Politics as a Fiction:

A Critique of Achebe’s Arrow of God

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED TO
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND MODERN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW
LUCKNOW
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MASTERS DEGREE
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Supervisor: Submitted By:

(Dr. Siddhartha Singh ) (Kripalini Pandey )
Designation - Associate Professor Roll No. :180402030006
Department of English
Sri Jai Narain Post Graduate CollegeLucknow
2018

Politics as a Fiction:

A Critique of Achebe’s Arrow of God

Kripalini Pandey

[M.A. Semester III, 2018-2019]

Chinua Achebe, novelist, short story writer and essayist, is considered one of the Africans most important novelists.
He is so important that many Scholars believed him to be the originator of modern African literature, even though there was
many impressive African writers who preceded Achebe such as Amos Tutuola, Thomas Mafolo , Sol Plaatje Peter Abraham.
Achebe, Christened Albert Chinualumogu, was born in at Ogidi in a Eastern Nigeria November 16, 1930 to Isaiah Okaforand
Janet Achebe. His father was a catchiest for the Church missionary society and his mother was converted into Christianity. His
father was in charge of village school run by the church missionary society growing . Achebe felt the impact of living between
two cultures; the traditional igbo culture of Ogidiand and European Christian culture. His parents embraced the both as he says,
“On one arm of the cross we sang hymns and read the bible Night and Day . On The Other my father’s brother and his family,
blinded by the heathenism, offered food to idols. That was how it was supposed to be anyhow.”(Morning Yet on Creation Day:
Essays 68)

Although Africa has had a long and enduring tradition of poetry and drama, the novel is today, has almost everywhere
else in the world, the dominant literarygenre on the continent. There can be no doubt that the appeal of the novel has to do with
integrative functions that narrative have been always played in African societies, a role that is well illustrated not only by the
didactic reflexive purpose of the folk tales and fablesthat inform sensibility and define a primary level of imaginative faculty in
traditional African society; but also by the centrality of the mythical tales, extending to the great oral epics as exemplified by
the Sundiate epic of Mali and the Ogidi saga of the Ijaws – with the ideological andsymbolic significance these varieties of the
narrative form assumed in pre colonial times and their continued relevance in contemporary period. In short, the novel has
acquired today a cultural significance that was once the exclusive province of the oral narratives. Oral literature interface, in its
various manifestations, can also be felt has the quality of fictional work of many and African writers, reflecting either of
conscious design, the effective Of Cultural retention determined by the African background.

Achebe in his novels shows where and how his people lost their identities after the process of colonization. He also
assists them in reclaiming their Igbo identity, because this is their basic culture, which is a part of Nigerian and African culture
at large. Each of these identities does call for certain commitment on Achebe, which is thr focus of this paper with special
reference to Achebe’s 1964 novel Arrow of God.1 This is Achebe’s third novel after Things Fall Apart (1958) and No Longer
At Ease (1960). These three novels together are often referred to as the African Trilogy. This book was published as part of the
prominent Heinemann African Writers Series. It is a political and cultural novel that is set in Nigeria. It is a fictional book that
tells the real life story of Nigerians and its fight to keep their beliefs and culture which the colonizers destroyed. Slowly
Nigeria’s culture disintegrates and reorients itself to Western culture and Christian values.

