use folktales to impart morals and to reinforce
positive values in their fiction. Besides folktales make the novel interesting.
There are a number of tales taken from animal world and they are alluded to
in varying contexts. For instance the bird 'eneke' is presented to show how it
challenged the world to a wrestl~ngmatch and was finally overcome by the
cat. In Arrow of God, the elders regard Ezeulu as the real cause of the tragedy
failing to recognize his own limitations. He was not aware of his limitations
and his welcoming attitude and support brought forth the domination of the

white people. Through the bird 'eneke' the nature of the priest is brought to
light and such folktales would create a great impression on the people. In
Arrow of God Achebe incorporates the lgbo folk-tale about a wrestler:
Once there was a great wrestler whose back had never known the
ground. He wrestled fr3m village to village until he had thrown
every man in the world. Then he decided that he must go and
wrestle in the land of the spirits, and become champion there as
well. He went, and beat every spirit that came forward. Some had
seven heads ,some ten; but he beat them all. His companion who
sang his praise on the flute begged him to come away, but he would
not, his blood was roused, his ear nailed up. Rather than heed the
call to go home he gave a challenge to the spirits to bring out their
best and strongest wrestler. S o they sent him his personal god, a
little wiry spirit who seized him with one hand and smashed him on
the stony earth. (TAT2,45)
Thus folklore is a real source of similes, metaphors and imagery for
Achebe and Armah. In the besinning of Things Fall Apart the wrestlers are
compared to the cat and fish . Similarly Okonkwo's character is contrasted
with his father's. While Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand,
Unoka his father was lazy and improvident. In fact, these native folk stories
and folk expressions add to the mythic consciousness. For example, in Arrow
of God Ezeulu wants to send one of his sons to the mission school. Ezeulu's
attitude is clearly expressed in the native style:

I want one of my sons to join these people and be my eye there. If

there is nothing in it you will come back. But if there is something
there you will bring home n y share. The world is like a mask dancing.

If you want to see it well you d o not stand in one place. (365)
Through folk stories Achebe highlights the significance of unity. For
instance, the story of the tortoise in Things Fall Apart upholds the value of
unity and conveys the idea that if wited, the natives can face any enemy, no
matter how powerful or well equipped he may be. In "Oral Rhythms of Achebe's
Fiction" Anjali Roy and Viney Kirpal observe that Achebe in Things Fall Apart
and Arrow of God "recreates. . . [the colonial experience] in the language of
myth and legend" ( 19 ). For example, Achebe in Things Fall Apart begins a
passage: "That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this
time Okonkwo's fame had grown 1 ke a bush-fire in harmattan" (TAT17).
Another striking feature of Achebe's style is the symbolic use of common
things from everyday life to p o i n spiritual realities. For example, Achebe
prolifically uses terms like water, light, fire, sheep, shepherd and so on. In
Thjngs FallApart Okonkwo gives ~ e ntot his aching mind: "Living fire begets
cold, impotent ash" (TAT127). Okonkwo, popularly known as 'Roaring Flame'
feels that his son Nwoye who joined the missionaries is spiritually dead and
he laments on his fate. Thus writing on the cultural heritage and drawing on
the rich store of African oral tradition, Achebe uses images, paradoxes, similes,
metaphors and ironies. Achebe writes in Arrow of God: "As day light chases
away darkness so will the white m3n drive away all our customs" (TAT405).

Ezeulu is very often seen as a father who is over-conscious of teaching

even his grown up children discipline. That is one of the reasons why he gets
irritated when he sees Obika coming with Ofoedu and in his opinion Ofoedu
is following his son like "a vulture after a corpse" (TAT409).
Like stories, songs are another powerful device used by both novelists.
In the Akan mythology the dead is associated with his ancestors and this is
expressed in the funeral dirges. l'hey are given personal praise names like
'saviours' or 'osagyefos' to show their eminent and illustrious deeds.
Both focus on the fundamental values of the natives, and how the
imposition of alien culture thoroughly modified it. The white men uproot the
native values and traditions. Achsbe presents a society with all its traditional
aspects with great skill and clarity. Armah is less enthusiastic in the portrayal
of traditional elements compared to Achebe. In Things Fall Apart Achebe
writes:
The year that Okonkwo took eight hundred seed-yams from Nwakibie
was the worst in living rnemory. . . . That year the harvest was bad

. . . And that was also the year Okonkwo broke the peace and was
punished. (26)
Achebe gives great importance to fine arts and artists. He shows how
artists were esteemed in the Igbo tradition giving the example of Unoka, the
protagonist's father. Neighbouring villagers invited artists on special occasions.
Among the lgbos carving in wood was considered a noble profession, and
carvings of deities and spirits were highly respected and valued.

