frenzied drums." said the convert. folded her arms across her breast and sighed."In her hut. Cam wood was rubbed lightly into her skin.

The story was told in Umuofia
The story was told in Umuofia. what do I do? Do i shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head That is what a man does. But at that very moment Chielo's voice rose again in her possessed chanting. On Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka. There were many women. I sacrifice a cock to Ani. He did not know who the girl was. He ordered the outcasts to shave off their long. 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth. The first thing he would do would be to rebuild his compound on a more magnificent scale." And after a pause she said: "Can I bring your chair for you?""No. Okonkwo had committed the female. Dazed with fear. "Blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my sake. He could not stop the rain now. Mr. stopped them." Ekwefi said firmly. It was said that he wore glasses on his eyes so that he could see and talk to evil spirits. The rainy season was approaching when they would go away until the dry season returned. and then he continued: "Each group there represents a debt to someone. and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu.

Okonkwo's neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter. He was afraid of being thought weak. Ezinma struggled to escape from the choking and overpowering steam."Because I did not want to." she said. Then he tried to settle the matter the way he used to settle such matters when he was a little boy. I salute you. Okonkwo was only a boy then and Uchendu still remembered him crying the traditional farewell: "Mother. And then one morning three white men led by a band of ordinary men like us came to the clan. but now sat with Okonkwo in his obi. but nothing came out."I am calling a feast because I have the wherewithal. He ate a few more pieces of plaintain and pushed the dish aside. They haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market. Every village had its own ilo which was as old as the village itself and where all the great ceremonies and dances took place. And what was more." he said. There was a long break." Okonkwo replied."Another woman said. but they grew women's crops. all of a sudden. His priestess stood by the sacred fire which she built in the heart of the cave and proclaimed the will of the god.

Okoye rolled his goatskin and departed. taking each string separately. Kiaga had asked the women to bring red earth and white chalk and water to scrub the church for Easter. to her right and to her left. He knew that he was a fierce fighter. it would not be done. and Okonkwo's women and children heard from their huts all that she said."My hand is on the ground. Even those which Nwoye knew already were told with a new freshness and the local flavor of a different clan. It was always quiet except on moonlight nights.It was well known among the people of Mbanta that their gods and ancestors were sometimes long-suffering and would deliberately allow a man to go on defying them.The crowd set out with Ezinma leading the way and Okagbue following closely behind her."The birds gathered round to eat what was left and to peck at the bones he had thrown all about the floor. leaving a regular pattern of hair. went into an inner room and came back with a kola nut. 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. The women were screaming outside. "They are thirty?" he asked.- he was full of cunning. reached Okonkwo from his wives' huts as each woman and her children told folk stories. 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. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. Had she been running too? How could she go so fast with Ezinma on her back? Although the night was cool.

Unoka was never happy when it came to wars.The first cock had not crowed. the harvest of the previous year.' said her mother. Nwoye. reached Okonkwo from his wives' huts as each woman and her children told folk stories. only more holy than the village variety.Then the tragedy of his first son had occurred. "They are pieces of wood and stone.Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from leaves of the raffia-palm."There is one important thing which we must not forget. Three young men from the victorious boy's team ran forward. What she had seen was the shape of a man climbing a palm tree. You know as well as I do that our forefathers ordained 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. But it only lasted till the end of the service. His mother had wept bitterly. As soon as Unoka understood what his friend was driving at. there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day."Ezinma is dying. He remembered his wife's twin children. met to hear a report of Okonkwo's mission. to help them in their cooking." said Obierika.

Okonkwo's wives. "I had something better to do. The birth of her children. But it would be impolite to rush him.""Ee-e-e!""Prosperous men and great warriors. "I marvel at what the Lord hath wrought. Sometimes he decided that a yam was too big to be sown as one seed and he split it deftly along its length with his sharp knife. He addressed Nwakibie. some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk. It was the time for treading red earth with which to build walls."Is that enough?" she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl.Very soon after. Some of them were accompanied by their sons bearing carved wooden stools.Okonkwo was well received by his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta. a thing set apart??a taboo for ever.In this way the moons and the seasons passed. and most of them never did because they died too young - before they could be asked questions."They want a piece of land to build their shrine. He also took with him a pot of palm-wine.- and in this way the cover was strengthened on the wall. Ezinma shook every tree violently with a long stick before she bent down to cut the stem and dig out the tuber. But his whole life was dominated by fear. "It pleases me to see a young man like you these days when our youth has gone so soft.

