part one chapter one okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond his fame rested on solid personal achievements as a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing amalinse the cat amalinse was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten from um he was called the cat because his back would never touch the earth it was this man that okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights the drums beat and the flute sang and the spectators held their breath amelienze was a wily craftsman but okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms on their backs and their thighs and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point in the end okonkwo threw the cat that was many years ago twenty years or more and during this time okonkwo's fame had grown like a bushfire in the hermitam he was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look he breathed heavily and it was said that when he slapped his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe when he walked his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs as if he was going to pounce on somebody and he did pounce on people quite often he had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough he would use his fists he had no patience with unsuccessful men he had had no patience with his father unoka for that was his father's name had died ten years ago in his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow if any money came his way and it seldom did he immediately bought gourds of palm one called around his neighbors and made mary he always said that whenever he saw a dead man's mouth he saw the folly of not eating what one had in one's lifetime unoco was of course a debtor and he owed every neighbor some money from a few calories to quite substantial amounts he was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop he wore a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing on his flute he was very good on his flute and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments hung above the fireplace would play with them his face beaming with blessedness and peace sometimes another village would ask kunoka's band in their dancing to come and stay with him and teach them their tombs they would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets making music and feasting unoka loved the good fair and the good fellowship and he loved this season of the year when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty and it was not too hot either because the cold and dry harmitan wind was blowing down from the north some years the harmatan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere old men and children would then sit round log fires warming their bodies unoka loved it all and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season and the children who sang songs of welcome to them he would remember his own childhood how he had often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely against the blue sky as soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being welcoming it back from its long long journey and asking it if it had brought home any lengths of cloth that was years ago when he was young [Music] unoka the grown-up was a failure he was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat people laughed at him because he was a loafer and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back but anoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more and piling up his debts one day a neighbor called okoye came in to see him he was reclining on a mud bed in his hot playing on the flute he immediately rose and shook hands with a koye who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm and sat down unoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a colder nut some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk i have cola he announced when he sat down and passed the disc over to his guest thank you he who brings cola brings life but i think you ought to break it reply to koye passing back the disc no it is for you i think and they argued like this for a few moments before unoka accepted the honor of breaking the cola okoye meanwhile took the lump of chalk drew some lines on the floor and then painted his big toe as he broke the cola onoka prayed to their ancestors for life and health and for protection against their enemies when they had eaten they talked about many things about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams about the next ancestral feast and about the impending war with the village of himbino unoka was never happy when it came to wars he was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood and so he changed the subject and talked about music and his face beamed he could hear in his mind's ear the blood stirring in intricate rhythms of the ekwei and the uru in the organe and he could hear his own flute weaving in and out of them decorating them with a colorful and plaintive tune the total effect was gay and brisk but if one picked out the flute as it went up and down and then broke up into short snatches one saw that there was sorrow and grief there okay was also a musician he played on the ogene but he was not a failure like anoka he had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives and now he was going to take the idi mili title the third highest in the land it was a very expensive ceremony and he was gathering all his resources together that was in fact the reason why he had come to see unocca he cleared his throat and began thank you for the cola you may have heard of the title i intend to take shortly having spoken plainly so far okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs among the evo the art of conversation is regarded very highly and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time skirting around the subject and then hitting it finally in short he was asking anoka to return the 200 calories he had borrowed from him more than two years before as soon as anoka understood what his friend was driving at he burst out laughing he laughed loud and long and his voice rang out clear as the el gene and tears stood in his eyes his visitor was amazed and sat speechless at the end unoka was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of mirth look at that wall he said pointing at the far wall of his hut which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone look at those lines of chalk and okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk there were five groups and the smallest group had ten lines unoka had a sense of the dramatic and so he allowed a pause in which he took a pinch of snuff and sneezed noisily and then he continued each group there represents a debt to someone and each stroke is 100 calories you see i owe that man a thousand calories but he has not come to wake me up in the morning for it i shall pay you but not today our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them i shall pay my big debts first and he took another pinch of snuff as if that was paying the big debts first a and departed when anoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt wonder then that his son okonkwo was ashamed of him fortunately among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things he was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages he was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams and had just married his third wife to crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars and so although okonkwo was still young he was already one of the greatest men of his time [Music] age was respected among his people but achievement was revered as the elders said if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders and that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of um by their neighbors to avoid war and bloodshed the ill-fated lad had just blown out the palm oil lamp and stretched himself on his bamboo bed when he heard the again of the town crier piercing the still night air gomes boomed the hollow metal then the crier gave his message and at the end of it beat his instrument again and this was the message every man of um was asked to gather at the marketplace tomorrow morning okonkwo wondered what was amiss for he knew certainly that something was amiss he had discerned a clear overtone of tragedy in the crier's voice and even now he could still hear it as it grew dimmer and dimmer in the distance the night was very quiet it was always quiet except on moonlight nights darkness held a vague terror for these people even the bravest among them children were warned not to whistle at night for fear of evil spirits dangerous animals became even more sinister and uncanny in the dark a snake was never called by its name at night because it would hear it was called a string and so on this particular night is the crier's voice was gradually swallowed up in the distance silence returned to the world a vibrant silence made more intense by the universal trill of a million million forest insects on a moonlight night it would be different the happy voices of children playing in open fields would then be heard and perhaps those not so young would be playing in pairs in less open places and old men and women would remember their youth as the evo say when the moon is shining the becomes hungry for a walk but this particular night was dark and silent and in all the nine villages of a town crier with his organe asked every man to be present tomorrow morning okonkwo on his bamboo bed tried to figure out the nature of the emergency war with a neighboring clan that seemed the most likely reason and he was not afraid of war he was a man of action a man of war unlike his father he could stand the look of blood in whom wolfia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head that was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet on great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm wine from his first human head in the morning the marketplace was full there must have been about ten thousand men there all talking in low voices at last obwefi a zeogo stood up in the midst of them and bellowed four times and on each occasion he faced a different direction and seemed to push the air with a clenched fist and ten thousand men answered yeah each time then there was perfect silence usago was a powerful orator and was always chosen to speak on such occasions he moved his hand over his white head and stroked his white beard he then adjusted his cloth which was passed under his right armpit and tied above his left shoulder he bellowed a fifth time and the crowd yelled in answer and then suddenly like one possessed he shot out his left hand and pointed in the direction of umbino and said through gleaming white teeth firmly clenched those sons of wild animals have dared to murder a daughter of um he threw his head down and gnashed his teeth and allowed a murmur of suppressed anger to sweep the crowd when he began again the anger on his face was gone and in its place a sort of smile hovered more terrible and more sinister than the anger and in a clear unemotional voice he told him wolfia how their daughter had gone to market an embankment and had been killed that woman said isaiah go was the wife of olgb and he pointed to a man who sat near him with a bowed head the crowd then shouted with anger and thirst for blood many others spoke and at the end it was decided to follow the normal course of action an ultimatum was immediately dispatched to bino asking them to choose between war on the one hand and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation mofia was feared by all its neighbors it was powerful in war and in magic and its priests and medicine men were feared in all the surrounding country its most potent war medicine was as old as the clan itself nobody knew how old but on one point there was general agreement the active principle in that medicine had been an old woman with one leg in fact the medicine itself was called agave or old woman it had its shrine in the center of mafia in a clear spot and if anybody was so foolhardy as to pass by the shrine after dusk he was sure to see the old woman hopping about and so the neighboring clans who naturally knew of these things feared um and would not go to war against it without first trying a peaceful settlement and in fairness to mafia it should be recorded that it never went to war unless its case was clear and just and was accepted as such by its oracle the oracle of the hills and the caves and there were indeed occasions where the oracle had forbidden umufia to wage a war if the clan had disobeyed the oracle they would surely have been beaten because their dreaded agave would never fight with the evil call a fight of blame but the war that now threatened was a just war even the enemy clan knew that and so when okonkwo of arrived at umbino as the proud and imperious emissary of war he was treated with great honor and respect and two days later he returned home with a ladder fifteen and a young virgin the lad's name was whose sad story is still told in um unto this day the elders or indice met to hear a report of okonkwo's mission at the end they decided as everybody knew they would that the girl should go talk waifi udo to replace his murdered wife as for the boy he belonged to the clan as a whole and there was no hurry to decide his fate okonkwo was therefore asked on behalf of the clan to look after him in the interim and so for three years ikeme funa lived in okonkwo's household okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand his wives especially the youngest lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper and so did his little children perhaps down in his heart okonkwo was not a cruel man [Music] but his whole life was dominated by fear the fear of failure and of weakness it was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic the fear of the forest and of the forces of nature malevolent red in tooth and claw okonkwo's fear was greater than these it was not external but laid deep within himself it was the fear of himself lest he should be found to resemble his father even as a little boy he had resented his father's failure and weakness and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala that was how okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman it could also mean a man who had taken no title and so okonkwo was ruled by one passion to hate everything that his father unoka had loved one of those things was gentleness and another was idleness during the planting season okonkwo worked daily on his farms from crow until the chickens went to roost he was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue but his wives and young children were not as strong and so they suffered but they dared not complain openly okonkwo's first son nuoye was then 12 years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness at any rate that was how it looked to his father and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating and so now yay was developing into a sad faced youth okonkwo's prosperity was visible in his household he had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth his own heart or obi stood immediately behind the only gate in the red walls each of his three wives had her own heart which together formed a half moon behind the opie the barn was built against one end of the red walls and long stacks of yam stood out prosperously in it at the opposite end of the compound was a shed for the goats and each wife built a small attachment to her hut for the hens near the barn was a small house the medicine house or shrine where okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits he worshiped them with sacrifices of colonel food and palm wine and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself his three wives and eight children so when household when okonkwo brought him home that day he called his most senior wife and handed him over to her he belongs to the clan he told her so look after him is he staying long with us she asked do what you're told woman okonkwo thundered and stammered when did you become one of the indicia of mofiya and so nuoye's mother took ikemefuna to her heart and asked no more questions as for the boy himself he was terribly afraid he could not understand what was happening to him or what he had done how could he know that his father had taken a hand in killing a daughter of umuofia all he knew was that a few men had arrived at their house conversing with his father in low tones and at the end he had been taken out and handed over to a stranger his mother had wept bitterly but he had been too surprised to weep and so the stranger had brought him and a girl a long long way from home through lonely forest paths he did not know who the girl was and he never saw her again chapter 3 okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had he did not inherit a barn from his father there was no bar to inherit the story was told in wolfia of how his father unoka had gone to consult the oracle of the hills and the caves to find out why he always had a miserable harvest the oracle was called and people came from far near to consulted they came when miss fortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors they came to discover what the future held for them or to consult the spirits of their departed fathers the way into the shrine was a round hole at the side of a hill just a little bigger than the round opening into a hen house worshipers and those who came to seek knowledge from the god crawled on their belly through the hole and found themselves in a dark endless space in the presence of agbala no one had ever beheld agbala except his priestess but no one who had ever crawled into his awful shrine had come out without the fear of his power his priestess stood by the sacred fire which he built in the heart of the cave and proclaimed the will of the god the fire did not burn with the flame the glowing logs only served to light up vaguely the dark figure of the priestess sometimes a man came to consult the spirit of his dead father or relative it was said that when such a spirit appeared the man saw it vaguely in the darkness but never heard its voice some people even said that they had heard the spirits flying and flapping their wings against the roof of the cave many years ago when okonkwo was still a boy his father unoka had gone to consult agbala the priestess in those days was a woman called chica she was full of the power of her god and she was greatly feared unoka stood before her and began his story every year he said sadly before i put any crop in the earth i sacrifice a to ani the owner of all land it is the law of our fathers i also kill a at the shrine of ife joku the god of yams i clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry i sow the yams when the first rain has fallen and stake them when the young tendrils appear i weed hold your peace screamed the priestess her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void you have offended neither the gods nor your fathers and when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm you unoka are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe when your neighbors go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labor to clear they cross seven rivers to make their farms you stay at home and offer sacrifices to a reluctant soil go home and work like a man unoka was an ill-fated man he had a bad chi or personal god and evil fortune followed him to the grave or rather to his death for he had no grave he died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess when a man was afflicted with swelling in the stomach in the limbs he was not allowed to die in the house he was carried to the evil forest and left there to die there was the story of a very stubborn man who staggered back to his house it had to be carried again to the forest and tied to a tree the sickness was an abomination to the earth and so the victim could not be buried in her bowels he died and rotted away above the earth and was not given the first or the second burial such was faith when they carried him away he took with him his flute did not have the start in life which many young men had he'd either inherited a barn or a title nor even a young wife but in spite of these disadvantages he had begun even in his father's lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future it was slow and painful but he threw himself into it like one possessed and indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father's contemptible life and shameful death there was a wealthy man in okonkwo's village who had three huge barns nine wives and thirty children [Music] his name was kibie and he had taken the highest but one title which a man could take in the clan it was for this man that okonkwo worked to earn his first cdm's he took a part of palm wine and a to north kibi two elderly neighbors were sent for and wakibie's two grown-up sons were also present in his obi he presented a colon nut and an alligator pepper which were passed around for all to see and then return to him he broke the knot saying we shall all live we pray for life children a good harvest and happiness you will have what is good for you and i will have what is good for me let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too [Music] if one says no to the other let his wing break after the coconut had been eaten okonkwo brought his palm wine from the corner of the hut where it had been placed and stood in the center of the group he addressed as our people say a man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness i have come to pay you my respects and also to ask a favor but let us drink the wine first everybody thanked okonkwo and the neighbors brought out their drinking horns from the goatskin bags they carried noikibier brought down his own horn which was fastened to the rafters the younger of his sons who was also the youngest man in the group moved to the center raised the pot on his left knee and began to pour out the wine the first cup went to okonkwo who must taste his wine before anyone else then the group drank beginning with the eldest man when everyone had drunk two or three horns sent for his wives some of them were not at home and only four came in [Music] is anasi narian he asked them they said she was coming anasi was the first wife and the others could not drink before her and so they stood waiting anasi was a middle-aged woman tall and strongly built there was authority in her bearing and she looked every inch the ruler of the women folk in a large and prosperous family she wore the anklet of her husband's titles which the first wife alone could wear she walked up to her husband and accepted the horn from him [Music] she then went down on one knee drank a little and handed back the horn she rose called him by his name and went back to her hut the other wives drank in the same way in their proper order and went away the men then continued their drinking and talking idigo was talking about the palm wine tapper obiaco who suddenly gave up his trade there must be something behind it he said wiping the foam of wine from his mustache with the back of his left hand there must be a reason for it a toad does not run in the daytime for nothing some people say the oracle warned him that he would fall off a palm tree and kill himself said akukalya obiako has always been a strange one said nwakibie i've heard that many years ago when his father had not been dead very long he had gone to consult the oracle the oracle said to him your dead father wants you to sacrifice a goat to him do you know what he told the oracle he said ask my dead father if he ever had a foul when he was alive everybody laughed heartily except okonkwo who laughed uneasily because as the saying goes an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb okonkwo remembered his own father at last the young man who was pouring out the wine held up half a horn of the thick white dregs and said what we are eating is finished we have seen it the others replied who will drink the dregs he asked whoever has a job in hand said idigo looking at wakibi's elder son iguailo with a malicious twinkle in his eye everybody agreed that eguelo should drink the dregs he accepted their half full horn from his brother and drank it edigo had said iguello had a job in hand because he had married his first wife a month or two before the thick dregs of palm wine were supposed to be good for men who were going into their wives after the wine had been drunk okonkwo laid his difficulties before nokia i have come to you for help he said perhaps you can already guess what it is i have cleared a farm but have no yams to sew i know what it is to ask a man to trust another with his yams especially these days when young men are afraid of hard work i am not afraid of work the lizard that jumped from the high iroco tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did i began to fend for myself at an age when most people still suck at their mother's breasts if you give me some yam seeds i shall not fail you wakibi cleared his throat it pleases me to see a young man like you these days when our youth has gone so soft many young men have come to me to ask for yams but i have refused because i knew they would just dump them in the earth and leave them to be choked by weeds when i say no to them they think i am hard-hearted but it is not so an ak the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing he has learned to fly without perching i have learned to be stingy with my yams but i can trust you i know it as i look at you as our father said you can tell a ripe corn by its look i shall give you twice 400 yams go ahead and prepare your farm okonkwo thanked him again and again and went home feeling happy he knew that noise would not refuse him but he had not expected he would be so generous he had not hoped to get more than 400 seeds but would now have to make a bigger farm he hoped to get another 400 yams from one of his father's friends at isuzu sharecropping was a very slow way of building up a barn of one's own after all the toil one only got a third of the harvest but for a young man whose father had no yams there was no other way and what made it worse in okonkwo's case was that he had to support his mother and two sisters from his meager harvest and supporting his mother also meant supporting his father she could not be expected to cook and eat while her husband starved and so at a very early age when he was striving desperately to build a barn through sharecropping okonkwo was also fending for his father's house it was like pouring grains of corn into a bag full of holes his mother and sisters worked hard enough but they grew women's crops like coco yams beans and cassava yam the king of crops was a man's crop the year that okonkwo took 800 cdm's from norchivier was the worst year in living memory nothing happened at its proper time it was either too early or too late it seemed as if the world had gone mad the first trains were late and when they came lasted only a brief moment the blazing sun returned more fierce than it had ever been known and scorched all the green that had appeared with the rains the earth burned like hot coals and roasted all the yams that had been sown [Music] like all good farmers okonkwo had begun to sow with the first reigns he had sown 400 seeds when the rains dried up and the heat returned he watched the sky all day for signs of rain clouds and lay awake all night in the morning he went back to his farm and saw the withering tendrils he had tried to protect them from the smoldering earth by making rings of thick sisa leaves around them but by the end of the day the sisal rings were burned dry and gray he changed them every day and prayed that the rain might fall in the night but the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed some farmers had not planted their yams yet they were the lazy easy going ones who always put off clearing their farms as long as they could this year they were the wise ones they sympathized with their neighbors with much shaking of their head but inwardly they were happy for what they took to be their own foresight okonkwo planted what was left of his seed yams when the rains finally returned he had one consolation the yams he had sown before the drought were his own the harvest of the previous year he still had the 800 from noah kibier and the 400 from his father's friend so he would make a fresh start but the year had gone mad rain fell as it had never fallen before for days and nights together it poured down in violent torrents and washed away the yam heaps trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere then the rain became less violent but it went from day to day without a pause the spell of sunshine which always came in the middle of the wet season did not appear the yams put on luxuriant green leaves but every farmer knew that without sunshine the tubers would not grow that year the harvest was sad like a funeral and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams one man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life it always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair [Music] he knew that he was a fierce fighter but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion since i survived that year he always said i shall survive anything he put it down to his inflexible will his father unoka who was then an ailing man had said to him during that terrible harvest month do not despair i know you will not despair you have a manly and a proud heart a proud heart can survive the general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride it is more difficult more bitter when a man fails alone anoka was like that in his last days his love of talk had grown with age and sickness it tried okonkwo's patience beyond words chapter four looking at a king's mouth said an old man [Music] one would think he never sucked at his mother's breast he was talking about okonkwo who had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan the old man bore no ill will towards okonkwo indeed he respected him for his industry and success but he was struck as most people were by okonkwo's braskness in dealing with less successful men only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast without looking at the man okonkwo had said this meeting is for men the man who had contradicted him had no titles that was why he had called him a woman okonkwo knew how to kill a man's spirit everybody at the kindred meeting took sides with osugo when okonkwo called him a woman the oldest man present said sternly that those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble okonkwo said he was sorry for what he had said and the meeting continued but it was really not true that alconquo's palm kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent spirit he had cracked them himself anyone who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky if ever a man deserved his success that man was a conqueror at an early age he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all the land that was not luck at the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good but the evil people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also okonkwo said yes very strongly so his chi agreed and not only is chi but his clan too because he judged a man by the work of his hands that was why okonkwo had been chosen by the nine villages to carry a message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young man and a virgin to atone for the murder of udo's wife and such was the deep fear that their enemies had through mafia that they treated okonkwo like a king and brought him a virgin who was given to udo as wife and the lad ike the elders of the clan had decided that ikemefuna should be in okonkwo's care for a while but no one thought it would be as long as three years they seemed to forget all about him as soon as they had taken the decision [Music] at