Yes, you might say that Okonkwo has an Achilles heel, which in his case is his anger. But his weakness is also a product of historical conditions and it is these conditions that exacerbate the consequences of his resorting to his fists when he cannot get his words out.

Leke, that is completely true. But the subtle changes in Umuofia that make his final act of beheading the kotma incomprehensible to them also means that they are also the victims of a tragic historical processes. The difference is that the changes are more subtle for the people but much more dramatic for Okonwko.

Thanks for the compliments, Nunya. I always try to do the best that I can.

Glad you enjoyed it, Theo.

Glad you enjoyed it, Petra!

Thanks, Franklin. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Things Fall Apart is definitely worth reading if you haven't read it before. And the arrival of the Christians alters social relations in a very subtle way. Okonkwo tries to push the moment to its crisis but his people do not go along with him. And therein lies a key aspect of his tragedy.

Thanks, Kalapi. Will do something on one of his novels, likely A Grain of Wheat. More anon.

Indeed. Will be waiting for that and of course your other talks

Hi Adebiyi, this is too large a question to be able to deal with properly here. But suffice it to say that I have a book soon coming out titled Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature soon coming out with Cambridge University Press that tackles Obi's views on tragedy in No Longer at Ease directly. I will dedicate a special episode to talk about my book and the main claims I make in it once it is actually out. So watch this space!

@@CriticReadingWriting Splendid, Prof! Those are even much better than I could have hoped.

Hi Asis, an episode on Tutuola is definitely on its way. It will be part of a series of episodes on Magical Realism. More anon!

Thanks, Alex.

Welcome!

Great suggestion, Agyeiwaa. Will give location of where I am reading the extracts from in next episodes. In terms of the question that makes no sense, I meant to say that that question is senseless because it would have had an unambiguous answer (declaration of war) in an earlier period but now produces only tumult and confusion. But the confusion is because the value system of Umuofia has subtly changed in a mere seven years of the course of his exile, so that what would have been clear to everyone before is no longer so. But values don't change out of the blue; it is people and society that are the bearers of values. Except of course for Okonkwo, who is still completely wedded to the old value system of unambiguous assertions.

Prof please allow me to also attempt an answer to the 1st question. From your analysis of the functionality of the evil forest and the market, I understood two other positions; 1) a cosmological standpoint of what "evil" is to the people, and how it affects life generally. 2) The market, as you aptly explained, representing a community where class is performed, epic memory is invoked in communal decisions, and where communal sentimentality is enacted to further validate Umoufia ideals. The positional switch of the market/gathering place becoming a place of evil (ie. if the location and context for the perpetuation of the murder by Okonkwo is considered evil, further validates the evil forest-and now Christian church as rather the 'market/community/place of gathering' where cultural ethos are enacted). As such the switch between these two key places as you have taught, dismantles Umoufia knowledge systems and thus what was considered "okay" is now not okay. I also find that the hesitancy of the people to follow after Okonkwo's act could be as a result of their own guilt in the reverse engineering of the cosmological foundations where their beliefs propelled them to give "evil" to their visitors in order to get rid of them...and hence the question "why did he do that?". Also, they may have broken their own positions of good and evil in that, we find that they only responded to evil when evil had been meted out to them before (eg. when a wife of a leader was killed by a neighboring village). Now they had not been met with evil from the church but proceeded to act in an evil way. Perhaps Karma? Prof, please am i speaking sense? if yes, please adopt me...lol

Hi Alex, I do intend to do Half of a Yellow Sun, but that will come much later in the episodes. But there will be an episode on Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman soon.

The Igbo culture enters a form of demise only in literature, but historically they adjusted to both the pitfalls and opportunities presented by colonialism and redefined themselves into the vital culture that we know today. Igbo culture remains vibrant and undefeated despite all the worst machinations of colonialism.