Arrow of God

“Although he was still only a child it looked as though the deity had already marked him out as his future Chief. Even before he had learnt to speak more than a few words he had been strongly drawn to the god’s ritual.” 

Nwafo’s close connection to the High Priesthood causes conflict between his brothers, particularly conflict with Edogo. Ezeulu identifies Nwafo as his successor, but he ultimately cannot decide who will follow him. Nwafo’s role is then yet another example that other men draw upon to criticize Ezeulu for his human pride outweighing his divinity.

“‘When a handshake goes beyond the elbow we know it has turned to another thing. It was I who sent you to join those people because of my friendship to the white man, Wintabota. He asked me to send one of my children to learn the ways of his people and I agree to send you. I did not send you so that you might leave your duty in my household.’” 

Ezeulu reasserts his authority over the demands of the white man in his child, Oduche. Even before he kills the python, Oduche struggles to discern his authority. Ezeulu makes clear that allegiance to family and its traditions stands first in his mind.

“‘If in truth the farmland is ours, Ulu will fight on our side.’”

Early in the novel, Ezeulu works to remind the men around him that Ulu is the authority in their village. He seeks peace with Okperi. This peace comes with patiently waiting for deities to arrange on behalf of men, rather than men acting to claim what is theirs.

“‘I have been watching this Ezeulu for many years. He is a man of ambition; he wants to be king, priest, diviner, all.’” 

Nwaka criticizes Ezeulu’s authority in front of other men. This stance, that Ezeulu seeks power greater than what one man should have, helps him to build a force of people who work against Ezeulu. They want to share in authority and judgment, and they believe that Ezeulu uses his divine part to legitimize his overreach.

“‘One thing you must remember in dealing with natives is that like children they are great liars. They don’t lie simply to get out of trouble. Sometimes they would spoil a good case by a pointless lie.’” 

Winterbottom explains his observation about Ibo people through his own lens of truth-telling. Those who have avoided explaining their conflict to him are “liars” ostensibly just to ruin his work. 

“But now Ezeulu was becoming afraid that the new religion was like a leper. Allow him a handshake and he wants to embrace. Ezeulu had already spoken strongly to his son who was becoming more strange every day.” 

Before Oduche kills the python, Ezeulu already worries about the power of Christianity to corrupt his son. Ezeulu sees part of his responsibility as maintaining fatherly authority over his son, but the other part is retaining religious authority over him. Begin “a leper” means seeking a new home and also spreading quickly: Christianity, Ezeulu can see, is dangerous.

“The great tragedy of British colonial administration was that the man on the spot who knew his African and knew what he was talking about found himself being constantly overruled by starry-eyed fellows at headquarters.” 

Winterbottom’s perspective on Africa makes him believe that he knows “his African” better than others. This special knowledge should, he thinks, give him more authority, but instead he is cast aside by his community. In this sense, he parallels Ezeulu, who possesses knowledge that others do not but is easily cast aside by them.

“A stranger to this year’s festival might go away thinking that Umuaro had never been more united in all its history. In the atmosphere of the present gathering the great hostility between Umunneora and Umuachala seemed, momentarily, to lack significance.” 

Ceremony brings people together in Umuaro. The powerful sound of the drums and the arrival of masks has a positive effect, galvanizing culture in ways that British outsiders like Winterbottom do not understand. When all are exposed and brought together, all can identify as part of a unified group.

“In fact he had got very much attached to this gang and knew their leaders by name now. Many of them were, of course, bone lazy and could only respond to severe handling. But once you got used to them they could be quite amusing. They were as loyal as pet dogs and their ability to improvise songs was incredible.” 

Wright’s attitude toward Ibo people is clear in this passage. He sees these individuals as non-human, and even though he grows an affection for them, his vision of them as non-human prevents him from treating them differently. When he hits Obika, that violence is an extension of this attitude.

“‘As daylight chases away darkness so will the white man drive away all our customs. I know that as I say it now it passes by your ears, but it will happen. The white man has power which comes from the true God and it burns like fire. This is the God about Whom we preach every eighth day.’” 

Moses, a Christian convert, reminds the men who work for Wright that he sees Christianity prepared to take over local society. That “true God” ends up wielding power when men’s conflicts tear them apart at the end of the text.

“Everybody agreed that Obika’s friendship with Ofoedu would not bring about any good, but Obika was no longer a child and if he refused to listen to advice he should be left alone. That was what their father could never learn. He must go on treating his grown children like little boys, and if they ever said no there was a big quarrel.” 

Ezeulu’s issues controlling his sons continue even after they are adults: it is clear that he wants to have control over everyone around him. Obika takes control of his life and actions as he grows older, but that maturity is difficult for Ezeulu to trust. In his relationships with his children, Ezeulu’s failure to trust others emerges.

“‘Those of you who think they are wiser than their father forget that it is from a man’s own stock of sense that he gives out to his sons. That is why a boy who tries to wrestle with his father gets blinded by the old man’s loin-cloth. Why do I speak like this? It is because I am not a stranger in your father’s hut and I am not afraid to speak my mind.’” 

Akuebue’s advice to Edogo points out his own pride in criticizing his father. Inheritance of wisdom and skill from elders are central to Umuaro’s culture. Akuebue, as elder and as friend, defends that tradition and works to humble the younger man.