first ike was very much afraid once or twice he had tried to run away but he did not know where to begin he thought of his mother and his three-year-old sister and wept bitterly and woyer's mother was very kind to him and treated him as one of her own children but all he said was when shall i go home when okonkwo heard that he would not eat any food he came into the hut with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams trembling a few moments later he went behind the hut and began to vomit painfully and wary's mother went to him and placed her hands on his chest and on his back he was ill for three marked weeks and when he recovered he seemed to have overcome his great fear and sadness he was by nature a very lively boy and he gradually became popular in okonkwo's household especially with the children okonkwo's son who was two years younger became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything he could fashion out flutes from bamboo stems and even from the elephant grass he knew the names of all the birds and could set clever traps for the little bush rodents and he knew which trees made the strongest bows even okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy inwardly of course okonkwo never showed any emotion openly unless it be the emotion of anger to show affection was a sign of weakness the only thing worth demonstrating was strength he therefore treated ike as he treated everybody else with a heavy hand but there was no doubt that he liked the boy sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed ikeme to accompany him like a son carrying his stool and his goatskin bag and indeed ike at the end of the carefree season between harvest and planting in fact he recovered from his illness only a few days before the week of peace began and that was also the year okonkwo broke the peace and was punished as was the custom by zany the priest of the earth goddess okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger by his youngest wife who went to plate her hair at her friend's house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal okonkwo did not know at first that she was not at home after waiting in vain for her dish he went to her hot to see what she was doing there was nobody in the hut and the fireplace was cold where is ogo he asked his second wife who came out of her hut to draw water from a gigantic pot in the shade of a small tree in the middle of the compound she has gone to played her hair okonkwo bit his lips his anger welled up within him where her children did she take them he asked with unusual coolness and restraint they are here answered his first wife noyes mother okonkwo bent down and looked into her heart ojugo's children were eating with the children of his first wife did she ask you to feed them before she went yes laid nuoye's mother trying to minimize odugo's thoughtlessness okonkwo knew she was not speaking the truth he walked back to his obi to await odugo's return and when she returned he beat her very heavily in his anger he had forgotten that it was the week of peace his first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week but okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody halfway through not even for fear of a goddess okonkwo's neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter some of them came over to see for themselves it was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week before it was dusk azioni who was the priest of the earth goddess ani called on a conquo in his obi okonkwo brought out colonnad and placed it before the priest take away your colorant i shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for our gods and ancestors okonkwo tried to explain to him what his wife had done but a zeni seemed to pay no attention he held a short staff in his hand which he brought down on the floor to emphasize his points listen to me he said when okonkwo had spoken you are not a stranger in a morphia you know as well as i do that our forefathers ordain that before we plant any crops in the earth we should observe a week in which a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor we live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth without whose blessing our crops will not grow you have committed a great evil he brought down his staff heavily on the floor your wife was at fault but even if you came into your ob and found her lover on top of her you would still have committed a great evil to beat her his staff came down again the evil you have done can ruin the whole clan the earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase and we shall all perish his tone now changed from anger to command you will bring to the shrine of ani tomorrow one she-goat one hen a length of cloth and a hundred cowries he rose and left the hut okonkwo did as the priest said he also took with him a part of palm wine inwardly he was repentant but he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that he was in error and so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan his enemies said his good fortune had gone to his head they called him the little bird nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi no work was done during the week of peace people called on their neighbors and drank palm wine this year they talked of nothing else but the inso army which okonkwo had committed it was the first time for many years that a man had broken the sacred piece even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past who was the oldest man in the village was telling two other men who came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the peace of ani had become very mild in their clan it has not always been so he said my father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died but after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve somebody told me yesterday said one of the younger men that in some clans it is an abomination for a man to die during the week of peace it is indeed true they have that custom in obodoni if a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the evil forest it is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding they throw away large numbers of men and women without burial and what is the result their clan is full of the evil spirits of these unburied dead hungry to do harm to the living after the week of peace every man in his family began to clear the bush to make new farms the cut bush was left to dry and fire was then set to it as the smoke rose into the sky kites appeared from different directions and hovered over the burning field in silent valediction the rainy season was approaching when they would go away until the dry season returned okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his cdms he looked at each yam carefully to see whether it was good for sowing sometimes he decided that a yam was too big to be sewn as one seed and he split it deftly along its length with his sharp knife his eldest son helped him by fetching the yams and long baskets from the barn and encountering the prepared seeds in groups of four hundred sometimes akonkel gave them a few yams each to prepare [Music] but he always found fault with their effort and he said so with much threatening do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking he asked noye if you split another yam of this size i shall break your jaw you think you are still a child i began to own a farm at your age and you he said to ikeme do you not grow yams where you come from inwardly okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing cdms but he thought that one could not begin too early yam stood for manliness and he would feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man he would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw on him i will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan i would sooner strangle him with my own hands and if you stand staring at me like that he swore a martial will break your head for you some days later when the land had been moistened by two or three heavy rains okonkwo and his family went to the farm with baskets of seed yams their hoes and machetes and the planting began they made single mounds of earth in straight lines all over the field and so dams in them yam the king of crops was a very exacting king for three or four moons it demanded hard work and constant attention from cockroach to the chickens went back to roost the young tendrils were protected from the earth heat with rings of sisa leaves as the reins became heavier the women planted maize melons and beans between the yam mounds the yams were then staked first with little sticks and later with tall and big tree branches the women weeded the farm three times at definite periods in the life of the yams neither early nor late and now the rains had really come so heavy and persistent that even the village rainmaker no longer claimed to be able to intervene he could not stop the rain now just as he would not attempt to start it in the heart of the dry season without serious danger to his own health the personal dynamism required to counter the forces of these extremes of weather would be far too great for the human frame and so nature was not interfered with in the middle of the rainy season sometimes it poured down in such thick sheets of water that earth and skies seem merged in one grey wetness it was then uncertain whether the low rumbling of ahmadiyya's thunder came from above or below at such times in each of the countless thatched huts of um children sat around their mother's cooking fire telling stories or with their father in his obie warming themselves from a log fire roasting and eating maize it was a brief resting period between the exacting and arduous planting season and the equally exacting but light-hearted month of harvests had begun to feel like a member of okonkwo's family he still thought about his mother and his three-year-old sister and he had moments of sadness and depression but he and nuoye had become so deeply attached to each other that such moments became less frequent and less poignant had an endless stock of folk tales even those which newaye knew already were told with a new freshness and the local flavor of a different clan remembered this period very vividly till the end of his life he even remembered how he had laughed when ikeme told him that the proper name for a corn cob with only a few scattered grains was a agave or the teeth of an old woman noyes mind had gone immediately to nwayeke who lived near the u dollar tree she had about three teeth and was always smoking her pipe gradually the reins became lighter and less frequent and earth and sky once again became separate the rain fell in thin slanting showers through sunshine and quiet breeze children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing the rain is falling the sun is shining alone the naughty is cooking and eating noyee always wondered who nadi was and why he should live all by himself cooking and eating in the end he decided that nadi must live in that land of ikeme favorite story where the ant holds his court in splendor and the sands dance forever chapter five the feast of the new yam was approaching and umafia was in a festival mood it was an occasion for giving thanks to ani the earth goddess and the source of all fertility ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity she was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct and what was more she was in close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth the feast of the new yam was held every year before the harvest began to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan new yams could not be eaten until some had first been offered to these powers men and women young and old look forward to the new yam festival because it began the season of plenty the new year on the last night before the festival yams of the old year were all disposed of by those who still had them the new year must begin with tasty fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the previous year all cooking pots calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded yam fufu and vegetable soup was the chief food in the celebration so much of it was cooked that no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day the story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests amount of fufu so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other and it was not until late in the evening that one of them saw for the first time his in-law who had arrived during the course of the meal and had fallen to on the opposite side it was only then that they exchanged greetings and shook hands over what was left of the food the new yam festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout um and every man whose arm was strong as the igbo people say was expected to invite large numbers of guests from far and wide okonkwo always asked his wife's relations and since he now had three wives his guests would make a fairly big crowd but somehow okonkwo could never become as enthusiastic over feasts as most people he was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm wine but he was always uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting for a feast or getting over it he would be very much happier working on his farm the festival was now only three days away okonkwo's wives had scrubbed the walls and the huts with red earth until they reflected light they had then drawn patterns on them in white yellow and dark green they then set about painting themselves with cam wood and drawing beautiful black patterns on their stomachs and on their backs the children were also decorated especially their hair which was shaved in beautiful patterns the three women talked excitedly about their relations who had been invited and the children reveled in the thought of being spoiled by these visitors from the motherland was equally excited the new yam festival seemed to him to be a much bigger event here than in his own village a place which was already becoming remote and vague in his imagination and then the storm burst okonkwo who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger suddenly found an outlet who killed this banana tree he asked a hush fell on the compound immediately who killed this tree or are you all deaf and dumb as a matter of fact the tree was very much alive okonkwo's second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food and she said so without further argument okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative it is enough okonkwo from a reasonable distance his anger thus satisfied okonkwo decided to go out hunting he had an old rusty gun made by a clever blacksmith who had come to live in mofia long ago but although was a great man whose prowess was universally acknowledged he was not a hunter in fact he had not killed a rat with his gun and so when he called me funa to fetch his gun the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot unfortunately for her okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun ran out again and aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn he pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the whale of his wives and children [Music] he threw down the garden and jumped into the barn and barely the woman very much shaken and frightened but [Music] in spite of this incident the new yam festival was celebrated with great joy in okonkwo's household early that morning as he offered a sacrifice of new yam and palm oil to his ancestors he asked them to protect him his children and their mothers in the new year as the day wore on his in-laws arrived from three surrounding villages and each party brought with them a huge pot of palm wine and there was eating and drinking till night when okonkwo's in-laws began to leave for their homes the second day of the new year was the day of the great wrestling match between okonkwo's village and their neighbors it was difficult to say which the people enjoyed more the feasting and fellowship of the first day or the wrestling contest of the second but there was one woman who had no doubt whatever in her mind she was okonkwo's second wife akwafee whom he nearly shot there was no festival in all the seasons of the year which gave her as much pleasure as the wrestling match many years ago when she was the village beauty okonkwo had won her heart by throwing the cat in the greatest contest within living memory she did not marry him then because he was too poor to pay her bride price but a few years later she ran away from her husband and came to live with okonkwo all this happened many years ago now ekwefi was a woman of 45 who had suffered a great deal in her time but her love of wrestling contests was still as strong as it was thirty years ago it was not yet noon on the second day of the new yam festival a kwafi and her only daughter ezinma sat near the fireplace waiting for the water in the pot to boil the fowl ekwafi had just killed was in the wooden mortar the water began to boil and in one deft movement she lifted the pot from the fire and poured the boiling water over the fowl she put back the empty pot on the circular pad in the corner and looked at her palms which were black with soot asinma was always surprised that her mother could lift a pot from the fire with her bare hands ekwafee she said is it true that when people are grown up fire does not burn them ezinma unlike most children called her mother by her name yes replied to kwafi too busy to argue her daughter was only 10 years old but she was wiser than her years but nua's mother dropped her pot of hot soup the other day and it broke on the floor equafee turned the hen over in the mortar and began to pluck the feathers a kwafi said azinma who had joined in plucking the feathers my eyelid is twitching it means you are going to cry said her mother no isinma said it is this eyelid the top one that means you will see something what will i see she asked how could i know a kwefi wanted her to work it out herself oh ho said azin mod last i know what it is the wrestling match at last the hen was plucked clean ekwafee tried to pull out the horny beak but it was too hard she turned around on her low stool and put the beak in the fire for a few moments she pulled again and it came off a kwefi a voice called from one of the other huts it was a mother okankwo's first wife is that me equafee called back that was the way people answered calls from outside they never answered yes for fear it might be an evil spirit calling will you give azinma some fire to bring to me her own children and ikeme funa had gone to the stream ekwaifi put a few live coals into a piece of broken pot and azingma carried it across the clean swept compound to noise mother thank you inma she said she was peeling new yams and at a basket beside her were green vegetables and beans let me make the fire for you aizee ma offered thank you a sigbo she said she often called her esigbo which means the good one ma went outside and brought some sticks from a huge bundle of firewood she broke them into little pieces across the sole of her foot and began to build a fire blowing it with her breath you will blow your eyes out said no yay's mother looking up from the yams she was peeling use the fan she stood up and pulled out the fan which was fastened into one of the rafters as soon as she got up the troublesome nanny goat which had been dutifully eating yam peelings dug her teeth into the real thing scooped out two mouthfuls and fled from the hut to chew the cut in the goat's shed noise mother swared her and settled down again to her peeling azinga's fire was now sending up thick clouds of smoke she went on fanning it until it burst into flames noyes mother thanked her and she went back to her mother's hut just then the distant beating of drums began to reach them it came from the direction of the elo the village playground every village had its own elo which was as old as the village itself and where all the great ceremonies and dances took place the drums beat the unmistakable wrestling dance quick light and gay and it came floating on the wind okonkwo cleared his throat and moved his feet to the beat of the drums it filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth he trembled with the desire to conquer and subdue it was like the desire for woman we should be late for the wrestling said azimut to her mother they will not begin until the sun goes down but they are beating the drums yes the drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink go and see if your father has brought out yams for the afternoon he has noyes mother's already cooking go and bring our own then we must cook quickly or we should be late for the wrestling asinma ran in the direction of the barn and brought back two yams from the dwarf wall ekwafi peeled the yams quickly the troublesome nanny goats sniffed about eating the peelings she cut the yams into small pieces and began to prepare a pottage using some of the chicken at that moment they heard someone crying just outside their compound it was very much like obiageli noyes sister yes she replied she must have broken her water pot the weeping was now quite close and soon the children filed in carrying on their heads various sizes of pots suitable to their years came first with the biggest pot closely followed by nuoye and his two younger brothers obiageli brought up the rear her face streaming with tears in her hand was the cloth pad on which the pot should have rested on her head what happened her mother asked and obiageli told her mournful story her mother consoled her and promised to buy her another part nuoye's younger brothers were about to tell their mother the true story of the accident when ikeme funa looked at them sternly and they held their peace the fact was that obiageli had been making inyanga with her pot she had balanced it on her head folded her arms in front of her and began to sway her waist like a grown-up young lady when the pot fell down and broke she burst out laughing she only began to weep when they got near the euroko tree outside their compound the drums were still beating persistent and unchanging their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village it was like the pulsation of its heart it throbbed in the air in the sunshine and even in the trees and filled the village with excitement equafee ladled her husband's share of the pottage into a bowl and covered it ma took it to him in his obi okonkwo was sitting on a goatskin already eating his first wife's meal who had brought it from her mother's hut sat on the floor waiting for him to finish azinma placed her mother's dish before him and sat with obiageli so like a woman okonkwo shouted at her azinma brought her two legs together and stretched them in front of her father will you go to see the wrestling azinma asked after a suitable interval yes he answered will you go yes and after a pause she said can i bring your chair for you no that is a boy's job okonkwo was specially fond of azinma she looked very much like a mother who was once the village beauty but his fondness only showed on very rare occasions obiageli broke her pot today eseema said yes she has told me about it okonkwo said between mouthfuls father said obiageli people should not talk when they are eating or pepper may go down the wrong way that is very true do you hear that azinma you are older than obiageli but she has more sense he uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it obiaguele took the first dish and returned to her mother's hot and then and kechi came in bringing the third dish and kaichi was the daughter of okonkwo's third wife in the distance the drums continued to beat chapter 6 the whole village turned out on the elo men women and children they stood round in a huge circle leaving the center of the playground free the elders and grandees of the village sat on their own stools brought there by their young sons or slaves okonkwo was among them all others stood except those who came early enough to secure places on the few stands which had been built by placing smooth logs on forked pillars the wrestlers were not there yet and the drummers held the field they too sat just in front of the huge circle of spectators facing the elders behind them was the big and ancient silk cotton tree which was sacred spirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born on ordinary days young women who desired children came to sit under its shade there were seven drums and they were arranged according to their sizes in a long wooden basket three men beat them with sticks working feverishly from one drum to another they were possessed by the spirit of the drums the young men who kept order on these occasions dashed about consulting among themselves and with the leaders of the two wrestling teams who were still outside the circle behind the crowd once in a while two young men carrying palm fronds ran round the circle and kept the crowd back by beating the ground in front of them or if they were stubborn their legs in feet at last the two teams danced into the circle and the crowd roared and clapped the drums rose to a frenzy the people surged forward the young men who kept order flew around waving their palm frowns old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm the contest began with boys of fifteen or sixteen there were only three such boys in each team they were not the real wrestlers they merely set the scene within a short time the first two bouts were over but the third created a big sensation even among the elders who did not usually show their excitement so openly it was as quick as the other two perhaps even quicker but very few people had ever seen that kind of wrestling before as soon as the two boys closed in one of them did something which no one could describe because it had been as quick as a flash and the other boy was flat on his back the crowd roared and clapped and for a while drowned the frenzied drums okonkwo sprang to his feet and quickly sat down again three young men from the victorious boy's team ran forward carried him shoulder high and danced through the cheering crowd everybody soon knew who the boy was his name was maduka the son of obierica the drummers stopped for a brief rest before the real matches their bodies shone with sweat and they took up fans and began to fan themselves they also drank water from small pots and eight cola nuts they became ordinary human beings again talking and laughing among themselves and with others who stood near them the air which had been stretched taught with excitement relaxed again it was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum many people looked around perhaps for the first time and saw those who stood or sat next to them i did not know it was you equafee said to the woman who had stood shoulder to shoulder with her since the beginning of the matches i do not blame you said the woman i've never seen such a large crowd of people is it true that okonkwo nearly killed you with his gun it is true indeed my dear friend i cannot yet find a mouth with which to tell the story your chi is very much awake my friend and how is my daughter azima she has been very well for some time now perhaps she has come to stay i think she has how old is she now she is about 10 years old i think she will stay they usually stay if they do not die before the age of six i pray she stays today kwafi with a heavy sigh the woman with whom she talked was called chiello she was the priestess of agbala the oracle of the hills and the caves in ordinary life cello was a widow with two children she was very friendly with the kwafi and they shared a common shed in the market she was particularly fond of a quaffy's only daughter eisenma whom she called my daughter quite often she brought bean cakes and gave the quaffy some to take home to azima anyone seeing chiello an ordinary life would hardly believe she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of agbala was upon her the drummers took up their sticks and the air shivered and grew tense like a titan bow the two teams were arranged facing each other across the clear space a young man from one team danced across the center to the other side and pointed at whomever he wanted to fight they danced back to the center together and then closed in there were 12 men on each side and the challenge went from one side to the other two judges walked around the wrestlers and when they thought they were equally matched stopped them five matches ended in this way but the really exciting moments were when a man was thrown the huge voice of the crowd then rose to the sky and in every direction it was even heard in the surrounding villages the last match was between the leaders of the teams they were among the best wrestlers in all the nine villages the crowd wondered who would throw the other this year some said okafo was the better man others said he was not the equal the caseway last year neither of them had thrown the other even though the judges had allowed the contest to go on longer than was the custom they had the same style and one saw the other's plans beforehand it might happen again this year dusk was already approaching when their contest began the drums went mad and the crowds also they surged forward as the two young men danced into the circle the palm frowns were helpless in keeping them back e caseway held out his right hand okafo seized it and they closed in it was a fierce contest ike's way strove to dig in his right heel behind okafo so as to pitch him backwards in the clever style but the one knew what the other was thinking the crowd had surrounded and swallowed up the drummers whose frantic rhythm was no longer a mere disembodied sound but the very heartbeat of the people the wrestlers were now almost still in each other's grip the muscles on their arms in their thighs and on their back stood out and twitched it looked like an equal match the two judges were already moving forward to separate them when a caseway now desperate went down quickly on one knee in an attempt to fling his man backwards over his head it was a sad miscalculation quick as the lightning of a manti aura okafo raised his right leg and swung it over his rival's head the crowd burst into a thunderous roar akafo was swept off his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder high they sang his praise and the young women clapped their hands who will wrestle for our village okafo will wrestle for our village has he thrown a hundred men he has thrown four hundred men has he thrown a hundred cats he has thrown four hundred cats then send him word to fight for us chapter seven for three years ikeme lived in okonkwo's household and the elders of mofiya seemed to have forgotten about him he grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season and was full of the sap of life he had become wholly absorbed into his new family he was like an elder brother to nuoye and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy he made him feel grown up and they no longer spent the evenings in mother's hut while she cooked but now sat with okonkwo in his obi or watched him as he tapped his palm tree for the evening wine nothing pleased norway now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives to do one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home like splitting wood or pounding food on receiving such a message through a younger brother or sister nuoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son's development and he knew it was due to ikeme he wanted moyer to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors he wanted him to be a prosperous man having enough in his barn to feed the ancestors with regular sacrifices and so he was always happy when he heard him grumbling about women that showed that in time he would be able to control his women folk no matter how prosperous a man was if he was unable to rule his women and his children and especially his women he was not really a man he was