Aug 21, 2008
Arrow of God | Arrow of God
At a glance:
- Author: Chinua Achebe
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Work: Social chronicle
- Time of Work: The 1920’s
- Setting: Okperi and the six Igbo villages that compose Umuaro in Nigeria
- Principal Characters: Ezeulu, Nwaka, Ezidemili, Oduche, Obika, Captain Winterbottom, Clarke, John Nwodika, John Goodcountry, Moses Unuachukwu
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Culture, History, Africa or Africans, Power, personal or social, Politics, Colonies or colonization, Race, Missions or missionaries, Religion, 1920’s, Christianity, Rulers, Government
- Locales: Nigeria
The Novel
Set in the 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...
[The entire page is 2001 words long]
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