The Headstrong Historian

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2008

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Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Superstition

Superstition is a recurring motif that comes to depict the changing cultural beliefs of Nwamgba’s clan. Initially, superstition plays an integral part in the clan’s daily life, be it in explaining away Obierika’s difficulty in producing children through the earth god’s curse of misfortune, the essential role of the oracle who communicates with ancestors and can promote fertility, or, as is the case with Obierika’s death, as a means to find truth and justice through the mmili ozu. Superstition is the bedrock of the clan’s rules and cultural practices, but as colonial forces like missionaries and traders settle in, superstitious practices are no longer used or change under foreign influence. When Nwamgba and Obierika visit the oracle for assistance in conceiving a child, for instance, they sacrifice a cow and do “the ritual cleansings and sacrifices” (202). When Nwamgba returns to the oracle many years later for Mgbeke, however, she finds the required offerings have changed: “Nwamgba […] went to the oracle herself, and afterward thought it ludicrous how even the gods had changed and no longer asked for palm wine but for gin. Had they converted, too?” (214). As more people adopt Christian and foreign ways over their local ones, the cultural identity of Nwamgba’s clan begins to erode.

Guns

In the text, guns are a symbol of both social power in Nwamgba’s community and, later, a destructive tool. Nwamgba, her family, and her clan never physically interact with guns, but they are peripherally present, as Ayaju remarks that “her own father would not have been brought as a slave if his clan had been as well armed as Nwamgba’s clan” (204). But while owning the right amount or type of guns—specifically those from white men—seems to promote protection from enslavement and instill fear in would-be attackers, white men’s guns are different and come to symbolize the same heightened violence committed by white men themselves. When the colonizers try to change the way the clan trades and the elders “refused to place their thumbs on the paper,” for instance, “the white men came at night with their normal-men helpers and razed the village” (204). Later, the white men need not be involved at all for this kind of gun violence to occur, as they’ve taught others how to use guns to extort others. When Afamefuna graduates from secondary school, “people [tell] stories of the destruction of their village years before by the white men’s guns” (216). It is not the white men themselves who cause the violence in these cases. Rather, the remnants of their presence—their guns—are used against unsuspecting villages, effectively shifting the role of guns from a tool to protect communities to a tool that destroys them.

Pottery

Nwamgba’s pottery-making represents the family and cultural legacy she wants to impart to her children. When Anikwenwa is young, his mother’s pottery is an act of family union, wherein his father would bring “baskets filled with fresh clay for her pottery” (198), a task that Anikwenwa participates in when he gets older. Obierika dies and Anikwenwa commits himself to Christian doctrine, but when Nwamgba’s grandchildren—specifically Afamefuna—are born, she uses pottery to impart their own art and culture to them and pass on her heritage. Nwamgba and Afamefuna’s matrilineal connection is strengthened through pottery; Nwamgba is “thrilled by the child’s solemn interest in her pottery and her stories, the teenager’s keen watchfulness as Nwamgba struggled to make pottery with newly shaky hands” (214-15). The pots are also functional pieces of art that speak of her intricate creativity and commitment since Nwamgba works on her pottery even in the most inconvenient times: “Nwamgba would silently carve designs on her pottery while Mgbeke cried, uncertain of how to handle a woman crying about things that did not deserve tears” (213). As much as Nwamgba was the one to shape and create her pottery, she was likewise affected by the practice and legacy she insisted on maintaining; at the end of her life, the palm of her hand is “thickened from years of making pottery” (218). This detail is the last line of the story and is shared during Nwamgba and Afamefuna’s last moment of connection, emphasizing pottery as a symbol of the traditions passed from grandmother to granddaughter.