RELIGIOCITY IN MYTHIC VISION

CHAPTER THREE

RELIGIOCITY IN MYTHIC VISION

"They [people]shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war anymore" (hficha 4:3-4).

As the above passage says, man hopes that peace will flourish all over
the world. There exists in each mzn an ardent desire to live in peace and to be
at peace with others. This desire for 'universal peace' expresses the spiritual
cravings in each man and in effect it is a mythical hope. Myth at the religious
level embodies man's conscious and unconscious motivations, his wish
fulfilmentslike yearning for a paradise. To experience God is an ardent longing
in each and every man and f o that he conforms to the varied forms or
expressions of religion.

Belief in an omniscientforce or some supernatural power is deep seated in
humanity and dominates human imagination.This noble aspiration that exists in
man findsexpression in variousstcriesconcerninggods and goddesses. Some of
these storieshave assumed mythical stature as in 'the Myth of Man's Origin', 'the

Myth of the Great Fall', 'the Flood Myth', 'the Creation Myth' and so on. Eric

Gould in MythicalIntentionsinMaiem Literaturestatesthat "no lessthan anymore
primitive age, the modem stiilmore than occasionally holds the view that myth is
an item of religious belief, and thiit we might be able to preserve a sense of the
numinous today through a renewed awareness of ancient mythology" (7-8).

History reveals that religions have always created myths and many
mythologies have religiousorigin.The difference between religion and myth is
that, religion has a long living intensity and a numinous mystic experience,
whereas myth and mythic figures .~ppeatro be unreal and imaginary. Religion
shows that it is closely associated r~ithmythology and various dogmas, rituals
and practices are the essential ingredients of a myth. The saying "a quiet
conscience sleeps in thunder" is applicable to any man with a sound religious
philosophy and such a person of fervent faith will be undisturbed by trials and
tribulations. Myths, the narrative cd rites, may be essentially religious in nature.
Varied interpretations and multiplicity of phrases are associated with myths.
Myths have incarnated a paradise of religious beliefs and one sees a nostalgia
for a lost paradise in the primitive traditions which lie dormant in modern
minds. Herman Baumann speak:; of the African myth in connection with the
primordial paradisiac bliss: ''In those days men knew nothing of death; they
understood the language of anim(3lsand lived at peace with them; they did no
work at all, they found abundant food within their reach" (Eliade,MDM59).

This paradisiac stage of tjliss, ecstasy and innocence is beautifully
portrayed in the Book of Gene.% (25-25).Adam and Eve through their
disobedience of God's commancments shattered the close relation they had
with God and it is the 'Myth of tt e Fall'. In the Myth of Babel, human follies
and foibles are portrayed well; the tower of Babel symbolises man's pride and

arrogance. Carl Jung writes of thl? 'Garden of Eden Myth.'

There is a deep doctrine in the legend of the Fall; it is the expression

of a dim presentiment that the emancipation of ego consciousness
was a Luciferian deed. Idan's whole history consists from the very
beginning in a conflict between his feeling of inferiority and his
arrogance. (qtd. in Edward E Edinger 16)
The application of mythical images,secular or religious, native or foreign,
to strengthen a central motif or idea can be seen in Chinua Achebe's novels.
A close study of his novels illustrates the ways in which words, names,
quotations and parables from re1ig:ous contexts or sacred books are integrated
to convey concrete ideas. While analysing the religious myths, great attention
is focused on biblical references and biblical echoes through words, phrases
or symbols in the selected novels o!'Achebe. A specific idea, feeling or doctrine
is conveyed by the application of similar situations or suggestions of such
situations from the sacred books. There are word by word quotations as well
as long reflective passages basec on God and religion. Proverbs, adages,
fables and stories are mixed with lacts. They add to the proper development
of the central thought and are bei~utifullyand functionally incorporated into
the text.
Myth and rituals are compl,?mentaryand many of the rituals originate
from myths. The attitude and interest of people make rituals meaningful or
not, outmoded or useful. George 'rhomson in Aeschylus and Athensstates:
Myth was created out of ritual. The latter term must be understood
in a wide sense, becaus,? in primitive society everything is sacred,
nothing profane. Every xtion-eating, drinking, tilling, fighting-

has its proper procedur~w, hich being prescribed is holy. (qtd. in
Wole Soyinka 32)
Achebe successfully amalg3mates myth and religion. Certain aspects
of Achebe's attitude to myth and religion are highlighted, as myths express
the evolution, growth and survival of religious norms and principles. The
multi-religious nature of African sxiety raises many problems and they are
justifiable for their religio-culturalidentity. He conveys the message that modern
man confronted with complex pro ~ l e miss in need of the spiritual consolation
offered by religion. Often the forc'zs that surround man, such as the craving
for worldly pleasures, dispel his fzith in God or religion, the transcendental
reality. Achebe shows how reli~iionacts as a connecting link between
generations. For that he delves deep into the secret springs of his characters,
dramatises the conflicting psyches, the spiritual crises and the agonies of the
tortured souls.
Religion is one of the d o m i n ~ ntthemes in Achebe. All the major novels
abound in metaphors or imagery :'ram religious ceremonies. Through these
metaphors Achebe pictures how religion plays a pivotal role in the Nigerian
community which binds them tog?ther. In Things Fall Apart he shows how
Christianity thrives at the expensc of the native faith. In Arrow of God he
presents how the church takes firrn roots as a result of internal strife in the
native community. The fortunate blend of myth and religion is one of the most
remarkable features in Achebe. There are many versions about the origin of
gods in the African literature. Achebe uses many biblical terms, objects and

references which make the myth~cbackground meaningful and appealing.
For example, he uses terms such 2s wine, sheep, Eucharist, Trinity etc.,which
are often used symbolically in the holy Bible.

Coming to the titles of the n~velst,hey are highly suggestive and related
to the biblical scenes. The title of t i e first novel, Things Fall Apart, taken from
W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming" expresses the theme and tone of
the novel. The poem reminds one of the second coming of Jesus described in
the Bible. This is often termed the 'Eschatological Myth'. In Things Fall Apart,
the centre could hold together only until the advent of the white missionaries
with their alien religion, culture ar d c~vilization.

The title of the second nollel, No Longer a t Ease is taken from T.S.
Eliot's poem "The Journey of the Magi". The Magi, the three wise men from
the East, visited child Jesus in the inanger at Bethlehem and offered valuable
gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They returned to their respective
kingdoms, but were h o longer at zase' in their native kingdoms, where they
saw alien people immersed in pagan beliefs. They were more glad to die than
confront such heart breaking sights. The same uneasiness, the protagonist
Obi Okonkwo confronts in the novel when he is pulled between tradition and
modernity.

The title Arrow of God re~ealsthe religious tone of the novel. Here
Achebe uses many myths directly or indirectly. For example, 'the Garden of
Eden Myth' is beautifully applied together with the 'Myth of the Great Fall'.

The great traditions and rnoral code of the lgbo society could be

analysed in the religious background, especially that of the Bible. The faith
and unity of the Igbo society constitute the centre of their culture and
civilization. It was the essence of their mores, customs and beliefs, manifested
on various occasions and it sustain~~thdeir existence. From the very beginning
of the novel, Things Fall Apart, the author through words or images gives
resonance to biblical incidents or anecdotes. The first paragraph in this novel
speaks of the wrestling match betwen the founder of the village Umuofia and
a spirit. Such an incident happens n Genesis, the first book in the Bible: "and
Jacob was left alone: and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of
the day" (32:34).Later he exacted alessing from 'the man' whom he identified
as God.

In Things Fall Apart Acheb? introduces Okonkwo as a great wrestler
known throughout the nine villages. His fame was spreading like "bush-fire"
(17).This compound word 'bush-fire' brings to mind the biblical scene: "There
the angel of the Lord appeared to him [Moses]in a flame of fire out of a bush;
he looked and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed" (Exodus3 2 ) .
Similarly the phrase, "the fire did not burn with a flame" (TAT 27) also

reminds one of the same biblical scene. Here perhaps the author has in mind

the hero with his burning bush experience, as he is ablaze, confused and
disturbed due to some fears or conplexes.