Although Achebe returned to a historical setting in Arrow of God after portraying contemporary Nigeria in No Longer at Ease,
the problems that afflict Umuaro and the Chief Priest of Ulu related directly to the duality of the newly independent Nigeria in
which Achebe wrote his novel. To this extent, therefore, Arrow of God is a compromise between the historicism of Things Fall
Apart and the contemporneity of No Longer at Ease. In Arrow of God two cultures confront their differences. Achebe portrays
the disrupting effect of 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. In 1966 Achebe published A
Man of the People, a satiric attack on the corruption of Nigerian politics, depicts the problems that led to the Nigerian Civil
War. More importantly, the novel presents a vivid illustration of African culture. African culture has only
recently become more literate since it was primarily an oral culture. As Harold Scheub, author the article
“A Review of African Oral Traditions and Literature,” states that “Vital to African literature is the
relationship between the oral and written word (1).” Oral culture is a cultural component that “distills the
essences of human experiences, shaping them into rememberable, readily retrievable images of broad
applicability with an extraordinary potential for eliciting emotional response” (Scheub 1). Its epics,
epigrams, poems, songs, and folk tales were all spoken and recited until more recent times when literacy
became more prevalent and African culture was revitalized. African novels, especially Achebe’s, became
the new proponents of African oral culture. As quoted in Solomon O. Iyasere’s article “Oral Tradition in
the Criticism of African Literature:” “The modern African writer is to his indigenous oral tradition as a
snail is to its shell. Even in a foreign habitat, a snail never leaves its shell behind” (107). This particular
novel is full of Achebe’s native Igbo oral tradition and such is the topic of this essay.

The oral tradition is manifested in this novel in many facets. Achebe primarily uses proverbs, songs and
folk tales in this novel to illustrate the Igbo tradition. Iyasere states that Achebe “uses proverbs both to
infuse the English language with traditional African wisdom and perceptions, and – with Soyinka,
Oladipo, and Christina Aidoo – to provide a ‘grammar of values’ of the world within the novel” (114).

Thus, the genre of oral narratives and the aesthetics illustrated insofar as this involves the recital of the text in the living
context of performance can be said to provide the imaginative background and, often, the structural model for the
appropriation of the novel genre by African writers, in both the indigenous languages and the imported European tongues. The
concept of orality ( or “Orature”) which serves as the theoretical and ethnographic foundation for the discussion of the
intensive properties (character types, narrative functions and rhetorical devices, as well as rule of the metaphor and symbolism)
by which the traditional narratives are structured can also be applied to the African novel, insofar as these properties have had
a marked effect on way of African novelist and have often conceived and exalted their works, to the extent that we are
sometimes obliged to identify in the work the signs of textualized orality. (www.cambridge.org )It is now customary to place
the African novel firmly within the colonial experience to consider its emergence as a direct consequence of the encounter with
Europe , with the historical implications and the social and cultural factors that have conditioned the images and evolution of
novel as the literary genre on the continent. The centrality Holy Bible to this effort has thus been advanced has the constitutive
factors in the creation of new literature by the elite that, over time, emerged from the African encounter with Europe comma
with its corollary of colonial dominations and its cultural imposition. The beginning of the novel in Africa go back in fact to
the formative period of Western literature itself, with works related to Africa constituting part of its early Corpus of Canonical
text. The works that have survived from this period, to in particular have an immediate bearing on practice of fiction in Africa:
the Greek Masterpiece, Aethiopicaby Hellenic writers Hiliodorous, and The Golden Ass by Latin author, Apuleius are all
earliest example of this mode in prose fiction. In this sense, it can also be regarded as remarkable antecedent to some of the
most significant works in modern African fictions, such as Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Kojol Laing’s Woman of
the Aeroplanes , Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Pepetela’s The Return of the Water Spirit . Both Aethiopicaand The
Golden Ass appear to have been well known during the European middle age and the Renaissance. This long record of
dissemination throws an interesting light on what may well have been a parallel development in Africa of written works and
orally transmitted form of fictions.

1920’s, the period in which the British were making the transition from direct to indirect rule, Achebe’s Arrow of
God describes the efforts of Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of Ulu, to assert and to maintain his religious authority. Ulu is a god
created by the people of Umuaro in a time of crisis to rule over the individual gods of the six federated villages and thereby to
increase the security of the loose federation. Thus, Ezeulu is the chief authority figure in Umuaro, but the traditional
independence of Igbo social structure leaves the true extent of his authority in doubt. (https://www.enotes.com/topics/arrow-
god Bottom of Form)Moreover, Ezeulu’sUmuaro is a divided community, and his religious authority is threatened in two ways.
On the one hand, its traditions are undermined by the proselytizing of the Christian missionaries who have built a school and a
church nearby. On the other hand, Ezeulu’s authority is challenged from within the community, particularly by Nwaka and
Ezidemili, the Chief Priest of Idemili, the leader of the cult of the python. Ezeulu’s situation is paralleled by that of District
Commissioner Winterbottom. Winterbottom, a veteran of fifteen years in the colonial service, resists the new British policy of
indirect rule because it will force him to delegate some of his secular authority. Each of the two leaders, therefore, is defending
his authority against the encroachments of historical change.