A m a h in his early novels tieals with the sense of futility and anarchy
in Ghana, which in a wider sense is the contemporary world itself. Armah's
optimism reaches its heights in 7he Healers. Most of his characters are in
harmony with nature, society, tt~emselvesand God. Armah portrays the
soothing peace and blissful life, which can be attained through hard struggle.
He presents the theme of healing 3nd regeneration in the last two novels
Achebe and Armah depict how the stability of the society is lost when it
deviates from its long cherished rituals, myths, values and traditions handed
down through generations. In ThiqgsFallApart, Okonkwo soars on the wings
of private motives, but commits suicide when he witnesses the fall of the
society. Armah in his writing shows how corruption at all levels leads to the
fall of the society. Achebe is different in the sense that he, in the beginning of
Things Fall Apart, presents a society where alienation or disharmony is
unknown. Everything in the society aims at joint action while A m a h presents
a disjointed, divided society at tho very beginning itself.
Armahs's Two Thousand Seasons tries "to establish a historical link
between a mythical past in which African communities were not united and
organized around a set of humane principles" (Gikandi 111). The narrator
adapts dual characters - the role of a narrator and an actor. He is endowed
with authoritative guidance and prior knowledge of events. Simon Gikandi
rightly comments that "The narrative voice in Two Thousand Seasons is part
of a group which represents ideals and goals to be realised" (21).
Achebe in Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God show the impact of the

white man's culture on the Nigerians. He represents the native force through
Ezeulu in Arrow of God. The white nen Tony Clarke and Captain Winterbottom
are shown as ruthless characters. In Things Fall Apart Achebe shows the
great social harmony prevailing irl all sphere-religious,

political, social etc,

as the village elders control all these. There is no such harmony in Arrow of
God and the protagonist is preser ted often in bitter moods.
Another common feature clf Achebe and A m a h is their figurative and
picturesque portrayal using similes metaphors and imagery. Achebe prolifically
uses proverbs and sayings in his novels, especially in Things Fall Apart and
Arrow of God. Compared to Achsbe, Armah uses only a few proverbs.
In An Introduction to best African Literature R. K. Dhawan writes:
Achebe delights us with his clever use of proverbs. Proverbs can
easily become boring, but Achebe always uses them in such a way
that they throw new light on a situation or on people's thoughts and
motives and the story is greatly enriched by them. (151)
Achebe in Things Fall Apart writes: "Among the Igbo the art of
conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which
words are eaten" (20).Innes and I-indfors observe that in Achebe's novels the
proverbs "sound and reiterate major themes . . . sharpen characterization,
clarify conflict " and focuses on the values of society he portrays (64).Ernest
Emenyonu in The Rise of the igt~oNovel rightly asserts:
proverbs, sayings, riddles and songs have been effective tools for the
traditional oral performer, the village spokesman or the community

orator. An effective and persuasive speaker among the lgbo is usually

one who can smoothly a r ~ deffortlessly integrate proverbs, sayings,
witticisms within the mair stream of his speech. (156)
The proverbs and sayings used by Achebe in his novels enhance the
development of plots, characters, situations and other aspects. For instance,
the proverb "if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings" (TAT21)
throws light on the character of Okonkwo. Okonkwo's envious achievements
could be seen as a result of what Achebe writes: "Okonkwo had clearly washed
his hands and so he ate with king:; and elders" (21). Okonkwo even in his
early years exhibited manly qualities like determination and courage and he
was a synonym for 'hard work'. Similarly in Arrow of God Achebe writes: "As
soon as we shake hands with a leper he will want an embrace" (TAT 467).
This proverb besides giving local colour illustrates the theme. It reveals the
nature of the colonizers and how they profited out of the hospitality of the
natives. Besides they serve the purposes of edification and entertainment.
There are proverbs which are taken from daily domestic scene. For
example, the proverb "a man who blings ant-infested faggots should not complain
if he is visited by lizards" (TAT379). It discloses the idea that one has to suffer

