Dynamics of Change and Displacement in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God

Abstract

The fictions of Chinua Achebe, one of the most celebrated African writers, are indicatives of his concern for the changing African society and culture. Arrow of God, his third novel, traces the transitional pattern of human civilization in an Igboland in Southeastern Nigeria. By embedding the social, religious, political and cultural reality at the core of his novel, Achebe focuses on the succession of civilizations, of epochal cycles in which each civilization collapses and makes way for the successive one. The impact of the British colonial invasion that served as a catalyst in the process of transition is recounted by Achebe with a rare sense of detachment and objectivity. While the seed-time of the progressive colonial, topsyturvydom is explored in Things Fall Apart, his first novel, Arrow of God presents the second phase of decline in the traditional society in terms of transition from the traditional religion to an alien one. In Arrow of God, Achebe offers an insightful portrayal of the social and religious life of the Igbo people in the throes of change. Here Achebe is neither condemning nor extolling the infiltration of the white man, his culture and religion. Christianity is shown to have been embraced by the Africans due to the inherent weakness in the structure of the traditional Igbo society.