Irony, Satire, and Iconoclasm in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and Mongo Beti’s The Poor Christ of Bomba

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of irony, satire, and iconoclasm in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and Mongo Beti’s The Poor Christ of Bomba as critical narrative strategies for interrogating colonial and missionary domination in Africa. The study further demonstrates that iconoclasm functions as a significant mechanism through which indigenous belief systems are challenged and transformed, producing cultural disruption, psychological displacement, and new forms of negotiation between traditional and colonial structures. Achebe’s tragic irony highlights the vulnerabilities and internal tensions of indigenous authority under colonial pressure, while Beti’s satire critiques the arrogance and contradictions of missionary power. The study adopts a qualitative research approach based on close textual analysis of the two primary novels. The analysis is guided by the theoretical insights of postcolonial theory, to explore issues of colonial power, ideological domination, epistemic violence, mimicry, hybridity, and the contested formation of identity under colonial conditions. The findings reveal that irony and satire operate beyond their literary functions as powerful forms of counter-discourse that expose the contradictions, moral inconsistencies, and instability of colonial and missionary authority. The study concludes that both novels challenge simplified notions of colonial domination and resistance by presenting colonial encounters as complex spaces shaped by ambivalence, adaptation, and unintended consequences. Thus, Arrow of God and The Poor Christ of Bomba provide enduring critiques of cultural imperialism while revealing the ongoing struggles surrounding authority, identity, and self-definition in postcolonial African societies.