Ezeulu’s debate with Umuaro begins when the community, led by Nwaka, insists on going to war with neighboringOkperi
over a piece of land. The Umuaro ignore Ezeulu’s warning that Ulu will not support a war that is not just. Their five-day
battle with Okperi is halted by the intervention of colonial troops, and Winterbottom orders all the guns in each community
destroyed. After a hearing at which Ezeulu is a witness against Umuaro’s claim, Winterbottomawards the land to Okperi.
To Ezeulu, this result is a vindication of his judgment, but many in Umuaro see it as betrayal. As the central proverb in the
novel warns, “no man however great was greater than his people . . . no man ever won judgment against his clan.”

(https://www.enotes.com/topics/arrow-godBottom of Form)

Three years later, Ezeulu’s ambition leads him to send his youngest son, Oduche, to study with the missionaries. In this way,
he hopes to add their knowledge to his own. Although self-serving and manipulative, his action indicates a healthy openness to
a variety of perspectives: “The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well you do not stand in one place.” Ezeulu’s
statement reflects the adaptive nature of Igbo society, the flexibility that had allowed the creation of Ulu; yet Oduche becomes
a militant Christian, and to demonstrate his new faith, he tries to kill the sacred python of Ezidemili. The python is saved by
Ezeulu, but his son’s sacrilegious act widens the division in the clan.Meanwhile, Winterbottom, who remembers Ezeulu’s
honesty at the hearing, is under pressure to implement indirect rule, and he decides to name Ezeulu secular warrant chief in
Umuaro. This appointment would give Ezeulu secular authority to complement his religious authority, but the insulting manner
of the messenger who summons Ezeulu angers the priest, and Ezeulu haughtily refuses, maintaining that he will only serve
Ulu. Outraged at Ezeulu’s rejection of colonial authority, Winterbottom jails the priest and demands that he accept the position.
Instead, Winterbottom comes down with fever, and Ezeulu, flush with anger at Umuaro and pride in his victory over the white
man, is released after thirty-two days of incarceration.

Ezeulu is greeted as a hero by the clan, but he is driven to explore the extent of his power, and he is convinced that he must
become the terrible agent of Ulu’s vengeance, the “arrow in the bow of his god.” While in prison, he was unable to eat the
ritual yams, an act that marks each new moon of the Umuaro calendar; therefore, he adamantly refuses to perform the Feast of
the New Yam, the festival which sanctifies the harvest, until two more moons have passed. Unharvested, the crop will rot in
the fields, and the cycle of planting and harvest will be permanently disrupted. Unmoved by the pleas of his hungry clansmen,
Ezeulu convinces himself that he is responsible only to Ulu, forgetting his parallel duty to the survival of the clan.Ezeulu’s act
of will comes to a disastrous end. Obika, his eldest son, rises from a sickbed to run through the village as a part of a funeral
ritual. As Obika finishes his run, he drops dead. Ezeulu believes himself betrayed by Ulu, and the people of Umuaro use
Obika’s death as an excuse to accept the missionaries’ opportunistic offer of a Christian Feast of the New Yam in which the
foodstuff can be harvested in the name of Christ. Ezeulu falls into madness, and the Christian dominance of the community
begins.

(https://www.enotes.com/topics/arrow-godBottom of Form)

In Arrow of God, the main character Ezeulu’s pride gets him in trouble from the very beginning. Angered by the Umuaro
community’s decision to ignore him in the matter of going to war with Okperi, he nurses his silent grudge for years. Since
Ezeulu is the priest of Ulu, the highest god in Umuaro, Ezeulu shouldn’t worry about being #1 – but his jealous pride for his
status eventually causes him to take revenge against the people of Umuaro. Ezeulu isn’t the only one who is proud.
Winterbottom accuses all Igbo men of putting on airs; he argues that if you give an Igbo man a little bit of authority, he will
soon be abusing even his own relatives. Winterbottom says that Igbo men love titles, not realizing that his men, Clarke and
Wright, have made similar comments about how much Winterbottom loves his own title, “Captain.”

