Socio -Cultural Conflicts and Language: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), an Igbo writer in English, is one of the Africa’s most acclaimed authors and the pioneers in the portrayal of African life from the African perspectives. Chinua Achebe’s third novel, Arrow of God, is concerned with the theme of conflict. The paper examines the issues of Nigerian Igbo socio –cultural identity and other linguistic features that coalesce to communicate the intended message in Achebe’s Arrow of God (1964).It highlights Achebe’s adaptive use of the English language to capture peculiar cultural ideals in the Igbo traditional society. The study analysesand portrays the vocabulary, syntax and expressions that depict socio-cultural Igbo norms. The paper introspects the internal tribal conflicts making the fertile ground for the disintegration of the tribe. The political and religious powers mirror the discourse of their ethnicity. Ezeulu, the central character of the novel tries to hold the community unified by his thoughtful decisions, but the social aggression is seen to challenge the traditional religious ethos. Achebe sketches cultural patterns in social institutions to counter stereotypes of Africa. However, even as he traces these patterns, he reveals schisms in Igbo society that foreshadow change in the existing social order. Colonialism fractures the society further, accelerating change. While delineating the processes of change, Achebe outlines the complex nature of cultural identity, a result of both the intrinsic nature of Igbo society and the advent of colonialism.