It stresses the innate capabilities of every man and every
woman. Every man has his chi and every woman has her chi. Chi,
a short form of chineke (God the creator, Ekereke Uwa, Creator
of heaven and earth), is the Igbo man's way of asserting the
existence of a spiritual world, an intangible world of the
Supreme existence that shapes human destinies.

Achebe's fictional world is realistic, and at times verges
on naturalism as he delves into photographic reenactments of
Igbo traditional life and cultures, especially such as can
readily be adapted to the resources of the English language.
But in terms of actualities Achebe's four novels are imperfect,
fictional recreations of historical moments, not a photographic
synthesis. The vision of these moments is uniquely his and
nobody else's. His representation of Igbo society is both
historical and political and the long term effect of his rep-
resentation is literary and aesthetic.

Achebe's greatness lies in his ability to recreate a
people's life, cultures and traditions into exquisite artistry,
that is, his ability to interweave his themes and the form of
presentation into an artistic whole. In his works the principle
of intelligibility is tightly interwoven with the cultural
realities of the Igbo people. His stories are told in the
typical Igbo way where a story is seasoned with the author's
imaginative resources. There is no typical Igbo narrative
without salt and pepper. In all his efforts Achebe tries to
keep a proper balance between Igbo traditional life and cultures
and his deep yearning for a better future for his people.

Chinua Achebe does not pretend to be writing a British
colonial history. He has exposed his readers to the pervasive
influences of the European (British) presence upon the tradi-
tional life and cultures of the colonial peoples. In Things
Fall Apart he examines the traditional life and cultures of the
Igbo people in the nineteenth century; he examines the village
life of the people in early years of contact with Europeans. In
Arrow of God, he carries us to the life and traditions of the
people in the nineteen-twenties, some years after the evens and
incidents portrayed in the first novel.

The author does not hesitate to assett that at the time of
the Arrow of God the Europeans (the British) are in firm
political control of the land. The Arrow of God reminds us of
the imposition of British colonial rule on the peoples of
Nigeria, especially upon the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria. In
the novel we can feel the impact and the lasting influence of
the obtrusion of foreign cultures in a traditional society; we
also witness the non-persuasive way, or rather the almost
militant evangelism through which Christianity was introduced to
a faith-filled but credulous society. Thus the strains of
European political and religious system came into Africa with
full force and vim. Unfortunately little or no attention was
paid to African traditional existence and cultural realities.

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