CHAPTER - I

INTRODUCTION

Common wealth literature is these used to cover the literary works from
territories that work once part of the British Empire, but it usually excludes
books from the United Kingdom unless these are produced by resident writers
who originate from a former colony They great irony, however, is that much of
the best literature that has emerged from Britain in the last years has been
produced by writers from or with roots in colonies.

common wealth literature, post colonial, literature, New literature in

English, world writing in English these are just some of the terms being used to
describes the writings of members of the former British Empire. The number of
titles however reflects the growing international importance of such writing as
evidenced this month at the London festival of common wealth literature with
writers coming from around the globe. They tentatively include Michal
Ondaatje the srilankan -canadian author of the English patient the book that
inspired the movie that swept the board at the latest academy awards сегemony

The term common wealth was first used by 'Oliver Crormwall in 1649'.
The common wealth literature is an intergovernmental organization of 54
nations which were formerly part of the British Empire. As a term in literary
regional studies, common wealth literature is generally believed to refer to
literacy products of the independent countries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean
and North America, which were once colonized by the United Kingdom.

The original without started in 1931 and comprised Australia, Canada,

south Africa, and New Zealand, who, while self governing, pledged allegiance
to the british crown. The associated was expanded and restructured in 1949,
when participants agreed to drop both the 'British and the concept of allegiance
common wealth literature is sometimes used, interchangeably with post colonial
literature' although the latter could include literature in other languages as well,
such as such French or Portuguese. Most critics agree that post colonial' in the
English context lovers the literature of African countries Australia, Bangladesh,
Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand Pakistan,
Singapore, south pacific island countries, and srilanka to quote from one recent
analysis south Africa left the common wealth in 1961 bur rejoined it in 1994.

"The contemporary African writing endeaurous to high light the unique

and novel potentialities of the man of Africa and African experience its rich
culture and mythology in the seventeenth century the British who succeeded the
Dutch and Portuguese as slave traded masters had prohibited the trade and
decided to establish their rule in west Africa. in 1861 the king of lager conceded
Larger to the queen of England which resulted in the emergence of the colony
of the colony of logor. Different ethnic groups were brought together by the
British colonial administration in the Tweenth century which resulted in the
creation of Nigerie All the territories of Eastern Nigria because the protectorate
of Great Britain in 1893. In 1900 A.D southern Nigerian protectorate was also
established. In 1914 the two protectorates and the colony were assignated to
form the protectorates of Nigeria.

Chinua Achebe (Albert Chinualumogu Achebe), a Nigerian novelist,

poet, und short story Writer cultural historian and the globally acclaimed
scholar professor at brown university and critic has been hailed as the most
impactful African writer of this generation depicting social and psychological
disorientation accompanying the imposition of western customs and volumes
upon traditional African Society Achebe was born in the igbo (earlier 160) town
of ogidi in eastern Nigeria on November 16, 1930 He was the fifth child of
Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet N Achebe. His father being an instructor in
Christian for the church missionary society had stopped practicing their
traditional religion.
 Achebe had a strict Christian up bringing but most of the people around
him lived a traditional life. They performed all of their traditional and ethnic
rituals. Although they lived according to Achebe, in the "crossroads of cultures"
where the majority of people had different styles of life, they could get along
with each other and live in peace. Until then, he learned his igbo Achebe was
exposed to a combination of traditionalism as well as Christian influence. he
travelled with his mother for thirty five years to different parts of igbo land,
spreading the gospel.

Nigeria was a British colony during Achebe's young age and educated
families Speaking in English the Achebe's enjoyed a privileged position in the
Nigerian power frame work. Though Achebe instinctively took sides with the
white people he lately realized the danger of not having his own stories. The
great proverb. "Until lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will
always glorify the hunter, inspired him to e a writer and historian of an age.
Achebe's home fostered his understanding of both cultures He read books in
English in his father's library. being a voracious reader and was instilled with a
sense of heritage through traditional African folktales as told by his mother and
sister. This, he though, make him perfectly bilingual. His storytelling from the
teachings of the bible and traditional 160 varieties structured his life and
writings. Achebe Joined St. Philip's central school in 1936. He attended the
church missionary society's school where for the fine two years elementary
education was in igbo He began learning English when he was eight. He had
proportionately late introduction to English which let him develop a sense of
cultural dignity and an acknowledgement of his native tongue values that may
not have been murtured had he been bred and taught exclusively in English. He
was a very bright student and appreciated by his teachers. He was accepted in to
the highly prestigious government college in umuahiu in 1944. An
exceptionally brilliant student, he completed his studies there in just four years
instead of the standard five. He was privileged to get admissions as a major
scholar in Nigeria s first university. The university college Ibadan in 1948 and
then granted a scholarship to study medicine. However his disclamation in
medicine shifted his interest to English, history and theology, and he cost his
scholarship in the process. He began to write while he was at the University and
made his maiden voyage as an author with his article polar undergraduate' in the
university herald in 1950. He also wroke numerous other stories essays and
letter during this time. He graduated trom the college in 1953.

