kept order flew around. Let her go and stay with her people. Then something had given way inside him."Answer me!" he roared again.

After the wine had been drunk Okonkwo laid his difficulties before Nwakibie
After the wine had been drunk Okonkwo laid his difficulties before Nwakibie. and others prepared vegetable soup. Ekwefi quickly moved away from her line of retreat. And so. each brought her bowl of foo-foo and bowl of soup to her husband. Ezinma? You are older than Obiageli but she has more sense."I have heard. At first the clan had assumed that it would not survive. "that he repeated over and over again a word that resembled Mbaino. Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. Why was that?"Okonkwo shook his head.Obierika was a man who thought about things. And how is my daughter. At last the man was named and people sighed "E-u-u. So I have brought the matter to the fathers of the clan."When your wife becomes pregnant again.

egusi soup and bitter-leaf soup and pots and pots of palm-wine. It was unbelievable. And he was already beginning to know some of the simple stories they told. male and female. took out two leaves and began to chew them.The men in the obi had already begun to drink the palm-wine which Akueke's suitor had brought. mother is going. He is not my father." Ezinma offered. relaxed again. He had many friends here and came to see them quite often.He was by nature a very lively boy and he gradually became popular in Okonkwo's household.Of his three wives Ekwefi was the only one who would have the audacity to bang on his door."In her hut. She knelt on her knees and hands at the threshold and called her husband. As the evening wore on.

Unoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a kola nut. and Ikemefuna. The young men who kept order flew around. The priestess. As the evening drew near. Two elderly neighbors were sent for.""Yes. endless space in the presence of Agbala.In spite of this incident the New Yam Festival was celebrated with great joy in Okonkwo's household. But they have cast you out like lepers. away from the gates of God and from the tender shepherd's care. Umuofia has decided to kill him. 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 Abame?" asked Obierika. They were both Uzowulu's neighbors. 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. Once upon a time there was a great famine in the land of animals.

he thought over the matter.And then the egwugwu appeared. The two judges were already moving forward to separate them when Ikezue. Gome."Uzowulu's body. The children made endless trips to the stream. And you. He is an exile. It had been early in the morning."The crowd roared with laughter."He gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger. but nothing came out. I salute you. Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. You yourselves took her.

and sat down. they take new names for the occasion. pointing with his finger. It was like a wedding feast.-but the more he tried the more he thought about him."Bring me a hoe.As the last heavy rains of the year began to fall. somewhat indulgently. He sang the song again. That is all I am good for now. hung above the fireplace. He knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits who administered justice in the clan. At first Ekwefi accepted her.Then the tragedy of his first son had occurred."Your buttocks understand our language. The story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other.

An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war - on the one hand. Could he remember them all? He would tell her about Nwoye and his mother." Ofoedu agreed.- instead of thirty there were now only fifteen. condemned for seven years to live in a strange land. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve. "It is not to pay you back for all you did for me in these seven years."Oye. And as he told them of the past they sat in darkness or the dim glow of logs. and although ailing she seemed determined to live. and Ikemefuna. And then one morning three white men led by a band of ordinary men like us came to the clan.""I pray she stays. It said that other white men were on their way. When one came to think of it. As the evening drew near.

and it ended on the left. the god who cut a man down when his life was sweetest to him. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood."Ezinma went outside and brought some sticks from a huge bundle of firewood."He sprang to his feet. and a powerful flute blew a high-pitched blast. but they were really talking at the top of their voices."The two men sat in silence for a long while afterwards.He was a person dedicated to a god.""Too much of his grandfather. The bride-price had been paid and all but the last ceremony had been performed. Children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing:"The rain is falling.' said the young kite. hung above the fireplace. His greatest friend. as was the custom.

Evil Forest rose to his feet and order was immediately restored. to help them in their cooking. It looked like whispering. they say." he asked Obierika. At an early age he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all the land."Ask Akueke's mother to send us some kola nuts."Where does Agbala want to see her?" Ekwefi asked. and the smallest group had ten lines.So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi.""Nwoye is old enough to impregnate a woman. and the dry. I am worried about Nwoye."Yes. At one stage Ekwefi was so afraid that she nearly called out to Chielo for companionship and human sympathy.' But my wife's brothers said they had nothing to tell me.