In Arrow of God, differences between Africans and the British are interpreted racially by both Igbo and British characters
alike. Race is associated with culture and, thus, is offered as one of the identifying characteristics of British power.
Winterbottom recognizes the power inherent in moral suasion and argues forcefully that white men in Nigeria must behave a
certain way in order to maintain their political superiority.

In Arrow of God, both the British Captain Winterbottom and the Igbo Ezeulu have inflated senses of duty, which might be why
the two men like each other. Winterbottom believes it is his duty to maintain decorum, keep a high moral standard, be an
example to others, and be obedient to the Administration’s whims even when he doesn’t agree. Ezeulu, alternatively, believes
that he must do whatever the god Ulu requires of him, even when it’s distasteful, and even when he personally suffers as a
result.

Arrow of God revolves around competition. We see competition between Ezeulu’s wives for his attention; between Ezeulu, the
chief priest of Ulu, and Ezidemili, the chief priest of the lesser deity Idemili; between the communities of Umuaro and Okperi;
and between Ezeulu’s village and Ezidemili’s village. But the most important competition is between the god Ulu and the
Christian god. This fight is always in the background, and we realize that Arrow of God is an illustration of the saying “When
two brothers fight, a stranger reaps the harvest.” As the region roils in division, Christianity quietly steps in and takes the
respect and place of honor that had previously belonged to the god Ulu.

Much of Arrow of God‘s plot is precipitated by revenge. If Umuaro hadn’t wanted to claim ownership of that land, they
wouldn’t have sent an emissary to Okperi who was clearly bent on starting a war. That emissary causes his own death, but
Okperi fails to send a courteous message about it, so Umuaro must respond by starting the war. Just as entire regions seek
revenge, individuals seek satisfaction for real or perceived wrongs. Ezeulu seeks revenge on the people of Umuaro, who fail to
give him proper respect as the priest of Ulu. Ezeulu’s revenge results in famine and ultimately causes the demise of his own
deity.

Arrow of God explores how Igbo spirituality and religious life dies an ignominious death when confronted by Christianity.
Christianity is backed by the white man’s military and political power. As a result, Christianity is also identified with the
source of their power. When the people of Umuaro are faced with famine because the chief priest of Ulu refuses to break
tradition, the catechist at the church offers protection so the people can harvest their yams. When Ezeulu’s son Obika dies, the
people interpret that as a sign that Ulu was punishing his priest. With Ezeulu’s power broken, Umuaro turns to the Christian
god for help.

Traditions dictate the lives of the people of Umuaro. Seasons are punctuated by rituals, and festivals are managed by the priests
of the various deities associated with each village. The overall deity, Ulu, provides the important purification rites as well as
feast associated with the rhythms of agriculture. In Arrow of God see that these traditions are undermined by the coming of
Christianity, the power of the British colonial office, and, most importantly, by Ezeulu’s inflexibility and insistence on
adhering to tradition. Ezeulu insists on waiting a full month to eat each sacred yam, even though that means he can’t call the
Feast of the New Yam for another three months. Meanwhile, the people’s crops are rotting in the field and people are starving
to death. The elders of Umuaro offer to take the punishment on themselves, but Ezeulu refuses. While Ezeulu is stubbornly
following tradition – and punishing his people – the people of Umuaro slowly begin to starve because they are unable to
harvest the crops.

A lust for power motivates many of the characters in Arrow of God. As the British administration’s power rises, the men in
Umuaro discover that their power is diminishing. All the men discover that their power is limited when the British
administration steps in and stops the war with Okperi. Meanwhile, Nwaka and Ezidemili accuse Ezeulu of desiring power in
order to mask their own attempts to unseat him and usurp his place. Ezeulu punishes the people of Umuaro because they didn’t
accord him and his deity Ulu proper respect. The power struggle between Ezeulu and the people of Umuaro gives the Christian
catechist, Mr. Goodcountry, the opportunity to win converts. The book concludes with Ezeulu’s power receding as Christianity
takes precedence.