like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his fufu so okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his ob and he told them stories of the land masculine stories of violence and bloodshed knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell in which he no doubt still told her younger children stories of the tortoise and his wiley ways and of the bird eneke in tioba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat he remembered the story she often told of the quarrel between earth and sky long ago and how sky withheld rain for seven years until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hose broke on the stony earth at last vulture was sent to plead with sky and to soften his heart with the song of the suffering of the sons of men whenever nuoye's mother sang this song he felt carried away to the distance seen in the sky where vulture earth's emissary sang for mercy at last sky was moved to pity and he gave to vulture rain wrapped but as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before and so heavily did it rain on vulture that he did not return to deliver his message but flew to a distant land from where he had a spied a fire and when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice he warmed himself in the fire and ate the entrails that was the kind of story that noyea loved but he now knew that they were foolish women and children and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man and so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories and when he did this he saw that his father was pleased and no longer rebuked him or beat stories about tribal wars or how years ago he had stalked his victim overpowered him and obtained his first human head and as he told them of the past they sat in darkness or the dim glow of logs waiting for the women to finish their cooking when they finished each brought her bowl of fufu and bowl of soup to her husband an oil lamp was lit and okonkwo tasted from each bowl and then passed two shares to nueye and ikemefuna in this way the moons in the seasons passed and then the locusts came it had not happened for many a long year the elders said locusts came once in a generation reappeared every year for seven years and then disappeared for another lifetime they went back to their caves in a distant land where they were guarded by a race of stunted men and then after another lifetime these men opened the caves again and their locusts came to umuofia they came in the cold harmatan season after the harvests had been gathered and ate up all the wild grass in the fields okonkwo and the two boys were working on the red outer walls of the compound this was one of the lighter tasks of the after harvest season a new cover of thick palm branches and palm leaves was set on the walls to protect them from the next rainy season okonkwo worked on the outside of the wall and the boys worked from within there were little holes from one side to the other in the upper levels of the wall and through these okonkwo passed the rope or tai ty to the boys and they passed around the wooden stays and then back to him and in this way the cover was strengthened on the wall the women had gone to the bush to collect firewood and the little children to visit their playmates in the neighboring compounds the harmatan was in the air and seemed to distill a hazy feeling of sleep on the world okonkwo and the boys worked in complete silence which was only broken when a new palm frond was lifted onto the wall or when a busy hen moved dry leaves about in her ceaseless search for food and then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world and the sun seemed hidden behind a thick cloud okonkwo looked up from his work and wondered if it was going to rain at such an unlikely time of the year but almost immediately a shout of joy broke out in all directions and umafia which had dozed in the noonday haze broke into life and activity locusts are descending was joyfully chanted everywhere and men women and children left their work or their play and ran into the open to see the unfamiliar site the locus had not come for many many years and only the old people had seen them before at first a fairly small swarm came they were the harbingers sent to survey the land and then appeared on the horizon a slow moving mass like a boundless sheet of black cloud drifting towards a morphia soon it covered half the sky and the solid mass was now broken by tiny eyes of light-like shining stardust it was a tremendous sight full of power and beauty everyone was now about talking excitedly and praying that the locust should camp in umafia for the night for although locusts had not visited umofia for many years everybody knew by instinct that they were very good to eat and at last the locusts did descend they settled on every tree and on every blade of grass they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground mighty tree branches broke away under them and the whole country became the brown earth color of the vast hungry swarm many people went out with baskets trying to catch them but the elders counseled patience till nightfall and they were right the locusts settled in the bushes for the night and their wings became wet with dew then all lumofia turned out in spite of the cold harmitan and everyone filled his bags and pots with locusts the next morning they were roasted in clay pots and then spread in the sun until they became dry and brittle and for many days this rare food was eaten with solid palm oil okonkwo sat in uzobi crunching happily with ikemefuna and huaye and drinking palm wine copiously when ogwayfi is came in isaiah was the oldest man in this quarter of mwelfia he had been a great and fearless warrior in his time and was now accorded great respect in all the clan he refused to join in the meal and asked okonkwo to have a word with him outside and so they walked out together the old man supporting himself with his stick when they were out of earshot he said to okonkwo that boy calls you father do not bear a hand in his death okonkwo was surprised and was about to say something when the old man continued yes umafia has decided to kill him the oracle of the hills and the caves has pronounced it they will take him outside of mafia as is the custom and kill him there but i want you to have nothing to do with it he calls you his father the next day a group of elders from all the nine villages of umafia came to okonkwo's house early in the morning and before they began to speak in low tones were sent out they did not stay very long but when they went away okonkwo sat still for a very long time supporting his chin in his palms later in the day he called ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day overheard it and burst into tears whereupon his father beat him heavily as for ikeme he was at a loss his own home had gradually become very faint and distant he still missed his mother and his sister and would be very glad to see them but somehow he knew he was not going to see them he remembered once when men had talked in low tones with his father and it seemed now as if it was happening all over again later nuoye went to his mother's hut and told her that igemefuna was going home she immediately dropped her pastel with which she was grinding pepper folded her arms across her breast and sighed poor child the next day the men returned with a pot of wine [Music] they were all fully dressed as if they were going to a big clan meeting or to pay a visit to a neighboring village they passed their claws under their right armpit and hung their goatskin bags and sheathed machetes over their left shoulders okonkwo got ready quickly and the party set out with ike mefuna carrying the pot of wine a deathly silence descended on okonkwo's compound even the very little children seemed to know throughout that day nuoye sat in his mother's hut and tears stood in his eyes at the beginning of their journey the man of whom wolfia talked and laughed about the locusts about their women and about some effeminate men who had refused to come with them but as they drew near to the outskirts of umuofia silence fell upon them too the sun rose slowly to the center of the sky and the dry sandy footway began to throw up the heat that lay buried in it some birds chirped in the forest surround the men trod dry leaves on the sand all else was silent then from the distance came the faint beating of the aque it rose and faded with the wind a peaceful dance from a distant clan it is an ozo dance the men said among themselves but no one was sure where it was coming from some said is emily others they argued for a short while and fell into silence again and the elusive dance rose and fell with the wind somewhere a man was taking one of the titles of his clan with music and dancing and a great feast the footway had now become a narrow line in the heart of the forest the short trees and sparse undergrowth which surrounded the men's village began to give way to giant trees and climbers which perhaps had stood from the beginning of things untouched by the axe and the bushfire the sun breaking through their leaves and branches through a pattern of light and shade on the sandy footway ikeme heard a whisper close behind him and turned round sharply the man who had whispered now called out aloud urging the others to hurry up we still have a long way to go he said then he and another man went before ikeme and set a faster pace thus the men of mafia pursued their way armed with sheathed machetes and ikeme funa carrying a pot of palm wine on his head walked in their midst although he had felt uneasy at first he was not afraid now okonkwo walked behind him he could hardly imagine that okonkwo was not his real father he had never been fond of his real father and at the end of three years he had become very distant indeed but his mother and his three-year-old sister of course she would not be three now but six would he recognize her now she must have grown quite big his mother would weep for joy and thank go for having looked after him so well and for bringing him back she would want to hear everything that had happened to him in all these years could he remember them all he would tell her about norway and his mother and about the locusts then quite suddenly a thought came upon him his mother might be dead he tried in vain to force the thought out of his mind then he tried to settle the matter the way he used to settle such matters when he was little boy he still remembered the song salah he sang in his mind and walked with speed if the song ended on his right foot his mother was alive if it ended on his left she was dead no not dead but ill it ended on the right she was alive and well he sang the song again and it ended on the left but the second time did not count the first voice gets to chukwu or god's house that was a favorite saying of children ikemefuna felt like a child once more it must be the thought of going home to his mother one of the men behind him cleared his throat him to go on and not stand looking back the way he said it sent cold fear down ikemefuna's back his hands trembled vaguely on the black party carried why had a conquo withdrawn to the rear ikeme funa felt his legs melting under him and he was afraid to look back as the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete okonkwo looked away he heard the blow the pot fell and broke in the sand he heard ikeme cry my father they have killed me as he ran towards him dazed with fear okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down he was afraid of being thought weak as soon as his father walked in that night no yeah knew that ike had been killed and something seemed to give way inside him like the snapping of a titan bow he did not cry he just hung limp he had had the same kind of feeling not long ago during the last harvest season every child loved the harvest season those who were big enough to carry even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown-ups to the farm and if they could not help in digging up the yams they could gather firewood together for roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm this roasted yam soaked in red palm oil and eaten in the open farm was sweeter than any meal at home it was after such a day at the farm during the last harvest that nuoye had felt for the first time a snapping inside him like the one he now felt they were returning home with baskets of yams from a distant farm across the stream when they heard the voice of an infant crying in the thick forest a sudden hush had fallen on the women who had been talking and they had quickened their steps no yay had heard that twins were put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest but he had never yet come across them a vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way then something had given way inside him it descended on him again this feeling when his father walked in that night after killing ikeme chapter eight okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of ikeme funa he drank palm wine from morning till night and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor he called his son to sit with him in his obi but the boy was afraid of him and slipped out of the hut as soon as he noticed him dozing he did not sleep at night he tried not to think about it but the more he tried the more he thought about him once he got up from bed and walked about his compound but he was so weak that his legs could hardly carry him he felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito now and then a cold shiver descended on his head and spread down his body on the third day he asked his second wife ekwayfi to roast plantains for him she prepared it the way he liked with slices of oil being and fish you have not eaten for two days said his daughter is when she brought the food to him so you must finish this she sat down and stretched her legs in front of her okonkwo ate the food absent-mindedly she should have been a boy he thought as he looked at his ten-year-old daughter he passed her a piece of fish go and bring me some cold water he said azima rushed out of the hut chewing the fish and soon returned with a bowl of cool water from the earthen pot in her mother's heart okonkwo took the bowl from her and gulped the water down he ate a few more pieces of plantain and pushed the dish aside bring me my bag he asked and his ima brought his goatskin bag from the far end of the hunt he searched in it for his snuff bottle it was a deep bag and took almost the whole length of his arm it contained other things apart from his snuff bottle there was a drinking horn in it and also a drinking gourd and they knocked against each other as he searched when he brought out the snuff bottle he tapped it a few times against his kneecap before taking out some snuff on the palm of his left hand then he remembered that he had not taken out his snuff spoon he searched his bag again and brought out a small flat ivory spoon with which he carried the brown snuff to his nostrils took the dish in one hand and the empty water bowl in the other and went back to her mother's heart she should have been a boy okonkwo said to himself again his mind went back to ikimefuna and he shivered if only he could find some work to do he would be able to forget but it was the season of rest between the harvest and the next planting season the only work that men did at this time was covering the walls of their compound with new palm fronds and okonkwo had already done that he had finished it on the very day the locusts came when he had worked on one side of the wall in hikimofuna in on the other when did you become a shivering old woman okonkwo asked himself you who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war how can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number okonkwo you have become a woman indeed he sprang to his feet hung his goatskin bag on his shoulder and went to visit his friend abirrika obiarika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from leaves of the raffia palm he exchanged greetings with okonkwo and led the way into his obi i was coming over to see you as soon as i finished the thatch he said rubbing off the grains of sand that clung to his thighs is it well okonkwo asked yes reply to biareka my daughter's suitor is coming today and i hope he will clinch the matter of the bride price i want you to be there just then of yerika's son maduka came into the obi from outside greeted okonkwo and turned towards the compound come and shake hands with me okonkwo said to the lad your wrestling the other day gave me much happiness the boy smiled shook hands with okonkwo and went into the compound he will do great things okonkwo said if i had a son like him i should be happy i am worried about noyie a bowl of pounded yams can throw him in a wrestling match his two younger brothers are more promising but i can tell you obierica that my children do not resemble me where are the young suckers that will grow when the old banana tree dies if azinma had been a boy i would have been happier she has the right spirit you worry yourself for nothing said obierica the children are still very young no yeah is old enough to impregnate a woman at his age i was already fending for myself no my friend he is not too young a chick that will grow into a can be spotted the very day it hatches i have done my best to make nuoye grow into a man but there is too much of his mother in him too much of his grandfather obiereka thought but he did not say it the same thought also came to okonkwo's mind but he had long learned how to lay that ghost whenever the thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success and so he did now his mind went to his latest show of manliness i cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy he asked objerica because i did not want to obierico replied sharply i had something better to do you sound as if you question the authority in the decision of the oracle who said he should die i do not why should i but the oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision but someone had to do it if we were all afraid of blood it would not be done what do you think the oracle would do then you know very well okonkwo that i am not afraid of blood and if anyone tells you that i am he is telling a lie and let me tell you one thing my friend if i were you i would have stayed at home what you have done will not please the earth it is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families the earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger okonkwo said a child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm that is true objerica agreed but if the oracle said that my son should be killed i would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it they would have gone on arguing had ophidu not come in just then it was clear from his twinkling eyes that he had important news but it would be impolite to rush him obierica offered him a lobe of the colonnade he had broken with okonkwo fuedu ate slowly and talked about the locusts when he finished his cola colonnad he said the things that happened these days are very strange what has happened asked okonkwo do you know ogbuwayfi honduluwe said together he died this morning fuedo that is not strange he was the oldest man in ire said obierica you are right ovuedo agreed but you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell umuofia of his death why as toby erica and okonkwo together that is the strange part of it you know his first wife who walks with a stick yes she is called ozoemena that is as you know too old to attend during his illness his younger wives did that when he died this morning one of these women went to ozo amena's heart and told her she rose from her mat took her stick and walked over to the ob she knelt on her knees and hands at the threshold and called her husband who was laid on a mat she called three times and went back to her hut when the youngest wife went to call her again to be present at the washing of the body she found her lying on the mat dead that is very strange indeed said okonkwo they will put off under louise funeral until his wife has been buried that is why the drum has not been beaten to tell umuofia it was always said that and ozo amena had one mind said obierica i remember when i was a young boy there was a song about them he could not do anything without telling her i did not know that said okonkwo i thought he was a strong man in his youth he was indeed said of okonkwo shook his head doubtfully he led morpher to war in those days said obierica okonkwo was beginning to feel like his old self again all that he required was something to occupy his mind if he had killed ikeme funa during the busy planting season or harvesting it would not have been so bad his mind would have been centered on his work okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action but in absence of work talking was the next best soon after ofoedu left okonkwo took up his goatskin bag to go i must go home to tap my palm trees for the afternoon he said who taps your tall trees for you asked obiarika sometimes i wish i had not taken the ozo title said obiereka it wounds my heart to see these young men killing palm trees in the name of tapping it is so indeed okonkwo agreed but the law of the land must be obeyed i don't know how we got that law said obierica in many other clans a man of title is not forbidden to climb the palm tree here we say he cannot climb the tall tree but he can tap the short one standing on the ground it is like de moragana who would not lend his knife for cutting up dog meat because the dog was taboo to him but offered to use his teeth i think it is good that our clan holds the ozo titled in high esteem said okonkwo in those other clans you speak of ozo is so low that every beggar takes it i was only speaking in jest said obierica in a bombay and aninta the title is worth less than two calories every man wears the thread of title on his ankle and does not lose it even if he steals they have indeed soiled the name of ozo said okonkwo as he rose to go it will not be very long now before my in-laws come said obierica i shall return very soon said okonkwo looking at the position of the sun there were seven men in obiarica's hut when okonkwo returned the suitor was a young man of about 25 and with him were his father and uncle on albierica's side were his two elder brothers and maduka his 16 year old son [Music] asked a quake his mother to send us some color nuts said obiereka to his son maduka vanished into the compound like lightning the conversation at once centered on him and everybody agreed that he was as sharp as a razor i sometimes think he is too sharp said obiarica somewhat indulgently he hardly ever walks he's always in a hurry if you are sending him on an errand he flies away before he has heard half of the message you were very much like that yourself said his eldest brother as our people say when mother cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth maduka has been watching your mouth as he was speaking the boy returned followed by a kwekei his half-sister carrying a wooden dish with three cola nuts and alligator pepper she gave the dish to her father's eldest brother and then shook hands very shyly with her suitor and his relatives she was about 16 and just ripe for marriage her suitor and his relatives surveyed her young body with expert eyes as if to assure themselves that she was beautiful and ripe she wore a coiffure which was done up into a crest in the middle of the head cam wood was rubbed lightly into his skin and all over her body were black patterns drawn with huli she wore a black necklace which hung down in three coils just above her full succulent breasts on her arms were red and yellow bangles and on her waist four or five rows of jigida or waist beads when she had shaken hands or rather held out her hand to be shaken she returned to her mother's hut to help with the cooking remove your jigida first her mother warned as she moved near the fireplace to bring the pastel resting against the wall every day i tell you that jigida and fire are not friends but you will never hear you grew your ears for decoration not for hearing one of these days your jigida will catch fire on your waist and then you will know a quick a move to the other end of the heart and began to remove the waste beads it had to be done slowly and carefully taking each string separately else it would break and the thousand tiny rings would have to be strung together again she rubbed each string downwards with her palms until it passed the buttocks and slipped down to the floor around her feet the men in the ob had already begun to drink the palm wine which a quache suitor had brought it was a very good one and powerful for in spite of the palm fruit hung across the mouth of the pot to restrain the lively liquor white foam rose and spilled over that wine is the work of a good tapper said okonkwo the young suitor whose name was ebay smiled broadly and said to his father do you hear that he then said to the others he will never admit that i am a good tapper he tapped three of my best palm trees to death said his father ukbu that was about five years ago said ebay who had begun to pour out the wine before i learned how to tap he filled the first horn and gave to his father then he poured out for the others okonkwo brought out his big horn from the goatskin bag blew into it to remove any dust that might be there and gave it to ebay to fill as the men drank they talked about everything except the thing for which they had gathered it was only after the pot had been emptied that the suitor's father cleared his voice and announced the object of their visit objerica then presented to him a small bundle of short broomsticks ukbu counted them they are 30 he asked objerica nodded in agreement we are at last getting somewhere who said and then turning to his brother and his son he said let us go out and whisper together the three rose and went outside when they returned ukebu handed the bundle of sticks to objerica he counted them instead of 30 there were now only 15. he passed them over to his eldest brother machi who also counted them and said we had not thought to go below 30 but as the dog said if i fall down for you and you fall down for me it is play marriage should be a play and not a fight so we are falling down again he then added ten sticks to the fifteen and gave the bundle to in this way a quake's bride price was finally settled at twenty bags of cowries it was already dusk when the two parties came to this agreement go and tell a quaker's mother that we have finished objerica said to his son maduka almost immediately the women came in with a big bowl of fufu obiarika's second wife followed with a pot of soup and maduka brought in a pot of palm wine as the men ate and drank palm wine they talked about the customs of their neighbors it was only this morning said obiereka that okonkwo and i were talking about abami and aninta where titled men climb trees and pound fufu for their wives all their customs are upside down they do not decide bride price as we do with six they haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market that is very bad said obiaraca zelda's brother but what is good in one place is bad in another place inu so they do not bargain at all not even with broomsticks the suitor just goes on bringing bags of calories until his in-laws tell him to stop it is a bad custom because it always leads to a quarrel the world is large said okonkwo i've even heard that in some tribes a man's children belong to his wife and her family that cannot be said machi you might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children it is like the story of white men who they say are white like this piece of chalk said objerica he held up a piece of chalk which every man kept in his ob and with which his guests drew lines on the floor before they ate cola nuts and these white men they say have no toes and have you never seen them asked marcie have you asked objerica one of them passes here frequently said machi his name is ahmadi those who knew ahmadi laughed he was a leper and the polite name for leprosy was the white skin chapter nine for the first time in three nights okonkwo slapped he woke up once in the middle of the night his mind went back to the past three days without making him feel uneasy he began to wonder why he had felt uneasy at all it was like a man wandering in broad daylight why a dream had appeared so terrible to him at night he stretched himself and scratched his thigh or a mosquito had bitten him as he slept another one was wailing near his right ear he slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it why did he always go for one's ears when he was a child his mother had told him a story about it but it was as silly as all women's stories mosquito she had said had asked ear to marry him where upon ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter how much longer do you think you will live she asked you are already a skeleton mosquito went away humiliated and anytime he passed her way he told ear that he was still alive okonkwo turned on his side and went back to sleep he was roused in the morning by someone banging on his door who is that he growled he knew it must be a kwafi of his three wives akwafee was the only one who would have the audacity to bang on his door azima's dying came her voice and all the tragedy and sorrow of her life were packed in those words okonkwo sprang from his bed pushed back the bolt on his door and ran to a kwefi's lay shivering on a mat beside a huge fire that her mother had kept burning all night it is he took his machete and went to the bush to collect the leaves and grasses and barks of trees that went into making the medicine for eba ekwafi knelt beside the sick child occasionally feeling with her palm the wet burning forehead ezeema was an only child in the center of her mother's world very often it was a zenma who decided what food her mother should prepare equafee even gave her such delicacies as eggs which children were rarely allowed to eat because such food tempted them to steal one day as azima was eating an egg okonkwo had come in unexpectedly from his heart he was greatly shocked and swore to beat ekwefi if she dared to give the child eggs again but it was impossible to refuse azima anything after her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs and she enjoyed above all the secrecy in which she now ate them her mother always took her into their bedroom and shut the door azima did not call her mother nay like all children she called her by her name a kwefi as her father and other grown-up people did the relationship between them was not only that of mother and child there was something in it like the companionship of equals which was strengthened by such little conspiracies as eating eggs in the bedroom equafee had suffered a good deal in her life she had borne ten children and nine of them had died in infancy usually before the age of three as she buried one child after another her sorrow gave way to despair and then to grim resignation the birth of her children which should be a woman's crowning glory became foreign a mere physical agony devoid of promise the naming ceremony after seven market weeks became an empty ritual her deepening despair found expression in the names she gave her children one of them was a pathetic cry on biko death i implore you but death took no notice in his 15th month the next child was a girl zoe may it not happen again she died in her 11th month and two others after her equafee then became defined and called her next child death may please himself and he did after the death of a kwefi's second child okonkwo had gone to a medicine man who was also a diviner of the alpha oracle to inquire what was amiss this man told him that the child was an ogbanje one of those wicked children who when they died entered their mother's wombs to be born again when your