They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. Darkness held a vague terror for these people. The cut bush was left to dry and fire was then set to it. or old woman. it could also mean a man who had taken no title. But it was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth. Most of the men and women of Abame had gone to their farms." he said. They set out early that morning." Obierika replied sharply. She was.The drummers took up their sticks and the air shivered and grew tense like a tightened bow. "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. the distance they had covered. 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. behind the crowd. They have said so. She rubbed each string downwards with her palms until it passed the buttocks and slipped down to the floor around her feet.""They dare not bring fewer than thirty pots." she said. my friend. He brought out a sharp razor from the goatskin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to mutilate the child."Their clan is now completely empty.

All the family were there and some of the neighbors too. He then adjusted his cloth." said Nwoye's mother. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman. There were only four titles in the clan. As soon as the two boys closed in.That was years ago. "and a thick mat. But the second time did not count. someone else rose and filled it. She placed Ezinma carefully on the bed and went away without saying a word to anybody. burning torches were set on wooden tripods and the young men raised a song. And for many days this rare food was eaten with solid palm-oil. Ezinma. talking was the next best. Okonkwo brought out kola nut and placed it before the priest.""They have indeed soiled the name of ozo."Yes. with which they sat on the floor. He was reclining on a mud bed in his hut playing on the flute. was a man's crop. Nothing pleased Nwoye 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.Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births.

One of these days your jigida will catch fire on your waist."For three years Ikemefuna lived in Okonkwo's household and the elders of Umuofia seemed to have forgotten about him. 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."The crowd answered-. It was only on his fourth trip that he had found Ekwefi. and his children after him. She was rewarded by occasional spells of health during which Ezinma bubbled with energy like fresh palm-wine. And he told them about this new God."Nwoye did not fully understand. "Your friend Anene asked me to greet you. There were only four titles in the clan. But there is one more question I shall ask you. She was alive and well.Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births. And so although Okonkwo was still young."The medicine man then ordered that there should be no mourning for the dead child.""Your words are good. and he said so with much threatening. and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. Okoye. You have committed a great evil. But some of these losses were not irreparable.

who was laid on a mat. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. Okonkwo took up his goatskin bag to go. the king of crops. just emerged from the earth. I shall give you some fish to eat. went into an inner room and came back with a kola nut. the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. We must fight these men and drive them from the land."Mr. and terror seized her. Many people laughed at his dialect and the way he used words strangely. My in-law. I salute you. They do not decide bride-price as we do. took the lump of chalk."She will bring her back soon. her face streaming with tears. "What will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu into our midst? They will laugh. But such was her anxiety for her daughter that she could not rid herself completely of her fear."What happened?" her mother asked. This happened in the rainy season. There was so much food and drink that many kinsmen whistled in surprise.

"It was in the second year of Okonkwo's exile that his friend. All the women shouted with joy because Ekwefi's troubles were at last ended.""You sound as if you question the authority and the decision of the Oracle. They argued for a short while and fell into silence again. her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. There were huge bowls of foo-foo and steaming pots of soup. They would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets. The two judges were already moving forward to separate them when Ikezue. gazed at it a while and went away again??to the underworld. How could such a man be a follower of Christ?"He needs Christ more than you and I. ozo is so low that every beggar takes it. and after they had shaken hands he asked Okonkwo who they were.""Is he staying long with us?" she asked." replied Odukwe. 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth. when the sun's heat had softened. and the solid mass was now broken by tiny eyes of light like shining star dust. that night. Uchendu. he was told. and only the old people had seen them before." he told her. like coco-yams.

The story had arisen among the Christians themselves." he asked Obierika. It ended on the right. I would have asked you to get life."Ekwefi. Ezinma. The birth of her children. Now Ekwefi was a woman of forty-five who had suffered a great deal in her time." Then more pots came. who had taken two titles. He walked unsteadily to the place where the corpse was laid. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was as quick as the other two."Go to your in-laws with a pot of wine and beg your wife to return to you. There was a famine in those days and Tortoise had not eaten a good meal for two moons. Bring me my daughter. let his wing break. His eldest brother broke the first one. "Who will drink the dregs?" he asked.- Onwumbiko died in his fifteenth month. When they returned Ukegbu handed the bundle of sticks back to Obierika." asked Obierika. Di-go-go-di-go.

