Others • Created December 22, 2013 05:00

50 Years of Arrow of God: Literature, Leadership and National Unity

For more information, kindly check the website www.arrowofGod50.com BACKGROUND INFORMATION:In 2014, it would be the golden anniversary of the publication of the novel Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. Arrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe, his  third novel after Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are […]

50 Years of Arrow of God: Literature, Leadership and National Unity
50 Years of Arrow of God: Literature, Leadership and National Unity

For more information, kindly check the website www.arrowofGod50.com

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In 2014, it would be the golden anniversary of the publication of the novel Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. Arrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe, his  third novel after Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are sometimes called The African Trilogy, as they share similar settings and themes. The novel centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of several villages in South Eastern Nigeria,  who confronts adversaries to his office, colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s.
It will therefore be very auspicious to use the opportunity of the 50th Anniversary of the publication of the book to re-examine the concepts of power, leadership, responsibility and good governance in Nigeria and Africa as derivable from the vagaries of Ezeulu and his confederating communities in The Arrow of God.
The Conference in the spirit of the proposed National Conference in the country will also negotiate the ever-deepening social divides and increased alienation among sub-sections of the Nigerian society by unravelling  the democratic fabric on which the future stability and legitimacy depends. It will pursue the argument that citizens in shared communities must forge the path, and exemplify strong, vibrant partnership to meet up with the demands of National Unity and Globalization.
Recasting the experience Achebe presented in Arrow of God could forge a new path for formalizing and expanding our existing Democratic and Leadership apparatus and creating new ones throughout the country. It will also re invigorate our cultural activities, including cultural events, sports, learning opportunities and shared celebrations, as well as social activism in response to political disillusionment and dictatorship in the nation’s body polity.

SUB-THEMES FOR PAPER PRESENTATIONS
The broad theme proposed for the International Celebration and Colloquium is Arrow of God@50:Literature,Leadership, and National Unity.  Many scholarly papers will be presented at the symposia at the seven centres of the celebration(Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Awka, Sokoto, Ogidi and Otuoke) among other activities. To allow for a full and diverse exploration of the book and its relational possibility to the issues under reference, scholars can also write on the following sub-themes:
1. Conflict Generation and Resolution in Achebe’s Arrow of God
2. Ezeulu in Achebe’s Arrow of God and the Post-Independence African Leadership Styles.
3.Literature and the Quest for National Unity: Achebe’s Arrow of God as    a Paradigm.
4.  Managing Changes and Transitions in a Pluralized Society: Achebe’s Arrow of God in Reference.
5.  Africa at the Crossroads of Development and Good Governance: What Has Literature Got To Do With It?
6. Achebe’s Arrow of God: The Igbo Socio-Political Leadership Worldviews and The Lessons for Africa.
7. Rhetoric of Leadership and Demagoguery in Achebe’s Arrow of  God.
8. The politics of intervention: Recasting the adversities of Imperialism in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God
9. Traditionalism versus modernism in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God
10. The festival of the pumpkin leaves as  alternative religious epistemologies
11.Cultures Consuming Personhood in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God
12.Sexualities and subjectivities: Women in  Achebe’s Arrow of God
13.History, aggression, trauma and memory: Okperi versus Umuaro
14.Language, oratory and politics in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God
15.Aristotelian heroism: Ezeulu versus Umuaro
Would be presenters would be allowed to go out of the proposed sub-themes as long as their presentations conform to the broad theme and the idea behind the celebration. At the end, the papers presented will be further edited and published into a book that will fossilized the gains of the celebration of  the book’s contribution to the contemporary discourse on Leadership, Democracy and National Unity in Nigeria, Africa and the world.
Thank you.

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