Okonkwo who hankers after fame, murders Ikemefuna, his loving ward,
who affectionately calls him 'father'. Okonkwo was fond of him and often
expressed his Love in secret, as he thought that expression of such emotions

will make him feminine in other's view. But as we have already seen when the
Oracle prophesies that lkemefuna should be murdered, Okonkwo takes part
in the murder and gives the death l~lowwith his matchet. This too was merely
to show his valour. Many of the elders, including his close friend Obierika
tried to dissuade him from this attempt. Okonkwo after the murder becomes
thoroughly depressed. This incident turns Okonkwo into a Cain, the biblical
character who murdered his bro'her Abel. Both Okonkwo and Cain turn
against their dear ones and shed their kin's blood. This shows that at crucial
moments in life, extreme form of ,alienation overpowers man which may be
similar in nature. Character prefig.~rationis another notable mythic aspect in
Things Fall Apart. The fact that both of them commit suicide is another com-
parable aspect in these two figure:;.

Achebe describes how Christianityflourishesin Umuofia. The last part of
Things Fall Apart gives a detailed account of the Christian ways of worship.
There he speaks of the 'Eucharist', one of the seven sacraments. The white
missionary was very proud of Ogtuefi Ugonna who threw away his anklet of
titles and received "the sacrament of Holy Communion or Holy Feast"
(TAT143). The founding principle of the Eucharist is, Jesus' words: "Those
who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them" (John6:56).
Wole Soyinka also makes repeated references to 'the Eucharist' in A Shuffle.

To the Christians, the 'Hcly Eucharist' is the crux of their faith. In

Indian Response to African Writi7g Rao writes that 8' a communion rite is

[. . .] a mystic partaking of the Aood of the deityn(28).Similarly Joseph

Campbell in "The Historical Development of Mythology" writes:
No human society has yet 3een found in which such mythological motifs
have not been rehearsed in liturgies; interpreted by seers, poets,
theologians, or philosophers; presented in art; magnified in song, and
ecstatically experienced in life-empoweringvisions. (Murray 19)

In Arrow of God Achebe refers to the "Holy Meal" (368). John
Goodcounty was teasing Moses Unachukwu saying that though he very often
partakes in the Holy Meal, his words were malicious and even a small boy
like Oduche knows better about Christianity than Moses.

In Umuofia the locusts came in plenty and the villagers filled their pots
and vessels with them. They we1.e excited at the sight of it and it was the
sensational talk in the village for many days. "And for many days this rare
food was eaten with solid palm o I" (TAT55). There are many occasions in
the Bible where individuals or group are fed by 'rare food' or in uncommon
ways. One of the biblical parallels runs like this: "God said to Moses, Behold,
I will rain bread from heaven for 5ou; and the people shall go out and gather
a certain rate everyday" (Exodus 16:4).

Besides there are other occiisions in the Old Testament. "Elijah obeyed
the Lord's command, and went and stayed by the brook of Cherith. He drank
water from the brook, and ravens ixought him bread and meat every morning
and every evening" ( I Kings 17:5 6).In the New Testament,John the Baptist,
the herald of Jesus, who lived in ti-e desert of Judaea ate "locusts with honey"
(Matthew3:4). Many times Jesus feeds thousands of people with food when

they are hungry. Joseph ?! Strelkz, in Literary Criticism and Myth speaks of
the "spiritual cohesion provided by mythology" (5).

In ThingsFallApart Achebe speaks of one of the Igbo customs observed
by childless women. Women whc, desired children came and sat under the
shade of the 'silk-cotton tree' as they believed that they would be blessed with
children as "spirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born" (48).

Like the 'silk-cotton tree', the description of the 'udala tree' is also
fraught with religious associations. In Arrow of God the udala tree is shown
as "sacred to the ancestral spirits" 521).The people have many beliefs about
it. The light brown fruit, fallen rarely from it was the attraction of children and
so they were seen playing under i:. The fruit from this tree was "the prize for
the fastest runner or the luckiest child nearest whom it fell" (521). The tree
was full of fruits and nobody was allowed to pluck fruits from it. If someone
violated this rule he "would be visited by all the masked spirits in Umuaro and
he would have to wipe off their footsteps with heavy fines and sacrifice"
(521).The sentence "The tree wa!; full of the tempting fruit but no one young
or old was allowed to pick from the tree" reminds one of the tree of life which
grew in the middle of the garden c ~ Ef den.

The missionaries who se'tled in Umuofia taught the natives the
fundamental principles about their religion. They taught about Jesus Christ as
the Son of God and this statement raises many doubts in their minds. When
they talked about the 'Holy Trinibj', many like Nwoye could not understand
that. Still Nwoye embraces Christianity. Achebe writes that "it was not the

mad logic of the Trinity that capti~~atehdim. He did not understand it. It was
the poetry of the religion, something felt in the marrow" (TAT 122). The
'Trinity' refers to the Christian doctrine that God exists in three persons; God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Many times 'Trinity' is
repeated in Things Fall Apart. As Trinity represents the number 'three' in
Christian view, number three is linked with "the most holy, the most perfect,
the best" (Man, Myth and Magic. 19, 2613). In Greek mythology number
'three' is seen as "a mark of com:~leteness"(2612).

In Arrow of God also Athebe speaks of the "Holy Spirit" (540).
Mr.Goodcountry was very happy at the 'effective evangelization' in Umuaro
and he regarded it as the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Besides he repeats
words like 'Almighty God' and 'Holy Meal' in this novel.

Achebe explainsthe details of Christian religion. The missionariestaught
the nativesmany fundamental thir8gsabout their God. They refer to the parable
of the lost sheep. In Things Fall Apart it is given: "The interpreter explained

each verse to the audience [. . .I. It was a stoy of brothers who lived in

darkness and in fear, ignorant of tke love of God. It told of one sheep out on the
hills, away from the gates of God iind from the tender shepherd's care" (121).

The parable of the 'lost sheep' described in the gospel of St. Luke
( 1 5 : l - 7s)hows the anxiety of the shepherd when one out of his one hundred
sheep is lost in the wilderness. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the
wilderness and goes in search of the lost one. This parable Jesus said to show
how concerned God is about a si iner.

Nwoye, Okonkwo's eldest son, leaves his family gods and accepts
Christianity. Kiaga, the interpret€r, was very happy at this new conversion
and he says: "Blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my

sake [. . .I. Those that hear my words are my father and mother" (TAT126).

These passages echoe the words of Jesus in the New Testament. "Whoever
loves father or mother more than me IS not worthy of me; and whoever loves
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37). "Here
are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:50).

Mr. Brown's successor,Revzrend James Smith, was against Mr. Brown's
generous attitude to the natives. He preferred open fight to compromise or
patient debate. To him black was evil and white was good. His attitude is

clear in these words: "He believed in slaying the prophets of Baal" (TAT150).

This alludes to the miracle done by prophet Elijah described in the Old
Testament. Elijah at Mount Carmel proved that the God in whom he believes
is the true God. The offerings of Elijah were burnt by the fire of the Lord while
the offerings of Baal's priests were left untouched. The crowd acknowledged
that Elijah's God is the God of Israel. Then Elijah said: "Seize the prophets of

Baal; d o not let one of them escape. Then they seized them I. . .] and killed

them there" ( 1 Kings 18:40).
Rituals speak of the peoplz, their belief and culture. Lawrence Coupe

in Myth speaks of the Christian ritual of adult baptism. It is "associated with

death and new life . . . in whict the participants feel that they are dying to

their formerexistence and being reborn from out of water" (4).In Things Fall
Apart Okonkwo's eldest son, Nwc,yejoins the missionaries and after baptism
adopts the name Isaac. Isaac in the Bible is the son of Abraham. Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob are often pictured as strong believers, the representatives of
faith. In Achebe's novel, baptism s "a symbol [. . .] recurrent enough to be
called an archetype" (4).

During the wrestling match, the young men in charge of the audience
were waving their palm fronds. This waving of palm fronds reminds one of
the biblical scene where Jesus was welcomed with palm branches during his
triumphant entry into Jerusalem. When Okonkwo approached Nwakibie, the
rich man, to lend him some seed yams, he addressed him 'our father', which
is suggestive of the biblical occasio I where Jesus' disciples ask him to teach a
prayer and Jesus taught them the f,xnousprayer beginning with 'Our father'.

In Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God there are many evocative
references to python and links thc! python to the 'Fall Myth'. The python is
the totem animal, the god whorr many worshipped. To the Christians it
symbolizes evil power and the killing of the python symbolizes the destruction
of the evil force.

Sacrifice is an indivisible part of religion and it has many redemptive
aspects attached to it. It is a sign >f offering something for a noble cause,
things, animate, inanimate, or at tirnes even human beings. So is martyrdom
often pictured. Rao, in Indian Response to African Writing says that "the
earth's regenerate need is met by sxrificial blood" (26).