wife becomes pregnant again he said let her not sleep in her heart let her go and stay with her people in that way she will elude her wicked tormentor and break its evil cycle of birth and death ekwafee did as she was asked as soon as she became pregnant she went to live with her old mother in another village it was there that her third child was born and circumcised on the eighth day she did not return to okonkwo's compound until three days before the naming ceremony the child was called was not given proper burial when he died okonkwo had called in another medicine man who was famous in the clan for his great knowledge about ogbanje children his name was okagwe was a very striking figure tall with a full beard and a bald head he was light in complexion and his eyes were red and fiery he always gnashed his teeth as he listened to those who came to consult him he asked okonkwo a few questions about the dead child all the neighbors and relations would come to mourn gathered round them on what market day was it born he asked replato conquo and it died this morning okonkwo said yes and only then realized for the first time that the child had died on the same market day as it had been born the neighbors and relations also saw the coincidence and said among themselves it was very significant where do you sleep with your wife in your ob or in her own heart ask the medicine man in her heart in future call her into europe the medicine man then ordered that there should be no mourning for the dead child he brought out a sharp razor from the skin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to mutilate the child then he took it away to bury in the evil forest holding it by the ankle and dragging it on the ground behind him such treatment it would think twice before coming again unless it was one of the stubborn ones who returned carrying the stamp of their mutilation a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine man's razor had cut them by the time onwumbiko died ekwafi had become a very bitter woman her husband's first wife had already had three sons all strong and healthy when she had borne her third son in succession okonkwo had gathered a goat for her as was the custom equafee had nothing but good wishes for her but she had grown so bitter about her own chi that she could not rejoice with others over their good fortune and so on the day that moliere's mother celebrated the birth of her three sons with feasting and music ecwefi was the only person in the happy company who went about with a cloud on her brow her husband's wife took this for malevolence as husband's wives were wanted to how could she know that equafie's bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil qi who denied her any at last ezinema was born and although ailing she seemed determined to live at first equafee accepted her as she had accepted others with listless resignation but when she lived on to her fourth fifth and sixth years love returned once more to her mother and with a love anxiety she determined to nurse her child to health and she put all her being into it she was rewarded by occasional spells of health during which azima bubbled with energy like fresh palm wine at such times she seemed beyond danger but all of a sudden she would go down again everybody knew she was an old boundary these sudden bouts of sickness and health were typical of her kind but she had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay some of them did become tired of their evil rounds of birth and death or took pity on their mothers and stayed equafee believed deep inside her that ezinema had come to stay she believed because it was that faith alone that gave her own life any kind of meaning and this faith had been strengthened when a year or so ago a medicine man had dug up izeenma's iwa everyone knew then that she would live because her bond with the world of ogbanje had been broken ekwafi was reassured but such was her anxiety for her daughter that she could not rid herself completely of her fear and although she believed that the ee which had been dug up was genuine she could not ignore the fact that some really evil children sometimes misled people into digging up a specious one but ezinma's had looked real enough it was a smooth pebble wrapped in a dirty rag the man who dug it up was the same who was famous in all the clan for his knowledge in these matters ezinma had not wanted to cooperate with him at first but that was only to be expected would yield her secrets easily and most of them never did because they died too young before they could be asked questions where did you bury your eei okagwe asked she was nine then and was just recovering from a serious illness what is she asked in return you know what it is you buried it in the ground somewhere so that you can die and return again to torment your mother eseema looked at her mother whose eyes sad and pleading were fixed on her answer the question at once who stood beside her all the family were there and some of the neighbors too beaver to me the medicine man told okonkwo in a cool confident voice he turned again to azima where did you bury your ee where they buried children she replied and the quiet spectators murmured to themselves come along then and show me the spot said the medicine man the crowd set out with azima leading the way and okagway following closely behind her okonkwo came next and a kwefe followed him when she came to the main road ezinma turned left as if she was going to the stream but you said it was where they bury the children asked the medicine man no whose feeling of importance was manifest in her spritely wonk she sometimes broke into a run and stopped again suddenly the crowd followed her silently women and children returning from the stream with pots of water on their heads wondered what was happening until they saw okagwe and guessed that it must be something to do with ogbanje they all knew ekwefi and her daughter very well when she got to the big udalla tree ezinema turned left into the bush and the crowd followed her because of her size she made her way through trees and creepers more quickly than her followers the bush was alive with the tread of feet on dry leaves and sticks and the moving aside of tree branches azeema went deeper and deeper and the crowd went with her then she suddenly turned round and began to walk back to the road everybody stood to let her pass and then filed after her if you bring us all this way for nothing i shall beat sense into you okonkwo threatened i have told you to let her alone i know how to deal with him led the way back to the road looked left and right and turned right and so they arrived home again where did you bury your eeii finally stopped outside her father's obi okogbo's voice was unchanged it was quiet and confident it is near that orange tree ezinma said and why did you not say so you wicked daughter of a kala goli okonkwo swore furiously the medicine man ignored him come and show me the exact spot he said quietly to azima it is here she said when they got to the tree point at the spot with your finger said okay it is here touching the ground with her finger okonkwo stood by rumbling like thunder in the rainy season he already put aside his goatskin bag in his big cloth and was in his underwear a long and thin strip of cloth wound round the waist like a belt and then passed between the legs to be fastened to the belt behind he immediately set to work digging a pit rezinma had indicated the neighbors sat around watching the pit becoming deeper and deeper the dark topsoil soon gave way to the bright red earth with which women scrubbed the floors and walls of huts okagwe worked tirelessly and in silence his back shining with perspiration okonkwo stood by the pit he asked okwe to come up and rest while he took a hand but a cog boy said he was not tired yet ekwafi went into her hut to cook yams her husband had brought out more yams than usual because the medicine man had to be fed ezeema went with her and helped in preparing the vegetables there is too much green vegetable she said don't you see the pot is full of yams equafee asked and you know how leaves become smaller after cooking yes that was why the snake lizard killed his mother very true he gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three and so he killed her said that is not the end of the story i remember now he brought another seven baskets and cooked them himself and there were again only three so he killed himself too outside the obi okagboy and okonkwo were digging the pit to find where ezinma had buried her ee neighbors sat around watching the pit was now so deep that they no longer saw the digger they only saw the red earth he threw up mounting higher and higher okonkwo's son nuoye stood near the edge of the pit because he wanted to take in all that happened had again taken over the digging from okonkwo he worked as usual in silence the neighbors and okonkwo's wives were now talking the children had lost interest and were playing suddenly okagwe sprang to the surface with the agility of a leopard it is very near now he said i have felt it there was immediate excitement and those who were sitting jumped to their feet call your wife and child he said to okonkwo but a kwefi and his inma had heard the noise and run out to see what it was ok went back into the pit which was now surrounded by spectators after a few more hopefuls of earth he struck the eu he raised it carefully with the hole and threw it to the surface some women ran away in fear when it was thrown but they soon returned and everyone was gazing at the rag from a reasonable distance okay emerged and without seeing a word or even looking at the spectators he went to his goatskin bag took out two leaves and began to chew them when he had swallowed them he took up the rag with left hand and began to untie it and then the smooth shiny pebble fell out he picked it up is this yours he asked izima yes she replied all the women shouted with joy because ekwafi's troubles were at last ended all this had happened more than a year ago and azima had not been ill since and then suddenly she had begun to shiver in the night ekwafee brought her to the fireplace spread her mat on the floor and built a fire but she had got worse and worse as she knelt by her feeling with her palm the wet burning forehead she prayed a thousand times although her husband's wives were saying that it was nothing more than eba she did not hear them okonkwo returned from the bush carrying on his left shoulder a large bundle of grasses and leaves roots and barks of medicinal trees and shrubs he went to aquaife's hot put down his load and sat down get me a pot he said and leave the child alone equafee went to bring the pot and okonkwo selected the best from his bundle in their due proportions and cut them up he put them in the pot and a kwafi poured in some water is that enough she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl a little more i said a little are you deaf okonkwo roared at her she set the pot on the fire and okonkwo took up his machete to return to his obi you must watch the pot carefully he said as he went and don't allow to boil over if it does its power will be gone he went away to his heart and a kwefi began to tend the medicine part almost as if it was itself a sick child her eyes went constantly from azima to the boiling pot and back to azeema okonkwo returned when he felt the medicine had cooked long enough he looked it over and said it was done [Music] bring me a low stool for azinma he said and a thick mat he took down the pot from the fire and placed it in front of the stool he then roused his inma and placed her on the stool astride the steaming pot the thick mat was thrown over both ezinema struggled to escape from the choking and overpowering steam but she was held down she started to cry when the mat was at last removed she was drenched in perspiration equafee mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep chapter 10 large crowds began to gather on the village elo as soon as the edge had worn off the sun's heat and it was no longer painful on the body most communal ceremonies took place at that time of the day so that even when it was said that a ceremony would begin after the midday meal everyone understood that it would begin a long time later when the sun's heat had softened it was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men there were many women but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders the title men and elders sat on their stools waiting for the trials to begin in front of them was a row of stools on which nobody sat there were nine of them two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools they faced the elders there were three men in one group and three men and one woman in the other the woman was and the three men with her were her brothers in the other group were her husband uzohulu and his relatives and her brothers were as still as statues into whose faces the artist has molded defiance uzohulu and his relative on the other hand were whispering together it looked like whispering but they were really talking at the top of their voices everybody in the crowd was talking it was like the market from a distance the noise was a deep rumble carried by the wind an iron gong sounded setting up a wave of expectation in the crowd everyone looked in the direction of the egg house and a powerful flute blew a high pitched blast then came the voices of the egugu guttural and awesome the waves struck the women in children and there was a backwards stampede but it was momentary they were already far enough where they stood and there was room for running away if any of the egugu should go towards them the drum sounded again and the flute blew the egg house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices aru oyem day filled the air as the spirits of the ancestors just emerged from the earth greeted themselves in their esoteric language the egugu house into which they emerged faced the forest away from the crowd who saw only its back with the many colored patterns and drawings done by specially chosen women at regular intervals these women never saw the inside of the hut no woman ever did they scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men if they imagined what was inside they kept their imagination to themselves no woman ever asked questions about the most powerful and the most secret cult in the clan flew around the dark closed hut like tongues of fire the ancestral spirits of the clan were abroad the metal gong beat continuously now and the flute shrill and powerful floated on the chaos and then the iguo appeared the women and children sent up a great shout and took to their heels it was instinctive a woman fled as soon as anaguru came inside and when as on that day nine of the greatest masked spirits in the clan came out together it was a terrifying spectacle even took to her heels and had to be restrained by her brothers each of the nine egu represented a village of the clan their leader was called evil forest smoke poured out of his head the nine villages of umufia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan [Music] evil forest represented the village of um or the children of eru who was the eldest of the nine sons pushing the air with his raffia arms the elders of the clan replied yeah um evil forest then thrust the pointed end of his rattling staff into the earth and it began to shake and rattle like something agitating with a metallic life he took the first of the empty stools and the eight other egg began to sit in order of seniority after him okonkwo's wives and perhaps other women as well might have noticed that the second degree had this springy walk of okonkwo and they might also have noticed that okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of but if they thought these things they kept them within themselves with a springy walk was one of the dead fathers of the clan he looked terrible with his smoked raffia body a huge wooden face painted white except for the round hollow eyes and the charred teeth that were as big as a man's fingers on his head were two powerful horns when all the egg woo had sat down and the sound of the many tiny bells and rattles on their bodies had subsided evil forest addressed the two groups of people facing them i salute you he said spirits always addressed humans as bodies uso bent down and touched the earth with his right hand as a sign of submission our father my hand has touched the ground he said who's body do you know me ask the spirit how can i know you father you are beyond our knowledge evil for us then turn to the other group and address the eldest of the three brothers the body of odoo i greet you he said and oduque bent down and touched the earth the hearing then began [Music] uzo stepped forward and presented his case that woman standing there is my wife i married her with my money and my yams i do not owe my in-laws anything i owe them no yams i owe them no coco yams one morning three of them came to my house beat me up and took my wife and children away this happened in the rainy season i have waited in vain for my wife to return at last i went to my in-laws and said to them you have taken back your sister i did not send her away you yourselves took her the law of the clan is that you should return her bride price but my wife's brothers said they had nothing to tell me so i have brought the matter to the fathers of the clan my case is finished i salute you your words are good said the leader of the gugu let us hear oduque his words may also be good odouque was short in thick set he stepped forward saluted the spirits and began his story my in-law has told you that we went to his house beat him up and took our sister and her children away all that is true he told me that he came to take back her bride price and we refuse to give it him that also is true my in-law uzo is a beast my sister lived with him for nine years during those years no single day passed in the sky without his beating the woman we have tried to settle their quarrels time without number and on each occasion uzo wulu was guilty it is a lie uzo wulu shouted two years ago continued when she was pregnant he beat her until she miscarried it is a lie she miscarried after she had gone to sleep with her lover uzo wulu's body i salute you said evil forest silencing him what kind of lover sleeps with a pregnant woman there was a loud murmur of approbation from the crowd oduque continued last year when my sister was recovering from an illness he beat her again so that if the neighbors had not gone in to save her she would have been killed we heard of it and did as you have been told the law of um is that if a woman runs away from her husband her bride prices return but in this case she ran away to save her life her two children belong to uzo we do not dispute it but they are too young to leave their mother if in the other hand uzohulu should recover from his madness and come in the proper way to beg his wife to return she will do so on the understanding that if he ever beats her again we shall cut off his genitals for him the crowd roared with laughter evil forest rose to his feet and order was immediately restored a steady cloud of smoke rose from his head he sat down again and called two witnesses they were both uzor wulu's neighbors and they agreed about the beating evil forest then stood up pulled out his staff and thrusted into the earth again [Music] he ran a few steps in the direction of the women they all fled in terror only to return to their places almost immediately the nine eggs then went away to consult together in their house they were silent for a long time then the metal gong sounded and the flute was blown [Music] the egg had emerged once again from their underground home [Music] they saluted one another and then reappeared on the elo evil forest facing the elders and grandees of the clan replied the thunderous crowd then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise evil forest began to speak and all the while he spoke everyone was silent the eight other egugu were as still as statues we have heard both sides of the case said evil forest our duty is not to blame this man or to praise that but to settle the dispute he turned to uzohulu's group and allowed a short pause body i salute you he said our father my hand has touched the ground replied uzo touching the earth who's body do you know me how can i know you father you are beyond our knowledge uzohulu replied i am evil forest i kill a man on the day that his life is sweetest to him that is true replied go to your in-laws with a pot of wine and beg your wife to return to you it is not bravery when a man fights with a woman he turned to oduque and allowed a brief pause i greet you he said my hand is on the ground reply to duque do you know me no man can know you reply to duque i am evil forest i am dry meat that fills the mouth i am fire that burns without if your in-law brings wine to you let your sister go with him i salute you he pulled his staff from the hard earth and thrust it back he roared and the crowd answered i don't know why such a trifle should come before the egugu said one elder to another don't you know what kind of man who's a wudo is he will not listen to any other decision replied the other as they spoke two other groups of people had replaced the first before the egu and a great land case began chapter 11 the night was impenetrably dark the moon had been rising later in later every night until now it was seen only at dawn and whenever the moon forsook evening and rose at cockcrow the nights were as black as charcoal azima and her mother sat on a mat on the floor after their supper of yam fufu and bitter leaf soup a palm oil lamp gave out yellowish light without it it would have been impossible to eat one could not have known where one's mouth was in the darkness of that night there was an oil lamp in all the four huts on okonkwo's compound and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half light set in the solid massiveness of night world was silent except for the shrill cry of insects which was part of the night and the sound of wooden water and pastel as nguyeke pounded her fufu lived four compounds away and she was notorious for her late cooking every woman in the neighborhood knew the sound of nguyeke's mortar and pastel it was also part of the night okonkwo had eaten from his wife's dishes and was now reclining with his back against the wall he searched his bag and brought out his snuff bottle he turned it onto his left palm but nothing came out he hit the bottle against his knee to shake up the tobacco that was always the trouble with okay snuff it very quickly went damp and there was too much salt peter in it okonkwo had not bought snuff from him for a long time idigo was the man who knew how to grind good snuff but he had recently fallen ill low voices broken now and again by singing reached okonkwo from his wife's huts as each woman and her children told folk stories ekwafee and her daughter ezinma sat on a mat on the floor it was a quaffy's turn to tell a story once upon a time she began all the birds were invited to a feast in the sky they were very happy and began to prepare themselves for the great day they painted their bodies with red cam wood and drew beautiful patterns on them with uli tortoise saw all these preparations and soon discovered what it all meant nothing that happened in the world of the animals ever escaped his notice he was full of cunning as soon as he heard of the great feast in the sky his throat began to itch at the very thought there was a famine in those days and tortoise had not eaten a good meal for two moons his body rattled like a piece of dry stick in his empty shell so he began to plan how he would go to the sky but he had no wings said be patient replied her mother that is the story tortoise had no wings but he went to the birds and asked to be allowed to go with them we know you too well said the birds when they had heard him you are full of cunning and you are ungrateful if we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief you do not know me said tortoise i am a changed man i have learned that a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself tortoise had a sweet tongue and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man and they each gave him a feather with which he made two wings at last the great day came and tortoise was the first to arrive at the meeting place when all the birds had gathered together they set off in a body tortoise was very happy and valuable as he flew among the birds and he was soon chosen as the man to speak for the party because he was a great orator there is one important thing which we must not forget he said as they flew on their way when people are invited to a great feast like this they take new names for the occasion our hosts in the sky will expect us to honor this age-old custom none of the birds had heard of this costume but they knew that tortoise in spite of his failings in other directions was a widely traveled man who do the customs of different peoples and so they each took a new name when they had all taken tortoise also took one he was to be called all of you last the party arrived in the sky and their hosts were very happy to see them torres stood up in his many colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation his speech was so eloquent that all the birds were glad they had brought him and nodded their heads in approval of all he said their hosts took him as king of the birds especially as he looked somewhat different from the others after cola nuts had been presented and eaten the people of the sky set before their guests the most delectable dishes tortoise had ever seen or dreamed of the soup was brought out hot from the fire and in the very pot in which it had been cooked it was full of meat and fish tortoise began to sniff aloud there was pounded yam and also yam porridge cooked with palm oil and fresh fish there were also pots of palm wine when everything had been set before the guests one of the people of the sky came forward and tasted a little from each pot he then invited the birds to eat but tortoise jumped to his feet and asked for whom have you prepared this feast for all of you replied the man tortoise turned to the birds and said you remember that my name is all of you the custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the others later they will serve you when i have eaten he began to eat and the birds grumbled angrily the people of the sky thought it must be their custom to leave all the food for their king and so tortoise ate the best part of the food and then drank two pots of palm wine so that he was full of food and drink and his body filled out in his shell the birds gathered round to eat what was left and to peck at the bones he had thrown all about the floor some of them were too angry to eat they chose to fly home on an empty stomach but before they left each took back the feather he had lent to tortoise and there he stood in his hard shell full of food and wine but without any wings to fly home he asked the birds to take a message for his wife but they all refused in the end parrot who had felt more angry than the others suddenly changed his mind and agreed to take the message tell my wife said tortoise to bring out all the soft things in my house and cover the compound with them so that i can jump down from the sky without very great danger parrot promised to deliver the message and then flew away but when he reached torus's house he told his wife to bring out all the hard things in the house and so she brought out her husband's hoes machetes spears guns and even his cannon tortoise looked down from the sky and saw his wife bringing things out but it was too far to see what they were when all seemed ready he let himself go he fell and fell and fell until he began to fear that he would never stop falling and then like the sound of his cannon he crashed on the compound did he die asked his inma no replied a kwefi his shell broke into pieces but there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood tortoise's wife sent for him and he gathered all the bits of shell and stuck them together that is why tortoise's shell is not smooth there is no song in the story azima pointed out no today kwefi i shall think of another one with a song but it is your turn now once upon a time azima began [Music] tortoise and cat went to wrestle against yams no that is not the beginning once upon a time there was a great famine in the land of animals everybody was lean except cat who was fat and whose bodies shone as if oil was rubbed on it she broke off because at that very moment a loud and high-pitched voice broke the outer silence of the night it was chiello the priestess of agbala prophesying there was nothing new in that once in a while chiello was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy but tonight she was addressing her prophecy and greetings to okonkwo and so everyone in his family listened the folk story stopped came the voice like a sharp knife cutting through the night okonkwo agbala jio at the mention of izima's name ekwefe jerked her head sharply like an animal that had sniffed death in the air her heart jumped painfully within her the priestess had now reached a conquest compound and was talking with him outside his heart she was saying again and again that agbala wanted to see his daughter izima okonkwo pleaded with her to come back in the morning because azima was now asleep but she shiela ignored what he was trying to say and went on shouting that agbala wanted to see his daughter her voice was as clear as metal and okonkwo's women and children heard from their hearts all that she said okonkwo was still pleading that the girl had been ill of late and was asleep a kwefi quickly took her to their bedroom and placed her on their high bamboo bed the priestess screamed beware of she warned beware of exchanging words with agbala does a man speak when a god speaks beware she walked through a conquest hut into the circular compound and went straight toward ekwafi's heart okonkwo came after her ekwefi she called agbala greets you where is my daughter eseema akbala wants to see her ekwafi came out from her heart carrying her oil lamp in her left hand there was a light wind blowing so she cupped her right hand to shelter the flame [Music] nuoye's mother also carrying an oil lamp emerged from her hut the children stood in the darkness outside their hut watching the strange event okonkwo's youngest wife also came out and joined the others where does agbala want to see her ekwafee asked where else but in his house in the hills and the caves replied the priestess i will come with you too equafee said firmly to fear the priestess cursed her voice cracking like the angry bark of thunder in the dry season how dare you woman to go before the mighty agbala of your own accord beware woman lest he strike you in his anger bring me my daughter equafee went into her heart and came out again with azinma come my daughter said the priestess i shall carry you on my back a baby on its mother's back does not know that the way is long isema began to cry she was used to chiello calling her my daughter but it was a different cello she now saw in the yellow half light don't cry my daughter said the priestess lest aguala be angry with you don't cry said a kwefi she will bring you back very soon i shall give you some fish to eat she went into the hut again and brought down the smoked black basket in which she kept her dried fish and other ingredients for cooking soup she broke a piece in two and gave it to azinma who clung to her don't be afraid said ekwefi stroking her head which was shaved in places leaving a regular pattern of hair they went outside again the priestess bent down on one knee and azinma climbed on her back her left palm closed on her fish and her eyes leaning with tears oh began once again to chant greetings to her god she turned