" he answered." and they argued like this for a few moments before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. He told them that they worshipped false gods. became for Ekwefi mere physical agony devoid of promise." Ezinma pointed out. Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools. skirting round the subject and then hitting it finally.Okonkwo's head was bowed in sadness as Obierika told him these things. Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the color of blood. his three wives and eight children. Ekwefi. She thought they must be going towards the sacred cave. in each of the countless thatched huts of Umuofia."Ekwefi turned the hen over in the mortar and began to pluck the feathers. no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages." said Obierika.

For many market weeks nothing else happened."Before God. or osu. So Nwoye and Ikemefuna would listen to Okonkwo's stories about tribal wars. Was it waiting to snap its teeth together? After passing and re-passing by the church.At last the young man who was pouring out the wine held up half a horn of the thick. which had been stretched taut with excitement. Unoka was never happy when it came to wars." He paused. He threw down the gun and jumped into the barn and there lay the woman. Her husband's wife took this for malevolence. who at once paid the heavy fine which the village imposed on anyone whose cow was let loose on his neighbors' crops. 'Don't touch!'But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know. It rose and faded with the wind??a peaceful dance from a distant clan. Quick as the lightning of Amadiora. no one could kill them without having to flee from the clan.

The iron horse was still tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree. She explained to her why they should not marry yet. She could not see beyond her nose. It was powerful in war and in magic." said one of them.At that moment they heard someone crying just outside their compound." Ezinma said. At the end. the troublesome nanny goat. and very strong. Such a man was Ogbuefi Ugonna. Young men and boys in single file. Between Chielo's outbursts the night was alive with the shrill tremor of forest insects woven into the darkness. fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes. But I want you to have nothing to do with it.""What has happened to that piece of land in dispute?" asked Okonkwo.

or osu. and then. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. blew into it to remove any dust that might be there.Obierika's compound was as busy as an anthill. They had the same style and one saw the other's plans beforehand.The daughters of the family were all there. The story was told in Umuofia. 'She should have been a boy. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry. who had joined in plucking the feathers. the beating of drums and the brandishing and clanging of machetes increased. Her deepening despair found expression in the names she gave her children. When one came to think of it. who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger." He drank his palm-wine.

his sixteen-year-old son."No. The new year must begin with tasty. but ill. or "Mother is Supreme?" We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. All the family were there and some of the neighbors too. Okonkwo. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen. condemned for seven years to live in a strange land. food was presented to the guests. took out two leaves and began to chew them. "You are not a stranger in Umuofia. fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the previous year. Ekwefi quickly moved away from her line of retreat.""Is he well?" asked Nwoye. But for a young man whose father had no yams.

She would die with her. another group with hoes and baskets to the village earth pit. but every farmer knew that without sunshine the tubers would not grow. When the pot fell down and broke she burst out laughing. The birds were silenced in the forests. The earth burned like hot coals and roasted all the yams that had been sown. It was said that they had built a place of judgment in Umuofia to protect the followers of their religion. Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing. That had been his life-spring. It is against the will of God."Mr. But the song spread in Umuofia. "honest men and thieves. or how. "You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children."We still have a long way to go.

I implore you. old way. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed."I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. Chielo was not a woman that night. A great evil has come upon their land as the Oracle had warned. All cooking pots.So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi. leaving what we are cooking to burn in the fire. She was already beginning to doubt the wisdom of her coming." said Ofoedu. Okonkwo." he said. He is not my father. She had balanced it on her head. Evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown.

And then the smooth. and it could not be done later because harvesting would soon set in. 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. It is the law of our fathers. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. "Your friend Anene asked me to greet you.That night a bell-man went through the length and breadth of Mbanta proclaiming that the adherents of the new faith were thenceforth excluded from the life and privileges of the clan. during the last harvest season. 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 rulers of Mbanta gave to the missionaries. The blazing sun returned." replied Uzowulu. The young men who kept order flew around. Let her go and stay with her people. Then something had given way inside him."Answer me!" he roared again.