A Window on One’s Identity: Cultural Identity In Chinua Achebe’s “The Sacrificial Egg”

Abstract

As a Nigerian writer of fiction in English, Chinua Achebe is well known for articulating an African identity that is distinguishable from colonizers’ constructions, partly because relevant studies have historically been dominated by white voices and have muffled or excluded those of local people (Daniels 68). According to Philip Whyte, “Achebe’s explicitly pedagogical aim was to provide a narrative of African (more specifically Igbo) history from the inside to counter the representation previously monopolized by Western outsiders” (12). Robert L. Ross argues that Achebe’s writing often chronicles “Nigeria’s experience with colonialism” through “an African viewpoint” (23). However, it is an oversimplification to assert that Achebe is blind to some positive aspects of colonial legacies, as political science scholar Bruce Gilley contended in his analysis of Achebe’s prose work There Was a Country: A Profound History of Biafra (646–47). Overall, Achebe is a pragmatist who is committed to reinvigorating the indigenous culture in the colonial context, simultaneously maintaining awareness of the complicated legacy of colonization. A distinct emphasis on the indigenous identity is evidenced in Achebe’s works Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964), which Achebe critics such as Neena Gandhi (60–62) and Simon Gikandi (31–34) have highlighted. Similar expression of a curiously African identity is evident in Achebe’s short story “The Sacrificial Egg” (1962), which tells of the transformation of Umuru from an idyllic village to a commercial port under the influence of colonization. Achebe’s criticism of colonialism is clear in many of his works, and the co-existence of local and Western ways of life in this particular story does not promote the integration of different cultural values. Rather, this short piece features Julius Obi, the male protagonist, and his spiritual journey as he transitions from a self-important, well-educated elitist who despises his own culture to a man of humility who pays great respect to African traditions and cultural values. This echoes Alassane Abdoulaye Dia’s argument that, https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2021.2005514