Manhood in Igbo life is marked by stages of life – marriage, fatherhood, gaining titles, becoming an elder. A man accrues
respect, rights, and power as he moves through the stages of life. Though Obika may drink too much, he is still admired as a
man because he is handsome and has physical prowess. Edogo, on the other hand, is steady and dependable, but not flashy; he
gets little respect . from the people of Umuaro.

In Arrow of God, respect and reputation are highly valued in both Igbo and British cultures. The careers of colonial officials
are built on their reputations, as are the careers of men in Igbo culture. In both cultures, titled men and elders have more power
than young men or men who lack titles. We see Wright and Clarke gossip about Winterbottom; their attempt to destroy his
reputation is also an attempt to build themselves up. Ezeulu feels the sting of the people’s lack of respect, first when they
ignore his opinion and go to war with Okperi and finally when they continue to blame him for the white man’s arrival.
Ultimately, it is the destruction of Ezeulu’s reputation that causes the people of Umuaro to convert to Christianity.

It is in Achebe’s work that the African experience is brought into definite focus, and assumes its full human and narrative
scope in modern novel .His redefinition of the tearm of the functional representation of Africa established the novel as modern
narrative genre on the African continent, indeed as an autonomous mode of imaginative life in Africa . The native grasp of the
Igboethos of communal living and individual awareness that underlie and legitimizes Achebe’s imaginative expression has
given up powerful impulse to the effort by other writers to convey the sense of specific location in the world that his work
evinces .(www.cambridge.org )

There was a influence of traditional canonical texts that had on Achebe leads to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902)
(http://www.heartofdarkness.html). When studying the venerated Conradian text, Achebe realized that the African characters
are stereotypes and that Conrad is giving the typical colonial view of the "natives." In contrast to Conrad's half-naked, silent,
spear rattling "savages", Achebe creates complex and complicated human beings existing within an equally complex and
complicated society. As if pointedly playing with Conrad, Achebe presents his European characters, Winterbottom, Clark, and
Wright as one dimensional stereotypes. So successful is he that one critic misses the apparent irony and takes Achebe to task
saying,

"Once again the white characters are not much more than parodies, though perfectly fair ones . . . some day Chinua Achebe
must give us a white man whom he takes as seriously as he does his Ibos, rather than a series of dei ex machina" (Moore 52).

Another traditional text that influenced Achebe is Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson. This novel, also set in Nigeria, struck Achebe
as

"a most superficial picture of-not only of the country-but even of the Nigerian characters, and so I thought if this was famous,
then perhaps someone ought to try and look at this from the inside" (Pieterse and Duerden 4).

Conducting a dialogue with Achebe's other novels shows that all of Achebe's texts look at Nigeria "from the inside." Arrow of
God is the third of four novels Achebe wrote between 1955-1965, which are about Nigeria from the beginning of British
colonization in the 1890's through the military coup in the 1960's. Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958)
(http://www.thingsfallapart.html) is set in pre-colonial Nigeria and addresses the first encounters of the Igbo people with the
British invaders. The main character, Okonkwo, like the main character Ezeulu in Arrow of God, is destroyed by setting
himself apart from his people. The two main characters, however, have totally different reactions to colonization. No Longer at
Ease (1960) (http://nolongeratease.html) is set in both the Nigerian capital of Lagos and in Umuofia, a Nigerian village. The
main character is an educated Nigerian man who attempts to negotiate a past and present Nigerian society in the 1950's-a time
of great political change. A Man of the People (1966) (http://www.manofthepeople.html) investigates the impact of politics on
native culture. The action is set in contemporary Nigeria after achieving independence from British rule. Anthills of the
Savannah (1987) (http://www.anthillsofthesavannah.html) raises questions about power and military rule in Nigeria after
independence from Britain.
Comparing Achebe's Arrow of God to Rigoberta Menchu's I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in
Guatemala (http://www.irigobertamenchu.html), one of the best known Latin American post colonial texts, there are
similarities and differences. One obvious difference is genre. Arrow of God is a novel, while Menchu's text is a testimonial.
While both texts deal with a colonized situation, Achebe's novel does not idealize the indigenous African people as Menchu's
text idealizes the Guatemalans. 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. Perhaps the same dissension within led to the subjugation of
Menchu's Mayan culture by the Spanish, but it is not a theme she explores as readily as Achebe. Menchu admits that the
Indians are "separated by ethnic barriers, linguistic barriers", that "there's no dialogue between us" (143), and that the
government uses these divisions within the culture to exploit the people (143), but she does not draw any conclusions from the
implications. Instead, she places the blame on the government, saying, "this is what the White Man did; it's the fault of the
Whiteman"(69).