the consequences of one's actions. This shows that proverbs are an indivisible
part of any culture and they have great literary significances. They are usually
the utterances of wise men tested and testified by the collective wisdom of
society. In The Politics of Mothering, Nnaemeka maintains that proverbs and
myths are 'bral formulations of philosophical debates and virtues about essential

norms that govem humankind's soc'al and spiritual activities" (50).

Imagery in Armah's novels performs many important functions. It
increases the fictional aspect and re\,eals the relation between abstract thought
and sensuous feelings and experience. For example in Two Thousand Seasons
birth-death-rebirth imagey is a prominent one. Armah draws on the beliefs,
practices and customs in the uns:?oiled edenic condition, which was the
fundamental pattern of life in the prc:-colonial Africa. Life seemed meaningful,
and vibrant as the rising sun, or the sprouting seed in the garden. The colonisers
robbed them of this through their intrusion which resulted in the decay and
death of great ideals. It resulted in confusion, anarchy and death.
After the death, the rebirth imagery is introduced through the seers,
prophetess Anoa and the group 0 twenty inspired ones. There was a great
revival and this can be explained i r ~the light of what Joseph Campbell writes
in OrientalMythoIogy: "the daily rc,und of sun, the waxing and waning moon,
the cycle of the year, and the rhythm of organic birth, death and new birth"
are aspects which "represent a miracle of continuous arising that is fundamental
to the nature of the universe" (3). The same aspects can be traced in the life
of the African people.

A m a h does not use Pidgi:~English, which is found in Achebe and

other West African novelists. For example, Achebe in Arrow of God uses
pidgin in the conversation between Winterbottom and his servant John. The
conversation begins:
'What are they saying?' he asked John . . .

'Dem talk say make rain come quick quick' . . .

'Are all these your pickin, John?'. . .
'No S i r . . . 'my pickin na that two
Wey de run yonder and dat yellow gal.' (350)
Achebe retains lgbo words such as Afo, Eke, Chi, Ikenga, Obi etc for
which there are no correspondinc, English terms. A m a h rarely uses such
terms in his novels. Besides, Arms? presents no extra-ordinary details about
the Akan tradition of dividing time. But Achebe presents the Igbo system of
dividing time into four day week against the English seven day week. Example:
The war was waged from one Afo to the next. On the day it began
Umuaro killed two men of Okperi. The next day was Nkwo, and so
there was no fighting. 0-1the two following days, Eke and Oye, the
fighting grew fierce. U m ~ a r okilled four men and Okperi replied with
three, one of the three being Akukalia's brother, Okoye. The next
day, Afo, saw the war brought to a sudden close. (TAT347)
In Two Thousand Seasons Armah presents each year in terms of two
seasons, the d y and the wet: "Wh9 should we make an unending remembrance
of drought and rain, the mere passage of seasons?" (6).

In Two Thousand Seasons: Armah muses on the uncertainty of times;

days past, present and future. Similarly A m a h fuses mythical ideas with
mythical time. After giving the details of the night Armah writes: "The air was
magical that night. The voices cf young men sang of victory. Men's voices
answered with the praise of strength. The aged invoked youth and the future.

The very young remembered song; of a forgotten past" (TH47).

Amah's technique of orality and culturally derived metaphors are other
special traits. For example, the narration in Two Thousand Seasons is done
by a group of twenty and that is shy Armah uses the word 'we'. A m a h
deliberately uses this technique as the communal interest is supreme in African
societies. This is why the identity of the narrators is very important. These
narrators are the innovators of the African independence as they are freedom
fighters and revolutionaries.
In The Novels of Ayi Kwei Pm-nah, Rao writes:
The voice of the speaker which includes the authorial voice is the
moral index, with his c:ommunal audience sharing the group
experience. Besides integrating the action of the novel, it also helps
to thread the various images and motifs which recur in the novel
with consistent regularity. The use of the plural voice helps Armah in
the process of reassessment of centuries of experience by means of
a viable native standpoirt. (92)
This is clearly expressed in the passage in Two Thousand Seasons:
Tmpped now in our smallest self, we, repositories of the remembrance
of the way violated, we, portion that sought the meaning of Anoa's
utterance in full found another home on this same land, we, fraction
that crossed mountain^;, journeyed through forests, shook off
destruction only to meet worse destruction, we people of the fertile
time before these schisrns, we, life's people, people of the way,