Similarly redemption through sacrifice and offerings seems a major
theme in Achebe and it has great universal significance. Rao adds that "there

are myths and legends which [. . .I prove the fundamental belief in expiation
and redemption, both personal and collective" (41).While analysing the plays

and poems of Wole Soyinka, Rao makes this observation: "The concept of
individual sacrifice leading to ret,ibution and subsequent rejuvenation has
been explored by Soyinka in a number of plays and poems. Soyinka introduces
this theme of retributive sacrifice leading to expiation, in his adaptation of the
Bacchae of Euripides also" (41).

Achebe writes in the same vein in ThingsFall Apart. After the violation
of the sacred law during the Week of Peace, Okonkwo was asked to perform
the act of retribution: "You will bring to the shrine of Ani tomorrow one she-
goat, one hen, a length of cloth and a hundred cowries" (37).This is because
Okonkwo's action has insulted the earth goddess and as a result she may
"refuse to give us her increase and we shall all perish" (37).

Seasonal rituals, particula~.lyt,he New Yam Festival, was an occasion
of great festivity. Rituals are im?ortant as they mark the social, cultural,
religious aspects of the society. Hzrbert Weisinger writes:

Not only do [. . .] rituals 5ymbolizethe passage from death to life, from
one way of life to anothcr, but they are the actual means of achieving
the changeover;they marithe transition by which,through the processes
of separation, regeneratim, and the retum on a higher level, both the
individual and the comrrunity are assured their vidoty over the forces

of chaos which are thereby kept under control. (Vickery 151)
'Myths' and 'oracles' are two terms often used by classical writers.
The Oracle of Hills and Caves, represented by the deity Agabala was part of
Igbo religion. People came to it to consult and seek solutions for their problems.
They came there when they had rriisfortune,or some grave disputes to settle,
or even to discover their future. Agabala, the god, was in the shrine and the
way to it was a round hole at the side of a hill. People had to crawl in. No one
ever saw Agabala except his priestess, who stood by the sacred fire, and
proclaimed the will of the god. When Okonkwo was a small boy, Chika was
the priestess of Agabala. Chielo vras the priestess during Okonkwo's exile in
Mbanta. The Oracle warned them of the coming of the white man. The
prophetic power of the priestess of Agabala was feared by the clan.
Through the portrayal of (:hielo, Achebe presents the Igbo people's
belief in supernatural aspects. In ordinary life Chielo is a widow with two
children. She is on very good terms with Okonkwo's second wife, Ekwefi, and
they share a common shed in the market. She is specially fond of Ezinma, of
whom Okonkwo really feels proutl. A great change comes over Chielo, when
she makes the prophecy on account of Agabala. The pronouncements of the
Oracle are regarded as infallible and consequently none questions them. With
a submissive attitude the oracular prophecies are executed as in the case of
Ikemefuna's murder. Chielo, the priestess, carries Ezinma on her back to the
shrine of Agabala when the god wants to see his daughter.
Another salient feature of the Igbo religion, which expresses mythic

consciousness, is ancestor worshi~T~h. e spirits of the ancestors whose bodies
are committed to the earth are dedicated to the Earth Goddess. Whenever
ceremonies and festivals are held in their honour, these ancestral spirits emerge
from their houses and participate in them. For example, when an important
elder dies during the funeral funct'ons, they appear as in the case of Ezeudu.
The ancestral spirits are impersonated by eminent members of the clan. These
ancestral spiritscalled 'egwugwu' often represent the nine villages of Umuofia.
They create great awe and sensation as they often appear in strange, horrid
costumes, speaking esoteric lang~.age.They settle problems, execute justice
and thereby ensure peaceful atmcsphere.

The belief in Chi, or 'perso~agl od', is another traceable feature of the
lgbo community. Chi is the guardan spirit granted to each person at the time
of birth as the Christians believe in the Guardian Angel. The Chi is believed
to be part of the individuals 'supreme creative essence' and therefore
responsible for the good and bad performances in one's life. When Okonkwo
climbsthe social ladder and attains eminence, people believe that it is because
of the favour of his Chi. The concept of Chi conveys a highly developed code
of ethics and the wisdom of the lgbo culture.

In ThjngsFall Apart, myths, rituals and religion are interlinked in the
v e y structure of the novel. R.K. Ilhawan writes:

The tragic climax in the novel is a result of the direct conflict between
the mythical gods and the Christian gods. The iconoclastic religion
which Okonkwo calls 'lunatic religion' has shattered traditional beliefs,

superstitions and customsand has called the gods dead and impotent.
[. . .] The killing of the sacred royal python by a convert and the
unmasking of one of the egwugwusagain by a convert call for direct
confrontation between the native black and white. (AfricanLiterature
Today 50)
Ancient literatures always dealt with the minute details of religious
practices and enlisted gods and goddesses. Achebe's novels are no exception
as he records the system of Africzn beliefs and festivals to show that the Igbo
system of worship was elaborately designed. Myth is closely linked with rituals
and worship. In the Igbo cosmolo3y,they worshipped many minor and major
deities including the Oracles of the Hills and Caves. They believed in the
Ultimate Reality and assigned great roles to them. 'Chukwu' was the greatest
god, who created heaven and ezrth. 'Anyanwu' was the sun god, 'Igwe' the
sky god, Amadi Oha the thundel god and Ani, the earth goddess. 'Ani' also
called 'Ala' is the embodiment ' ~ afll female values such as kindness and
charity. She is more influential than all other deities, and the custodian of all
arts. In Literary Criticism and Myth, Joseph P Strelka observes that myths

are "symbolic expressions of the absolute" (6).

The earth goddess is wc,rshipped and honoured at all important
ceremonies such as the New Yams Festival. It was celebrated with great pomp
and reverence throughout Umuoria. It was the occasion to thank the goddess,
the source of all fertility. It was held every year before the harvest and yams
were offered to the goddess and ancestral spirits. In Things Fall Apart Achebe

describes the myth behind this festival as each and every festival discloses
some kind of myths:

The Feast of the New Yam was approaching and Umuofia was in a
festival mood. It was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth
goddess and the source of all fertility. Ani played a greater part in
the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate
judge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she was in
close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies
had been committed to earth. (41)
Besides the Yam Festival, the Igbo society also set apart a week in
honour of Ani, called 'the Week of Peace'. During this week no one was free
to hurt anyone. For violation o! this sacred rule, Ezeani, the priest of Ani
executed punishments.
Okonkwo is exiled for sellen years in Mbanta when he accidentally
killed Ezeudu's son. He has to flez from the village as he desecrated the earth,
shedding the blood of a kinsman. A large crowd of men from Ezeudu's quarter
storm into Okonkwo's polluted arid deserted compound, dressed in war robes.
They set fire to the houses there and destroy everything. They perform these
purifying rites with least malice in their hearts against Okonkwo as they were
agents executing the justice of Ani, the earth goddess.
According to the lgbo ethics, for deliberate sins such as suicide, which
causes great abomination of the earth goddess, the retributory measure was
more severe. Such a man's bod'? is untouchable for the clansmen and often

the rites and rituals in connection with his death were done by strangers.
Unmasking the masked sp rits was considered a serious crime and

this is what Enoch committed. T ~ i asbomination caused great resentment
among the members, who rise in fx~ryd,estroyed his compound together with
the mission church in Umuofia. Violation of such rites and offences sow the
seeds of anarchy and such further offences lead to Okonkwo's suicide.

The lgbo society believed in the great omnipotent force of God. They
believed that there are major gods and minor gods. The individuals had many
family deities and each individua had the Chi or personal god. The villages
had difference of opinion regarding Okonkwo's Chi. The hero in Things Fall
Apart, Okonkwo, lacked spiritual intimacy between god and himself,which is
regarded as a supreme deed. In The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph
Campbell observes:

The two--the hero and tis ultimate god, the seeker and the found are
thus understood as the mtside and inside of a single, self-mirrored
mystery, which is identid with the mystery of the manifest world. The
greatdeed of the supreme hero isto come to the knowledge of this unity
in multiplicity and then tcb make it known. (40)
Mythic application is a conspicuous characteristic of Achebe's Arrow
of God. Throughout this novel too he uses an amorphous mixture of biblical,
native African and Igbo religious terms. In Arrow of God he ernphasises religious
solidarity. As in any religious novels, Achebe speaks of priests, sacrifices and
offerings. The priest Ezeulu is presented as 'half spirit and half man'. Besides

he gives a glimpse into the lgbo society's perceptions of god and religion.
Wole Soyinka in Myth, Literature i n d the African World, speaks of the Yoruba
culture known for its gods and goddesses: "Yoruba myths synchronises
Obatala, God of Purity, God of Creation [. . .], with the first deity Orisa-
nlan(52).Achebe throughout ttis novel speaks of gods and goddesses
connected with vegetation, rivers, streams, planting, reaping, etc.