Nigeria was a British colony during Achebe's young age and educated
families speaking in English like the Achebe's enjoyed a privileged position in
the Nigerian power frame work.

Chinua Achebe is the best known novelist not only from Nigeria but from
the centre continent of Africa he has made a creative africaization of the English
language and his literary works. in the process of writing counter-haratives to
Euro (entire misrepresentation of Africa, Achebe has successfully hamessed the
colonizer's language to make it bear the burden of his native experience. The
present paper prepares to take up the third novel by Achebe, namely Arrow of
god (1964) to introspect the different kinds of narrator used, strategies involved
in it. This includes a study of the kind of narrator used and a survey of various
ways in which the language is maneurved thought the usage of standard and
pidgin English language linguistic devices like, humour, satire and irony,
through symbols, proverbs, images, metaphors and songs in order to capture a
waved picture of Nigeria of the late 1920s in which the novel is set in a nutshell,
this stylistic criticism Aims to illustrate in effect how Achebe creatively extends
the frontiers of English language to accommodate the various shades of
Nigorian reality within it.

A demand for educated Nigerians in the government Nigerians in the

government was high tended because Nigerian was preparing for self rule and
independence. A college degree sufficed in Nigerian for entering the higher
ranks of the civil services. Nationalism was in the air and order of the day in
Nigeria and Achebe could not remain unaffected by the spirit of the times. At
the university, he changed his English nam e"Albert" to the Igbo name "Chinua"
short for Chinua lumogo, literary meaning my spirit come fight for me" the
university herald where his first published stories appeared. These stories have
been reprınted in the collection Girls at war and other stories, which was
published in 1972. celled “ the father of modern African milting" Albert Chinua
Lumogu Achebe.

The works of Chinua Achebe Novels Things fall apart 1958, No longer
At ease 1960, Arrow of God 1964, A man of the people 1966, Anthills of the
Savannah 1987. Short Stories Marriage is a private affair 1952 dead men's path
1953, The sacrificial egg and other stories 1953, civil peace 1971, Girls at war
and other stories (including vengerui creditor 1973), African short stories
(editor with C.L. innes ) (1985)

Heinemann Book of contemporary African short stories (editors with

(C.L. Innes (1992) The voter. Beware, soul brother, and other poems (1971)
(Published in the us as christens at Biafra, and other poems, 1973. Turmoil in
Nigeria from 1966 to 1972 was matched by turmoil for Achebe. In 1966, young
Igbo officers in the Nigerian army staged a coup d'ètat. Six months later,
another coup by non-Igbo officers overthrew the Igbo-led government. The new
government targeted Achebe for persecution, knowing that his views were
unsympathetic to the new regime. Achebe fled to Nsukka in castern Nigeria,
which is predominantly Igbo-speaking, and he became a senior research fellow
at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In 1967, the eastern part of Nigeria
declared independence as the nation of Biafra. This incident triggered thirty
months of civil war that ended only when Biafra was defeated. Achebe then fled
to Europe and America, where he wrote and talked about Biafra affairs.
Teaching and Literary Awards

In addition to his writing career, Achebe maintained an active teaching

career. In 1972, he was appointed to a three-year visiting professorship at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst and, in 1975, to a one-year visiting
professorship at the University of Connecticut. In 1976, with matters
sufficiently calm in Nigeria, he returned as professor of English at the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with which he had been affiliated since 1966. In
1990, he became the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., professor of literature at Bard
College, Annandale, New York. Things fall apart 1958, No longer At ease
1960,

Achebe received many awards from academic and cultural institutions

around the world. In 1959, he won the Margaret Wong Memorial Prize for
Things Fall Apart. The following year, after the publication of its sequel, No
Longer At Ease, he was awarded the Nigerian National Trophy for Literature.
His book of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, written during the Nigerian civil war,
won the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1972. More than twenty
universities in Great Britain, Canada, Nigeria, and the United States have
awarded Achebe honorary degrees Achebe died on March 21, 2013. He was 82

When Achebe divided to write in English he was running parallel to

cultural colonialism a position in which the Kenyan writer ngugi wa thiong'o is
mdiganat, persisting on Achebe's support of this forced language's dominion
over African literature Yet his novels which criticize the colonial experience
undermine the authority of the colonial powers English was empowering as it
gave him more global voice and subsequence a wider audience.
Nigerian literature:

Nigerian literature is the literature of Nigeria which is written by

Nigerians for Nigerians and address Nigerian issues His written in English,
igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba Hausa The and the other language of the country. The
languages used by authors in Nigeria are based in part on geography, with
authors in the northern part of the country writing in hausa. Nigerian authors
have won numerous accolades including the Nobel thought the world prize in
literature and the man Booker. Nigerian literature is known wole Soyinka, who
won the 1986 Noble prize for literature, was the first black African to receive
the award. Other Chinua Achebe. The Nigerians, as is applicable to Africans
generally, is child of two worlds : by reason of the twin engines of colonialism
and formal education le has been mdoctrinated into the Europan social and
economical class. This contact, due to an accident of his by exposed lim to
foreign ideas, culture values philosophy and taste the and product if theis
exposure was that colonial Nigerians imbibed lot from the west In the beginning
was oral literature the roof African literature. Nigerian literature in particular,
began with the oral tradition pioneered by the unsung heroes of her literary
pasts, like royal bards, warriors, story tellers priests and many others Joint

Chinua Achebe was awarded the man Booker international prize in

recognition of his entire career as a Nona list and author in 2007.

Fiction :

Fiction generally is a narrative from, in any medium, consisting of

people, events, or places that are imaginary in other words, not based strictly on
his holy fact. The work of fiction implies the inventive construction of an
imaginary world and most commonly is fictionally is typically expects it to
deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting only characters
who are actual people or descriptions that are factually true fiction is generally
understood as not adhering precisely to the real world, whish also opens it up to
various interpretation.

A Fiction is a deliberately fabricated account of something It can also bea

literary work based on imagination rather than on fact, like a novel or short
story the Latin word fictious means to form which seems like a good source for
the English word fiction ,since fiction is formed in the imagination.

At present some of the best writing in English is being done outside the
British and American traditions I do not say out said London and New York
because several of the writer involved have left their home lands to live in
England. It the Authors from British colonies are not a literary movement
forming as self conscious groups or sharing a doctrine, they are aware of cach
other's work and their recommendation often appear on the book jackets of the
best new common health novels. Common wealth is a misnomer, but no other
them is easily available the new nations may not hold the future in their hands,
but their sudden emergence to importance ,in an era when former world power
lave lost authority , has given their literature the sense of being at the heart of
today's drama the collapse of the British empire makes the culture conflict and
confusions of its former colonies representative of the social disorder found
throughout the western word

Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and then Ben ok riled the way but a new
wave of woman writer have taken over. writers from all over the world will
converge in Lagos, Nigeria, for the Ake Art and Book festival The pianeer
generation of nigerion writing in English emerged prior to the country's
independence from Britain in 1960, and included wole Soyinka ,Chinua Achebe
and AmasTutuola

Nigerian fiction would come from abroad and the first sign of a
resurgence u well as the international character of much of feature literary
expression came in 1991 when Ben okri won the booker for the famished Road
Nigerian fiction was in fill tried as for a fiction the distinction between fiction
and facts is not always clear, and what want as on reasonable length.

Achebe's contribution: in things full about crinum achebe brouth to bear

upon the novel all to taily of his experience -social personal, academic to enrich
the feature and structure of lis book literature, listory and theology would have
provided him and him and ideal trinity to three ureas of knowledge casting a
back ward glance to the igholoand of the 1880s and 1890s chinua achebe 'simpli
files’ and reduces to folk idiom some of the more sophiscated discussions which
might have taken place in the technology class to empower the forefather with a
cornivalesqueisiom that makes fun of the highly seriousness of the missionary
zeolot.

Ache be had originally planned the story of okonkno and his grandson.
Obi okonkno who like mrjohnson worked for the british administration and was
convicted for taking bribes. However the novel shaped differently and in 1958
when freedom was just round the corner.

Achebe published things fall apart which was set in the 1880s and 1890s,
when the missionaries came to igbo land. The story of okonkno's grandson, obi
okonkwo, hived off and become a separate novel no longer at Ease (its title is
based on a line from I.S.Eliot's poem, The journey of the magi) which was set in
the 1950s as the British administration relutantly prepared to hand over to the
nigerions the running of the burcorleratic apparantuses it established. No longer
at ease was published as a separate nobles of Achebe comprise a seventy year of
nigerio's independence. These two first novels of Achebe comprise a seventy
year history of the igbo people, something expected from a sensitive African
comprise African student of colonial history
 Subsequently in Arrow of God 1964. Achebe returned to the past and the
early interaction between the igbo and British ways of life. In Ezeulu the tragic
chief of Arrow of god, Achebe has drawn a character of great dignity who at
Icast matches okonkwo.