trapped now in our smallsst self, that is our vocation: to find our
larger, our healing self, we the black people. (8-9)
The mythic effect is visible in the presentation of the spokesman for the
group. He speaks and on behalf of rhe group and it is remarkable to see that
he exists in the fictional world of the novel.
Another oral aspect is that Two Thousand Seasons is structured on the
art of story telling. In the story tel ing, a traditional mode of conversation
among the Africans many animal stories were common. For example,

in

ThingsFallApartAchebe tells the story of the tortoise, the vulture, the mosquito
etc. .. In The H e a l e r s h a h brings in stories connected with goats procupine
etc... According to Sackey "oral traditions have been the main method of
teaching the history of many African peoples including the Akans" (397).
Damodar Rao in The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah writes:
The first person plural 'we' is the operative word in the novel. It
describes the voice of the community and also the structure of the
novel. Its functional significance gains momentum as it informs the
credo of a mass of people and also expresses itself through the
liberating process initiated by a select group. In the process, it makes
the narrative move into t i e traditional realm of oral narrative. (92)
The story of Anoa, the yourg, energetic and imaginary Akan girl adds
to the mythic consciousness. Like Joan of Arc, she receives 'visions of the
future'. She prophesied the await~ngenslavement and she is presented as a
legendary character.

Another notable trait is that in Armah the hero's actions do not center
on his or her psychology but on the events. The hero acts as a representative
of the community.
Achebe and A m a h through their novels show how they revel in the
glorious celebrations of the past. It was a time when the community was a
single unit where they enjoyed the blessings of nature and explored its hidden
treasures. It was an occasion for honouring Ani, the earth goddess, and the
source of all fertility. They revered the ancestral spirits of the clan.
The novels of Achebe and Armah provide a powerful and impressive
view of the role of the artists and intellectuals in modern Africa. They reveal
their seriousness of purpose, the r creativity and so they are relevant to all
generations. Bernth Lindfors in "Armah's Histories" writes that Two Thousand
Seasons and The Healers are "really more concerned with tomorrow than
with yesterday or today. These are visionary myths rather than historical
chronicles" (86).
Thus close connection between the art and life of the community is
seen in both writers. The African art is known for its mythic representations.
Achebe and Armah use art as one of the media to evoke mythic consciousness
in their novels.
Robert Frazer in The Novels ofAyi Kwei Arrnah writes " there is marked
therapeutic value to much of Armah's work [and] . . . he is concerned
fundamentally with the ethical quality of a nations' life, a potential for exuberant
health . . . strangled by an infection of foreign origin" (2).Bernth Lindfors in

"Armah's Histories" remarks: "[nstead of existential despair there is

revolutionay hope. Instead of defeat, victory" (89).His characters are generally
not "whole persons but active and passive senses, like the watchers and
listeners, the seers and hearers" (Bruce King and Ogun 232).
In Two Thousand Seasons iind The Healers Armah moves into "the
terrain of myth, legend, and racictl memory" (Encyclopaedia 70). In Two
Thousand Seasons the writer uses oral narrative and the communal voice
'we' to present the Akan history of pre-colonial Africa. The characters could
be contrasted with the characters of earlier novels where they are alienated,
individual characters.
Armah in his last novels depicts suffering as a communal experience
while Achebe in his Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God shows suffering as
the experience of individuals. Armah conveys the message that "suffering is
less unbearable when shared" (Izet~aye241).
McLeod in The Commonwealth Pen: An Introduction to the Literature
of the British Commonwealth writes that what is important about the novel
Things Fall Apart is "the remarkable way in which Achebe sees . . . changes
in terms of an intensely powerful individual character who is also representative
of his people in his traditional attitudes" (178).
Achebe brings to light the mrirital disputes and how the ancestral spirits
of the tribe, the egwugwu settle it The way the egwugwu dresses and the

