Genre
Novel; Historical novel; post-colonial novel
Setting and Context
Igboland, Nigeria, 1920s
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person omniscient
Tone and Mood
Prophetic, mythical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Ezeulu is the protagonist; Nwaka is the antagonist
Major Conflict
Nwaka's challenge to Ulu pits him against Ezeulu, setting up a conflict between the villages.
Climax
The climax occurs when Clarke detains Ezeulu.
Foreshadowing
When Akuebue’s neighbor becomes ill, and the medicine man takes Obika’s chicken sacrifice home to eat instead of burying it, we see omens of future troubles to come.
Understatement
Allusions
Imagery
Paradox
Parallelism
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The different colonial officers in Okperi can be seen as metonymically representing different colonial attitudes and archetypes. Winterbottom is the veteran and the pragmatist; Clarke, the assistant district officer, is idealistic; and Wright, overseer of the Public Works Department, is overtly sadistic.