The fourth novel of what somcachebe critics coll a tetralogy on the

history of the igbo between roughly 1890 and 1965.A man of the people 1966
deals with a crooked politician Mr. Nanga, a young girls he is grooming as his "
Parlour wife" and a young school teacher, odilisamalu, who tells his own story.
Odili is obliged to enter politics in a democracy when his mistress is seduced by
chief the Honorable M.A Nanga, M.P and minister of culture.

In a way, Chinua Achebe, in No longer at Ease and a man of the people to

latin America to the middle east to zimbaave and other African repubils" in that
sense, at least Achebe's novels on modern Nigeria arc 'Representative and
authentic accounts of the way things are.

Besides the novels Chinua Achebe has also published the sacrificial egg
and other stores 1962, Beware soul brother and other poems 1972 which was
reprinted in America as Christians in Biafra and other poems , Girls at war and
author stories 1973 morning yet on creation day, essays 1975, the troubles with
Nigeria (Essays 1983) and Hope and impediments Essays 1987, he has also
edited a collection, the insider stories of war and peace from Nigeria chinua
Achebe's increasing commitment to his own people in the 1960 and 1970s is
clearly expressed in his stories as well as expository writing. "The role of the
writer in a New Nation1964 and African and her writers " these essayer
emphasize achebe's instance on "applied art on the writer’s engagement with his
won society and secondary his on a need to establishing criteria and especially
African criteria for new writing in a Africa.
 Chinua achebe was born in November 16 1930-21 march 2013) was a
Nigerian first November things fall apart 1958 often considered his masterpiece
of the African literature

Contemporary writer in fiction

Salmon Rushdie R.K Narayan, narayantara sahgal Ruth prower jhabvala

as well as Japanese Nobel kazoo ishiguro salman Rushid is one of the key
representative of contemporary common wealth literature. ben okri, Nadine
gordimer aminatta forna.

Chimamanda Nagozi adichie: Nigerian in 1977, part of a new generation

of African writes taking the literacy world by storm. Adichie's works are
primarly character driven, interweaving the Background of her native Nigeria
and social and political events into the narrative. Her novel purple Hibiscuses
(2003).

Ayi Kwei Armah's novels are known for their intense, powerful
depictions of political devastation and social frustration in armah's native Ghana
told from the point of view of the individual. His works were greatly influenced
by French existential philosophers, such as Jean paulsaitre ad Albert camus, and
as such hold themes of despair disillusionment and irrationality, Most famous
work, the Beautiful ones Are not yet Boran (I968)

Mariama Ba one of Africa's most influential women authors She is

known for her powerful feminist texts Which address the issues of gender
inequality in her native Senegal and wider Africa Her novel so long A Ictter
(1981) depicts. Simultaneously, its protaganist's strength and powerlessness
within marriage and wider society.

Alain Mabanckou originating from the republic of congo,

alainMabanckuo's works are written primarly in brench, and are well known for
their biting wit, sharp satire and insightful social commentary into both Africa
and African immigrants in france. His novel black Bazar, which details the
experiences of various African immigrants n an afro Cuban bar in pairs.

Summaries

Arrow of god is set among the villages of the igbo people in British
Nigeria of the 191%. Ezeules is the Chicf priest of the God ulu, worshipped in
the six village of umuaro. The narrative begins with Ezeulu and umuaro getting
in a battle with the nearby village okperi. Tre conflict is abruptly resolved when
TK Winter Bottom. The British district officer intervenes.

After the conflict a Christian missionary john Good country, arrives in

umuaro. Good country begins to tell the villagers tales of Nigerians in the Niger
Delta who abandoned (and battled ) their traditional "bad customs" in favour of
Christianity.

Ezeulu is celled away from his village by Winterbottan, and invited to

become a part of the colonial administration as the paramount e warrant chief of
umuaro, a policy known as indirect rule. Ezeulu refuses to hea "white man's
chief" and is thrown in prison in umuaro people cannot harvest yams until
Ezculu has called the new yam feast to give thanks to ulu. When Ezeulu returns
from prison he refuses to call the feast despite being implored by elders of
umanuro to make a compromise. Ezeulu reasons to the people and to himself
that it is not his will but ulu'sEzeulu believer himself to be half spirit and half
man. The yams begin to rot in the field and a famine ensues for which umuaro
blamesEzeuluSecing this as an opportunity. John good country proposes that the
villagers other thanks to the Christian good instead. So that they may harvest
what remains of their croup with "immunity".

Many of the villagers have already cost their faith in Ezeulu. One of
Ezeulu's son (obika) dies during a traditional ceremony and the village
interprets this as a sign that ulu has abandoned their priest. Rather than face
another famine, the village converts to Christianity. And caught in the middle
with no allies, Ezeulu slowly loses his grip on reality and slips into senility.