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The struggle with many a rigid Logooli cultural practices

  The Logooli community is one of the deeply cultured societies – with near everything supposed to have been done as per custom – to allow another custom to follow. One example is that for a mature man (with a child or more) to be buried, there must be a house structure at home. Another is that a boy must be circumcised and nursed in father land. If maternal family decides to, the boy will have a hard time reconnecting with father people - a dent on his masculinity. There were two children who got burnt to death in a house in Nairobi. The single mother had left for night work. Elders were told that one of the children was Logooli. The other, the woman had sired with someone else. The Logooli family wanted to burry their little one and long discussed the do’s and don’ts. Of a man who died childless and the grave was placed as if he had died as a man with children. It should have been dug on the sides, the grave. A real thorn should have been thrust in his buttocks, his name go...
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Arrow of God - Chinua Achebe

Arrow of God. Gods play games with us. They infact through arrows (in modern times they throw bullets and tsunami) the way we hunt lions and elephants. They harass our virgins and make lives bitter when infact life is bitter. So Chinua Achebe brings us to this point- we are instruments of gods. They use us against others and against self.

The novel, first honoured by the writer as the ‘best’ if you read the introduction is a masterpiece build up on Things Fall Apart. The ‘Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger’, was published and read by Wintabota. Funny. In the novel we experience a picture of true African homes on matters of family and friendship when it comes to moments of conflict. Ezeulu’s family will have to suffer big to destruction now that there are no enough resources to counter the stressors. Hill’s ABCX model explains that best.

What took me to the novel after reading it five years ago in High school is the love for the moon. Of late I love the celestial body. How the old man sat to see the weak confused-sitting sign in the heavens. We can read our way to destruction. Peter James writes that people know when they are going to die. To enjoy health and suffering you should have knowledge of both. Have that knowledge in health first.

What strikes me most is the religious confinement that thrusts the community to success. Unlike our modern monotheistic religions, good and evil resided in gods. One god could be with you and the other kill you, they believed. There are still liars, adulters and thieves. Some Igbo’s think they are Israelites. My boss will tell you that African took Christianity to Europe but in another way. The game of gods is that painful apart from making your arms grow like a woman’s limb.

It does not take you a regret to denounce simple beliefs like Christianity. Reading opens up the world to emancipation. The greatest emancipation is to believe in nothing. The python is not a Jehova thing. The snake is not an Eden's inhabitant. Stories of snakes and spirituality are traditions. When you read religion you read traditions. And the best tradition is that which you design in your times- dancing to the age's music. However you won't run from initial discomforts.

 I am undecided to what I should study after my degree and literature seems the leeway. African Literature- home to mankind. If I told you that I ever dreamt that I will teach literature in future will I sound stupid? Then I knew only of social work. But that is not spirituality...is it? If you want to drink from the African calabash, read the book: read such books.

Read and you will connect dots.




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