round sharply and walked through okonkwo's hut bending very low at the eaves was crying loudly now calling on her mother the two voices disappeared into the thick darkness a strange and sudden weakness descended on ekwafee as she stood gazing in the direction of the voices like a hen whose only chick has been carried away by a kite a zenma's voice soon faded away and only chiello was heard moving farther and farther into the distance why do you stand there as though she had been kidnapped asked okonkwo as he went back to his heart she will bring her back soon noyes mother said but a quaffy did not hear these consolations she stood for a while and then all of a sudden made up her mind she hurried through a conquest hut and went outside where you going he asked i am following chielo she replied and disappeared in the darkness okonkwo cleared his throat and brought out his snuff bottle from the goatskin bag by his side the priestess's voice was already growing faint in the distance equafee hurried to the main footpath and turned left in the direction of the voice her eyes were useless to her in the darkness but she picked her way easily on the sandy footpath hedged on either side by branches and damp leaves she began to run holding her breasts with her hands to stop them flapping noisily against her body she hit her left foot against an outcropped root and terror seized her it was an ill omen she ran faster but chiello's voice was still a long way away had she been running to how could she go so fast with azim on her back although the night was cool equafee was beginning to feel hot from her running she continually ran into the luxuriant weeds and creepers that walled in the path once she tripped up and fell only then did she realize with the start that yellow had stopped her chanting her heart beat violently and she stood still then chiella's renewed outburst came from only a few paces ahead but a quaffy could not see her she shut her eyes for a while and open them again in an effort to see but it was useless she could not see beyond her nose there were no stars in the sky because there was a rain cloud fireflies went about with their tiny green lamps which only made the darkness more profound between cello's outbursts the night was alive with the shrill tremor of forest insects woven into the darkness oh akwafee trudged behind neither getting too near nor keeping too far back she thought they must be going towards the sacred cave now that she walked slowly she had time to think what would she do when they got to the cave she would not dare to enter she would wait at the mouth all alone in that fearful place she thought of all the terrors of the night she remembered that night long ago when she had seen ogbu agali odu one of those evil essences loosed upon the world by the potent medicines which the tribe had made in the distant past against its enemies but had now forgotten how to control ekwafi had been returning from the stream with her mother on a dark night like this when they saw its glow as it flew in their direction they had thrown down their water pots and lane by the roadside expecting the sinister light to descend on them and kill them that was the only time akwafee ever saw ogbu agali odu but although it had happened so long ago her blood still ran cold whenever she remembered that night the priestess's voice came at longer intervals now but its vigor was undiminished the air was cool and damp with dew azimus sneezed akwafi muttered life to you at the same time the priestess also said life to you my daughter azima's voice from the darkness warmed her mother's heart she trudged slowly along and then the priestess screamed somebody is walking behind me she said whether you are spirit or man may agbala shave your head with a blunt razor may he twist your neck until you see your heels a kwafi stood rooted on the spot one mind said to her woman go home before agbala does you harm but she could not she stood until chiello had increased the distance between them and she began to follow again she had already walked so long that she began to feel a slight numbness in the limbs and in the head then it occurred to her that they could not have been heading for the cave they must have bypassed it long ago they must be going towards the farthest village in the clan [Music] chiello's voice now came after long intervals it seemed to a kwefi that the night had become a little lighter the cloud had lifted and a few stars were out the moon must be preparing to rise its sullenness over when the moon rose late in the night people said it was refusing food as a sullen husband refuses his wife's food when they have quarreled had thought the priestess was now saluting the village of umawachi it was unbelievable the distance they had covered as they emerged into the open village from the narrow forest track the darkness was softened and it became possible to see the vague shape of trees screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess but whenever she thought she saw their shape it immediately dissolved like a melting lump of darkness she walked numbly along cielo's voice was now rising continuously as when she first set out a kwefi had a feeling of spacious openness and she guessed they must be on the village elo or playground and she realized too with something like a jerk that chiello was no longer moving forward she was in fact returning equafee quickly moved away from her line of retreat chiello passed by and they began to go back the way they had come [Music] it was a long and weary journey and equafee felt like a sleepwalker most of the way the moon was definitely rising and although it had not yet appeared on the sky its light had already melted down the darkness ekwafi could now discern the figure of the priestess and her burden she slowed down her pace so as to increase the distance between them she was afraid of what might happen if chiello suddenly turned round and saw her she had prayed for the moon to rise but now she found the half light of the incipient moon more terrifying than darkness the world was now peopled with vague fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes at one stage equafee was so afraid that she nearly called out to chiello for companionship and human sympathy what she had seen was the shape of a man climbing a palm tree his head pointing to the earth and his legs skywards but at that very moment chiello's voice rose again in her possessed chanting and a kwafi recoiled because there was no humanity there [Music] it was not the same cello who sat with her in the market and sometimes bought bean cakes for azinma whom she called her daughter it was a different woman the priestess of agbala the oracle of the hills and caves a quaffy trudged along between two fears the sound of her be numbed steps seemed to come from some other person walking behind her her arms were folded across her bare breasts dew fell heavily and the air was cold she could no longer think not even about the terrors of night she just jogged along in a half sleep only waking to full life when shiela sang [Music] at last they took a turning and began to head for the caves from then on chiello never ceased in her chanting she greeted her god in a multitude of names the owner of the future the messenger of earth the god who cut a man down when his life was sweetest to him equafee was also awakened and her be numbed fears revived the moon was now up and she could see chiello and ezinema clearly how a woman could carry a child of that size so easily and for so long was a miracle [Music] but a kwafi was not thinking about that chiello was [Music] could already see the hills looming in the moonlight they formed a circular ring with a break at one point through which the foot track led to the center of the circle as soon as the priestess stepped into this ring of hills her voice was not only doubled in strength but was thrown back on all sides it was indeed the shrine of a great god ekwafee picked her way carefully and quietly she was already beginning to doubt the wisdom of her coming nothing would happen to azeem she thought and if anything happened to her could she stop it she would not dare to enter the underground caves her coming was quite useless she thought as these things went through her mind she did not realize how close they were to the cave mouth and so when the priestess with azinma on her back disappeared through a hole hardly big enough to pass a hen ekwafi broke into a run as though to stop them as she stood gazing at the circular darkness which had swallowed them tears gushed from her eyes and she swore within her that if she heard ezine mccry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world she would die with her having sworn that oath she sat down on a stony ledge and waited her fear had vanished she could hear the priestess's voice all its metal taken out of it by the vast emptiness of the cave she buried her face in her lap and waited she did not know how long she waited it must have been a very long time her back was turned on the footpath that led out of the hills she must have heard a noise behind her and turned round sharply a man stood there with a machete in his hand a kwefi uttered a scream and sprang to her feet don't be foolish said okonkwo's voice i thought you were going into the shrine with chiello he mocked a quaffy did not answer tears of gratitude filled her eyes she knew her daughter was safe go home and sleep said okonkwo i shall wait here i shall wait too it is almost dawn the first has crowed as they stood there together a quaffy's mind went back to the days when they were young she had married a nene because okonkwo was too poor then to marry two years after her marriage to anime she could bear it no longer and she ran away to okonkwo it had been early in the morning the moon was shining she was going to the stream to fetch water okonkwo's house was on the way to the stream she went in and knocked at his door and he came out even in those days he was not a man of many words he just carried her into his bed and in the darkness began to feel around her waist for the loose end of her cloth chapter 12 on the following morning the entire neighborhood wore a festive air because okonkwo's friend obiarika was celebrating his daughter's uri it was the day on which her suitor having already paid the greater part of her bride price would bring palm wine not only to her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen everybody had been invited men women and children but it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother as soon as day broke breakfast was hastily eaten and women and children began to gather at obiarika's compound to help the bride's mother in her difficult but happy task of cooking for a whole village okonkwo's family was a stir like any other family in the neighborhood nawoya's mother and okonkwo's youngest wife were ready to set out for obiarica's compound with all their children nuoye's mother carried a basket of coco yams a cake of salt and smoked fish which she would present to obiarika's wife okonkwo's youngest wife ojilgo also had a basket of plantains and coca yams and a small pot of palm oil the children carried pots of water ekwafi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night it was not very long since they had returned the priestess with azimus sleeping on her back had crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake she had not as much as looked at okonkwo and ekwefi or shown any surprise at finding them at the mouth of the cave she looked straight ahead of her and walked back to the village okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance they thought the priestess might be going to her house but she went to a conquest compound passed through his obi and into a kuefa's hot and walked into her bedroom she placed izima carefully on the bed and went away without saying a word to anybody ezinma was still sleeping when everyone else was a stir and a crafty asked moyer's mother and odugo to explain to obi erica's wife that she would be late she had got ready her basket of cocoa yams and fish but she must wait for azinma to wake you need some sleep yourself said moyer's mother you look very tired as they spoke izima emerged from the heart rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame she saw the other children with their water pots and remembered that they were going to fetch water for obiarica's wife she went back to the hut and brought her pot have you slept enough asked her mother yes she replied let us go not before you have had your breakfast said a quaffy and she went into her hut to warm the vegetable soup she had cooked last night we should be going said noya's mother i will tell objerica's wife that you are coming later and so they all went to help obi-erika's wife nuoye's mother with her four children and ogiugo with her too as they trooped through okonkwo's obi he asked who will prepare my afternoon meal i shall return to do it said ogo okonkwo was also feeling tired and sleepy for although nobody else knew it he had not slept at all last night he had felt very anxious but did not show it when a kwefi had followed the priestess he had allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his machete to the shrine where he thought they must be it was only when he had got there that it had occurred to him that the priestess might have chosen to go round the villages first okonkwo had returned home and sat waiting when he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine but the hills and the caves were as silent as death it was only on his fourth trip that he had found a kuefi and by then he had become gravely worried obiarica's compound was as busy as an ant hill temporary cooking tripods were erected on every available space by bringing together three blocks of sun-dried earth and making a fire in their midst cooking pots went up and down the tripods and fufu was pounded in a hundred wooden mortars some of the women cooked the yams and the cassava and others prepared vegetable soup young men pounded the fufu or split firewood the children made endless trips to the stream [Music] three young men helped obiarika to slaughter the two goats with which the soup was made they were very fat goats but the fattest of all was tethered to a peg near the wall of the compound it was as big as a small cow had sent one of his relatives all the way to um to buy that goat it was the one he would present alive to his in-laws the market of is a wonderful place said the young man who had been sent by obiraka to buy the giant goat there are so many people on it that if you threw up a grain of sand it would not find a way to fall to earth again it is the result of a great medicine said obi erica the people of um wanted their market to grow and swallow up the markets of their neighbors so they made a powerful medicine every market day before the first crow this medicine stands on the market ground in the shape of an old woman with a fan with this magic fan she beckons to the market all the neighboring clans she beckons in front of her and behind her to her right and to her left and so everybody comes said another man honest men and thieves they can steal your cloth from off your waist in that market yes sid of erica i warn nuanco to keep a sharp eye and a sharp ear there was once a man who went to sell a goat he let it on a thick rope which he tied round his wrist but as he walked through the market he realized that people were pointing at him as they do to a madman he could not understand it until he looked back and saw that what he led at the end of the tether was not a goat but a heavy log of wood do you think a thief can do that kind of thing single-handed asked nuanc no said of erica they use medicine when they had cut the goats throats and collected the blood in a bowl they held them over an open fire to burn off the hair and the smell of burning hair blended with the smell of cooking then they washed them and cut them up for the women who prepared the soup all this ant hill activity was going smoothly when a sudden interruption came it was a cry in the distance oji odu archus the one that uses its tail to drive flies away every woman immediately abandoned whatever she was doing and rushed out in the direction of the cry we cannot all rush out like that leaving what we are cooking to burn in the fire shouted sheila the priestess three or four of us should stay behind it is true said another woman we will allow three or four women to stay behind five women stayed behind to look after the cooking parts and all the rest rushed away to see the cow that had been let loose when they saw it they drove it back to its owner who had once paid the heavy fine which the village imposed on anyone whose cow was let loose on his neighbor's crops when the women had exacted the penalty they checked among themselves to see if any woman had failed to come out when the cry had been raised whereas bogo asked one of them she is ill in bed said mcbogo's next-door neighbor she is eva the only other person is udenko said another woman and her child is not twenty eight days yet those women whom be erica's wife had not asked to help her with the cooking returned to their homes and the rest went back in a body to ovierca's compound whose cow was it asked the women who had been allowed to stay behind it was my husband's said one of the young children who opened the gate of the cow shed early in the afternoon the first two pots of palm one arrived from ovie erica's in-laws they were duly presented to the women who drank a cup or two each to help them in their cooking some of it also went to the bride and her attended maidens who were putting the last delicate touches of razor to her coiffure and cam wood on her smooth skin [Music] when the heat of the sun began to soften obiraka's son maduka took a long broom and swept the ground in front of his father's obi and as if they had been waiting for that of erica's relatives and friends began to arrive every man with his goat skin bag hung on one shoulder and a rolled goatskin mat under his arm some of them were accompanied by their sons bearing carved wooden stools okonkwo was one of them they sat in a half circle and began to talk of many things it would not be long before the suitors came okonkwo brought out his snuff bottle and offered it to oak bayfield who sat next to him ezekwa took it tapped it on his kneecap rubbed his left palm on his body to dry it before tipping a little snuff into it his actions were deliberate and he spoke as he performed them i hope our in-laws will bring many pots of wine although they come from a village that is known for being close-fisted they ought to know that a quake is the bride for a king they dare not bring fewer than 30 parts said okonkwo i shall tell them my mind if they do at that moment obierica's son maduka let out the giant goat from the inner compound for his father's relatives to see they all admired it and said that that was the way things should be done the goat was then led back to the inner compound very soon after the in-laws began to arrive young men and boys in single file each carrying a pot of wine came first obiarika's relatives counted the parts as they came 20 25 there was a long break and the hosts looked at each other as if to say i told you then more pots came 30 35 40. 45 the hosts nodded in approval and seemed to say now they are behaving like men all together there were 50 pots of wine after the pot bears came ebay the suitor and the elders of his family they sat in a half moon thus completing a circle with their hosts the pots of wine stood in their midst then the bride her mother and a half dozen other women and girls emerged from the inner compound and went round the circle shaking hands with all the bride's mother led the way followed by the bride in the other women the married women were their best clothes and the girls wore red and black waist beads and anklets of brass when the women retired obierica presented colonnades to his in-laws his eldest brother broke the first one life to all of us he said as he broke it and let there be friendship between your family and ours the crowd answered we are giving you our daughter today she will be a good wife to you she will bear you nine sons like the mother of our town the oldest man in the camp of the visitors replied it will be good for you and it will be good for us this is not the first time my people have come to marry your daughter my mother was one of you and this will not be the last because you understand us and we understand you you are a great family prosperous men and great warriors he looked in the direction of okonkwo your daughter will bear us sons like you hey the cola was eaten and the drinking of palm wine began groups of four or five men sat round with a pot in their midst as the evening wore on food was presented to the guests there were huge bowls of fufu and steaming pots of soup there were also parts of the am pottage it was a great feast as night fell burning torches were set on wooden tripods and the young men raised a song the elders sat in a big circle and the singers went round singing each man's praise as they came before him they had something to say for every man some were great farmers some were orators who spoke for the clan okonkwo was the greatest wrestler and warrior alive when they had gone round the circle they settled down in the center and girls came from the inner compound to dance at first the bride was not among them but when she finally appeared holding a in her right hand a loud cheer rose from the crowd all the other dancers made way for her she presented the to the musicians and began to dance her brass anklets rattled as she danced and her body gleamed with cam wood in the soft yellow light the musicians with their wood clay and metal instruments went from song to song and they were all gay they sang the latest song in the village if i hold her hand she says don't touch if i hold her foot she says don't touch but when i hold her waist beads she pretends not to know the night was already far spent when the guests rose to go taking their bride home to spend seven marked weeks with her suitors family they sang songs as they went and on their way they paid short courtesy visits to prominent men like okonkwo before they finally left for their village okonkwo made a present of two to them chapter 13 go dd go go digo di go godigo it was the aque talking to the clan one of the things every man learned was the language of the hollowed-out wooden instrument boomed the cannon at intervals the first had not crowed pneumophia was still swallowed up in sleep and silence when the akwa began to talk and the cannon shattered this islands men stirred on their bamboo beds and listened anxiously somebody was dead the cannon seemed to rend the sky diego godigo dd gogo floated in the message-laden night air the faint and distant wailing of women settled like a sediment of sorrow on the earth now and again a full chested lamentation rose above the wailing whenever a man came into the place of death he raised his voice once or twice in manly sorrow and then sat down with the other men listening to the endless wailing of the women and the esoteric language of the ekwei now and again the cannon boomed the wailing of the women would not be heard beyond the village but the aque carried the news to all the nine villages and even beyond it began by naming the clan it said this over and over again and as it dwelt on it anxiety mounted in every heart that heaved on a bamboo bed that night then it went near and named the village iguedo of the yellow grounding stone it was okonkwo's village again and again iguedo was called and men waited breathlessly in all the nine villages at last the man was named and the people side is dead a cold shiver ran down okonkwo's back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him that boy calls you father he had said bear no hand in his death is a great man and so all the clan was at his funeral the ancient drums of death beat guns and cannon were fired and men dashed about in frenzy cutting down every tree or animal they saw jumping over walls and dancing on the roof it was a warrior's funeral and from morning till night warriors came and went in their age groups they all wore smoked raffia skirts and their bodies were painted with chalk and charcoal now and again an ancestral spirit or a gugu appeared from the underworld speaking in a tremulous unearthly voice and completely covered in raffia some of them were very violent and there had been a mad rush for shelter earlier in the day when one appeared with a sharp machete and was only prevented from doing serious harm by two men who restrained him with the help of a strong rope tied around his waist sometimes he turned around and chased those men and they ran for their lives but they always returned to the long rope he trailed behind he sang in a terrifying voice that a queen sue or evil spirit had entered his eye but the most dreaded of all was yet to come he was always alone and was shaped like a coffin a sickly odor hung in the air wherever he went and flies went with him even the greatest medicine man took shelter when he was near many years ago another egg had dared to stand his ground before him and had been transfixed to the spot for two days this one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of water but some of the egg were quite harmless one of them was so old and infirm that he leaned heavily on a stick he walked unsteadily to the place where the corpse was laid gazed at it a while and went away again to the underworld the land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors there was coming and going between them especially at festivals and also when an old man died because an old man was very close to the ancestors a man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rights which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors had been the oldest man in his village and at his death there were only three men in the whole clan who were older and four or five others in his own age group whenever one of these ancient bed appeared in the crowd to dance unsteadily the funeral steps of the tribe younger men gave way and the tumult subsided it was a great funeral such as befitted noble warrior as the evening drew near the shouting and the firing of guns the beating of drums and the brandishing and clanging of machetes increased ezeru had taken three titles in his life it was a rare achievement there were only four titles in the clan and only one or two men in any generation ever achieved the fourth and highest when they did they became the lords of the land because he had taken titles isaiah was to be buried after dark with only a glowing brand to light the sacred ceremony but before this quiet and final right the tumult increased tenfold drums beat violently and men leaped up and down in frenzy guns were fired on all sides and sparks flew out as machetes clanged together in warriors salutes the air was full of dust and the smell of gunpowder it was then that the one-handed spirit came carrying a basket full of water people made way for him on all sides and the noise subsided even the smell of gunpowder was swallowed in the sickly smell that now filled the air he danced a few steps to the funeral drums and then went to see the corpse he called in his guttural voice if you had been poor in your last life i would have asked you to be rich when you come again but you were rich if you had been a coward i would have asked you to bring courage but you're a fearless warrior if you had died young i would have asked you to get life but you lived long so i shall ask you to come again the way you came before if your death was the death of nature go in peace but if a man caused it do not allow him a moment's rest he danced a few more steps and went away the drums and the dancing began again and reached fever heat darkness was around the corner and the burial was near guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky and then from the center of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror it was as if a spell had been cast all was silent in the center of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood it was the dead man's 16 year old son who with his brothers and half brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father okonkwo's gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy's heart the confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of umafia violent deaths were frequent but nothing like this had ever happened the only course open to okonkwo was to flee from the clan it was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a klansman and a man who committed it must flee from the land the crime was of two kinds male and female okonkwo had committed the female because it had been inadvertent he could return to the clan after seven years that night he collected his most valuable belongings into head loads his wives wept bitterly and their children wept with them without knowing why obierica and a half dozen other friends came to help and to console him they each made nine or ten trips carrying our conquest yams to store in obiarica's barn and before the crowed okonkwo and his family were fleeing to his motherland it was a little village called mbanta just beyond the borders of umbano as soon as the day broke a large crowd of men from a zeodus quarter stormed okonkwo's compound dressed in garbs of war they set fire to his houses demolished his red walls killed his animals and destroyed his barn it was the justice of the earth goddess and they were merely her messengers they had no hatred in their hearts against okonkwo his greatest friend obierica was among them they were merely cleansing the land which okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansmen obiarika was a man who thought about things when the will of the goddess had been done he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently but although he thought for a long time he found no answer he was merely led into greater complexities he remembered his wife's twin children whom he had thrown away what crime had they committed the earth had decreed that they were in a fence on the land and must be destroyed and if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender as the elders said if one finger brought oil it soiled the others part two chapter fourteen okonkwo was well received by his mother's kinsmen in banta the old man who received him was his mother's younger brother who was now the eldest surviving member of that family his name was uchendu and it was he who had received okonkwo's mother twenty and ten years before when she had been brought home from umalphia to be buried with her people okonkwo was only a boy then and uchendu still remembered him crying the traditional farewell mother mother mother is going that was many years ago today okonkwo was not bringing his mother home to be buried with her people he was taking his family of three wives and their children to seek refuge in his motherland as soon as zuchendu saw him with his sad and weary company he guessed what had happened and asked no questions it was not until the following day that okonkwo told him the full story the old man listened silently to the end and then said with some relief it is a female ocho and he arranged the requisite rights and sacrifices okonkwo was given a plot of ground on which to build his compound and two or three pieces of land on which to farm during the coming planting season with the help of his mother's kinsmen he built himself an obi and three huts for his wives he then installed his personal god and the symbols of his departed fathers each of uchendu's five sons contributed 300 cdms to enable their cousin to plant a farm for as soon as the first rain came farming would begin at last the rain came it was sudden and tremendous for two or three moons the sun had been gathering strength till it seemed to breathe