In the beginning of Arrow cf God, Achebe refers to Ani Mmo, the "land
of the spirits" (Achebe'sWorld 121Iwhich associates one with mount Olympus,
the abode of gods. 'Ani' is portrayed as the goddess of earth. Achebe speaks
of the creation of different villag~~asnd provides all the details of Umuaro,
with its priest character Ezeulu. There are reverberations of biblical quotations

and references throughout the r,ovel. For example, Achebe writes: "[. . .I

Akuebue felt sorry for Edogo. He knew how a man's first son must feel to be
pushed back so that the younger tones might come forward to receive favour"
(TAT450).This brings to mind the biblical scene where "Isaac blesses Jacob,
his second son, unknowingly thollgh Esau, the first one, was more dear to his
heart" (Genesis27:l-40).According to the jewish custom the first son of a
man enjoyed more privileges than the other children.

Achebe in Arrow of God pictures a tribal society with all its rituals and
religious observances. He descrioes the society's relationship with the priest
and he shows how the priests' tragedy leads to the collapse or falling apart of
this tribal society. As the priest, i t is his noble duty to interpret the will of the
God to the people. This entrustzd him with the sacred task of declaring

the two festivals, the festival of the New Yam and the Feast of the Pumpkin
Leaves. David Carroll observes that "half black, half white Ezeulu is the
intermediary between the human tuorld and the spirit world" (87).Thus Achebe
gives a supernatural appearance to his priest, the protagonist in the novel. He
is an archetypal figure. Geoffrey Parrinder in African Mythology writes that
"most myths tell how something came to exist; man, the world, certain ani-
mals, social affairs. The myths make a sacred history of the people. But
naturally the creation of the worlcl comes first and this myth influences others
that follow" (16).

Festivals and festivities are occasions for spiritual replenishment.
Mircea Eliade in Myth Dreams artd Mysterieswrites:

We have referred to the nythological basis of New Year celebrations,
and of the festivitiesthat mark any 'hew beginning;" in which we can
discern anew the nostalgia for a renewal, the yearning for the world to
be renovated; that one might enter upon a new Histoy, in a world
reborn; that is, created a 'resh. (33)
Myths are thought to be stories produced by man in his imagination.
They contain, very often profourld truths and Geoffrey Parrinder in African
Mythology observes that "most myths express serious beliefs in human being,
eternity and God" (16).
The people of Umuaro believe that 'the Feast of the Pumpkin Leaves'
cleanses the six villages of their sins. It was celebrated before the planting
season with great pomp and joy. It was one of the occasions when the whole

villages assembled at the 'ilo' in the spirit of friendship and cordial welcome
and with beating of the ikolo d r ~ mT.his drum was fashioned in the olden
days from giant iroko tree "as old as Ulu himself at whose order the tree was

cut down and its trunk hollowed out into a drum" (TAT389).It greeted the six

villages in their ancient order, saluted Ulu, and finally summoned Ezeulu from
the shrine of God. Achebe beautifully portrays this religious rite with all the
details of their rituals, mingling d<:votionand ecstasy.

The great god Ulu is the gcd who saves and kills. The people, specially
the women, exhibit great faith in the god and they prayed to him fervently for
life and sustenance. They waved wmpkin leaves to and fro while they uttered
the prayer to God.

During the Feast of the Pumpkin Leaves, which is intended to cleanse
the SIX villages of their sins, they buried six bunches of leaves into the earth:
"their Chief Priest was safe in his shrine, triumphant over the sins of Umuaro
which he was now burying deep ~ n t othe earth with the six bunches of leaves"
(TAT392).

The 'Feast of the New Yarn' was another communal celebration. This
marked "the end of the old yea*and the beginning of the new" (TAT527).
During this feast e v e y grown up man of Umuaro takes a seed yam to the
shrine of Ulu, and from that thc, elders can calculate the number of men in
each village. It is from these that Ezeulu selects twelve yams to calculate the
new year. Only when these h a ~ beeen ritually eaten, can the festival take
place and the harvest begin. At the sight of each moon, with the customary

fear mingled with the joy of his high office, he beats the iron gong. While the
villagers welcome the moon, he selects one of the sacred yams from his barn.
roasts and eats it. Then the priezt thanks Ulu, the god for granting him the
favour of seeing the new moon and invokes his blessings for the six villages:
"May children put their fathers into the earth and not fathers their children.
May good meet the face of evev man and every woman. Let it come to the

land of the river rain folk and to the land of the forest peoples" (TAT324).

Malinowaski describes religious myth:
A special class of storit's, regarded as sacred, embodied in ritual,

morals and social orga~ization. . . . These stories live not by idle
interest . . . but are to the natives a statement of a primeval,

greater and more relecant reality, by which the present life, fates
and activities of mankind are determined, the knowledge of which
supplies man with the motive for ritual and moral actions, as well as

with indications how to perform them. (Vickery 142)

In the religious rituals anc celebrations one may come across a good
number of sacred objects, sacred images and so on. They are "analogous to
the myths because they represe:~stacred realities or figures, as myths do in

narrative form [. . .]. Many syn~bolicrepresentations have their sources in
myths" (Encyclopaedia Britanica 798). Coming to the Igbos, the lkenga

represents, their ancestral connection and without failure they observe many
rituals. They make daily sacrifice to it. When a person dies they split the
lkenga into two and keep a half of it with the dead man. The other half is

thrown away. This gave them gre,ltconsolation a s they live in constant touch
with the ancestors and this myth c lineage seemed sacro sanct to each lgbo
man. In Hopes and Impediments Achebe writes that to the lgbos "Ikenga,
energy is the essence of all thing!; human, spiritual, animate and inanimate.
Everything has its own unique enclrgy which must be acknowledged and given

its due [. . .]. 'Power runs in ma:ly channels1[.. .I" (42). Achebe in Hopes

and Impediments proudly asset+; the value of Ikenga: "There are no private
collections among the Igbo beyond personal ritual objects like the Ikenga (43).

Achebe uses the myth of ldemili in Arrow of God and it has close
resemblance to Flora Nwapa's Efuru. Nwapa'a novel, set in rural lgboland,
in a town called Ugwuta uses t i e myth of Uharniri, the goddess of water.
Achebe and Nwapa recreate the .gbosocial, political and religious life, when
it was influenced by colonialisrr~.In Arrow of God also the same myth is
elaborated and there the water deity is shown as the god of Ezeulu's main
rival for authority over the clan. In African Literature and the Politics of
Gender we read: "At the centre of the novel [Efuru] is the myth of Uhamiri,
the goddess of an ancient matriarchal religion" and "the river goddess Idemili,
in the guise of a male deity, figures in Things Fall Apart" (89).M.G. Cooke in
Modern Black Novelists: A Collt~tionof Critical Essays, writes that "African
Creation-myths, like all creatiorl-myths are a patch-work of guesses both

beautiful and crude [. . .I. Umua1.0believes in Ani-Mmo,the spirit-world, in a

High God or Creator and in an Etarth Mother" (129).
At the religious level myths bind people together. The Oracles and

Shrines are one of these means of integration where people appeal to the
gods and invoke their blessings. They believe that continuity of their culture
has been assured and asserted by .hese unbreakable bonds. They obeyed the
oracles of Hills and the Caves ir times of peace and war or "they would
surely have been beaten" (TAT214). They consulted the oracle when they
wanted to know about their futule or what their ancestors demanded from
them. They had the belief that "This god helps those who help themselves and
an idle man seldom finds a favour of this god, although he offers him sacrifice"
(AfricanLjterature Today 47).

Achebe uses beautiful sim lies to evoke the greatness of God and the
insignificance of man. For example in No Longerat Ease, during the prayer
meeting, one of the characters, Mary, speaks about the eminence and
Omnipotence of God: "we are likt! ants in your sight. We are like little children
who only wash their stomach whzn they bath, leaving their back dry" (179).

Myths, rituals and religicn show an inseparable link between the
predicament of Ezeulu, the priest, his motives, actions and the inner structure
and scheme of things in the lgbc religious culture. Besides in Arrow of God,
all rituals, specially the ritual eating of the Yam on the new moon day disclose
many significant aspects of the igbo's spiritual and moral codes. As in Thing's
Fall Apart, in Arrow of God also, .%hebe mentions various forms of sacrifices.
In chapter four for instance, Ezeuiu discussesthe rules and theories concerning
animal and human sacrifices.