“As he walked round the premises of the Rest House Tony Clarke felt that he was hundreds of miles from Government Hill. It was quite impossible to believe that it was only six or seven miles away. Even the sun seemed to set in a different direction. No wonder the natives were said to regard a six mile walk as travelling to a foreign country.” 

Clarke’s experience of the African landscape shows how out of place a British “authority” is in the landscape around him. Distance is not only physical but mental, and Clarke feels a new vulnerability in the space where he is able to recognize that he is an outsider.

“If so it showed how false was the common assumption that the more facts you could get about others the greater your power over them. Perhaps facts put you at a great disadvantage; perhaps they made you feel sorry and even responsible.” 

Clarke’s recognition that “facts” do not equate to power shows him grappling with the nature of British colonial authority. It also recognizes the importance of the divine, or unknowable factors of existence that seems to permeate life in Umuaro. Clarke ultimately rejects the knowledge that is supposed to govern the “correct” action, which does not exist when he needs to manage Ezeulu’s case.

“Obika began to admire this new image of himself as an upholder of custom—like the lizard who fell down from the high iroko tree he felt entitled to praise himself if nobody else did.” 

As Obika matures, he sees himself molding into a more honorable reflection of local customs and traditions. Although few notice this more upright stature, it brings him closer to his father and it also makes society feel more stable. The good feeling that accompanies working within tradition establishes the importance of tradition, even if it requires some self-sacrifice.

“ He felt pity and a little contempt for the young man. Why could he not open his mouth like a man and say that he wanted to be priest instead of hiding behind Oduche and Obika? That was why Ezeulu never counted him among people.” 

Ezeulu’s perspective on Edogo shows some derision for the man’s attitude. He believes that he recognizes Edogo’s ambition, and he does not respect Edogo’s hesitation to speak up for himself. Edogo’s use of other men to speak his own concerns about his father looks like cowardice and renders him less manly, in the eyes of a traditionalist.

“‘I know that Umuaro is divided and confused and I know that some people are holding secret meetings to persuade others that I am the cause of the trouble. But why should that remove sleep from my eyes? These things are not new and they will follow where the others have gone.’” 

Ezeulu’s belief that all recent conflicts “are not new” exemplifies his behavior and decision making across the story. He knows that he cannot understand the white man, yet he is certain that Ulu’s power and authority should stand firm in the face of these unfamiliar challenges. He hopes to inspire the same confidence in others.

“‘But if Ezeulu is now telling us that he is tired of the white man’s friendship our advice to him should be: You tied the knot, you should also know how to undo it. You passed the shit that is smelling; you should carry it away.’” 

Criticism of Ezeulu centers on the question of whether or not he is working with the white man. In this moment, he is left alone, and this problem is treated as his. Notably, Ulu’s power and authority are absent from this conversation; responsibility falls entirely upon Ezeulu.

“For years he had been warning Umuaro not to allow a few jealous men to lead them into the bush. But they had stopped both ears with fingers. The had gone on taking one dangerous step after another and now they had gone too far.” 

As Ezeulu prepares to travel to Okperi, he grows angry with his fellow villagers for causing conflict. He believes that, without conflict, the white man would not have gained power in their area. This anger toward his fellow villagers extends into his time in Okperi and after, when he seeks to prove a point to those around him about the authority of Ulu.

“Ezeulu himself was full of satisfaction at the way things had gone. He had settled his little score with the white man and could forget him for the moment.” 

Ezeulu envisions the white man as a complication in his local affairs, rather than a central motivating feature of it. Where others around him fixate on that relationships, he believes that the white person will pass away from his village. In seeking vengeance locally, he creates an opportunity that he cannot foresee for the white man to enter into the space he leaves open.

“As long as he was in exile it was easy for Ezeulu to think of Umuaro as one hostile entity. But back in his hut he could no longer see the matter as simply as that. All these people who had left what they were doing or where they were going to say welcome to him could not be called enemies.” 

Ezeulu’s inner thoughts express the complexity of knowledge about a person. Unlike Winterbottom, who judges from afar, Ezeulu is intimately connected to local conflicts. Once you know the person who causes you trouble, his story suggests, you can see that he bears good intentions along with perceived “bad” intentions. Nothing is absolute anymore.

“‘You have spoken well. But what you ask me to do is not done. Those yams are not food and a man does not eat them because he is hungry. You are asking me to eat death.’” 

Ezeulu reminds the men who complain to him of the local ritual of yam-eating. Although they seek some help in circumventing tradition, Ezeulu grows offended with the way in which these men bypass the traditional meaning of ritual. For him, the power of life and death is intimate, not flexible to the needs of men. This attention to the divine tradition is what Ezeulu was previously criticized for lacking.

“‘It troubles me,’ he said, ‘because it looks like the saying of our ancestors that when brothers fight to death a stranger inherits their father’s estate.’” 

Akuebue’s wise words foresee the rise of Christianity in the wake of Ezeulu’s conflict over the New Yam festival. The arrival of a “stranger” who “inherits” is the possibility that Ezeulu never conceived of, believing, as he does, in Ulu’s perpetual protection of his people regardless of their actions.