OBOC - Nigeria

Before I embarked on this project, the only things I knew of Nigeria were from Fela Kuti’s music. So all I knew was civil war, corrupt Governments and Oil and to me that looked like almost all of Africa (the danger of a single story). I had heard of Chinua Achebe but never got around to reading any of his work. So as part of OBOC I picked up “Arrow of God” and I absolutely loved it!! It is very different from the Nigeria I hear in Fela Kuti’s music as it dates to the early 1900s when the Colonizers were just starting their colonization process in Nigeria. So it gave me a whole new insight into the Igbo people and their culture.
As I read this book I could not help but imagine many of the rituals that were described, a testimony to Achebe’s narrative skills. The importance of yam, the kola nut, the various masks, musical instruments, their market festivals were all finely detailed. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a very balanced book on colonial conflicts - tribal life was not idealized, colonizers were not demonized - so in that sense i found the book very refreshing.
The book appealed to me on many levels and raised more questions that it would’ve been wonderful to be part of a book club or a class and read the book together and have a discussion around it. Is it a story of conflict? If so conflict between whom? God (Ulu) and Priest (Ezeulu), one God over the other (Christianity Vs Ulu), Colonizers Vs Colonized, Father Vs Son, Power groups within the tribe, Men Vs Women, Tradition Vs Change? Was Ezeulu just being an arrow of God or was it his ego/anger at his own people that led to the downfall of their tribal group? Also, the status of women in the tribe was much more subservient of women than I would’ve imagined of tribal cultures. Is this an impact of colonization, other changes? Something that happened in the 19th century?
As I said a thoroughly fascinating read, and if I didn’t have another 190 odd countries to go through I would’ve stayed with Nigeria and Achebe for a long time!