POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP IN A PANDEMIC: AN AFROCENTRIC EXAMPLE IN ACHEBE’S ARROW OF GOD

Résumé

Human population sometimes comes under one form of severe health emergency or another that disrupts its people and order of living. This will usually come as a pandemic with a magnitude of impact spreading over a wide area, and affecting a large portion of the population. Currently, the year 2020 holds the global populace under siege of Coronavirus disease, commonly called COVID-19 pandemic having a sweeping fatality across continents, including, Africa. In Nigeria, the pandemic takes a toll on human lives, economy, and the livelihood of the people. In dealing with the reality of the time, there are narratives, theories and politics around the origin, cause, prevention and containment of the Virus. However, the inconveniences of the Government’s preventive measures; lockdown, releases, statements and protocols on the severity of infection and fatality rate give rise to controversies and suspicion. Achebe’s Arrow of God, showcases incidents of politics of power between the Chief Priest and the people of Umuaro in a period of crises. The Afrocentric experience in containing disaster proffers concerted efforts of the leadership and the people as a mitigation of unfortunate situations as presented in the text. Using the framework of conspiracy theory, this paper identifies contentions surrounding the pandemic and the impact on the people. A literary analysis of conspiracies and power play in the traditional arena espouses the imperative for an Afrocentric approach to knowledge- sharing during such periods of crises.