details about it are mythically presented. He speaks of the egwugwu with a

spring walk. The egwugwu retired to their underground home and very

frequently appeared to pronounce judgement. "Our duty" says Evil Forest, "1s
not to blame this man or praise that, but to settle dispute" (TAT82)
In ThingsFdl ApartOkonkuo and the other elders put on the ceremonial
attire and masks to represent the dead ancestors of Umuofia. On such occasions
ordinay human beings assumecl the stature of super natural beings and
continued close relationship between the spirit world.
Achebe portrays the tribal (:ustoms with its strong belief in Oracles like
the Agabala and the priestess Chielo with great emphasis than Amah. Both
express the beliefs of the tribe like the belief in Chi and both show how the
violation of these customs causes anarchy and confusion.
Both deal with the predicarrent of young people. Their novels are replete
with emotional longings, philosophical ruminations and spiritual cravings. In
Modern Fiction Studies, Ogede observes that Achebe and A m a h portray
"the g o y situation immediately after Nigeria's independence as an outcome
of the break down of the religiou~~
belief of the people" (532).
Both present the traditional society with all its superstitious beliefs. For
instance, in Arrow of God, one's bad temperament is associated with one's
rising from bed in the morning. Mr. Wright appears in bad temper and the
reason behind this according to Ilmuaro belief is that "this morning he must
have got out of bed from the left side" (402). Similarly Christopher Oriko
says in Anthills of the Savannah: "Days are good or bad for us now according
to how His Excellency gets out o'bed in the morning" (2).
Similarly Armah in The Efealers describes one of the customs of the

Asante people. When a king died many slaves were murdered to accompany
the dead king. They believed that the slaves "would ease every passage of his
spirit; they would give all the luxur5 the body had grown accustomed to" (97).
That is why when king Kweku Dua died, Asamoa Nkwanta's nephew was
killed by one of the princes, to t a ~ erevenge on Asamoa, the great Asante
general. It is relevant to cite what Martin S. Day speaks of the Greek Myth
about the heroes. According to this myth the Greek heroes are "expected to
reappear as serpents especially in the vicinity of their tombs" (190).
Both deal with the taboos regarding birth and death. For example,
Achebe mentions the illogical killing of Obierika's wife's twin children, an
occurrence that was regarded by the tribe as unnatural and therefore evil.
Achebe writes: "the earth had decreed that they were an offence on the land
and must be destroyed (TAT 106). Besides, they believed that "if the clan
did not exact punishment for an offence against the great goddess, her wrath
was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender" (106). In "Myth as
Literature" Richard Chase speaks of "myths which tell of the breaking of a
taboo-such as those of Orpheus and Eurydice, Cupid and Psyche or Lot's
wife" (Miller 139).
Though Achebe and Armah have many similarities, they vary in certain
aspects such as theme and presentation. In the thematic level Achebe's novels
show how 'tradition versus change'. Armah presents corruption as part of
Ghanaian life and proposes a revitalisation and regeneration through sincere
retrospection. As Bernth Lindfors remarks "instead of watching one man

struggle fruitlessly to maintain his purity or sanity" in Armah's Two Thousand

Seasons and The Healers one witnesses

"a communal group activated by

the highest ideals" (89).Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of Godpresent
protagonists doomed and defeated in their struggle against powerful antagonists.
Dieter Riemenschneider in The History a n d Historiography of
Commonwealth Literature obserces on Achebe and Armah's difference: "The
difference of attitude towards their own class cannot but have affected the
two writers and it can be seen at least a contributory factor to Armah's alienation
and Achebe's novel which deals with the discussion of the novel" (179).
Achebe and Armah diffe:- in their portrayal of women characters.
Achebe's women characters are moderate in nature except Beatrice in Anthills
of the Savannah, where she is an extra ordinary figure. In Armah the women
portrayed are too saintly like Nama, Araba Jesiwa and Ajoa or too corrupt
like Efua or Araba. In Armah women bring out great changes in the society.
Thus Armah's women characters outshine Achebe's in the selected novels.
For example, 'the women looked at . . . whiteness, saw famine where the men
saw beauty and grew frightened for our people' (TTS 86).A m a h presents
ideal men like Isanusi and Juma in Two Thousand Seasons, Densu and Damfo
in The Healers. In Two Thousal~dSeasons it was the women who took the
initiative to murder the Arab rulers.
Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God shows . . . complex human
being entangled in a web of circumstances that ultimately brings
disaster to rural Igbo society. The individuals portrayed cannot be