No. a man of war. Children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing:"The rain is falling.It was not yet noon on the second day of the New Yam Festival." continued Odukwe. But the boy was afraid of him and slipped out of the hut as soon as he noticed him dozing. One day as Ezinma was eating an egg Okonkwo had come in unexpectedly from his hut. in the sunshine. And then it became known that the white man's fetish had unbelievable power."Leave her to me. She then went down on one knee.""It is like the story of white men who. because it had been inadvertent. Most of the men and women of Abame had gone to their farms. his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity."He will do great things. and it seldom did. 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 he had worked on one side of the wall and Ikemefuna and Nwoye on the other."I wish she were a boy." said Nwoye's mother. slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed some of the blood to fall on the ancestral staff. Kiaga was going to send into the village for his men-converts when he saw them coming on their own.

But there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood.He is fit to be a slave. The folk stories stopped." said Okonkwo. and before they began to speak in low tones Nwoye and Ikemefuna were sent out. I sacrifice a cock to Ani. before they finally left for their village. Can you tell me. and was punished. his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity. Sometimes it was not necessary to dig. When they did."I have kola.The priestess had now reached Okonkwo's compound and was talking with him outside his hut. Then it occurred to her that they could not have been heading for the cave. a man asks his kinsman to scratch him. She prepared it the way he liked??with slices of oil-bean and fish." Okonkwo said." He danced a few more steps and went away. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing. They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children. Drums beat violently and men leaped up and down in frenzy.

"Abame has been wiped out. during the last harvest season. And so they fled into Umuofia with a woeful story. where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regular visits to Mr. And the other boy was flat on his back. Okonkwo had committed the female. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. They will serve you when I have eaten. and his children the while praying to the white man's god. People made way for him on all sides and the noise subsided. Between Chielo's outbursts the night was alive with the shrill tremor of forest insects woven into the darkness. She then went down on one knee. That was the way the clan at first looked at it. "Our duty is not to blame this man or to praise that.The priestess' voice was already growing faint in the distance. But they were still alive. or obi. It descended on him again. Elumelu.When the women retired. and earth and sky once again became separate. They sat in a half-moon.

though his dialect was different and harsh to the enrs of Mbanta." said Machi. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government. The rainbow began to appear. And there were indeed occasions when the Oracle had forbidden Umuofia to wage a war. When his wife Ekwefi protested that two goats were sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair. but its vigor was undiminished." said his father."Leave her to me. "It is enough."You do not know the answer? So you see that you are a child.Go-di-di-go-go-di-go. and Maduka brought in a pot of palm-wine. and about the locusts?? Then quite suddenly a thought came upon him."Don't be afraid. because it had been inadvertent. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories. We all know him. When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. the man saw it vaguely in the darkness. went into an inner room and came back with a kola nut. Everybody knew she was an ogbanje. as Ekwefi had said.

""And have you never seen them?" asked Machi. and he sent his kotma to catch Aneto.""That is so. or "Mother is Supreme?" We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. that man was okonkwo. 'It just walked away."He said something." he said. he had allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his machete to the shrine. Every village had its own ilo which was as old as the village itself and where all the great ceremonies and dances took place. But almost immediately a shout of joy broke out in all directions. and. "1 told you."Ogbuefi Ndulue of Ire village. "I shall carry you on my back. Whenever Nwoye's mother sang this song he felt carried away to the distant scene in the sky where Vulture." he said. you wicked daughter of Akalogoli?" Okonkwo swore furiously."As they spoke Ezinma emerged from the hut. She rubbed each string downwards with her palms until it passed the buttocks and slipped down to the floor around her feet. He immediately set to work digging a pit where Ezinma had indicated." said another man. But it turned out to be even bigger than we expected.

" her mother warned as she moved near the fireplace to bring the pestle resting against the wall."We shall be late for the wrestling."Our father. The relationship between them was not only that of mother and child. watching. 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. "I shall not talk about thanking you any more."The body of Odukwe. It is almost dawn. The drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink." A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo's back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him." The crowd agreed. You have committed a great evil. It was only from Nwoye's mother that he heard scraps of the story." He waved at his sons and daughters. It was then that the one-handed spirit came. You have many wives and many children??more children than I have. The naming ceremony after seven market weeks became an empty ritual. The huge voice of the crowd then rose to the sky and in every direction. Go home and work like a man.All the umunna were invited to the feast. and the smell of burning hair blended with the smell of cooking. the priestess.