The prestigious position ~f Ezeulu and his later fall reminds one of

what Joseph Campbell quotes from Heraclitus in The Hero with a Thousand
Faces. He declares: "To God all things are fair and good and right [. . .] but
men hold some things wrongs arid some right" (44).That is what leads to
Ezeulu's tragedy.

The celestial bodies like the sun, the moon, and the stars played vital
roles in the religious beliefs of m a i y nations. Achebe, too, uses the moon as
an inseparable part of the people' religious beliefs. The protagonist in Arrow
of God, Eieulu, is a firm believer in the power of the moon and it was his
religious task to watch the new moon and announce the yam festival. The
moon is associated with rituals and it is the sign of an ancient ritual as is
shown: "Ezeulu was searching the familiar night sky for the moon, the sign of
his ancient ritual" (Carroll 92).

Igbo life had strong spiritual dimensions as the people were controlled
by gods, ancestors, personal spir.ts or Chi and magic. Arrow of God speaks
about the god Ulu and his priest Ezeulu. The god Ulu was created when the
six villages united for protection zgainst slave raids to supersede older village
deities. Achebe's objectives behind writing this novel also show the mythic
aspects in the religious level:

I'm handling a whole lot of [. . . ] more complex themes, [. . . ]
like the relationship between a god and his priest. My chief
character in this novel is a village priest not a Christian priest-a
traditional African religion. And I'm interested in this old question
of who decides what shall be the wish of the gods, and [ . . .] that

kind of situation. (qtd. in Killam 60)
In Arrow of God certain Christian names like Moses, Peter, Mary etc
remind one of the biblical characters like Moses and Peter and Mary. In the
Old Testament, Moses is appointed by God to free and lead the Israelites
through the desert to the promised land. As in the Bible, in Arrow of Godalso
Moses is associated with the snake or python. The biblical Moses made the
statue of a bronze snake and asked the people to see it a s a sign of salvation.
In the novel, Moses Unachukwu, an over-enthusiast converted to Christianity,
kills a python.
Ezeulu's son Oduche becomes Peter after his baptism. The names that
Achebe uses such as Adam, Isaac, Mary, Joseph, Jacob, Joel are all biblical
names. Similarly,the twelve sacnld yams kept in the barn of Ezeulu also have
biblical parallels.
The festivals such as the )'am Festival have close resemblance to the
festivals described in 'Exodus' in -:heOld Testament (23:14-17).The Israelites
celebrated "the Feast of Harvest with the first fruits of the crops"
(Exodus23:16)
Ezeulu , the priest has some link with the ancient Myth of Fall in that he
falls from his paradisiacal stature of the ancient Myth of Fall. Ezeulu from his
paradisiacal stature of "half miin and half god" (TAT 457) symbolically
represents the whole community During the festival of the Pumpkin Leaves
he represents the six villages and atones for their sinsand the priest symbolically
becomes the victim. Achebe wr tes: "For who would trample the sins and

abominations of all Umuaro into the dust and not bleed in the feet? Not even
a priest as powerful as Ezeulu could hope to do that" (TAT407).

The solar bodies like the sun, the moon and the stars are prominent in
mythology. Achebe too uses these symbols his novels. In The Hero with a
Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell writes that "The solar ray igniting the
hearth symbolizes the communication of divine energy to the womb of the
world" (42).Martin S. Day in Many Meanings of Myth speaks of 'the lunar
myth'. It is noted that "many indistinct features of the moon and its rapidly
succeeding phases offer elaborate material for myth" (38).Through the
application of 'the Moon Myth' Achebe shows a mythic consciousness.

Achebe in Arrow of God ortr trays the traditional society. He shows
their religious temperament and tcgether with that gives a detailed description
of the Umuaro society's invocation to the moon. The moon is associated with
good or bad luck from its positior~and shape. Emmanuel Ngara, in Stylistic
Criticism and the African Novel says that "The way Achebe describes this
incident is lively as it consists of cquestions, petty quarrels and songs" (58).
Achebe, as in the classical stories, makes the moon a prominent theme in his
novels. Similarly he speaks abou. the varied aspects of nature and thereby
advocates these forces as part of the religious belief.

M.G. Cooke in Modern i3lack Novelist : A Collection of Critical
Essays, observes: "Umuaro's gods, lesser than the High One, are like Greek
gods: they are not above jealous3 and spite as men are not above these [.

. .I by the "arrow of god" presumably, he means to indicate the killing by

Christianity of lgbo superstitions ' (129).
Religion and society are complementary to each other. Murray states

that "There is no living society pcssible but one which is held together by a
great religious idea" (254).So also is the society in Arrow of God. Lindfors
comments on Ezeulu: "Ezeulu has been all along an instrument of fate, the
blind accessory of a monumental process that culminates not only in his own
undoing, but in the fall of the gocs of the land" (20). Religion symbolically
stands for human liberation and salvation. Innes and Lindfors say that in
Arrow of God, Achebe seems to introduce "the theme of the liberation of
souls from the grip of the old order" (20).

Achebe treats themes like birth, death and rebirth in his novels, dominant
images in any religion. In Things Fall Apart, the protagonist is a murderer,
and later he commits suicide. His eldest son, Nwoye, leaves his family gods
and accepts Christianity adopting the new name Isaac which is mentioned in
No Longer at Ease in detail. In Arrow of God, Obika, Ezeulu's dear son dies
and references to death are very frequent there.

Achebe's novels delineate i~lienationof characters in the varied levels.
They are alienated from society, fr 3m family and even from themselves. They
are dissatisfied and life seems a p~lzzlea, meaningless question to Okonkwo,
Ezeulu and Obi. Murray speaks of alienation: "alienation is originally neither a
Marxist nor a psychiatric tool of understanding the human condition, but
theological and specially Christian. In the act of knowledge, [. . .] the old Adam
disobeyed God and thereby becam'?estranged from the divine in himself" (252).

The very background of Arrow of God is mythical. Achebe mingles the
supernatural and traditional convincingly giving it religious connotations. The
priest is portrayed as one who wields great spiritual authority over the whole
society. One remarkable feature i:; that gods and spirits move freely, shaping
the destiny of man.

Myths associated with the Pumpkin Leaves have great religious

significance. It involves the ritual hazing of the Eze-Ulu as the women of

Umuaro symbolically hurl upon his person the evils and misfortunes of their
house in the form of bunches of Pumpkin Leaves which each woman has

brought to the ceremony for the purpose. The priest thus acts as the ritual

carrier of the community's sins and misfortunes for burial in the shrine of
Ulu. Ezeulu acts in dual roles of a priest as well as the collective mass of
Umuaro. These rituals can be as:ociated with the rituals of any religion. In
almost all religions sacrifices and offerings are made through the priest, a
representative of the whole community.

The Festival of the Umuaro': and Eze-Ulu's roles remind one of the book
of 'Deuteronomy'.Duringthe ritua1ist.cpresentation,the priest symbolicallybecomes
the victim, or scapegoat. Further this reminds one of Jesus Christ who also acted

in these roles of priest, victim and scapegoat. In St. John's gospel Jesus is seen as
"the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (1:29).In the Epistle of
St. Paul to Hebrews,Jesus is the "great high priest" (4:14-16).

Ezeulu's fateful incarceration by the white man is an occasion which
proves his innocence. He, like lkclmefuna in Things Fall Apart becomes an

innocent victim to the freakish and ilrtogant power craziness in man. Okonkwo
kills him for asserting his hierarchy, and it was an oracular fulfilment. Later
the society becomes the victim sacrificed to propitiate Eeulu's personal motifs.
The priest exalted for the society's welfare falls from his supposed ideals and
causes great suffering to the people of Umuaro. This can be associated with
other narratives. The hero leads to the downfall of his society as in mythical
narratives where widespread calamities and maladies are associated with
the misdeeds of the hero or ultimate leader. In Ezeulu there is power
molestation. Ezeulu becomes an iirchetype in the sense that the evil in him
dominates his good 'self' and he suffers due to his own misdeeds.

'The Garden of Eden myth' is directly applied in Arrow of God. John
Goodcountry was preparing N w o ~ efor baptism as demanded by the teacher,
Mr. Molokwu. Goodcountry praised the customs of the early Christians and

underrated those of the natives. Hc.spoke of the heroic martyrdom of Joshua

Hart, his own kinsman. He said to the natives: " You address the python as
father. It is nothing but a snake, the snake that deceived our first mother, Eve"

(366).This passage is a close imit.3tionof the 'Garden of Eden Myth'.