a breath of fire on the earth all the grass had long been scorched brown and the sands felt like live coals to the feet evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown the birds were silenced in the forests and the world lay panting under the live vibrating heat and then came the clap of thunder it was an angry metallic and thirsty clap unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy season [Music] a mighty wind arose and filled the air with dust palm trees swayed as the wind combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic coffee when the rain finally came it was in large solid drops of frozen water which the people called the nuts of the water of heaven they were hard and painful on the body as they fell yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt the earth quickly came to life and the birds in the forests flooded around and chirped merrily a vague scent of life and green vegetation was diffused in the air [Music] as the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops children sought for shelter and all were happy refreshed and thankful and his family worked very hard to plant a new farm but it was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth like learning to become left-handed in old age work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have and when there was no work to do he sat in a silent half sleep his life had been ruled by a great passion to become one of the lords of the clan that had been his life spring and he had all but achieved it then everything had been broken [Music] he had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry sandy beach panting clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things a man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi the saying of the elders was not true [Music] that if a man said ea his chi also affirmed here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation the old man uchendu saw clearly that okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled he would speak to him after the isa ceremony the youngest of uchendu's five sons amiku was marrying a new wife the bride price had been paid and all but the last ceremony had been performed amiku and his people had taken palm wine to the bride's kinsmen about two moons before okonkwo's arrival in banta until was time for the final ceremony of confession the daughters of the family were all there some of them having come a long way from their homes in distant villages uchendu's eldest daughter had come from a bodo nearly half a day's journey away the daughters of uchendu's brothers were also there it was a full gathering of um in the same way as they would meet if a death occurred in the family there were twenty two of them they sat in a big circle on the ground and the bride sat in the center with a hen in her right hand uchendu sat by her holding the ancestral staff of the family all the other men stood outside the circle watching their wives watched also it was evening and the sun was setting uchendu's eldest daughter in jede asked the questions remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth she began how many men have lain with you since my brother first expressed the desire to marry you none she answered simply answer truthfully urge the other women [Music] none asked in g day none she answered swear on this staff of my father's seruchendo i swear said the bride uchendu took the hen from her slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed some of the blood to fall in his ancestral staff from that day amiku took the young bride to his hut and she became his wife the daughters of the family did not return to their homes immediately but spent two or three days with their kinsmen on the second day uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his nephew okonkwo the men brought their goatskin mats with which they sat on the floor and the women sat on a sisal mat spread on a raised bank of earth uchendu pulled gently at his gray beard and gnashed his teeth then he began to speak quietly and deliberately picking his words with great care it is okonkwo that i primarily wish to speak to he began but i want all of you to note what i am going to say i am an old man and you are all children i know more about the world than any of you if there is anyone among you who thinks he knows more let him speak up he paused but no one spoke why is okonkwo with us today this is not his clan we are only his mother's kinsmen he does not belong here he is an exile condemned for seven years to live in a strange land and so he is bowed with grief but there is just one question i would like to ask him can you tell me okonkwo why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is ineca or mother is supreme we all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding a child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family a man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland and yet we say mother is supreme why is that there was a silence i want okonkwo to answer me i do not know the answer okonkwo replied you do not know the answer so you see that you are a child you have many wives and many children more children than i have you are a great man in your clan but you are still a child my child listen to me and i shall tell you but there is one more question i shall ask you why is it that when a woman dies she is taken home to be buried with her own kinsmen she is not buried with her husband's kinsmen why is that your mother was brought home to me and buried with my people why was that okonkwo shook his head he does not know that either seruchendo and yet he is full of sorrow because he has to come live in his motherland for a few years he laughed a mirthless laugh and turned to his sons and daughters what about you can you answer my question they all shook their heads then listen to me he said and cleared his throat it's true that a child belongs to its father but when a father beats his child it seeks sympathy in its mother's heart a man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet but when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland your mother is there to protect you she is buried there and that is why we say that mother is supreme is it right that you okonkwo should bring to your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted be careful or you may displease the dead your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years but if you allow sorrow to weigh you down and kill you they will all die in exile he paused for a long mile these are now your kinsmen [Music] he waved at his sons and daughters you think you are the greatest sufferer in the world do you know that men are sometimes banished for life do you know that men sometimes lose all their yams and even their children i had six wives once i have none now except that young girl who knows not her right from her left do you know how many children i have buried children i begot in my youth and strength 22 i did not hang myself and i am still alive if you think you are the greatest sufferer in the world ask my daughter a queenie how many twins she has born and thrown away have you not heard the song they sing when a woman dies for whom is it well for whom is it well there is no one for whom it is well i have no more to say to you chapter 15 [Music] it was in the second year of okonkwo's exile that his friend of the erika came to visit him he brought with him two young men each of them carrying a heavy bag on his head okonkwo helped them put down their loads it was clear that the bags were full of calories okonkwo was very happy to receive his friend his wives and children were very happy too and so were his cousins and their wives when he sent for them and told them who his guest was you must take him to salute our father said one of the cousins yes replied okonkwo we are going directly but before they went he whispered something to his first wife she nodded and soon the children were chasing one of their uchendu had been told by one of his grandchildren that three strangers had come to okonkwo's house he was therefore waiting to receive them he held out his hands to them when they came into his obi and after they had shaken hands he asked okonkwo who they were this is obiereka my great friend i have already spoken to you about him yes said the old man turning to be erica my son has told me about you and i am happy you have come to see us i knew your father you he was a great man he had many friends here and came to see them quite often those were good days when a man had friends in distant clans your generation does not know that you stay at home afraid of your next door neighbor even a man's motherland is strange to him nowadays he looked at okonkwo i am an old man and i like to talk that is all i am good for now he got up painfully went into an inner room and came back with a color nut who are the young men with you he asked as he sat down again on his goatskin okonkwo told him ah he said welcome my sons he presented the cola nut to them and when they had seen it and thanked him he broke it and they ate go into that room he said to okonkwo pointing with his finger you will find a pot of wine there okankwo brought the wine and they began to drink it was a day old and very strong yes sir after a long silence people traveled more in those days there is not a single clan in these parts that i do not know very well animta umuazu i know them all have you heard asto bierika that obame is no more how is that asked to chengdu and okonkwo together obame has been wiped out said obiereka it is a strange and terrible story if i had not seen the few survivors with my own eyes and heard their story with my own ears i would not have believed was it not on an ak day that they fled into mafia he asked his two companions and they nodded their heads three moons ago said obiereka on an ak market day a little band of fugitives came into our town most of them were sons of our land whose mothers had been buried with us but there were some too who came because they had friends in our town and others who could think of nowhere else open to escape and so they fled into mafia with a woeful story he drank his palm wine and okonkwo filled his horn again he continued during the last planting season a white man had appeared in their clan and albino suggested okonkwo he was not an albino he was quite different he sipped his wine and he was riding an iron horse the first people who saw him ran away but he stood beckoning to them in the end the fearless ones went near and even touched him the elders consulted their oracle and it told them that the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them obiarika again drank a little of his wine and so they killed the white man and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree because it looked as if it would run away to call the man's friends i forgot to tell you another thing which the oracle said it said that other white men were on their way they were locusts it said and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain and so they killed him what did the white man say before they killed him astor chendu he said nothing answered one of obiarica's companions he said something only they did not understand him said obiarika he seemed to speak through his nose one of the men told me said obi erica's other companion that he repeated over and over again a word that resembled perhaps he'd been going to himbino and it lost his way anyway resumed obiarica they killed him and tied up his iron horse this was before the planting season began for a long time nothing happened the rains had come and yams had been sown the iron horse was still tied to the sacred silk cotton tree and then one morning three white men led by a band of ordinary men like us came to the clan they saw the iron horse and went away again most of the men and women of obama had gone to their farms only a few of them saw these white men and their followers for many market weeks nothing else happened they have a big market in obama on every other awful day and as you know the whole clan gathers there that was the day it happened the three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market they must have used a powerful medicine to make themselves invisible until the market was full and they began to shoot everybody was killed except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of men and women whose chi were wide awake and brought them out of that market he paused their clan is now completely empty even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the color of blood a great evil has come upon their land as the oracle had warned there was a long silence uchendu ground his teeth together audibly then he burst out never kill a man who says nothing those men of obami were fools what they know about the man he ground his teeth again and told a story to illustrate his point mother kite once sent her daughter to bring food she went and brought back a duckling you have done very well said mother kite to her daughter but tell me what did the mother of this duckling say when you swooped and carried its child away it said nothing replied the young kite it just walked away you must return the duckling said mother kite there is something ominous behind the silence and so daughter kite returned the duckling and took a chick instead what did the mother of this chick do asked the old kite it cried and raved and cursed me said the young kite then we can eat the chick said her mother there is nothing to fear from someone who shouts those men of aubamey were fools they were fools said okonkwo after a pause they had been warned that danger was ahead they should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to market they have paid for their foolishness said obiereka but i am greatly afraid we have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas but no one thought the stories were true there is no story that is not true the world has no end and what is good among one people is an abomination with others we have albinos among us do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them okonkwo's first wife soon finished her cooking and set before their guests a big meal of pounded yams and bitter leaf soup okonkwo's brought in a pot of sweet wine tapped from the raffia palm you are a big man now obiarika said to noyee your friend aneni asked me to greet you is he well as norway we are all well said obiarica azima brought them a bowl of water with which to wash their hands after that they began to eat and to drink the wine when did you set out from home astor conquo we had meant to set out from my house before cockroach said ovie erica but nueke did not appear until it was quite light never make an early morning appointment with a man who has just married a new wife they all laughed as nueke married a wife astok he has married okadigbo's second daughter said obiarika that is very good said okonkwo i do not blame you for not hearing the crow when they had eaten ovie erica pointed at the two heavy bags that is the money from your yams he said i sold the big ones as soon as you left later on i sold some of the cdm's and gave out others to share croppers i shall do that every year until you return but i thought you would need the money now and so i brought it who knows what may happen tomorrow perhaps green men will come to our clan and shoot us god will not permit it said okonkwo i do not know how to thank you i can tell you said obiarika kill one of your sons for me that will not be enough said okonkwo then kill yourself said obiarika i shall not talk about thanking you anymore chapter sixteen when nearly two years later obiarika paid another visit to his friend in exile the circumstances were less happy the missionaries had come to umufia they had built their church there won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns in villages that was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man's god would not last none of his converts was a man whose word was heated in the assembly of the people none of them was a man of title they were mostly the kind of people that were called efulafu worthless empty men the imagery of an efulafu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle the priestess of agbala called the converts the excrement of the clan and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up what moved obiarica to visit okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter's son nuoye among the missionaries in mafia what are you doing here obi-erika had asked when after many difficulties the missionaries had allowed him to speak to the boy i am one of them replied nuoye how was your father obi erica asked not knowing what else to say i don't know he is not my father said noye unhappily and so obiarika went to umbanta to see his friend and he found that okonkwo did not wish to speak about nuoye it was only from nowoye's mother that he heard scraps of the story the arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of there were six of them and one was a white man every man and woman came out to see the white man stories about these strange men had grown since one of them had been killed in a bombing and his iron horse tied to the sacred silk cotton tree and so everybody came to see the white man it was the time of year when everybody was at home the harvest was over when they had all gathered the white man began to speak to them he spoke through an interpreter who was an evil man though his dialect was different and harsh to the ears many people laughed at his dialect and the way he used words strangely instead of saying myself he always said my buttocks but he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him he said he was one of them as they could see from his color and his language the other four black men were also their brothers although one of them did not speak evil the white man was also their brother because they were all sons of god and he told them about this new god the creator of all the world and all the men and women he told them that they worshiped false gods gods of wood and stone a deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this he told them that the true god lived on high and that all men when they died went before him for judgment evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wooden stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm oil but good men who worshipped the true god lived forever in his happy kingdom we have been sent by this great god to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to him so that you may be saved when you die he said your buttocks understand our language said someone light-heartedly and the crowd laughed what did he say the white man asked his interpreter but before he could answer another man asked a question where is the white man's horse he asked the ebo evangelists consulted among themselves and decided that the man probably meant bicycle they told the white man and he smiled benevolently tell them he said that i shall bring many iron horses when we have settled down among them some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves this was interpreted to them but very few of them heard they were talking excitedly among themselves because the white man had said he was going to live among them they had not thought about that at this point an old man said he had a question which is this god of yours he asked the goddess of the earth the god of the sky a mario or the thunderbolt or what the interpreter spoke to the white man and he immediately gave his answer all the gods you have named are not gods at all they are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children there is only one true god and he has the earth the sky you and me and all of us if we leave our gods and follow your god asked another man who will protect us from the anger of our neglected gods and ancestors your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm replied the white man they are pieces of wood and stone when this was interpreted to the men of mbanta they broke into derisive laughter these men must be mad they said to themselves how else could they say that ani and ahmadi aura were harmless and idi mili and ogugu too and some of them began to go away then the missionaries burst into song it was one of those gay and rollicking tombs of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty cords in the heart of an evil man the interpreter explained each verse to the audience some of whom now stood enthralled it was a story of brothers who lived in darkness and in fear ignorant of the love of god it told of one sheep out on the hills away from the gates of god and from the tender shepherds care after the singing the interpreter spoke about the son of god whose name was jesus christi who only stayed in the hope that it might come to chasing the men out of the village or whipping them now said you told us with your own mouth that there was only one god now you talk about his son he must have a wife then the crowd agreed i did not say he had a wife said the interpreter somewhat lamely your buttocks said he had a son said the joker so he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks the missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the holy trinity at the end of it okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad he shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm wine but there was a young lad who had been captivated his name was nuoye okonkwo's first son it was not the mad logic of the trinity that captivated him he did not understand it it was the poetry of the new religion something felt in the marrow the hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of ikeme who was killed he felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul the words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry pallet of the panting earth nuoye's callow mine was greatly puzzled chapter 17 [Music] the missionaries spent their first four or five nights in the marketplace and went into the village in the morning to preach the gospel they asked who the king of the village was but the villagers told them that there was no king [Music] we have men of high title and the chief priests and the elders they said it was not very easy getting the men of high title in the elders together after the excitement of the first day but the missionaries persevered and in the end they were received by the rulers of umbanta they asked for a plot of land to build their church every clan in village had its evil forest in it were buried all those who died of the really evil diseases like leprosy in smallpox it was also the dumping ground for the potent fetishes of great medicine men when they died an evil forest was therefore alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness it was such a forest that the rulers of umbanta gave to the missionaries they did not really want them in their clan and so they made them that offer which nobody in his right senses would accept they want a piece of land to build their shrine said uchengdu to his peers when they consulted among themselves we shall give them a piece of land he paused and there was a murmur of surprise and disagreement let us give them a portion of the evil forest they boast about victory over death let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory they laughed and agreed and sent for the missionaries whom they had asked to leave them for a while so that they might whisper together they offered them as much of the evil forest as they cared to take into their greatest amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song [Music] they do not understand said some of the elders but they will understand when they go to their plot of land tomorrow morning and they dispersed the next morning the crazy men actually began to clear a part of the forest and to build their house the inhabitants of umbanta expected them all to be dead within four days the first day passed and the second and third and fourth and none of them died everyone was puzzled and then it became known that the white man's fetish had unbelievable power it was said that he wore glasses on his eyes so that he could see and talk to evil spirits not long after he won his first three converts although no yeah had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day he kept it secret he dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father but whenever they came to preach in the open marketplace or the village playground nuoye was there and he was already beginning to know some of the simple stories they told we have now built a church said mr kiaga the interpreter who is now in charge of the infant congregation the white man had gone back to umafia where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regular visits to mr kiaga's congregation at umbanda we have now built a church said mr kiaga and we want you all to come in every seventh day to worship the true god on the following sunday nuoye passed and re-passed the little red earth and thatch building without summoning enough courage to enter he heard the voice of singing and although it came from a handful of men it was loud and confident their church stood on a circular clearing that looked like the open mouth of the evil forest was it waiting to snap its teeth together after passing and re-passing by the church nuoye returned home it was well known among the people of umbanta that their gods and ancestors were sometimes long suffering and would deliberately allow a man to go on defying them but even in such cases they set their limit at seven market weeks or twenty eight days beyond that limit no man was suffered to go and so excitement mounted in the village as the seventh week approached since the impudent missionaries built their church in the evil forest the villagers were so certain about the doom that awaited these men that one or two converts thought it was to suspend their allegiance to the new faith at last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died but they were still alive building a new red earth and thatch house for their teacher mr kiaga that week they won a handful more converts and for the first time they had a woman [Music] her name was neca the wife of amadi who was a prosperous farmer she was very heavy with child necker had had four previous pregnancies and childbirths but each time she had borne twins and they had been immediately thrown away her husband and his family were already becoming highly critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found she had fled to join the christians it was a good writtens one morning okonkwo's cousin amiku was passing by the church on his way from the neighboring village when he saw nuoye among the christians he was greatly surprised and when he got home he went straight to a conquest hut and told him what he had seen the women began to talk excitedly but okonkwo sat unmoved it was late afternoon before noye returned he went into the obi and saluted his father but he did not answer nuoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father suddenly overcome with fury sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck where have you been he stammered now yay struggled to free himself from the choking grip answer me rordo conquo before i killed you he seized a heavy stick that lay on the dwarf wall and hit him two or three savage blows answer me he roared again nuoye stood looking at him and did not say a word the women were screaming outside afraid to go in leave that boy at once said a voice in the outer compound it was okonkwo's uncle uchendu are you mad okankwo did not answer but he left hold of nuoye who walked away and never returned he went back to the church and told mr kiyaga that he had decided to go to umuofia where the white missionary had set up a school to teach young christians to read and write mr kiaga's joy was very great blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my sake he in tone those that hear my words are my father and my mother no ye did not fully understand but he was happy to leave his father he would return later to his mother and his brothers and sisters and convert them to the new faith as a conquo sat in his hut that night gazing into a log fire he thought over the matter a sudden fury rose within him and he felt a strong desire to take up his machete go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang but on further thought he told himself that nuoye was not worth fighting for why he cried in his heart should he okonkwo of all people be cursed with such a son he saw clearly in it the finger of his personal god or chi for how else could he explain his great misfortune and exile and now his despicable son's behavior now that he had time to think of it his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity to abandon the gods of one's father and go about with a lot of effeminate men plucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow noyes steps and abandon their ancestors okonkwo felt a cold shudder run through him at the terrible prospects like the prospect of annihilation he saw himself and his fathers crowding around their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days and his children the while praying to the white man's god if such a thing were ever to happen he okonkwo would wipe them off the face of the earth okonkwo was popularly called the roaring flame as he looked into the log fire he recalled the name he was a flaming fire how then could he have begotten a son like a degenerate and effeminate perhaps he was not his son no he could not be his wife had played him false he would teach her but no ye resembled his grandfather unoka who was a conquo's father he pushed the thought out of his mind he okonkwo was called a flaming fire how could he have begotten a woman for a son at nuoye's age okonkwo had already become famous throughout um mafia for his wrestling and his fearlessness he sighed heavily and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed immediately okonkwo's eyes were open and he saw the whole matter clearly living fire begets cold impotent ash he sighed again deeply chapter 18 the young church in umbanta had a few crises early in its life at first the clan had assumed that it would not survive but it had gone on living and gradually became stronger the clan was worried but not over much if a gang of effortless decided to live in the evil forest it was their own affair when one came to think of it the evil forest was a fit home for such undesirable people it was true they were rescuing twins from the bush but they never brought them into the village as far as the villagers were concerned the twins still remained where they had been thrown away surely the earth goddess would not visit the sins of the missionaries on the innocent villagers but on one occasion the missionaries had tried to overstep the bounds three converts had gone into the village and boasted openly that all the gods were dead and impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines go and burn your mother's genitals said one of the priests the men were seized and beaten until they streamed with blood after that nothing happened for a long time between the church and the clan but stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government it was said that they had built a place of judgment in mafia to protect the followers of their religion it was even said that they had hanged one man who killed a missionary although such stories were now often told they looked like fairy tales in umbanda and did not as yet affect the relationship between the new church and the clan there was no question of killing a missionary here for mr kiaga despite his madness was quite harmless as for his converts no one could kill them without having to flee from the clan for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan and so nobody gave serious thought to the stories about the white man's government or the consequences