Achebe, on the other hand, never blames the colonizers directly. Contemplating these books and the way they convey their
cultures, I am reminded of a question Achebe raises in an essay entitled, "The Role of the Writer in a New Nation", "The
question is how does a writer re-create the past. Quite clearly there is a strong temptation to idealize it-to extol its good points
and pretend that the bad never existed . . .This is where the writer's integrity comes in. Will he be strong enough to overcome
the temptation to select only those facts, which flatter him? If he succumbs he will have branded himself as an untrustworthy
witness. But it is not only his personal integrity as an artist, which is involved. The credibility of the world he is attempting to
recreate will be called into question and he will defeat his own purpose if he is suspected of glossing over inconvenient facts.
We cannot pretend that our past was one long, technicolour idyll. We have to admit that like other people's past ours had its
good as well as its bad sides" (158).

Menchu, of course, is not an "artist" in the sense Achebe means, nor was she writing a novel. However, by her failure to be
more balanced, or, at least slightly detached, Menchu opens the door for detractors who feel her testimony at times borders on
propaganda. It is well for the reader of Menchu to keep in mind that Menchu is on a crusade and that her anger is a sort of
righteous anger that fuels the emotion of her story, but may not give a completely balanced view of reality.

Achebe, unlike Menchu, is more intent on unearthing 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).

This conflict between 'two brothers' is one Menchu does not elaborate on. When the villagers capture the government soldier
she says that for the pregnant girls raped by the soldiers, the baby was "like a monster, something unbearable" (148), implying
that the bloodlines could not mix, yet she later says the soldier was also an Indian, not from a different race at all. Why brother
is fighting against brother, why Igbo betrays Igbo is a cultural psychological question, one Menchu sidesteps but Achebe
tackles head on.

Arrow of God (1964) by Chinua Achebe, a political and cultural novel, is set in Nigeria in the early twentieth century when
colonization by British government officials and Christian missionaries was well underway. In this novel two cultures confront
their differences. 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 (https://wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/arrowofgod.html)

"Among the Ibo the art of conversations is regarded very highly and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten" (7).

An examination of how proverbs work in the novel would be a way to discuss theme, clarify character, and explain the culture.
Achebe says, "when I use these forms in my novels, they both serve a utilitarian purpose, which is to reenact the life of the
people that I am describing, and also delight through elegance and aptness of imagery. This is what proverbs are supposed to
do" (Lindfors 67). For a detailed analysis of Achebe's use of proverbs see Austin Shelton's "'The Palm-Oil' of Language:
Provrebs in Chinua Achebe's Novels." Modern Language Quarterly 30(1969): 103.
Another suggestion is to explore the text as a counternarrative. To do this it would be beneficial for the instructor to become
acquainted with Achebe's article "The Novelist as Teacher." In this essay Achebe explains his purpose in his novels. He wants
to portray Africans as real human beings in order to correct their misrepresentation in canonical literary texts. Having the
students read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, then read Achebe's essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of
Darkness" would be an ideal way to compare and contrast Arrow of God with a canonical literary text and confront the
stereotypes Achebe points out. Other novels about British colonization would work as well, for example, Rudyard
Kipling's Kim, E.M. Forrester's Passage to India, George Orwell's Burmese Days, or Olive Schreiner's Story of an African
Farm. Examining how Arrow of God works as a counternarrative is an excellent segway to studying Point of View. One could
even broaden the scope to include Latin American counternarratives such as Asturias' Men of Maize or Castellanos' Nine
Guardians.

