Abstract
There is a symbiotic relationship between language, culture and literature as each reinforces, projects and distills the other. The need for the projection of African culture had informed the development of modern African literature which serves to enlighten, educate and showcase African worldview, practices and problems. Against the Conradian misinformed notion of Africans as a people without culture, this paper discusses aspects of African cultural values highlighted in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God. The artistic dexterity of Achebe as a leading African literary icon is examined as he weaves African culture into English language in a novel that has re-constructed and corrected in a compelling story the subjective portrayal of Africa, the cradle of civilization, as a heart of darkness. The paper discusses the thematic, cultural and linguistic patterns of Arrow of God as a powerful literature from Africa by an African conscious of his immediate and remote environments.
Keywords: Ibo culture, African literature, Achebe’s language, themes.