Now the serpent was m x e crafty than any other wild animal that
the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God say you
shall not eat from any three in the garden. [. , .] So when the
woman saw that the tr~?ewas good for food, and that it was a

delight to the eyes, [. . . I she [. . .] ate and [. . .] gave some to her

husband, who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis3:l-6)

The heated argument between Moses and Goodcounty gave a chance
to Oduche, who was aspiring for baptism, to exhibit his knowledge of the
'Garden of Eden' epoch. He said: ' I t is not true that the Bible does not ask us
to kill the serpent. Did not God tell Adam to crush its head after it had
deceived his wife?" (368).This cotnment was well accepted by the audience
and they applauded him. This leads to Goodcountry's further explanations of
the Christian rituals. He talked al~outhe 'Holy Meal' or Eucharist. Citing
Oduche whose knowledge of the Bible seems better than Moses', Goodcounty
speaks from the Bible: "Is not a:; our lord himself said that the first shall
become last and the last become first. The world will pass away but not one
single word of Our Lord will be set aside" (TAT369).

Another myth applied in Arrow of God is the 'Exodus myth'. Moses
Unachukwu, the most known convert in Umuaro, was a carpenter in his early
years. He was one who admitted the whitemen's power. After ten years in an
alien country he joined the missionaries and he himself brings some parallels
between him and the Biblical figure, Moses: "He saw his sojourn in Onitsha
as a parallel to that of the Moses o f the Old Testament in Egypt" (TAT367).

Mr. Goodcountry's teachir~gsabout the python were challenged by
Moses. He mustered courage and confidence from his deep knowledge of the
Bible and from his travel in Onitsha. He said that "neither the Bible nor the
catechism asked converts to kill :he python, a beast full of ill omen" (TAT
367). He showed his mastery of the Bible saying that "Was it for nothing that
God put a curse on its head?"(367). In the Bible it is shown how the serpent

is punished by God for his deceiving of Eve.
Studiesshowthat biblicalanaloguespredominate in Achebe's trilogy, Things

FallApart, No Longer atEase and Arrow of God. This he employees in the plot,
characterisation and narrative aspcds. From Things Fa1Apart to Arrow of God,
there is development of mythic conjciousness in the religious level.

Armah's Novels, Two Thoiisand Seasons and The Healers are greatly
concerned with what is right and what is wrong. Every religion posits some
norms and ideals regarding morality and such a moral consciousness is clearly
visible in Amah's novels. The main characters in these novels like Densu,
Damfo, Isanusi, Anoa are the archetypes of goodness as they are unsullied
and unspoiled by any kind of malice.

A m a h pictures selfless lol3e as a spiritual and aesthetic force and it is
shown as the offspring of a gcod conscience. Both novels offer mythic
consciousness in the structural evel. The characters are given a tinge of
myth. For example, Anoa is imm~rtalisedthrough calling the village, 'Anoa's
village'.

Two Thousand Seasons can be regarded as a religious epic. As the
Bible speaks of the origin, fall and redemption of mankind, this novel describes
the black people, their glorious past together with their suffering at the hands
of the 'predators' and 'destroyels'. These alien 'predators' and 'destroyers'
caused the disintegration of the people. Armah shows how they were 'agents
of white death which resulted in ti- e total uprooting of Africa's pristine, primitive
culture. He writes: "We are not people of yesterday" (TTS 1). Emmanuel

Ngara attributes epic qualities in these words: "The amount of material covered
and the vision given to the Africar people are fantastic and admirable. There
is nothing so far written in African fiction to surpass its excellence of language,
its epic splendour, its immense mcral earnestness" (qtd.in Damodar Rao 90).

In the prologue of the novel a reference is made "to the desire to
remake" (7TS XV). It requires a change in life style, a return from the
wayward ways that will ultimatel!i restructure the society into men of action,
who can be "pointers to the way, the way of remembrance, the way of knowing

purpose" (TTSXV).

The realization of this goal seemed a painful task to the blacks. They
rose in revolt, killed the whites and returned to their places and some of them
returned to the sacred grove, the shrine of the Blackman, where lsanusi, the
philosopher seer and guide, awaited them. They were dedicated natives who
wanted to reinstitute the rule of the way. Bernth Lindfors in 'Armah's Histories"
writes that "Africa, before being polluted by contact with the outside world,

was a Garden of Eden"(89).

Armah speaks of the Edenic life that existed in Africa and the European
attempts to destroy their unity and peace. He delves deep into the past and
advocates a return to that lost African Eden. According to Nwahunanya, "the
pre-colonialAfrican society into w 7ich the Arab and European invaders stepped
was [. . .] peaceful, congenial, productive and rich" (550).Various factors
contributed to this downfall and Arrnah writes: "That is also part of the wreckage
of our people. What has been cast abroad is not a thousandth of our history,

even if its quality were truth [. . .] the haze of this fouled world exists to wipe

out knowledge of our way, the waq. These mists are here to keep us lost[. . .I"

(7731).He sees the task, as Wolt: Soyinka observes in Myth, Literature and
the African World, as "the visionary reconstruction of the past for the purpose
of a social redirection" (106).

Throughout the novel there is an echoe of the 'Fall Myth' and the

4

'Myth of Innocence'. With prophetic courage Armah points out the
disintegrating factors of the original innocence and unity of the people. The
colonisers came as beggars seekrng protection and the help of the natives.
The blacks, out of their hospitality, ,.eceivedthem with open heart being ignorant
of the ulterior motives of the predators. Later the predators imposed their
power on the natives through for:e, deceit and treachery.

A m a h presents the first stage of the internal corruption as the disunity
of the class, "in the end exhaust~on[. . .] was the real peace bringer" (10).
Another factor that leads to the fill1 of the natives was the lack of vision of the
people regarding their future goals. The men heedless of the warning given by
the visionaries, "successfully pulled themselves out of all ongoing work" and fell
into drunkenness "proclaiming between calabashes of sweet ahey how obvious
it was that all such work was of ts nature trivial, easy, light and therefore far
from a burden on any women" (7TS10).This attitude marked the beginning of
masculine indulgence and indolence, something unheard of before. The "new
kind of man" that emerged as a result had the "habit to consume more food and
drink than he gives out in work and energy" (TTS 11).

There began "the rule of women" who "razed the men's unearned
privileges" (7TS11)as a preludc!to establishing female authority. This leads
to the emergence of "fertile time" (11)and later for the expression "headlong
generosity" (16).

Arrnah shows how the spiritual values are displaced by mundane values.
The harmony, peace and original i.~nocencgeive way to greed, lust and material
pleasures. The way, the moral code that bound the society is shattered and
there appeared "An unproductil~etime. . . uncreative time which buried
reciprocity and confused the wab with crazy, power-thirsty roads" (17).'The
Way' according to Damodar Rao, "defines the mental attitude of a collective
psyche and the culture of a cor~munitybesides showing the way for the
future. It is the path of virtue, of htegral vision and wholeness" (94).

The amalgam of death and rebirth imagery is another aspect through
which Arrnah brings mythic consci3usnessin the novel. He shows the mysteries

attached to death and observes that 'a people losing sight of origins are

dead" (XIV). A rebirth is possible through the recovery of 'the way', the pivot
of all social, cultural and spiritual activities. It is to be reacknowledged as the
moral and spiritual code of the scciety.

Armah speaks of the oppre:;sed natives who were forced to follow alien
religious beliefs. The predators came with "a choice of deaths: death of our
spirit, the clogging destruction o ' our mind with their senseless religion of
slavery. In answer to our refusal to this proffered death of our soul they
brought our bodies slaughter" (TiS2).

The novel is in the form of a reflection, a remembrance. The natives
remember how they were ill treattzd and turned into their obedient servants.
Such a situation paved the way fcr visionaries to act and they left their places
and went in search of peaceful lccations. Their journey was hazardous and
they withstood these adverse c~rcumstances.According to Rao, in Two
Thousand Seasons, "the underll~ingmoral vision directs and decides the
behavioural patterns of good and evil, beauty and ugliness and integrity and
disintegration" (89).

The first chapter of Two 7housand Seasons is titled 'The Way'. This
brings to mind the biblical passag? where Jesus spoke of himself as "the way,
the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6).The 'way' evokes mythic associations as it
can be interpreted as the moral (:ode of any society, as 'the Eight-fold way'
advocated by the Budha. The reference to 'the ancient woman and her seven
children reminds one of the Old Testament passage where the seven sons of a
brave mother accepted death prcnouncing their faith in the true God publicly

before the king (2Macabees 7:l-42).Another similar reference in the Bible

shows how God protected and guided the people of Israel giving them 'pillar
of cloud' and 'light' (Exodus 14:;!0).