To find the latest articles and books on Achebe consult the MLA International Bibliography, the Journal of Commonwealth
Literature, and Callaloo. For biographical sources, interviews, Igbo studies, background studies on anthropology, history,
politics, religion, critical commentary sources, and information on audio visual aids see BernthLindors' Approaches to
Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1991.

Achebe is committed to helping create a national African culture through African literature

The worst thing that can happen to any people is the 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. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to
beat them" ("The Role of the Writer in a New Nation" 158)

"

In his novels, 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. After the military coup in Nigeria in 1966, Achebe returned to Eastern Nigeria and became a spokesman for Biafra. In
later years Achebe became Visiting Professor of Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of
Connecticut, Storrs. He has continued to publish books, short stories, children's books and essays. His latest book, Anthills of
the Savannah was published in 1989. Achebe received the Nigerian National Merit Award for intellectual achievement.

However, since the text itself is a place of cultural interaction some instructors might opt to forego background information
and immerse the students directly in the text. If so, it would be helpful to raise questions at the beginning that the student can
keep in mind as he reads. Such questions might be "Who is the arrow of God?" "Could Ezeulu disobey Ulu?" "Did you
sympathize with Ezeulu or the starving people? "Why did Ezeulu not eat the sacred yams?" "What will be the result of
Umuaro's conversion to Christianity?" After the students have read the text in depth analysis can be assigned examining
narrative techniques, rhetorical techniques, historical/cultural contrasts and comparisions, character analysis, theme, point of
view, the interrelationship between literature and politics. The students could analyzeEzeulu's character and compare it with
his sons' characters; compare and contrast the protagonist, Ezeulu, and the antagonist, Nwaka; identify other
protagonist/antagonist conflicts in the text; identify the central conflict. Another focus might be to examine Achebe's use of
language. One could study African folktales, songs, and proverbs. Achebe uses proverbs as a way to communicate the African
oral tradition within the frame of the western novel. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes,

Notes:

1. The phrase "Arrow of God" comes from the Igbo proverb when a person or sometimes even an event, are said to
embody the image of God. The title Arrow of God exemplifies Ezeulu as the arrow in the bow of his god. Arrow of
God was the first ever novel to win the Jock Campbell/New Statesmen Prize for African writing.
 Citation

Achebe, Chinua. A Man of the People. London: Heinemann, 1966.

___. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Hopes and Impediments Selected Essays. New York: Doubleday,

___. Anthills of the Savannah. London: Heinemann, 1987.

___. Arrow of God. New York: Anchor Books, 1969.

___. Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. London: Heinemann, 1975.

___. No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann, 1960.

___. "The Role of the Writer in the New Nation." Nigeria Magazine. 81 (June1964): 158-79.Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann

___. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's P, 1989.

Egejuru, PhanuelAkubueze, ed. Towards African Literary Independence: A Dialogue With Contemporary African Writers. Westport

Lindfors,Bernth, ed. Approaches to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart. New York: The Modern Language Association of Americ

___. Conversations with Chinua Achebe.Jackson: Un. of Mississippi P, 1997.

Menchu, Rigoberta. I, RigobertaMenchu An Indian Woman in Guatemala. New York:Verso, 1984.

Moore, Gerald. "Achebe's New Novel." Transition. 4 (May/June 1964): 52.

Pieterse, Cosmo and Duerden, Dennis, eds. African Writers Talking: A Collection of Radio Interviews. London: Heinemann, 1972.

Scheub, Harold. “A Review of African Oral Traditions and Literature.” African Studies Review 28:2/3 (1985): 1-72. JSTOR . 19 Sept 2011.

 https://www.enotes.com/topics/arrow-god/critical-essays

www.cambridge.org

 https://searchwork.standford.edu.com
 https://www.gradesaver.com/arrow-of-god)