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Miscommunication and conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God By Noel Ihebuzor
Some basic truths – There is a strong explanatory power in a framework that holds that tragedies arise when uncomprehending humans are caught up by an issue in time and space for which they are ill-equipped to successfully negotiate happy outcomes. The war between Okperi and Umuaro is explainable using such a framework. Conflict literature identifies a number of other elements in situations of interaction that are either conflict provoking or conflict enhancing. These include unfounded assumptions, sinister projections of unfounded intentions, cultural differences, miscues, misreads of the others’ actions, communication failures, arrogance, equivocation, fear of being perceived as weak, ambiguity, idees recues and hazy bargaining.
Most of these played out in the Okperi-Umuaro conflict.
Whether arising from poor communication, or different value systems, including cultural differences or diametrically opposed interests or competition over scarce resources or personality clashes, conflicts can be severely damaging if they are not nipped in the bud as each next in the conflict has a tendency to escalate and magnify and worsen the situation. The Okperi – Umuofia conflict adequately illustrates this tendency towards ever widening and damaging escalations in conflict. The story line is simple and the story is told in a manner that is racy but has all the qualities of “vraisemblance” and realism. A piece of land is in dispute between two communities, each community claiming legitimate ownership. Umuaro sends an emissary led by Akukalia to Okperi. Akukalia, whose mother comes from Okperi, has already a poor conception of the typical Okperi person – this is the first seed of the conflict, the choice of an ill-equipped person to lead such a delegation. Secondly, Akukalia assumes that because his mother comes from Okperi, he can get away with certain offenses which someone else without such an ancestry would be punished for. Second seed of conflict is sown. Third, the delegation chooses a wrong market day to carry out the assignment. Most Igbo communities do not hold peace or war or marriage talks on Eke days. This choice plus Akukalia’s insensitivity and brashness create further tensions, especially after they refuse the traditional white chalk and kola nuts, the ultimate symbols for peace in Igbo society. Then a series of miscommunications set in with insensitive language accentuating the ever expanding misunderstanding till an exchange between Ebo and Akukalia which touches on the sensitive issue of Akukalia’s impotence literally throws petrol into the now smouldering conundrum. Hurt, Akukalia does the unthinkable, the unpardonable, the ultimate desecration of a man in Igbo land! He breaks Ebo’s IKENGA. Ebo shoots him with his dane gun. Ultimately war breaks out and it required the intervention of Captain Winterbottom to quell it. Winterbottom goes one step further and breaks every gun in Okperi and Umuaro.
The story is told with the right level of diction, economy and pace. No words are wasted and suspense is maintained through gradual exposure and unlayering and unpeeling.
Could the war have been avoided? I think so. With the right level of scan and risk analysis, yes and herein lies one major value of this tale of war and peace told by a master craftsman.
Ofo na Ogu, lekwanu-o
The oil mill igbo mmiri split and spat out four units
one for Eke, Afo, Orie na Nkwo
Iyiafo weeps
Over invoked Ofor laments the kwashiorkor
that now afflicts Ogu
since fast tongued twisters took our state and sold us ash as salt
Ogu, not ofor, is the abused, when the aggressor claims and seizes it. Truth freezes, his empires ceases,
he is nwanyi ukwu aru
her steps and gait
always dancing and prancing even when oppression and falsehood wear her down, trap her soul
her steps dance any other stories but her sadness,
your affliction is your possession
if you possess, package and exploit it –
Uwa wu so packaging
Owerri town on 31/10/2019
The craters in Owerri,
coated in mechanics greasy rags
dishivelled plastic, bits and odd ends, brimming with thick dirty mud sauce
drink cars, swallows trucks
Wet baking ovens,
Owerri craters paint tyres, lubricate, wrestle. rusticate and retire ball joints
Their gaping yawning jaws
jeer at and jab away
at the rust mud maligned,
dirt and murk soaked
undercarriages of tired cars and weeping SUVs, groaning and creaking as they creep and crawl in this sea dirt and misery, born from the greed of big men with undersized minds……
Otamiri, please rescue us
from the rot and rust
leftovers of looters who came garbed as our rescuers.
Reflections and refractions by Noel Ihebuzor
My reflections reveal the results of my musings on life. When a third party reflects on them critically and passes through the lenses of his/her reality, some refractions may occur yielding refracted reflections or even reflected refractions in some cases.
Here are some of my reflections on life on one idle slow Sunday morning when I woke early and missed mass because I had to catch a flight on the snaky air routes of West Africa.
Reflections # 1 Never live in the past. Leave your past behind. Life is a present and must be lived in the present.
Reflections # 2 Never allow your past to trap your future
Reflections # 3 Never allow any sense of guilt from your past smother your openness to the possibilities that today and your future offer.
Reflections # 4 Oscar Wilde said that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. The wild one was paraphrasing a Pauline truism that all have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God.
Reflections # 5 Be careful of the present love whose love consists in throwing your past constantly in your face. This is not an act of love. It is a manipulation strategy that seeks to control, dominate and overpower you by appealing to a sense of guilt and dirt from your past.
Reflections # 6 Christ forgave Mary of Magdala. It was a one off thing and He never revisited her guilt after that. If your current relationship does not adopt this approach to your past failings, he or she or they do not know Christ fully, for to know Christ is to act like Him.
Reflections # 7 You must forgive yourself if you really expect total liberation from the bondage of guilt.
Bros/Sis, Na so him dey me for mouth dis early mormor as I dey wait to check in at MMIA to travel to Burkina Faso for an African microfinance summit. Make una live una lives wella, in the present and not in the past remembering that Nkiruka.
Igbo market days and the festival of the pumpkin leaves by Noel Ihebuzor
The power and sheer beauty of Achebe’s prose. Is this prose or lyrical poetry? Ezeulu’s story of his confrontation with and triumph over the elements and the spirit world are presented in this racy and gripping narrative overflowing with imageries and symbols. The days of the week are protected by their powerful spirits but the priest of ulu worsts them and emerges at the end, a liberator and successful negotiator who also carries the weight of the failings of his people and buries these at Ulu’s shrine whilst offering supplications for their wishes and prayers for the future on his frame as he rushes into Ulu’s shrine. This encounter of expiation of sins and renewal for the future is told in a style that grips and awes. The Igbo world view presented here is deep and fascinating.
