Cultural Affirmation in Chinua Achebe’S Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God
Abstract
This research work was on cultural affirmation in Chinua Achebe’’ s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. With reference to the analysis of the two novels, the study has shown that Achebe’s novels dramatize African cultural conflicts during the colonial rule its consequences to African ways of life. The novels also portray the history of the colonizers and the colonized at the time of pre-colonial era.
It is on this point that Achebe insists that art is the service of man. For instance he uses traditional Igbo religious, political philosophical and artistic motifs in Arrow of God combine to illumine the abstract notion of duality. From the opinion of critics in the review of related literature, the research has shown that Chinua Achebe’s writing portrays African’s cultural identity and its ways of life. The study further revealed that Achebe’s work serves as an exemplar of Igbo tradition and social formation in the society.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Chinua Achebe is one of the famous African writers whose works of art portrays cultural affirmation in African society. This cultural affirmation as portrayed by the author is seen in these two novels under investigation…Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. In these novels, Achebe examines how the Igbo culture and tradition are practiced. For instance, in Arrow of God, Achebe portrays the events in the village of Umuaro with its focus on the tragic fall of its protagonist, Ezeulu in nine months. Apart from Ezeulu’s fall, Achebe also portrays how his fall came as a tragic end of Igbo culture, and also the inequality, humanity and oppression suffered by the Igbo people at the hands of the colonial masters.
They did not have any king, the chief priest is was their supreme authority…that is strongest among their clan, but on the contrary he is very weak man in the six villages in Umuaro. On the other hand, Achebe portrays another element of cultural affirmation in Things Fall Apart using the protagonist, Okonkwo a traditional African man, whon is also a wrestler who defeated another wrestler champion with a nick name, the cat who never lands his back on the ground.
However, Achebe portrays how Okonkwo drive to escape the legacy of his father…that leads him to be wealthy, and powerful among the people of his village. In another instance, Okonkwo is the leader of his village, and he has attained a position in his village which makes him to strive hard in his life style. Consequently, it is on this point that the researcher research on cultural affirmation in Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart with a view of investigating its root in the African societies.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
One of the major concerns in this research work is a way of investigating the cultural affirmation in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God with reference to the African society.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this research work is to examine the cultural affirmation in Chinua Achebe’ Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart the study will also expose and bring out some others cultural practices in African.
Cultural Affirmation in Chinua Achebe’S Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God
1.4 Significance o the study
This research will be significance to the entire African society what Achebe’s writings is all about, with reference to the two novels in this research work. The study will also be of great important to literature students and other researchers who will find this research work important.
1.5 Objectives of the study
The following are the objectives of this research work are;
- to investigate the cultural affirmation as portrayed by Achebe in these two novels under study.
- to examine the author’s aims of writing Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart.
- to analyze and portrays what cultural affirmation is all about and the author’s intension towards African practices.
1.6 Research Methodology
The primary method in this research in this research work will basically focus on Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart, while the secondary method will examine other African literary novels, library, internet, articles, and magazine for more information on the research work.
1.7 Scope and Limitation of the study
The scope of this research work will be limited to Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart.
1.8 Bio- Data of Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was born Albert Chinulumogu Achebe on the 16 November, 1930. He was raised by his parents, in the Igbo town of Ogidi in Southeastern Nigeria. Achebe was an excelled at school and won a scholarship to study medicine, but change his studies to English and literature at the University College, now the University of Ibadan. Achebe became facilitated with world religions and traditional African culture and began writing stories as a University student. After his graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS), and later moved to the metropolis of Lagos Nigeria.
Achebe gain worldwide attention for his novels, Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s, while his later novels includes; No Longer at Ease in 1960, Arrow of God in 1964, A Man of The People 1966 while Anthill of the Savanna 1987. On the other hand, Achebe wrote these novels in English and defended the use of English, a language of the colonizers in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of African.; Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, feature a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as a thoroughgoing racist; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review…amid some controversy.
In 1990, Achebe returned from the United States and began eighteen-year tenure at Board College as the Charles Stevenson professor of Languages and literature. In the year Things Fall Apart was published, Achebe meet a woman named Christiana Chinwe Okoli, who had grow up in the area and joined the (NBS) Nigeria Broadcasting Service staff when she arrived however, they were blessed with children until he died on 21 March, 3013 at the age of 82 years.
Other of his short stories are, Marriage is a Private Affair 1952, Dead Men’s Path 1953, The Sacrificial Egg and other Stories 1953, Civil Peace 1971, Girls at War 1973, African short stories 1985.
Cultural Affirmation in Chinua Achebe’S Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
The research work was on cultural affirmation in Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart. Some critics like, Okpewho, Isodore and Innes, Catherine Lynnette, Wren Robert, and Brooker Keith says, Achebe’s novel are the intersection of African tradition, particularly Igbo varieties and modernity, especially as embodied by European colonialism.
For instance, one of the Nigerian English professions and critic Ernest Emenyonu describes Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God as colonial novels and colonial experience with his systematic emasculation of the entire culture “(176). No doubt, Achebe’s novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the clash of western and traditional Africans values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straight forward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory.
In Things Fall Apart, the author portrays how Okonkwo struggles with the legacy of his father, a shiftless debtor fond of playing the flute as well as the complications and contradictions that arise when white missionaries arrive in the village of Umuofia. Consequently, the above selected novels as portrayed by the author examine African cultural affirmation in the African society.
5.2 Conclusion
The research work has examined cultural affirmation in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. Achebe’s writing is about African society, in telling from an African point of view the story of the colonialism that African culture had been savage and primitive. For instance, in Things Fall Apart Achebe portrays how western culture is portrayed as been arrogant ad ethnocentric, insisting that the African culture needed a leader.
As it had no kings or chiefs, Umuofia culture was vulnerable to invasion by western civilization. On the other hand, critics have praised Achebe’s neutral narration and have described Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God as realistic novels. Much of the critical discussion about things fall apart concentrates on the socio-political aspects of the novel, including the friction between the members of ifbo society as presence of western government and beliefs.
According to Enerst Emenyonu as he commented that, “Achebe’s” Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God are indeed a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism, takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another civilization “(11).Achehe portrays the culture as having a religion,a government, a system of money and artistic tradition, as well as a judicial system.
5.2 Recommendations
Based on the findings, the researcher made the following recommendations;
- Educational planners should recommends Achehe” novels into over educational system because, the novels are realistic ones, with good cultural identity in the society of Africa.
- As literature mirror the society, novels with good moral lessons should be recommended in our school system.
- African society should refined their practices most especially, what they has lost and how the inhabitants have fallen victims In African culture.
