Arrow of God

Obika is Ezeulu’s second-eldest son and his favorite. The son of Ezeulu’s older wife, Matefi, Obika is handsome and talented but inherits both of his parents’ hot tempers. Obika also tends to drink too much palm wine and to spend time with trouble-makers. As he approaches his wedding day, he begins to approach tradition with more reverence, which pleases his father.

Obika’s case surfaces the process of becoming a man in a place like Umuaro. Although Obika’s tendency to get into trouble bothers his father, he is “no longer a child and if he refused to listen to advice he should be left alone” (91). Maturity means respect for gods and traditions, and Obika grows into that respect and care for others across the text, even though he tries he father’s patience in so doing.

Edogo is Ezeulu’s eldest son. A diligent mask carver, Edogo has “a reputation for finishing his work on time” (50) and creates powerful work. Despite this skill, Edogo is largely cast aside by his father, who prefers his younger sons. Nwafo, in particular, is a cause of “resentment” (165) for Edogo. When, in his father’s absence, Edogo takes control of the compound, he can make his feelings known to his youngest brother by pushing him out of his father’s hut.

When Edogo sides with the men who criticize his father’s relationship to white men, he does so out of concern for the village. Although he does not feel a need to be High Priest, he both fears and is excited by the prospect that the deity could choose him even if his father chooses Nwafo. 

Nwafo is Ezeulu’s youngest son. From Ezeulu’s perspective, “although he [is] still only a child it looked as though the deity had already marked him out as his future Chief Priest” for “before he had learnt to speak more than a few words he had been strongly drawn to the god’s ritual” (4). Nwafo nearly takes his father’s place in his absence, greeting the moon, but he holds himself back, recognizing the sacrilege of such actions. He feels his father’s action “keenly” (165). Nwafo and his sister, Obiageli’s songs and tales interweave with the plot of Arrow of God, repeatedly introducing themes and parables from Umuaro tradition into the novel.

Oduche is the son that Ezeulu selects to send to Wintabota to learn the ways of the white man. Even after he draws criticism for this decision, Ezeulu urges his son to learn the white man’s language until he “can write it with [his] left hand” (189). Oduche earns the ire of all when, under the urging of a church leader, he imprisons a python intending to kill it. This murder is an “outrage” that he commits “against the sacred python” (60), and others view it as just another reason Ezeulu has improperly bent to the white man’s will and traditions. Although his son is confused about what traditions and beliefs he should adopt, Ezeulu does not fault him and encourages him to continue learning the white man’s ways.

Akuebue is Ezeulu’s closest friends, “one of the very few men in Umuaro whose words gained entrance into Ezeulu’s ear” (94). Like Ezeulu, Akuebue upholds traditions of behavior and belief. He routinely offers the voice of others in the village, mediating between Ezeulu’s thinking and that of others to urge the man to see differently. Akuebue also lends his advice to Ezeulu’s children, especially Edogo, stressing that “those of you who think they are wiser than their own father forget that it is from a man’s own stock of sense that he gives out to his sons” (99). Akuebue’s wisdom balances fathers and sons, elders and priests, in order to seek balance and peace.

Captain Winterbottom, known as Wintabota by local people, is the long-standing local District Officer in Okperi. He is a “changed man” (30) since he first arrived in the area, and he prides himself on reading about and learning Ibo traditions. Still, he primarily stays in the British compound, learning about the area from books. Winterbottom is bitter that other men have risen in the bureaucracy since he first arrived, and he approaches orders from above “with irritation and a certain amount of contempt” (55). He orders Ezeulu to speak with him and accept the role of chief of Umuaro only to appease those above him; he does not believe in what the British call native rule of the land. When Ezeulu comes, Winterbottom falls ill, leaving Tony Clarke in charge of the affair.

Tony Clarke is a newcomer in local British leadership. Although he finds more in common with John Wright, the British official who sleeps with local women and drinks more freely, he must work to gain some intimacy with Winterbottom, too. Clarke struggles to decide what to do with Ezeulu, his prisoner, in order to sustain authority over Umuaro. Notably, Clarke wonders about the use of “facts,” which can put one “at a great disadvantage” (106) in leadership. When he suggests a new approach for British colonialism, one that leans on a different kind of learning about local cultures, Winterbottom, who signifies bookish learning, dismisses him.

John Nwodika is a man from another village who works at Winterbottom’s compound. He is, initially, the hated messenger who summons Ezeulu to the British compound. After that first visit, when he is cursed, Nwodika swears “never again to take a representative of ‘gorment’ to his home clan” (151). He wins over Ezeulu quickly in the compound, and although even Akuebue is skeptical of that attachment, Nwodika proves himself trustworthy. By the end of the novel, Nwodika leaves the British service to start his own small tobacco farm.

Nwaka is Ezeulu’s primary adversary among the elders of Umuaro. Nwaka is a powerful speaker, referred to as “Owner of words” (144). He publicly rebukes Ezeulu’s decision to send Oduche to the white man, and he criticizes Ezeulu’s claim “that he is tired of the white man’s friendship” (144). From the conflict with Okperi to the decision to travel to meet with Clarke, Nwaka pushes back against Ezeulu’s authority. Ironically, in the time of famine at the end of the novel, Nwaka sends his own son to the white man to free himself of tradition and gain freedom to dig up his harvest.

Wright is a more brutal local British official, one whose primary task is to build roads. For this task, he employs unpaid laborers from the surrounding villages without reservation. He fights with Obika, setting off alarm among citizens of Umuaro. He scoffs at Winterbottom’s snobby behavior, complaining that he “is too serious to sleep with native women” (104). Wright seems to be outside of the main channels of British authority, yet he represents a type of colonialist who dismisses the claims of the humans around him.

Matefi is Ezeulu’s elder wife. She fights often with Ezeulu and fiercely defends her sons from him when he rebukes them. Matefi is also profoundly jealous of Ugoye, Ezeulu’s younger wife, who gains more of her husband’s attention. 

Ugoye is Ezeulu’s younger wife and the mother of Nwafo and Obiageli. She is more mild-mannered than Matefi, but she still causes conflict when she inspires the jealousy of the elder wife.