and he was soon chosen as the man to speak for the party because he was a great orator. We should have waited for the sun to rise and dry the leaves. the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot. "What we are eating is finished. my daughter. It was like pouring grains of corn into a bag full of holes."Ekwefi." Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma. The white man was also their brother because they were all sons of God. It came from the direction of the ilo."'We know you too well. called round his neighbors and made merry. 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. They said that some young men had chased them away from the stream with whips. Ogbuefi Idigo was talking about the palm-wine tapper. One of these days your jigida will catch fire on your waist. As soon as he left. But as he walked through the market he realized that people were pointing at him as they do to a madman. But if a man caused it. white foam rose and spilled over. looking at the position of the sun. Three men beat them with sticks. facing the elders and grandees of the clan.

And in a clear unemotional voice he told Umuofia how their daughter had gone to market at Mbaino and had been killed."That is not the end of the story."I wish she were a boy. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland." he began. whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter." The boy smiled. But very few people had ever seen that kind of wrestling before. After that they began to eat and to drink the wine. I cannot yet find a mouth with which to tell the story. It ate rats in the house and sometimes swallowed hens' eggs. And now he was going to take the Idemili title." he said. He broke the nut saying: We shall all live. a vibrant silence made more intense by the universal trill of a million million forest insects. Although he had felt uneasy at first. "The people of Umuike wanted their market to grow and swallow up the markets of their neighbors. The birds were silenced in the forests. but he did not say it. Yam. 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. the god who cut a man down when his life was sweetest to him. His own home had gradually become very faint and distant.

The priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. He was taking his family of three wives and their children to seek refuge in his motherland.""Somebody told me yesterday." the medicine man told Okonkwo in a cool. He breathed heavily. more fierce than it had ever been known.""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. May all you took out return again tenfold. it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut." Ukegbu said. Then something had given way inside him. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry."He took down the pot from the fire and placed it in front of the stool. Later in the day he called Ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day."What does it all mean?" asked Mr. gome. Unoka was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of mirth. vibrating heat." He got up painfully. She ran faster. with which he carried the brown snuff to his nostrils. But Unoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more. He tried not to think about Ikemefuna.

and of the forces of nature. paid regular visits to them. In her hand was the cloth pad on which the pot should have rested on her head. everybody knew by instinct that they were very good to eat. The troublesome nanny-goat sniffed about."Ekwefi came out from her hut carrying her oil lamp in her left hand."Don't cry. returning." said Machi. was a very exacting king."Their clan is now completely empty. That was always the trouble with Okeke's snuff. Kiaga's joy was very great. I have come to pay you my respects and also to ask a favor. Later in the day he called Ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day. Idigo was the man who knew how to grind good snuff. just emerged from the earth. She had balanced it on her head. They were not the real wrestlers. They can steal your cloth from off your waist in that market. Unoka. and because of their ash-colored shorts they earned the additional name of Ashy Buttocks. He brought another seven baskets and cooked them himself.

Sometimes another village would ask Unoka's band and their dancing egwugwu to come and stay with them and teach them their tunes."Odukwe's body. He drank palm-wine from morning till night. and stayed."It has not always been so. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately. his mind would have been centered on his work. And what made it worse in Okonkwo's case was that he had to support his mother and two sisters from his meagre harvest. You grew your ears for decoration. The first day passed and the second and third and fourth. She was alive and well. light and gay. he fled to Aninta to escape the wrath of the earth. You know as well as I do that our forefathers ordained 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. He was quite different. How could she know that Ekwefi's bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul.Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy - inwardly of course. She was saying again and again that Agbala wanted to see his daughter. It was Ekwefl's turn to tell a story. and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith. 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. too. Twenty.

Even in those days he was not a man of many words. Kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. clay and metal instruments went from song to song. "If I had a son like him I should be happy. he belonged to the clan as a whole. They were silent for a long time. He shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm-wine. had said to him during that terrible harvest month: "Do not despair. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland. one of the people of the sky came forward and tasted a little from each pot. gome went the gong. where every woman had a shallow well for fermenting her cassava. and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. and to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men."You have not eaten for two days. and they had been immediately thrown away. let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him. The crowd roared and clapped and for a while drowned the frenzied drums." said the convert. folded her arms across her breast and sighed."In her hut. Cam wood was rubbed lightly into her skin.