of killing the christians if they became more troublesome than they already were they would simply be driven out of the clan and the little church was at that moment too deeply absorbed in its own troubles to annoy the clan it all began over the question of admitting outcasts these outcasts or osu seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations thought that it was possible that they would also be received and so one sunday two of them went into the church there was an immediate stir but so great was the work the new religion had done among the converts that they did not immediately leave the church when the outcasts came in those who found themselves nearest to them merely moved to another seat it was a miracle but it only lasted till the end of the service the whole church raised a protest and was about to drive these people out when mr kiaga stopped them and began to explain [Music] before god he said there is no slave or free we are all children of god and we must receive these our brothers you do not understand said one of the converts what will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu in our midst they will laugh let them laugh said mr kiaga god will laugh at them on the judgment day why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh the lord shall have them in derision you do not understand the convert maintained you are our teacher and you can teach us the things of the new faith but this is a matter which we know and he told him what an osu was he was a person dedicated to a god a thing set apart a taboo forever and his children after him he could either marry nor be married by the freeborn he was in fact an outcast living in a special area of the village close to the great shrine wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden cast long tangled and dirty hair a razor was taboo to him and osu could not attend an assembly of the freeborn and they in turn could not shelter under his roof he could not take any of the four titles of the clan and when he died he was buried by his kind in the evil forest how could such a man be a follower of christ he needs christ more than you and i said mr kiaga then i shall go back to the clan said the convert and he went mr kiaga stood firm and it was his firmness that saved the young church the wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith he ordered the outcast to shave off their long tangled hair at first they were afraid they might die unless you shave off the mark of your heathen belief i will not admit you into the church said mr kiaga you fear that you will die why should that be how are you different from other men who shave their hair the same god created you and them but they have cast you out like lepers it is against the will of god who has promised everlasting life to all who believe in his holy name the heathen say you will die if you do this or that and you are afraid they also said i would die if i built my church on this ground am i dead they said i would die if i took care of twins i am still alive the heathens speak nothing but falsehood only the word of our god is true the two outcasts shaved off their hair and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith and what was more nearly all of the osu in um followed their example it was in fact one of them who in his zeal brought the church into serious conflict with the clan a year later by killing the sacred python the emanation of the god of water the royal python was the most revered animal in umbanda and all the surrounding clans it was addressed as our father and was allowed to go wherever it chose even into people's beds it ate rats in the house and sometimes swallowed hen's eggs if a klansman killed a royal python accidentally he made sacrifices of atonement and performed an expensive burial ceremony such as was done for a great man no punishment was prescribed for a man who killed the python knowingly nobody thought that such a thing could ever happen perhaps it never did happen [Music] that was the way the planet first looked at it no one had actually seen the man do it the story had arisen among the christians themselves but all the same the rulers and elders of umbanter assembled to decide on their action [Music] many of them spoke at great length and in fury the spirit of wars was upon them okonkwo who had begun to play a part in the affairs of his motherland said that until the abominable gang was chased out of the village with whips there would be no peace but there were many others who saw the situation differently and it was their counsel that prevailed in the end it is not our custom to fight for our gods said one of them let us not presume to do so now if a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his heart the matter lies between him and the god we did not see it if we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender when a man blasphemes what do we do do we go and stop his mouth no we put our fingers into our ears to stop us hearing that is a wise action let us not reason like cowards said okonkwo if a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor what do i do do i shut my eyes no i take a stick and break his head that is what a man does these people are daily pouring filth over us and okay says we should pretend not to see okonkwo made a sound full of disgust this was a womanly clan he thought such a thing could never happen in his fatherland um okonkwo has spoken the truth said another man we should do something but let us ostracize these men we would then not be held accountable for their abominations everybody in the assembly spoke and in the end it was decided to ostracize the christians okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust that night a bellman went through the length and breadth of mbanta proclaiming that the adherence of the new faith with ends forth excluded from the life and privileges of the clan the christians had grown in number and were now a small community of men women and children self-assured and confident mr brown the white missionary paid regular visits to them [Music] when i think that it is only 18 months since the seed was first sown among you he said i marvel at what the lord hath wrought it was wednesday in holy week and mr kiaga had asked the women to bring red earth and white chalk and water to scrub the church for easter and the women had formed themselves into three groups for this purpose they set out early that morning some of them with their water pots to the stream another group with hoes and baskets to the village red earth pit and the others to the chalk quarry mr kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly he rounded off his prayer and went to see what it was all about the women had come to the church with empty water pots they said that some young men had chased them away from the stream with whips soon after the women who had gone for red earth returned with empty baskets some of them had been heavily whipped the chalk women also returned to tell a similar story what does it all mean asked mr kiaga who was greatly perplexed the village has outlawed us said one of the women the bell man announced it last night but it is not our custom to debar anyone from the stream or the quarry another woman said they want to ruin us they will not allow us into the markets they have said so mr kiaga was going to send into the village for his men converts when he saw them coming on their own of course they had all heard the bellman but they had never in all their lives heard of women being debarred from the stream [Music] come along they said to the women we will go with you to meet these cowards some of them had big sticks and some even machetes but mr kiaga restrained them he wanted first to know why they had been outlawed they say that okoli killed the sacred python said one man it is false said another okoli told me himself that it was false okoli was not there to answer he had fallen ill on the previous night before the day was over he was dead his death showed that the gods were still able to fight their own battles the clan saw no reason then for molesting the christians chapter 19 [Music] the last big rains of the year were falling it was the time for treading red earth with which to build walls it was not done earlier because the rains were too heavy and would have washed away the heap of trodden earth and it could not be done later because harvesting would soon set in and after that the dry season [Music] it was going to be okonkwo's last the seven wasted in weary years read last dragging to a close although he had prospered in his motherland okonkwo knew that he would have prospered even more in umuofia in the land of his fathers where men were bold and warlike in these seven years he would have climbed to the utmost heights and so he regretted every day of his exile his mother's kinsmen had been very kind to him and he was grateful but that did not alter the facts he had called the first child born to him in exile neca mother is supreme out of politeness to his mother's kinsmen but two years later when a son was born he called him begotten in the wilderness as soon as he entered his last year in exile okonkwo sent money to objerica to build him two huts in his old compound where he and his family would live until he built more huts and the outside wall of his compound he could not ask another man to build his own ob for him nor the walls of his compound those things a man built for himself or inherited from his father as the last heavy rains of the year began to fall ovie erica sent word that the two huts had been built and okonkwo began to prepare for his return after the reigns he would have liked to return earlier and build his compound that year before the rain stopped but in doing so he would have taken something from the full penalty of seven years and that could not be so he waited impatiently for the dry season to come it came slowly the rain became lighter and lighter until it fell in slanting showers sometimes the sun shone through the rain and a light breeze blue it was a gay and airy kind of rain the rainbow began to appear and sometimes two rainbows like a mother and her daughter the one young and beautiful and the other an old and faint shadow the rainbow was called the python of the sky okonkwo called his three wives and told them to get things together for a great feast i must thank my mother's kinsmen before i go he said equafee still had some cassava left on her farm from the previous year neither of the other wives had it was not that they had been lazy but that they had many children to feed it was therefore understood that a kwafi would provide kazava for the feast nuoye's mother indojiogo would provide the other things like smoked fish palm oil and pepper for the soup okonkwo would take care of meat and yams ekwafi rose early on the following morning and went to her farm with her daughter ezinma and ogo's daughter obiagoli to harvest cassava tubers each of them carried a long cane basket a machete for cutting down the soft cassava stem and a little hoe for digging out the tuber fortunately a light rain had fallen during the night and the soil would not be very hard it will not take us long to harvest as much as we like said kwafi but the leaves will be wet citizenma her basket was balanced on her head and her arms folded across her breasts she felt cold i dislike cold water dropping on my back we should have waited for the sun to rise and dry the leaves i'll be ugly called her salt because she said that she disliked water are you afraid you may dissolve the harvesting was easy as a cuisine said ezinema shook every tree violently with a long stick before she bent down to cut the stem and dig out the tuber sometimes it was not necessary to dig they just pulled the stump and earth rose roots snapped below and the tuber was pulled out when they had harvested a sizeable heap they carried it down in two trips to the stream where every woman had a shallow well for fermenting her cassava it should be ready in four days or even three shooters they are not all that young sir kwafi i planted the farm nearly two years ago it is a poor soil and that is why the tubers are so small okonkwo never did things by halves when his wife equafee protested that two goats were sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair i am calling a feast because i have the wherewithal i cannot live on the bank of a river and wash my hands with spittle my mother's people have been good to me and i must show my gratitude and so three goats were slaughtered and a number of fowls it was like a wedding feast there was fufu and yam pottage a goosey soup and bitter leaf soup and pots and pots of palm wine all the umuna were invited to the feast all the descendants of okolo who had lived about 200 years before the oldest member of this extensive family was okonkwo's uncle the colonnad was given him to break and he prayed to the ancestors he asked them for health and children we do not ask for wealth because he that has health and children will also have wealth we do not pray to have more money but to have more kinsmen we are better than animals because we have kinsmen an animal rubs its itching flank against a tree a man asks his kinsmen to scratch him he prayed especially for okonkwo and his family he then broke the coconut and threw one of the lobes on the ground for the ancestors as the broken color nuts were passed around okonkwo's wives and children and those who came to help them with the cooking began to bring out the food his sons brought out the pots of palm wine [Music] there was so much food and drink that many kinsmen whistled in surprise when all was laid out okonkwo rose to speak i beg you to accept this little caller he said it is not to pay you back for all you did for me in these seven years a child cannot pay for its mother's milk i have only called you together because it is good for kinsmen to meet yam pottage was served first because it was lighter than fufu and because yam always came first then the fufu was served some kinsmenated with a goosey soup and others with bitter leaf soup the meat was then shared so that every member of the umuna had a portion every man rose in order of years and took a share even the few kinsmen who had not been able to come had their shares taken out for them in due time as the palm wine was drunk one of the oldest members of the umuna rose to thank okonkwo if i say that we did not expect such a big feast i will be suggesting that we did not know how open-handed our son or conquo is we all know him and we expected a big feast but it turned out to be even bigger than we expected thank you may all you took out return again tenfold it is good in these days when the younger generation consider themselves wiser than their sires to see a man doing things in the grand old way a man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving they all have food in their own homes when we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon every man can see it in his own compound come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so you may ask why i am saying all this i say it because i fear for the younger generation for you people he waved his arm where most of the young men sat as for me i have only a short while to live and so have uchendo and unochukwu and emaefo but i fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship you do not know what it is to speak with one voice and what is the result an abominable religion has settled among you a man can now leave his father and his brothers he can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors like a hunter's dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master i fear for you i fear for the clan he turned again to okonkwo and said thank you for calling us together part 3 chapter 20 seven years was a long time to be away from one's clan a man's place was not always there waiting for him as soon as he left someone else rose and filled it the clan was like a lizard if it lost its tail it soon grew another okonkwo knew these things he knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits who administered justice in the clan he had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion which he was told had gained ground he had lost the years in which he might have taken the highest titles in the clan but some of these losses were not irreparable he was determined that his return should be marked by his people he would return with a flourish and regain the seven wasted years even in his first year in exile he had begun to plan for his return the first thing he would do would be to rebuild his compound on a more magnificent scale he would build a bigger barn than he had had before and he would build huts for two new wives then he would show his wealth by initiating his sons into the ozo society only the really great men in the clan were able to do this okonkwo saw clearly the highest steam in which he would be held and he saw himself taking the highest title in the land as the years of exile passed one by one it seemed to him that his chi might now be making amends for the past disaster his yams grew abundantly not only in his motherland but also in mafia where his friend gave them out year by year to sharecroppers then the tragedy of his first son had occurred at first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit but it was a resilient spirit and in the end okonkwo overcame his sorrow he had five other sons and he would bring them up in the way of the clan he sent for the five sons and they came and sat in his obi the youngest of them was four years old you have all seen the great abomination of your brother now he is no longer my son or your brother i will only have a son who is a man who will hold his head up among my people if any one of you prefers to be a woman let him follow norway while i am alive so that i can curse him if you turn against me when i am dead i will visit you and break your neck okonkwo was very lucky in his daughters he never stopped regretting that ezinma was a girl of all his children she alone understood his every mood a bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed ezeinma grew up in her father's exile and became one of the most beautiful girls she was called crystal of beauty as her mother had been called in her youth the young ailing girl who had caused her mother so much heartache had been transformed almost overnight into a healthy buoyant maiden she had it was true her moments of depression which she would snap at everybody like an angry dog these moods descended on her suddenly and for no apparent reason but they were very rare and short-lived as long as they lasted she could bear no other person but her father many young men and prosperous middle-aged men of umbanta came to marry her but she refused them all because her father had called her one evening and said to her there are many good and prosperous people here but i shall be happy if you marry in morphia when we return home that was all he had said but ezinma had seen clearly all the thought and hidden meaning behind the few words and she had agreed your half-sister obiageli will not understand me okonkwo said but you can explain to her although they were almost the same age izima wielded a strong influence over her half-sister she explained to her why they should not marry yet and she agreed also and so the two of them refused every offer of marriage i wish he were a boy okonkwo thought within himself she understood things so perfectly who else among his children could have read his thoughts so well with two beautiful grown-up daughters his return to a mafia would attract considerable attention his future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan the poor and unknown would not dare to come forth umafia had indeed changed during the seven years okonkwo had been in exile the church had come and led many astray not only the low born and the outcast but sometimes a worthy man had joined it such a man was had taken two ogb and who like a madman had cut the anklet of his titles and casted away to join the christians the white missionary was very proud of him and he was one of the first men in mafia to receive the sacrament of holy communion or holy feast as it was called in evil had thought of the feast in terms of eating and drinking only more holy than the village variety he therefore put his drinking horn into his goatskin bag for the occasion but apart from the church the white men had also brought a government they had built a court where the district commissioner judged cases in ignorance he had court messengers who brought men to him for trial many of these messengers came from umuru on the bank of the great river where the white men first came many years before and where they had built the center of their religion and trade and government these court messengers were greatly hated in mafia because they were foreigners and also arrogant and high-handed they were called kotma and because of their ash-colored shorts they earned the additional name of ashy buttocks they guarded the prison which was full of men who had offended against the white man's law some of these prisoners had thrown away their twins and some had molested the christians they were beaten in the prison by the kotma and made to work every morning clearing the government compound and fetching wood for the white commissioner and the court messengers some of these prisoners were men of title who should be above such mean occupation they were grieved by the indignity and mourn for their neglected as they cut grass in the morning the younger men sang in time with the strokes of their machetes kotma of the ash buttocks he is fit to be a slave the white man has no sense he is fit to be a slave the court messengers did not like to be called ashy buttocks and they beat the men but the song spread in mafia okonkwo's head was bowed in sadness as yo be erika told him these things perhaps i have been away too long okonkwo said almost to himself but i cannot understand these things you tell me what is it that has happened to our people why have they lost the power to fight have you not heard how the white man wiped out abami astobi erica i have heard said okonkwo but i have also heard that obama people were weak and foolish why did they not fight back had they no guns and machetes we would be cowards to compare ourselves with the men of obama their fathers had never dared to stand before our ancestors we must fight these men and drive them from the land it is already too late sudo be erica sadly our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger they have joined his religion and they helped to uphold his government if we should try to drive out the white men in mafia we should find it easy there are only two of them but what of our own people who are following their way and have been given power they would go to umuru and bring the soldiers and we would be like a bombing paused for a long time and then said i told you on my last visit to um how they hanged a nato what has happened to that piece of land in dispute astor the white man's court has decided that it should belong to nama's family who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter does the white man understand our custom about land how can he when he does not even speak our tongue but he says that our customs are bad and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are banned how do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us the white man is very clever he came quietly and peaceably with his religion we were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one he has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart how did they get hold of a nato to hang him astor konkwo when he killed oduche in the fight over the land he fled to aninta to escape the wrath of the earth this was about eight days after the fight because oduche had not died immediately from his wounds it was on the seventh day that he died but everybody knew that he was going to die and nato got his belongings together in readiness to flee but the christians had told the white man about the accident and he sent his kotma to catch a nato he was imprisoned with all the leaders of his family in the end orucia died and the nato was taken to umuru and hanged the other people were released but even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell their suffering the two men sat in silence for a long while afterwards chapter 21 there were many men and women in umuofia who did not feel as strongly as okonkwo about the new dispensation the white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm oil and colonel became things of great price and much money flowed into a mafia and even in the matter of religion there was a growing feeling that there might be something in it after all something vaguely akin to method in the overwhelming madness this growing feeling was due to mr brown the white missionary who was very firm in restraining his flock from provoking the wrath of the clan one member in particular was very difficult to restrain his name was enoch and his father was the priest of the snake cult the story went around that enoch had killed and eaten the sacred python that his father had cursed him mr brown preached against such excess of zeal everything was possible he told his energetic flock but everything was not expedient and so mr brown came to be respected even by the clan because he tried softly on its faith he made friends with some of the great men of the clan and on one of his frequent visits to the neighboring villages he had been presented with a carved elephant tusk which was a sign of dignity and rank one of the great men in that village was called akuna and he had given one of his sons to be taught the white man's knowledge in mr brown school whenever mr brown went to that village he spent long hours with akuna in his obi talking through an interpreter about religion neither of them succeeded in converting the other but they learned more about their different beliefs you say that there is one supreme god who made heaven and earth said akuna on one of mr brown's visits we also believe in him and call him chukwu he made all the world and the other gods there are no other gods said mr brown chukwu is the only god and all others are false you cough a piece of wood like that one he pointed at the rafters from which akuna's carved a kanga hung and who call it a god but it is still a piece of wood yes said akuna it is indeed a piece of wood the tree from which it came was made by chukwu as indeed all minor gods were but he made them for his messengers so that we could approach him through them it is like yourself you are the head of your church no protested mr brown the head of my church is god himself i know said but there must be a head in this world among men somebody like yourself must be their head here the head of my church in that sense is in england that is exactly what i am saying the head of your church is in your country he has sent you here as his messenger and you have also appointed your own messengers and servants or let me take another example the district commissioner he is sent by your king they have a queen said the interpreter on his own account your queen sends her messenger the district commissioner he finds that he cannot do the work alone and so he appoints kotma to help him it is the same with god he appoints the smaller gods to help him because his work is too great for one person you should not think of him as a person said mr brown it is because you do so that you imagine he must need helpers and the worst thing about it is that you give all the worship to the false gods you have created that is not so we make sacrifices to the little gods but when they fail and there is no one else to turn to we go to chukwu it is right to do so we approach a great man through his servants but when his servants fail to help us then we go to the last source of hope we appear to pay greater attention to the little gods but that is not so we worry them more because we are afraid to worry their master our fathers knew that tuku was the overlord and that is why many of them gave their children the name chukwuka chukwu is supreme you said one interesting thing said mr brown you are afraid of chukwu in my religion is a loving father it need not be feared by those who do his will but we must fear him when we are not doing his will said akuna and who is to tell his will it is true great to be known in this way mr brown learned a good deal about the religion of the clan and he came to the conclusion that a frontal attack on it would not succeed and so he built a school and a little hospital in umuofia he went from family to family begging people to send their children to his school but at first they only sent their slaves or sometimes their lazy children mr brown begged and argued and prophesied he said that the leaders of the land in the future would be men and women who had learned to read and write if umofia failed to send her children to the school strangers would come from other places to rule them they could already see that happening in the native court where the dc was surrounded by strangers who spoke his tongue most of these strangers came from the distant town of umuru on the bank of the great river where the white man first went in the end mr brown's arguments began to have an effect more people came to learn in his school and he encouraged them with gifts of singlets and towels they were not all young these people who came to learn some of them were 30 years old or more they worked on their farms in the morning and went to school in the afternoon and it was not long before the people began to say that the white man's medicine was quick in working mr brown school produced quick results a few months in it were enough to make one a court messenger or even a court clerk those who stayed longer became teachers and from umuofia laborers went forth into the lord's vineyard new churches were established in the surrounding villages and a few schools with them from the very beginning religion and education went hand in hand mr brown's mission grew from strength to strength and because of its link with the new administration it earned a new social prestige but mr brown himself was breaking down in health at first he ignored the warning signs but in the end he had to leave his flock sad and broken it was in the first rainy season after okonkwo's return to umafia that mr brown left for home as soon as he had learned of okonkwo's return five months earlier the missionary had immediately paid him a visit he had just sent okonkwo's son noyee who was now called isaac to the new training college for teachers in umuru and he had hoped that okonkwo would be happy to hear of it but okonkwo had driven him away with the threat that if he came into his compound again he would be carried out of it okonkwo's return to his native land was not as memorable as he had wished it was true his two beautiful daughters aroused great interest among suitors and marriage negotiations were soon in progress but beyond that umafia did not appear to have taken any special notice of the warriors return the clan had undergone such profound change during his exile that it was barely recognizable the new religion and government and the trading stores were very much in the people's eyes and minds there were still many who saw these new institutions as evil but even they talked and thought about little else and certainly not about okonkwo's return and it was the wrong year too if okonkwo had immediately initiated his two sons into the ozo society as he had planned he would have caused a stir but the initiation right was performed once in three years in a mafia and he had to wait for nearly two years for the next round of ceremonies okonkwo was deeply grieved it was not just a personal grief he mourned for the clan which he saw breaking up and falling apart and he mourned for the war-like men of