divided into two camps--the saint versus the sinners-but

rather

can be recognised as ql~iteordinary people motivated by fairly

commonplace ambitions and desires. (Lindfors 90)
Achebe portrays the pre-cclonial Igbo society as a patriarchal one.
The physical strength and wealth attained were the decisive factors of
recognition in society. Men and women were engaged in productive labour in
the soil.
One of the aspects that A m a h highlights in the novel is the Akan
philosophy concerning maternal importance .Among the Akans, the children
of a marriage become the full responsibility of their maternal uncle and so

naturally the uncle had power over the nephews. They believed that the blood
of the woman is the blood of her irrtmediate family. Armah beautifully illustrates
this idea in the conversation between Naana and Baako before the outdooring
ceremony: "Why did you not stop your sister and your mother from this
foolishness? . . . The blood that flows in Araba is yours, Baako, and the child
is yours also if it is hers" (Fragments 139-40).
The bzo' title was the basis of one's position in the society. Usually
men of outstanding achievements were admitted to this group. Titled men
enjoyed many prerogatives and t:hey were the torch bearers in the society.
The basic unit of the social structure was the village. The agrarian
nature of the society fostered con~munalvalues such as co-operation, sharing
and caring. In the conversation 'between Okonkwo and Nwakibie, the latter
expresses his appreciation for Ok<snkwo.When Okonkwo asked him for some

seed yams Nwakibie replied: "It pleases me to see a young man like you
these days when our youths have gone so soft" (TAT31). He told him how he
had denied help when lazy men approached him for help. He was generous
enough to give Okonkwo more sezd yams than he required.
Differences can be traced in the attitude of Achebe and Armah
concerning the alien attack on the society. Bernth Lindfors quotes that Achebe
"perceives it was a failure of a communication, not an absence of humanity,
that was responsible for certain of the catastrophes of the colonial period"

(91).According t o h a h , the essence of their own principles tumed disastrous

to them and the "way of reciprocity",

"

the way of wholeness" caused

destruction.
Some of the oral traditions used by Armah is different from Achebe.
For example, in the traditional gatherings, highly skilled orators in Things Fall
Aparf and Arrow of God delivered speeches. Myth and oral tradition are
complementary, as myths originate from oral culture. In Armah's novels such
occasions are rarely seen.
In the first three novels of Armah the women seem agents of corruption
while the last novels Two Thousand Seasons and The Healers present noble
characters.
In Armah's later novels he excels himself as a powerful artist and
moral visionary than Achebe in his later productions.
Achebe in Things Fall Aparf writes in detail about the Evil forest from
the very beginning till end. In Arrnah the forest is very impressively presented

where healing takes place mirac~.louslyin the lap of nature. In Things Fall
Apart Achebe writes: "when a man was afflicted with swelling in the stomach

and the limbs he was not allowec. to die in the house. He was carried to the
Evil Forest and left there to die" ( X T 2 8 ) .When the missionaries came and
asked for a plot of land to construct their church the elders happily gave them
a piece of land in the Evil Forest. In Armah the healers were living in the forest
where they experienced the healin3 touch of nature. That is why Damfo asked
Densu to go to "the highest hill" ('TH252)to meet Duodu, the healer.
The insightful and thoughtful presentation of the protagonists and
characters reveal their mythic mould of presentation. In Achebe, the
protagonists do experience a great deal of pain and bewilderment when their
codes of life are shaken violently. What David Carroll writes of Obi Okonkwo
in No Longer a t Ease is applicablc! to Okonkwo and Ezeulu.
Through the application cf myth in the selected novels Achebe and
Amah render a vision of life, offering a psychic portrayal of the characters in
their varied moods. Achebe portrays well the agony and the stress of the
characters, specially the protagonists, Okonkwo and Ezeulu. Armah besides
the conflicting aspects shows how harmony with God, man and nature could
bring forth miraculous results in the society where human virtues like love,
compassion and sympathy are practised.
Achebe's propensity towards attributing natural objects with human
qualities is also another distinguishable trait. For example he writes, "Yam,
the king of crops, was a man's crop (21).Yam, the king of crops, was a very

exacting king" (31).