"The remembrance is of thz leopard and the dupon together waylaying
the lion; of the wild eagle snatchifigthe ram, the duiker lying surprised under

the claws of the parrot [. . .I" ( 7 7 3 9) so goes a passage in prophet Isaiah,

though different in meaning. The prophet speaks of a time when universal
peace reigns the whole earth. Then "Wolves and lambs will eat together; lions

will eat straw, as cattle do, and snakes will no longer be dangerous" (65:25).
As Achebe uses 'number seven' with mythic associations in the first

paragraph of Things Fall Apart, Armah too uses it in the first paragraph of
Two Thousand Seasons. Number seven is used to mention many things such
as 'the seven wonders of the worlc', 'seven colours' 'seven musical notes' etc.

In the Old Testament, the Lord gives Moses certain rules and regulations
concerning the observance of the seventh year: "the seventh year is to be a
year of complete rest for the land, a year dedicated to the Lord" (Leviticus
25:4). In Genesis, after the creatim "By the seventh day God finished what
he had been doing and [. . .] blclssed the seventh day and set it apart as a
special day" (2:2-3).

In the New Testament number 'seven' as in, Akan mythology is 'a
complete number'. There are nany occasions where number seven is

symbolically used. In the first let-er of St. Paul to the Corinthians (12:l-11)

the gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned which are spiritual gifts. There are
seven such gifts. It also reminds of the 'seven sacraments'.

Journey is another mythic strategy adopted in Two Thousand seasons.
The journeys undertaken by the characters have fictional, classical and biblical
parallels. It seems like the hazardous journey of the Israel out of their captivity
in Egypt to the promised land. In every manner, this novel is an illustration of
the 'Exodus Myth'.

During the journey they undertook, the natives came across a place
which aroused very painful thoughts. Amah writes: "There was not one living

creature there. Death had visite(d this place, and time had passed over it.
There were no corpses, only skeletons" (TTS 47).This description arouses
thoughts about prophet Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. The passage
describes how the spirit of the Lord took him "to the valley which was full of
bones" (Ezekiel37:l).It is clear that Armah is exhorting for a rejuvenation or
regeneration as the phoenix frorr its ashes.

In Two Thousand Seasor,s, Armah reconstructs a system of values
which he calls 'the way'. He viscalises an ideal African society which could
be realized only through the practising of the way. The search for the way has
great spiritual implications. It could be equated with any religious group or
society with specific goals. The search for the way must not be understood
solely in terms of the past, but rather as 'hot only a forgotten but the future
way, the way of reciprocity and c~llectiveendeavour" (7TS5).

The natives were leading zi peaceful and contented life with the motto
of 'giving' when the Arab 'pred,itorsl intruded in. This brings to mind the
'Eden Myth' where the first parents Adam and Eve lived in Eden blissfully.
The invaders were noted for their craving for power and prestige. Some of the
natives succumbed to the sugar coated promises of the predators who were
called "Ostentatious Cripples" arid "askari zombis". The narrator begins his
noble mission referring to a few '~.ememberersw' ho recollect a time when all
the black people are united.

During the migration of the natives to different places they encounter
alien forces, the predators and the destroyers who are base and degraded in

their mannerisms. Manipulation was their motto. They allowed their basest
emotions and were notorious for their immorality.

It has far reaching imp1icatic.no~n the natives. These betrayers practised
religion for the satisfaction of their base goals. Armah's attitude to Christianity
is clear when he says "Thus Armati's preoccupation with religion, culture and
society is clear in the novel.

There is development of rnythic consciousness at the spiritual level
through the portrayal of Anoa, as I-iyong observes in ''Ayi Kwei Armah in Two
Moods": "Naana, the wise old woman of Fragments now returns as the
prophetic Anoa, reminding us of our way, of our destiny which awaits fulfilling"
(13)T. he process is continued and spiritual leadership is further extended by
characters like Ningome, Noliwe, Idawa and Isanusi. She, known for her
leadership and skill, together with the other girls "carries their share of the
black man's and black woman's burden" (13).

To confer immortality on Anoa the village is named 'Anoa's village'.
She became conscious of her special call, besides the roles of a wife's and
mother's. Divinity or supernatural touch is given to Anoa as Armah writes:

"Her ears heard other voices, otht?rthoughts visited her spirit" (Ti315).As

a result she "spoke in two voices -twin,but clearly discernible one from the
other" (15).

Two Thousand Seasons is a 1 elaboration of the crises faced by a nation.
The advent of the predators and destroyers caused anarchy in African life.
There were great leaders like Isanusi who cannot put up with their disillusioning

present and were glad of death like the 'Magi' in T.S. Eliot's "The Journey of
the Magi". The feelings, tensions and sufferings of the natives who stand
confounded between acceptance z nd rejection are beautifully portrayed. The
seer, Isanusi, could not retain his integrity as there was constant threat from
the kings and enemies. Evil paves the way to one disaster after another and
the seer is killed by his enemies.

Armah, in his novels write,; about the veneration of ancestors who
believed that the ancestors proteci the living against the forces of evil. As a
result they invoked their presence and welcomed their assistance in their
family or community.Often they offered libationsas seen in Armah's Fragments
or The Healers. For instance, Baako's uncle, Foli observes the rituals to
invoke the ancestral help before hi; journey abroad for higher studies.

Libation serves as a formalized communicative channel between the
living and the dead ancestors. Si~ckeywrites that "the ancestors serve as
spirit guardians . . . [and] if the ancestors are disobeyed there could be

personal or social disaster" (393).In the Fragments, Naana, the grandmother

of Baako, speaks of the newly born babies who remain in the spiritual world
of the ancestors until the seventh day on which the outdoor ceremony is
conducted. The Christian baptism could be equated with this ceremony: the
child is believed to be free from the original sin after this. Pouring out libation
is a traditional aspect of religious customs in The Healers too. "Standing
beside the dead prince's head, Ababio poured out the crystal liquidX(TH55).
After the prayer that he made, ht? found that "[a] quality of the drink of

ancestors was left in it" (56).
In Fragments, Armah shows the consequences of the failure to observe

the norms and practices of the ~ 1 1 1powerful ancestors as the conversation
between Naana and Baako reveals:

"Did they pour a libation before starting this drinking? I heard nothing,
neither the silence nor the words."
"There was no libation, Naana." (F262-63)
Thus the journey of the child from the underworld to the material
world was cut short and it resulted in the child's death.
The narrator invokes the masters of eloquence together with Anoa
which is in the form of a prayer. Armah writes: "Fasseke Belen Tigui, master
of masters in the arts of eloquence, lend m e strength. Send me eloquence to
finish what I have begun" (TH51.).The readers are reminded of the biblical
passage where Solomon asks for the grace to lead his people: "Give your
servant 1. . .] an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern
between good and evil" ( 1 Kings 3:9).
Throughout the novel there are references to the implications and
relevances of festivals. Festivals often keep the people united. Sometimes
they convey the messages handed down from generation to generation, and
the unbearable pains endured by ancestors as in the novel TheHealers. Here
festivals are "reminders that no matter how painful the journey, our people

would finish it, survive it and thr ve again at the end of it [. . .I" ( T H 4 ) .

The references to the 'giant silk cotton tree' ( T H 3 4 )in the beginning of

the novel evoke mythic thoughts 3s the silk cotton tree in Achebe's ThingsFall
Apart. Besides Armah speaks of the large Odum tree which was at the centre
of the healer's village (TH 171).The Kum tree is also presented with great
significances: "The Kum tree, planted at the nation's birth, a tree supposed
unshakeable, huge giant of trees, the Kum tree fell" (TH250).All such details
add to the tree great s ~ p e r n a t u r ~asdsociations as it evokes thoughts about
'the tree of life' situated in the middle of the Garden of Eden described in the
Book of Genesis (3:l-13).The Kum tree "falls of a sudden" ( TH250) and it
symbolically represents the fall of the Ashanti empire.

Sacrifice is an indivisible part of ceremonial rites in any religion as it has
great religious significance. The Old Testament in the Bible gives the details of
sacrifices animate, inanimate or human performed by the people of Israel. Like
Achebe and Soyinka, Armah also refers to sacrificesand offerings.Throughout
The Healersthere are occasions of such performances. In the beginning Armah
speaks of the ceremonial observan zes which extended for a whole week. Friday
was set apart for water games. Amah mixes religious myths, while portraying
the scene of the water games. Swimming, one of the items in the ritual games,
started from "the landing for fishinr3canoes far below Esuano, where there was
a hamlet for fisherman; then it went up the river's length all the way till the
sacrificial rock of priests, a boulder called Akosombo" (TH41).