whomofia who had so unaccountably become soft like women chapter 22 mr brown's successor was the reverend james smith and he was a different kind of man he condemned openly mr brown's policy of compromise and accommodation he saw things as black and white and black was evil he saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness he spoke in his sermons about sheep and goats and about wheat and tears he believed in slaying the prophets of baal mr smith was greatly distressed by the ignorance which many of his flocks showed even in such things as the trinity and the sacraments it only showed that they were seeds sown on a rocky soil mr brown had thought of nothing but numbers he should have known that the kingdom of god did not depend on large crowds our lord himself stressed the importance of fewness narrow is the way and few the number to fill the lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence our lord used the whip only once in his life to drive the crowd away from his church within a few weeks of his arrival in the morphia mr smith suspended a young woman from the church for pouring new wine into old bottles this woman had allowed her heathen husband to mutilate her dead child the child had been declared in agbanje plaguing its mother by dying and entering her womb to be born again four times this child had run its evil round and so it was mutilated to discourage it from returning mr smith was filled with wrath when he heard of this he disbelieved the story which even some of the most faithful confirmed the story of really evil children who were not deterred by mutilation but came back with all the scars he replied that such stories were spread in the world by the devil to lead men astray those who believe such stories were unworthy of the lord's table there was a saying in umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him mr smith danced a furious step and so the drums went bad the overzealous converts who had smarted under mr brown's restraining hand now flourished in full favor one of them was enoch the son of the snake priest who was believed to have killed and eaten the sacred python enoch's devotion to the new faith had seemed so much greater than mr brown's that the villagers called him the outsider who wept louder than the bereaved enoch was short in sleight of build and always seemed in great haste his feet were short and broad and when he stood or walked his heels came together and his feet opened outwards as if they had quarreled and meant to go in different directions such was the excessive energy bottled up in enoch's small body that it was always erupting in quarrels and fights on sundays he always imagined that the sermon was preached for the benefit of his enemies and if he happened to sit near one of them he would occasionally turn to give him a meaningful look as if to say i told you so it was enoch who touched off the great conflict between church and clan in umuofia which had been gathering since mr brown left it happened during the annual ceremony which was held in honor of the earth deity at such times the ancestors of the clan who had been committed to mother earth at their death emerged again as a gugu through tiny ant holes one of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egu in public or to say or do anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated and this was what enoch did the annual worship of the earth goddess fell on a sunday and the masked spirits were abroad the christian women who had been to church could not therefore go home [Music] some of their men had gone out to beg the egu to retire for a short while for the women to pass they agreed and were already retiring when enoch boasted a loud that they would not dare to touch a christian whereupon they all came back and one of them gave enoch a good stroke of the cane which was always carried enoch fell on him and tore off his mask the other egugu immediately surrounded their desecrated companion to shield him from the profane gaze of women and children and let him away enoch had killed an ancestral spirit and umuofia was thrown into confusion that night the mother of the spirits walked the length and breadth of the clan weeping for her murdered son it was a terrible night not even the oldest man in whom wolfia had ever heard such a strange and fearful sound and it was never to be heard again it seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming its own death on the next day all the mass de ghugu of umofia assembled in the marketplace they came from all the quarters of the clan and even from the neighboring villages the dreaded otakagu came from emo and a kwanzu dangling a white arrived from uli it was a terrible gathering the eerie voices of countless spirits the bells that clattered behind some of them and the clash of machetes as they ran forwards and backwards and saluted one another sent tremors of fear into every heart for the first time in living memory the sacred bull roarer was heard in broad daylight from the marketplace the furious band made for enoch's compound some of the elders of the clan went with them wearing heavy protections of charms and amulets these were men whose arms were strong in ogu or medicine as for the ordinary men and women they listen from the safety of their hearts the leaders of the christians had met together at mr smith's parsonage on the previous night as they deliberated they could hear the mother of spirits wailing for her son the chilling sound affected mr smith and for the first time he seemed to be what are they afraid to do he asked no one knew because such a thing had never happened before mr smith would have sent for the district commissioner and his court messengers but they had gone on tour on the previous day one thing is clear said mr smith we cannot offer physical resistance to them our strength lies in the lord they knelt down together and prayed to god for delivering oh lord save thy people cried mr smith and bless thine inheritance replied the men they decided that enoch should be hidden in the parsonage for a day or two enoch himself was greatly disappointed when he heard this for he had hoped that a holy war was imminent and there were a few other christians who thought like him but wisdom prevailed in the camp of the faithful and many lives with us saved the band of iguo moved like a furious whirlwind to enoch's compound with machete and fire reduced it to a desolate heap and from there they made for the church intoxicated with destruction mr smith was in his church when he heard the masked spirits coming he walked quietly to the door which commanded the approach to the church compound and stood there but when the first three or four egugu appeared on the church compound he nearly bolted he overcame this impulse and instead of running away he went down the two steps that led up to the church and walked towards the approaching spirits they surged forward and a long stretch of the bamboo fence with which the church compound was surrounded gave way before them discordant bells clanged machetes clashed and the air was full of dust and weird sounds mr smith heard a sound of footsteps behind him he turned round and saw okay his interpreter okay had not been on the best of terms with his master since he had strongly condemned enoch's behavior at the meeting of the leaders of the church during the night okay had gone as far as to say that enoch should not be hidden in the parsonage because he would only draw the wrath of the clan on the pastor mr smith had rebuked him in very strong language and did not sought his advice that morning but now as he came up and stood by him confronting the angry spirits mr smith looked at him and smiled it was a wand smile but there was deep gratitude there for a brief moment the on rush of the egg was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men but it was only a momentary check like the tense silence between blasts of thunder the second on rush was greater than the first it swallowed up the two men then an unmistakable voice rose above the tumult and there was immediate silence space was made around the two men and a drophead began to speak adrofia was the leading of um he was the head and spokesman of the nine ancestors who administered justice in the clan his voice was unmistakable and so he was able to bring immediate peace to the agitated spirits he then addressed mr smith and as he spoke clouds of smoke rose from his head the body of the white man i salute you he said using the language in which immortals spoke to men the body of the white man do you know me he asked mr smith looked at his interpreter but okay who was a native of distant umuru was also at a loss ajofiah laughed in his guttural voice it was like the laugh of rusty metal they are strangers he said and they are ignorant but let that pass he turned round to his comrades and saluted them calling them the fathers of umafia he dug his rattling spear into the ground and it shook with metallic life then he turned once more to the missionary and his interpreter tell the white man that we will not do him any harm he said to the interpreter tell him to go back to his house and leave us alone we liked his brother who was with us before he was foolish but we liked him and for his sake we shall not harm his brother but this shrine which he built must be destroyed we shall no longer allow it in our midst it has bred untold abominations and we have come to put an end to it he turned to his comrades fathers of um i salute you and they replied with one guttural voice he turned again to the missionary you can stay with us if you like our ways you can worship your own god it is good that a man should worship the gods in the spirits of his fathers go back to your house so that you may not be hurt our anger is great but we have held it down so that we can talk to you mr smith said to his interpreter tell them to go away from here this is the house of god and i will not live to see it desecrated okay interpreted wisely to the spirits and leaders of um mafia the white man says he is happy you have come to him with your grievances like friends he will be happy if you leave the matter in his hands we cannot leave the matter in his hands because he does not understand our customs just as we do not understand his we say he is foolish because he does not know our ways and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his let him go away mr smith stood his ground but he could not save his church when the eguru went away the red earth church which mr brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes and for the moment the spirit of the clan was pacified chapter 23 for the first time in many years okonkwo had a feeling that was akin to happiness the times which had altered so unaccountably during his exile seemed to be coming round again the clan which had turned false on him appeared to be making amends he had spoken violently to his clansmen when they had met in the marketplace to decide on their action and they had listened to him with respect it was like the good old days again when a warrior was a warrior although they had not agreed to kill the missionary or drive away the christians they had agreed to do something substantial and they had done it okonkwo was almost happy again for two days after the destruction of the church nothing happened every man in new mafia went about armed with a gun or a machete they would not be caught unawares like the men of obami then the district commissioner returned from his tour mr smith went immediately to him and they had a long discussion the men of mafia did not take any notice of this and if they did they thought it was not important the missionary often went to see his brother white man there was nothing strange in that three days later the district commissioner sent his sweet tongued messenger to the leaders of mafia asking them to meet him in his headquarters that also was not strange he often asked them to hold such palavers as he called them okonkwo was among the six leaders he invited okonkwo warned the others to be fully armed animovia man does not refuse a call he said he may refuse to do what he has asked he does not refuse to be asked but the times have changed and we must be fully prepared and so the six men went to see the district commissioner armed with their machetes they did not carry guns for that would be unseemly they were led into the courthouse where the district commissioner sat he received them politely they unslung their goatskin bags in their sheathed machetes put them on the floor and sat down i have asked you to come began the commissioner because of what happened during my absence i have been told a few things but i cannot believe them until i have heard your own side let us talk about it like friends and find a way of ensuring that it does not happen again rose to his feet and began to tell the story wait a minute said the commissioner i want to bring in my men so that they too can hear your grievances and take warning many of them come from distant places and although they speak your tongue they are ignorant of your customs james go and bring in the men his interpreter left the courtroom and soon returned with twelve men they sat together with the men of umuofia and ogbuwayfi ekuemi began to tell the story of how enoch murdered any google it happened so quickly that the six men did not see it coming there was only a brief scuffle too brief even to allow the drawing of a sheathed machete the six men were handcuffed and led into the guard room we shall not do you any harm said the district commissioner to them later if only you agree to cooperate with us we have brought a peaceful administration to you and your people so that you may be happy if any manual treats you we shall come to your rescue but we will not allow you to ill-treat others we have a court of law where we judge cases and administer justice just as it is done in my own country under a great queen i brought you here because you joined together to molest others to burn people's houses and their place of worship that must not happen in the dominion of our queen the most powerful ruler in the world i have decided that you will pay a fine of 200 bags of calories you'll be released as soon as you agree to this and undertake to collect that fine from your people what do you say to that the six men remained sullen and silent and the commissioner left them for a while he told the court messengers when he left the guard room to treat the men with respect because they were the leaders of who mafia they said yes sir and saluted as soon as the district commissioner left the head messenger who was also the prisoner's barber took down his razor and shaved off all the hair on the men's heads they were still handcuffed and they just sat and moped who is the chief among you the court messengers asked in jest we see that every pauper wears the anklet of title to pneumofear does it cost as much as 10 calories the six men ate nothing throughout that day and the next they were not even given any water to drink and they could not go out to urinate or go into the bush when they were pressed at night the messengers came in to taunt them and to knock their shaven heads together even when the men were left alone they found no words to speak to one another it was only on the third day when they could no longer bear the hunger and the insults that they began to talk about giving in we should have killed the white man if you had listened to me a conqueror snarled we could have been in umuru now waiting to be hanged someone said to him who wants to kill the white man asked a messenger who had just rushed in nobody spoke you are not satisfied with your crime but you must kill the white man on top of it he carried a strong stick and he hit each man a few blows on the head and back okonkwo was choked with hate as soon as the six men were locked up court messengers went into mafia to tell the people that their leaders would not be released until they paid a fine of 250 bags of calories unless you pay the fine immediately said their head man we will take your leaders to umuru before the big white man and hang them this story is spread quickly through the villages and was added to as it went some said that the men had already been taken to umuru and would be hanged on the following day some said that their families would also be hanged others said that soldiers were already on their way to shoot the people of mafia as they had done in obama it was the time of the full moon but that night the voice of children was not heard the village elo where they always gathered for a moon play was empty the women of iguedo did not meet in their secret enclosure to learn a new dance to be displayed later to the village young men who were always abroad in the moonlight kept their hearts that night their manly voices were not heard on the village paths as they went to visit their friends and lovers um was like a startled animal with ears erect sniffing the silent ominous air and not knowing which way to run the silence was broken by the village crier beating his sonorous organe he called every man a new mafia from the akakanma age group upwards to a meeting in the marketplace after the morning meal he went from one end of the village to the other and walked all its breath he did not leave out any of the main footpaths okonkwo's compound was like a deserted homestead it was as if cold water had been poured on it his family was all there but everyone spoke in whispers his daughter had broken her 28-day visit to the family of her future husband and returned home when she heard that her father had been imprisoned and was going to be hanged as soon as she got home she went to obiaraca to ask what the men of whom wofia were going to do about it but obierica had not been home since morning his wives thought he had gone to a secret meeting izinma was satisfied that something was being done [Music] on the morning after the village crier's appeal the men of umuofia met in the marketplace and decided to collect without delay 250 bags of calories to appease the white man they did not know that 50 bags would go to the court messengers who had increased the fine for that purpose chapter 24 okonkwo and his fellow prisoners were set free as soon as the fine was paid the district commissioner spoke to them again about the great queen about peace and good government but the men did not listen they just sat and looked at him and at his interpreter in the end they were given back their bags and sheathed machetes and told to go home they rose and left the courthouse they neither spoke to anyone nor among themselves the courthouse like the church was built a little way outside the village the footpath that linked them was a very busy one because it also led to the stream beyond the court it was open and sandy footpaths were opened in sandy in the dry season but when the rains came the bush grew thick on either side and closed in on the path it was now dry season as they made their way to the village the six men met women and children going to the stream with their water pots but the men wore such heavy and fearsome looks that the women and children did not say no or welcome to them but edged out of the way to let them pass in the village little groups of men joined them until they became a sizable company they walked silently as each of the six men got to his compound he turned in taking some of the crowd with him the village was a stir in a silent suppressed way azima had prepared some food for her father as soon as news spread that the six men would be released she took it to him in his obi he ate absent-mindedly he had no appetite he only ate to please her his male relations and friends had gathered in his ob and obierica was urging him to eat nobody else spoke but they noticed the long stripes on okonkwo's back where the waters whip had cut into his flesh the village crier was abroad again in the night he beat his iron gong and announced that another meeting would be held in the morning everyone knew that umofia was at last going to speak its mind about the things that were happening okonkwo slept very little that night the bitterness in his heart was now mixed with a kind of childlike excitement before he had gone to bed he had brought down his war dress but he had not touched since his return from exile he had shaken out his smoked raffia skirt and examined his tall feather headgear and his shield they were all satisfactory he had thought as he lay on his bamboo bed he thought about the treatment he had received in the white man's court and he swore vengeance if umurphya decided on war all would be well but if they chose to be cowards he would go out and avenge himself he thought about wars in the past the noblest he thought was the war against isi in those days okudo was still alive okudo sang a war song in a way that no other man could he was not a fighter but his voice turned every man into a lion worthy men are no more okonkwo sighed as he remembered those days isike will never forget how we slaughtered them in that war we killed 12 of their men and they killed only two of ours before the end of the fourth marked week they were suing for peace those were days when men were men as he thought of these things he heard the sound of the iron gong in the distance he listened carefully and could just hear the crier's voice but it was very faint he turned on his bed and his back hurt him he ground his teeth the crier was drawing nearer and nearer until he passed by o congo's compound the greatest obstacle in new mafia okonkwo thought bitterly is that coward aegon his sweet tongue can change fire into cold ash when he speaks he moves our men to impotence if they had ignored his womanish wisdom five years ago we would not have come to this he ground his teeth tomorrow he will tell them that our fathers never fought a war of blame if they listen to him i shall leave them and plan my own revenge the crier's voice had once more become famed and the distance had taken the harsh edge off his iron gong okonkwo turned from one side to the other and derived a kind of pleasure from the pain his back gave him a war of blame tomorrow and i shall show him my back and head he ground his teeth the marketplace began to fill as soon as the sun rose of the erika was waiting in his obi wan okonkwo came along and called him he hung his goatskin bag and his sheath machete on his shoulder and went out to join him obi erica's hut was close to the road and he saw every man who passed to the marketplace he'd exchange greetings with many who had already passed that morning when okonkwo and obiarika got to the meeting place there were already so many people that if one threw up a grain of sand it would not find its way to the earth again and many more people were coming from every quarter of the nine villages it warmed okonkwo's heart to see such strength of numbers but he was looking for one man in particular the man whose tongue he dreaded and despised so much can you see him he asked obierica who he said his eyes roving from one corner of the huge marketplace to the other most of the men sat on wooden stools they had brought with them no said obiereka casting his eyes over the crowd yes there he is under the silk cotton tree are you afraid he would convince us not to fight afraid i do not care what he does to you i despise him and those who listen to him i shall fight alone if i choose they spoke at the top of their voices because everybody was talking and it was like the sound of a great market i shall wait till he has spoken okonkwo thought then i shall speak but how do you know he will speak against war obiarica asked after a while because i know he is a coward said okonkwo obiarika did not hear the rest of what he said because at that moment somebody touched his shoulder from behind and he turned around to shake hands at exchange greetings with five or six friends okonkwo did not turn round even though he knew the voices he was in no mood to exchange greetings but one of the men touched him and asked about the people of his compound there well he replied without interest the first man to speak to a mafia that morning was okika one of the six men who had been imprisoned okika was a great man and an orator but he did not have the booming voice which a first speaker must use to establish silence in the assembly of the clan onyeka had such a voice and so he was asked to salute before okika began to speak he bellowed raising his left arm and pushing the air with his open hand roared mafia again and again and again facing a new direction each time and the crowd answered yeah there was immediate silence as though cold water had been poured on a roaring flame okika sprang to his feet and also saluted his clansmen four times then he began to speak you all know why we are here when we ought to be building our barns or mending our hearts when we should be putting our compounds in order my father used to say to me whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight then know that something is after its life when i saw you all pouring into this meeting from all the quarters of our clan so early this morning i knew that something was after our life he paused for a brief moment and then began again all our gods are weeping is weeping is weeping is weeping and all the others our dead fathers are weeping because of the shameful sacrilege they are suffering and the abomination we have all seen with our eyes he stopped again to steady his trembling voice this is a great gathering no clan can boast of greater numbers or greater valor but are we all here i ask you are all the sons of umphia with us here a deep murmur swept through the crowd they are not he said they have broken the clan and gone there several ways we who are here this morning have remained true to our fathers but our brothers have deserted us and joined a stranger to soil their fatherland if we fight the stranger we shall hit our brothers and perhaps shed the blood of a klansmen but we must do it our fathers never dreamed of such a thing they never killed their brothers but a white man never came to them so we must do what our fathers would never have done in ak the bird was asked why he was always on the wing and he replied men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and i have learned to fly without perching on a twig we must root out this evil and if our brothers take the side of evil we must root them out too and we must do it now we must bail this water now that it is only ankle deep at this point there was a sudden stir in the crowd and every eye was turned in one direction there was a sharp bend in the road that led from the marketplace to the white man's court and to the stream beyond it and so no one had seen the approach of the five court messengers until they had come round the bend a few paces from the edge of the crowd okonkwo was sitting at the edge he sprang to his feet as soon as he saw who it was he confronted the head messenger trembling with hate unable to utter a word the man was fearless and stood as ground his four men lined up behind him in that brief moment the world seemed to stand still waiting there was utter silence the men of mafia were merged into the mute back cloth of trees and giant creepers waiting the spell was broken by the head messenger let me pass he ordered what do you want here the white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop in a flash okonkwo drew his machete the messenger crouched to avoid the blow it was useless okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body the waiting back cloth jumped into tumultuous life and the meeting was stopped okonkwo stood looking at the dead man he knew that umofia would not go to war he knew because they had let the other messengers escape they had broken into tumult instead of action he discerned fright in that tumult he heard voices asking why did he do it he wiped his machete on the sand and went away chapter 25 when district commissioner arrived at okonkwo's compound at the head of an armed band of soldiers and court messengers he found a small crowd of men sitting wearily in the obi he commanded them to come outside and they obeyed without a murmur which among you was called okonkwo he asked through his interpreter he is not here replied obierica where is he he is not here the commissioner became angry and read in the face he warned the men that unless they produced okonkwo forthwith he would lock them all up the men murmured among themselves and obierica spoke again [Music] we can take you where he is and perhaps your men will help us the commissioner did not understand what obira comment when he said perhaps your men will help us one of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words he thought obierica with five or six others led the way the commissioner and his men followed their firearms held at the ready he had warned obierica that if he and his men played any monkey tricks they would be shot and so they went there was a small bush behind okonkwo's compound the only opening into this bush from the compound was a little round hole in the red earth wall through which fowls went in and out in their endless search for food the whole would not let a man through it was to this bush that obierica led the commissioner and his men they skirted round the compound keeping close to the wall the only sound they made was with their feet as they crushed dry leaves then they came to the tree from which okonkwo's body was dangling and they stopped dead perhaps your men can help us bring him down and bury him said obiaraca we have sent for strangers from another village to do it for us but they may be a long time coming the district commissioner changed instantaneously the resolute administrator in him gave way to the student of primitive customs why can't you take him down yourselves he asked it is against our custom said one of the men it is an abomination for a man to take his own life it is an offense against the earth and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen his body is evil and only strangers may touch it that is why we ask your people to bring him down because you are strangers will you bury him like any other man ask the commissioner we cannot bury him only strangers can we shall pay your men to do it when he has been buried we will then do our duty by him we shall make sacrifices to cleanse the desecrated land obiarika who had been gazing steadily at his friend's dangling body turned suddenly to the district commissioner and said ferociously that man was one of the greatest men in mafia you drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog he could not say anymore his voice trembled and choked his words shut up shouted one of the messengers quite unnecessarily take down the body the commissioner ordered his chief messenger and bring it and all these people to the court yes the messenger said saluting the commissioner went away taking three or four of the soldiers with him in the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of africa he had learned a number of things one of them was that a district commissioner must never attend to such undignified details as cutting a hanged man from the tree such attention would give the natives a poor opinion of him in the book which he planned to write he would stress that point as he walked back to the court he thought about that book every day brought him some new material the story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading one could almost write a whole chapter on him perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph at any rate there was so much else to include and one must be firm in cutting out details he had already chosen the title of the book after much thought the pacification of the primitive tribes of the lower niger the end you've been listening to things fall apart by chinwa achebe narrated by peter francis james and thank you for being a recorded books reader audible hopes you have enjoyed this program