The work won the inaugural Jock Campbell/New Statesman Prize for African writing. It is a remarkably complex work that confirms Achebe’s status as a great writer. Ezeulu’s pride and unbending will in the face of serious opposition eventually bring about his ruin. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of White colonialists who wish to position Ezeulu as community head within the British’s indirect rule system, as well as the arrival of Christianity. It tells the story of how Ezeulu, priest of the Ulu deity, which the villagers had turned to in their time of need, attempts to secure the primacy of the god he represents over other competing deities in the village. The book sees Achebe return back to the setting of ‘Things Fall Apart’ to concentrate more on Igbo religion and politicking. Published in 1964, ‘ Arrow of God’ is Achebe’s third novel. Widely read around schools all over the country, it represents most young people’s first introduction to the culture and traditions of Africans. ‘ Things Fall Apart‘ is one of the first works to tell the story of Africa’s first contact with the Europeans from a point of view of the Africans. However, Okonkwo’s failure to accept the White man’s suzerainty over him and his community leads to a tragic outcome for him. The book follows the story of Okonkwo, who rose from nothing to become an influential member of Umuofia. It is a book that established his reputation as Africa’s single leading writer. It is also his most widely read and commercially successful. ‘Things Fall Apart’ is Achebe’s very first and most critically acclaimed novel.

Achebe books