Besides he has the tendency to regard natural phenomena as
manifestations of divine desires. So Achebe writes:
And so nature was not interfered with in the middle of the rainy
season. Sometimes it poured down in such thick sheets of water
that earth and sky seemed merged in one grey wetness. It was then
uncertain whether the low rumbling of Amadiora's thunder came
from above or below. (XAT 40)
Achebe and Armah througo their novels provide deep insights into the
African systems of beliefs, their social institutions and in general, their public
and private spheres of life. Proverbs, orations, folk-tales and myths in its
various forms are all factors tha- contribute to the development of mythic
consciousness in Achebe and Arnlah.
In The hlitics ofMothering, Nnaemeka maintains that myths are "oral
formulations of philosophical debates and verities about essential norms that
govern human kind's social and spiritual activities" (50).According to Eldred
Jones Achebe uses these provert~s"not merely to add touches of local colour
but to sound and reiterate themes, to sharpen characterisation, to clarify
conflict and to focus on the values of the society he is portraying" (6).In
Achebe and Amah's novels, especially in the selected novels myths act as
the connecting link of the African people's socio cultural and spiritual activities.
Achebe and Armah are two committed African novelists and they regard
their prime duty as writers to impart knowledge. Myth is an indivisible part of

any culture, oral or written. They are the manifestations of communal wisdom,
as they assume varied forms such as tales, adages, legends and folktales. In
Achebe and Armah myths seem a vital ingredient of human civilization. They
are the frame work upon which viirious literary aspects are added like flesh
and blood. They manifest their presence through the codes of life, rituals,
tenets of morality, language and customs.
Damodar Rao in The NovG?lsof Ayi Kwei Armah comments on his
uniqueness as a novelist:
It is the daring exposition of the group consciousness in Two Thousand
Seasons and The Healer::.;employing histoy and folk-tale as theme
and spontaneity, innovation and improvisation as technique and
structure in the best tradition of the oral narrative structure that
marked a break from all the received patterns of novel form. (Preface
7)

The world of Achebe and Armah's is clearly mythological and

mysterious with the effects of drum, song, dance, tales, legends. The language
of the drum has an important place in the African life and it is an indivisible
factor in their lives.
Myth is a form of ideolog~,and it contains ancient wisdom. It is the
sum total of values embodied by individuals, represented by situations and
often they bind and unite various social groups. Achebe and A m a h have
developed their own vision of Africa and their majestic vision transformed the
thinking of the African people. They formulated their own theories, different

from western tradition through their structural techniques like inclusion of

African myths, specially lgbo and Akan myths. Through these they exposed
their strong urge to picture African life as it is. They were creating great epics,
'the African epics' like Walt Whitman in 'Leaves of Grass', Raja Rao in
Kanthapura or Thakazhi in Chemrneen. Thus close parallels are visible and
their themes and characters represent universal elements of human nature.
According to Richard Chase myth is "literature and must be considered
as an aesthetic creation of the humm imagination" (qtd. in Day 54). Besides
myths portray inner struggle, conflicts with the group and conflicts with
outsiders. Myths have functional aspects such as guiding the society and
educating the society.
The culminating impression derived from Achebe's and Armah's novels
is that through mythic consciousnr~ssthey artistically portray their traditional
societies-the lgbo society and the .4kan society. To quote Tonnies community
is "an intimate, private and extenside living together" (qtd. in Emenyonu 202)
where individual self interest is always subordinated to the communal good.
Achebe and Armah present characters who are representatives of humanity
at large and they are universal a~chetypes. The psychological function of
myth according to Vickery is "to fuse the perception of power with the
perception of physical qualities" 1124). Thus myths in Achebe and Amah
deal with the fundamentals of human existence, complex human problems,
archetypes of the collective unconscious and the individual's psychic probings.