While Ngugi Wa Thiong'o is famous for advocating outright rejection of the colonialist language, believing that this rejection is central to the anti-imperialist struggle, Chinua Achebe has chosen the idea of subversion rather than rejection. In doing so it becomes another language. In The African Trilogy , Achebe uses the language of the colonizer to convey the Igbo experience of that colonization. Any reader of The African Trilogy comes away with at least a limited knowledge of Igbo words and phrases. Some words such as obi, chi, osu, and egwugwu become assimilated very quickly into this knowledge through the way in which Achebe scatters them casually through the text.
Proverbs also play a large part in all three books.
The English translations provided by Achebe are a personal rendering, attempting to invoke the spirit of the proverb, while retaining a faithfulness to the phraseology and terminology. Oral and communal storytelling traditions are very much a part of the Igbo culture, and Achebe has stressed in the past how these have been an inspiration to him, and admitted that he continually appeals to this oral tradition in his writings, wanting to record and therefore preserve it. The issue of language is also raised directly throughout The African Trilogy . Around thirty years later, in Arrow of God , language is still a barrier to communication, yet the Igbo have been forced to realise that the acquisition of English is crucial to understanding the white man and his religion. The outcome of this kind of thinking is seen in the various attitudes towards language in No Longer at Ease .