Armah speaks of the rumours spread throughout Esuano in connection
with Ajoa's. disappearance. One ~f the rumours was that she was "a spirit
child gone back home to the land of spirits" (TH64). Besides this there were

sayings spread around that she might have been taken by "sinister priests
who went about catching virgin children and sacrificing them to cruel gods in

exchange for horrific, occult powers" (TH64). Armah in the portrayal of

Ajoa, mixes myth and reality, malting it more appealing.
Another occasion shows bow human beings were sacrificed to show

reverence to kings and rulers. CGhen kings died slaves were slaughtered to
accompany the deceased kings to the underworld. When Kweku Dua, the first
king died, the young princes went in search of victims. One of the princes,
Boache Aso murdered not a slatje, but a young man of nobility to take his
personal revenge on him. He happened to be the nephew of the Asante
commander Asamoa Nkwanta. Ar, Asamoa could not take his personal revenge
on Boache Aso, he turned his wra:h on the royals. The royals "found a sacrifice
to pacify Asamoa Nkwanta: Opalin Kwamen, an uncle of the prince Boache

Aso, was that sacrifice" (TH98)

Armah devotes a whole chapter to speak about 'the sacrifice of victims'
which has great religious conncltat~ons. He colourfully presents the three
priests when he writes that "thcjir faces [were] painted with death's white

clay" (TH160). Two drummers were there "drumming a slow death call to
the spirit of the sacred river Pra" (TH160).The prayers uttered by the priests

and the refrain sung add to t h ~religious nature: 'Accept, 0 Bosom Pra I
Accept this offering, sacred river I Accept, accept" (TH161).

The last part of the novel slows how enthusiastic and happy the people
were at the 'reincarnation' of Aeaba Jesiwa in their midst. They brought a

lamb and were ready to slaughte- it as a "ritual sacrifice of purification" (TH
307).It has a prefiguration in the Book of Genesis where Abraham offered a
lamb as a ritual sacrifice at Mount Morea when he was prevented from
sacrificing his son Isaac by the argel (Genesis22:13,14).

Rivers, streams, seas, ocean etc are associated with gods and goddesses.
The streams that flowed in Esuano were attributed personal qualities and
named male and female rivers according to its nature, appearance and beauty.
Armah refers to the rivers, sucl- as the 'sacred river Pra' in the 'sacrifice
scene'. As in classicalwritings, such references to nature gods and goddesses
impart mythic colour to Amah's novels. He speaks of the "mysterious forest
places" (TH 4) and throughout the novel he shows the healing power of
nature.

Throughout the novels of 4 m a h there are references to great gods. In
The Healers, Armah speaks of the "great one, Odoman Koma Kwame, God
of all creation" (TH279). This god is further shown as one who rewards
goodness and punishes evil dec,ds. That is what Armah writes: "We have
done so many things to bring the curse of God on our own heads, God is
punishing us" (TH279). Geoffrzy Parrinder in African Mythology observes
that "Myths [. . .] tell about supernatural beings, gods and ancestors" (16).

Armah's use of the term:; 'bmnipresent, omniscient god" (TH256)
speaks of the two prominent ar d accepted characteristics of God. Besides
these two adjectives, God is a l ~ a y spictured as omnipotent. Armah uses
these terms to picture the nature of the white man Glover, who was 'god like'

in his action as he was present 'et~erywhere'.
The use of death imagery, which is carefully manipulated, serves to

import a mythical tonality to Arms3h'sfictions. The reflections on death show
the attitude of Armah and his belief in life after death. The murder of prince
Appia and the trial conducted to find out the convict are all mixed with fact
and fancy. Densu's father died bzfore his birth and his mother died during
childbirth. Anan, Densu's bosom friend, died during the endeavour to save
Densu from the traps hidden by his enemies to kill him. Asmoa Nkwanta's
nephew is murdered by one of the princes, which prompted the commander
to take revenge on the murderer. As he could not, he turned his fury on the
royals.

The grave diggers and the burial scene also impart great religious
associations. He describesthe pouring of libation as part of the burial ceremony
and how Ababio violated the sacred rules of this rite. The funeral songs in the
novel and the theme of reincarn~tionof Araba Jesiwa add to the religious
aspects of the novel.

Journey is another reli'gioiis motif used in The Healers. The novel
begins with the murder of prince A ~ p i a hwhen he and his mother were "at the
beginning of a journey" ( T H 1 ) .T ~aEnnual ritualsand festivals "were reminders
that no matter how painful the journey, our people would finish it, survive it,
and thrive again at the end of it, as long as our people moved together"
( T H 4). Besides, it is Densu's jcurney to the Eastern forest which is the
turning point of his career. All thesz details give the novel an epic nature.

When the great white army under Wolseley marched against the
Asante, the royals sought the help of the priests and asked what they could do
to save the nation from the enemies. The priests advised that "the spirits first
needed blood, animal blood, and human blood generously spilt" (TH281).
Besides what the priests did in orcier to prevent the advancement of the white
army shows their superstitious beliefs. According to the priests, the marching
ofthe white army was "nothing but a powerful juju" (TH281). They thought
that "the power of the white man's line could be made to work equally for
Asante: they caused a piece of white string to be tied between trees from
Kwisa up to Fomena" (281). The priests believed that through the power of
the string they could stop the whi-e army, but it proved a futile attempt.

Again the priests exhorted the royals to use another powerful charm
against the invaders. They told the white men, who depend mainly on powerful
guns to invade their enemies. So the priests made images of guns which
looked real and they were stuck irto the real carved guns. Still they could not
resist their enemies.

As in Two Thousand Seasons, number seven exhibits mythic aspects in
The Healers. At times Armah uses it to show some accepted norms or beliefs of
the society. For example, Araba Jesiwa and the members of her family were
greatly relieved when Appia, ''stayed beyond the seventh day" (TH77).

Every individual has the ability to act as a saviour for the society in a
lesser or greater way. In The Healers Armah presents saviour characters such
as Damfo and Densu. Damfo is pl.esented as great a hermit and saviour and

this brings to mind saviour archeiypes and Armah's 'messianic figures' are
exceptional in stature. The novel rzaches its climax when Araba Jesiwa comes
to the stage to witness her son's murder by Buntui after her 'reincarnation'.
This 'reincarnation' she achieved cnly through Damfo and in this aspect Damfo
is like old diviners and seers, or p-ophets. Insight, prescience and kindness to
creation are the prominent qualities seen in Damfo, the healer.

The chapter title 'The Fal ' could be associated with the 'Fall Myth'
'The Fall Myth' tells the fall of Aclam and Eve and the consequences of that
fall. Similarly, Armah in The Healers recounts the fall of the great Asante
empire. It also speaks about the fill1 of Ababio, Densu's Guardian and Buntui,
the giant, who was a puppet in the hands of Ababio. It was Buntui who
murdered the prince Appia.This scene also reveals the white General Wolseley's
character. He came riding on a ? ass surrounded by his followers. It has a
biblical parallel where Jesus ente,.ed Jerusalem on an ass while the people on
the way welcomed him and checmred him with praises (Matthew21:l-11).

Ajoa, the daughter of Damfo was missing and was found after three
days. The people notice supernatural traits in her appearance and manners
and consider her a s the child of a spirit. People attributed the same traits to
Jesus when he was in the temple teaching and talking with them while his
parents were searching for him They found him only after three days (LK
241-52).

The optimistic note and the triumph of goodness are other traits in
Armah. The very beginning of the novel expresses this: "the most hopeful

wished that in some mysterious way the mother could be found alive, able to
tell the terrible truth about her s o : ~ 'dsestruction" (TH1).The novel ends with
this wish fulfilment when Araba Jesiwa appears on the scene and discloses
how Buntui murdered her son Appiah at Ababio's command.

By way of a conclusion :o this chapter it may be said that at the
religious level there is a development of mythic consciousness in the novels of
Armah. The morality and the gretjtspiritual ideals that he aims at in the early
novels reach the peak in The Healers, his last novel. There he fuses morality
and spiritually with life, giving it an integrated appearance. Thus myths,
according to Armah, are the expressions of the sparks of divine that exists in
man which helps him discover and establish sacred realities. As Robert Frazer
observes in The Novels of Ayi fiwei Armah, The Healers is "a therapeutic
work which aims to close the wounds left over and festering from centuries of
cultural-abuse, indeed its very tit12 suggests a propensity to cure" (82).