Arrow of God.html



Arrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's third novel following Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are sometimes called The African Trilogy. The novel centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of several Nigerian villages, who confronts colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s.¹

Plot introduction

The novel is set amongst the villages of the Igbo people in Nigeria. Ezeulu is the chief priest of the god Ulu, worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. The book begins with Ezeulu and Umuaro getting in a battle with a nearby village, Okperi. The conflict is abruptly resolved when T.K. Winterbottom, the British colonial overseer intervenes.

After the conflict, a Christian missionary, John Goodcountry, arrives in Umuaro. Goodcountry began to tell the villages tales of Nigerians in the Niger Delta who abandoned (and battled) their traditional "bad customs," in favor of Christianity. Stirring resentment from his traditional community, Ezeulu sends his son to study with Goodcountry.

Ezeulu is called away from his village by Winterbottom, and he is invited to become a part of the colonial administration, a policy known as indirect rule. Ezeulu refuses to be a "white man's chief" and is thrown in prison. In Ezeulu's village, the people do not harvest the yams until he approves, but, angry at being in prison, he refuses. The yams begin to rot in the field, leading to famine. The novel is called "Arrow of God" because Ezeulu compares himself to an arrow in their god's bow. He claims that the hardships he has brought to the village are Ulu's will.²

Many of the villagers have already lost their faith in Ezeulu. Another of Ezeulu's sons dies during a traditional ceremony, and the village interprets this as a sign that Ulu has abandoned their priest. Rather than face another famine, the village converts to Christianity.

Themes

Ulu, the villages of Umuaro and Okperi, and the colonial officials are all fictional. But Nigeria in the 1920s was controlled by British Colonial authorities, indirect rule was tested as a governing strategy, and many of the Igbo people abandoned their traditional beliefs for Christianity. The novel is considered a work of African literary realism.

Achebe's first novel Things Fall Apart tells the tale of Okonkwo, a leader in his community until colonialism enters. Arrow of God similarly describes the downfall of a traditional leader at the hands of colonialism. The central conflicts of the novel revolve around the struggle between continuity and change, such as Ezeulu refusing to serve Winterbottom, or between the traditional villagers and Ezeulu's son who studies Christianity.²

Symbolism

The phrase "Arrow of God" is drawn from an Igbo proverb in which a person, or sometimes an event, is said to represent the will of God.³. Arrow of God also concerns itself basically with the Acquiescance of Traditional African forms to Western Influence.

Recognition

Arrow of God won the first ever Jock Campbell/New Statesman Prize for African writing.⁴

Trivia

Two songs by the band Phish have titles identical to phrases in the novel, though this appears to be a coincidence. The songs are Run Like an Antelope and Water in the Sky.

References