Books like Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

In 1921, on the western side of the Mbam River in Eastern Nigeria, chief priest Ezeulu of the small Igbo town of Umuaro watches a war he had tried to avert between his community and a neighboring village be stopped by the British District Officer. Wounded by the encroachment of colonial power, he sends his son to learn Christianity in the hope of understanding the strength the white man seems to possess. The son's zeal, however, leads him to attempt the killing of a sacred royal python, an act that ignites a clash between old Igbo spirituality and the new Christian faith. Ezeulu’s resistance to colonial authority deepens, and his defiance against Captain Winterbottom brings a temporary victory followed by a devastating tragedy. The novel explores the tension between tradition and change, and the complex dynamics of African village life under colonial rule.

First publish date: 1964