Sunday, September 5, 2010

Babywearing and Nigerian culture.

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe Is one of those amazing books that I had no idea existed before I started this project. I had read Things Fall Apart in college and really enjoyed that but had no clue that Achebe had written other books. I'm really glad I read this. There are a lot of themes here that I hadn't really thought about.

I liked the story of the intersection of the traditional religion and Christianity. Even more, I liked learning about the culture of the people from Umuaro. I liked the glimpses of family life and childcare. They carried babies on their backs! (I'm convinced that is one of the most comfortable ways for me to carry a baby!) Interesting how the colonizers were convinced they were introducing the people to new and better ways of doing things, but now looking back, many of the older ideas and traditions (baby wearing!) are actually becoming more popular again. The new ways aren't necessarily better.

I really enjoyed this book. I was kind of sad it ended where it did.

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