Interestingly, the crises in the book are triggered by a university graduate, Arome, who develops a contrary opinion about the prevailing beliefs. Embolden by the activities of a white missionary, Mr. Richardson, Arome is poised to engineer some kind of c

convincing them otherwise. All these and more complicates everything for Arome.

One event leads to the other and a couple of things begin to happen thereafter, and they open up fresher controversies. A military General emerges and commits a taboo, and then daring the gods in an unprecedented fashion...Okpanachi, the defender of the tradition strains his mentality over a hallucinatory sight and sound...and the king eventually comes up with uncontested and transformational declaration. He relied on the people’s ideological advantage on the prevailing beliefs to have his way. That’s using tradition to counter tradition.

All the confrontations in the novel are in two fronts: tradition against tradition and then civilization against tradition. In the consuming arguments, good cases for the life of the future generation are presented against the manifestation of the ancestors who are the founding fathers upon which the present life is cast. Tradition is argued to be the eldest to civilization, and the children (including the unborn) who represent the future generation need to remain the living realities of the ancestors. But another argument has it that the ancestors are stealing the future away from the children...

These back and forth arguments is where the author showed his unique artistry. What does he (the author) do? He hides behind