Looks like a fine morning to actually do this.

Some say Soyinka is tough to read and understand compared with Achebe and I thought that too but have revised that thought -

Soyinka is easier to understand each time but with every reading of an Achebe work, it gets complex. https://twitter.com/DemolaRewaju/status/1243230705057968128

Read Things Fall Apart many years ago and all the lesson I got, I thought was encapsulated in the person of Okonkwo - not until I studied it at a deeper level did I realise Okonkwo was more like a catalyst of how ancient society fell apart - every single chapter is parallel.

So in the chapter where the Peace Week is discussed, Okonkwo breaches the peace and has to atone - every single chapter was a juxtaposition of Okonkwo vs society, while seeming to be the gatekeeper of it. He made things fall apart, things fell apart because of him.

The more I read it, the more complexities I saw in Achebe and it happened again just last week with Arrow Of God. I managed to read it in one reading and knowing how it ends, I was able to see hidden messages - almost as though Achebe was siding with the colonialists.

First thing I realised was that the title misled me by comparison to Ola Rotimi's The gods Are Not To Blame. I always thought Arrow of God was somehow Ezeulu as the Arrow of Ulu, the god.

But it seems Achebe was saying Ezeulu was the Arrow of God, the Christian God with a big G.

Everything Ezeulu did in his so-called service to Ulu ‘against’ the people actually hastened how the Christian colonialists took over the society.

So whose arrow really was he? Arrow of God, the Christian God.

Never saw this until last week (some may have seen it before.)

With even Soyinka’s toughest works (of which The Interpreters was my most challenging), everytime I read it after the first struggle, it becomes easier to understand.

With Achebe - you think you’ve got it all at first but you almost see new and complex nuances each time after.

So the polls above were right - Ezeulu was the Arrow of God.

And it could even be everything and everyone, as the Arrow(s) of God - maybe another reading will yield that meaning.

Great work by a great writer and an outstanding storyteller.