Colonialism In Arrow Of God

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Arrow of God, a novel by Chinua Achebe is a novel that focuses on British colonialism and the struggle the people of the Igbo had adjusting to it. Colonialism is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Throughout the story the Igbo people are forced to try to adapt to the ways of the British people. Some problems the Igbo people face throughout the story are things such as road construction, land disagreement, and the killing of the royal python. These happening cause arguments and disagreements between the people of Igbo. One of the happenings was when the British Colonials wanted to construct new roads throughout the village. …show more content…

The whole reason for going to war in this novel is because of the land issue. In the beginning of chapter two Umuaro decides to go to war against Okperi. British general T.K. Winterbottom steps in to try to solve the dispute between the two villages, but when Umuaro and its people refused to convert to the British ways, T.K. Winterbottom chooses to give the land to the people of Okperi. This also connects to the road building problem because Winterbottom takes the people of Umuaro who he did not like and who hurt him in the media, to work on the road and then did not pay them. Back to the land though, this is another view of the colonials getting themselves involved in things that only the natives should be involved in. There was no reason for Winterbottom to put himself between two native’s tribes when they had already had a plan to dissolve the matter; even if the plan was war. Lastly, there was an incident where there was a royal python killed in Arrow of God. In chapter four of Arrow of God, Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of the Ulu found out that his son, Oduche had trapped a royal python in a box in hopes that it would suffocate. Ezeulu was appalled when he found out that his own son would attempt to kill such a sacred animal. In reality the colonials persuaded Oduche to kill the snake because according to Ezeulu, he outlawed them. The Igbo people then blamed the Chief Priest for allowing his

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