The Rule, the Law, and the Rule of Law in Achebe’s Novels of Colonization

Achebe’s two novels of colonization, Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God , one written just before and one just after independence, both begin with the threat of war between village groups. In the first, war is averted by the groups themselves, negotiating compensation on the basis of reciprocity. In the second, war is not avoided and leads directly to intervention by the British, who assert a monopoly on violence and justify it on the basis of the desirability of the rule of law that they impose. I read Achebe’s novels not as historical narratives but as parables of political philosophy. Reciprocity (the basis of vengeance but also of a gift economy) is opposed to the law (imposed by a sovereign and legitimized by its disinterested arbitration). The interest that Achebe expressed in models like reciprocity, which do without the state, disappeared after independence, when Nigerians had their own state. Nevertheless, both novels express a deep ambivalence about the law and the violence required to impose it.