The seven strokes of the gods by Lancelot Ukaigwe is a must read book. It piques the interest of those who love to be informed of the ancient African culture and worldview. Though the story is a fictional book on folklores, it gives a ‘mimesis’ or a proximate similitude of what happened in ancient times in some African cultures that informed their way of thinking about justice, morality, punishment that constitute their social ensemble. The story is told from the mindset and spectacle of a core African – Ibo person who, like the Greek, sees force and energy in every existing thing.
Some in Europe, Asia or America may not actually understand how the local African mind worked even before the arrival of modern civilization. This fictional books give such a person this enviable idea. Children and youths of African descent who have not been to African can see this work as a gold mine. By way of story, it ex-rays the ancient justice system, communal living, relationship of the cultural African mind with the seen and unseen world, and how their arcane symbiosis sustained the people in ‘the days of yore’.
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In this book, one will see, as in the works of Homer’s Iliad, where gods were fully involved in the affairs of mere mortals, a play-out of the same scenario in the ancient ‘Ibo of Africa’ setting. It is a ‘must read’. More interesting is the use of a plethora of African proverbs as it is used in normal African communication. Ibos and Africans believe that proverb is the oil with which words are eaten. One who is reading this work will agree that, indeed, Africa has a philosophy.
This work is fictional. It is didactic as well as entertaining. Uduma the protagonist was chosen by the gods to light up the destiny of his community. His birth was prophesied fifty years ahead. He received all the goodwill and prayers of the community to the effect that he was communally trained in his education. On the first day they gave him this education grant, they also gave this to him as a symbol in a lighted lamp – this has deep meanings both for Uduma and for the destiny of the community – it represented their faith, hope and aspiration. But Uduma did not handle this sacred item and gift with the sanctity it beckons. His youthful exuberance and subtle carelessness latently orchestrated by evil forces caused him to derail. He was severely punished by the gods, but not totally abandoned…