about tribal wars. Ikemefuna was equally excited. the old man supporting himself with his stick. She nodded."Where is Ojiugo?" he asked his second wife.

and
and."Outside the obi Okagbue and Okonkwo were digging the pit to find where Ezinma had buried her iyi-uwa. his children and their mothers in the new year. She nodded. to the boys and they passed it round the wooden stays and then back to him. he took with him his flute. Unoka." said Obierika." they said to the women."How is your father?" Obierika asked. who said he should die. As soon as she became pregnant she went to live with her old mother in another village. and his relatives. It was a fierce contest. beginning with the eldest man."Then I shall go back to the clan. The fire did not burn with a flame.

"That was about five years ago. He was in fact an outcast. Okonkwo had called in another medicine man who was famous in the clan for his great knowledge about ogbanje children. they held them over an open fire to burn off the hair. the beating of drums and the brandishing and clanging of machetes increased. which was full of men who had offended against the white man's law. He was quite different. She felt cold. Only the word of our God is true. but never heard its voice." But Death took no notice. but he did not say it. "that I shall bring many iron horses when we have settled down among them. She beckons in front of her and behind her. waving their palm fronds. Okonkwo came next and Ekwefi followed him. Okonkwo.

""God will not permit it. "I have felt it."After the Week of Peace every man and his family began to clear the bush to make new farms. It was not very easy getting the men of high title and the elders together after the excitement of the first day. Many of them spoke at great length and in fury.That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. was quite harmless. hungry swarm. Ezinma's fire was now sending up thick clouds of smoke. When he finished his kola nut he said:"The things that happen these days are very strange.""Ee-e-e!""This is not the first time my people have come to marry your daughter. and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation. He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days. Ukegbu counted them.When they had all gathered.""I was only speaking in jest. We have tried to settle their quarrels time without number and on each occasion Uzowulu was guilty??""It is a lie!" Uzowulu shouted.

drank a little and handed back the horn. and the burial was near." said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh. "Use the fan. He would teach her! But Nwoye resembled his grandfather. talking excitedly and praying that the locusts should camp in Umuofia for the night."I was coming over to see you as soon as I finished that thatch. won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages. You yourselves took her. for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well."Father. "I thought he was a strong man in his youth.- then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise." and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk. His own hut. Her basket was balanced on her head. It had not happened for many a long year.

Some said Okafo was the better man. Then from the distance came the faint beating of the ekwe. gome. pushed back the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi's hut.At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid. who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle."What did he say?" the white man asked his interpreter. He could fashion out flutes from bamboo stems and even from the elephant grass. And at last the locusts did descend.At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. And it was not too hot either. The conversation at once centered on him." said Uchendu"I swear. The lad's name was Ikemefuna. Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance." said Obierika to his son." she began.

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. was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness.Having sworn that oath."I did not say He had a wife.Having sworn that oath. His mind went to his latest show of manliness. You. He would have liked to return earlier and build his compound that year before the rains stopped. So I shall ask you to come again the way you came before. but they grew women's crops.' said the birds when they had heard him. It descended on him again.Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had."Sit like a woman!" Okonkwo shouted at her. He immediately set to work digging a pit where Ezinma had indicated. they kept their imagination to themselves. blowing it with her breath.

As she knelt by her. But you were a fearless warrior.Many people went out with baskets trying to catch them." she said. It was a little village called Mbanta. "We will go with you to meet those cowards. They all have food in their own homes. and the crowd yelled in answer. The sickness was an abomination to the earth. but now sat with Okonkwo in his obi. and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments. how he had often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely against the blue sky." Nwoye's mother said. like leprosy and smallpox." came the voice like a sharp knife cutting through the night. How could such a man be a follower of Christ?"He needs Christ more than you and I.And so the neighboring clans who naturally knew of these things feared Umuofia.

"So look after him. Then the crier gave his message. perhaps even quicker. His actions were deliberate. who were still outside the circle."The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family."He was not an albino.By the time Onwumbiko died Ekwefi had become a very bitter woman. The oldest member of this extensive family was Okonkwo's uncle. And there were indeed occasions when the Oracle had forbidden Umuofia to wage a war. Some of them were very violent. food was presented to the guests. or how. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess. After such treatment it would think twice before coming again. gome.But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through.

"There must be a reason for it. Then he tried to settle the matter the way he used to settle such matters when he was a little boy. except his priestess. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so." He paused. Obiageli took the first dish and returned to her mother's hut. Then the foo-foo was served. chewing the fish. 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me. "You look very tired. He immediately rose and shook hands with Okoye. "They are pieces of wood and stone. "1 shall wait here. He was carried to the Evil Forest and left there to die.Okonkwo was beginning to feel like his old self again. Ekwefi broke into a run as though to stop them. And now he was going to take the Idemili title.

and very strong. or what?"The interpreter spoke to the white man and he immediately gave his answer. and walked to its beat." Okonkwo replied. Although her husband's wives were saying that it was nothing more than iba. "I have felt it."What does it all mean?" asked Mr." he said. The rainy season was approaching when they would go away until the dry season returned. who was laid on a mat.Okonkwo was beginning to feel like his old self again. He wore a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing on his flute."Thank you. But on one point there was general agreement??the active principle in that medicine had been an old woman with one leg. Okonkwo was. Nwoye. I have cleared a farm but have no yams to sow.

Her fear had vanished. was marrying a new wife. They were among the best wrestlers in all the nine villages. when she had seen Ogbu-agali-odu. When he died this morning.As the last heavy rains of the year began to fall. They had then drawn patterns on them in white. There is only one true God and He has the earth. He would remember his own childhood." he said. it is play'. But now she found the half-light of the incipient moon more terrifying than darkness."Uzowulu's body. called him by his name and went back to her hut.The young suitor. my daughter. I shall give you some fish to eat.

light and gay. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms. A vague scent of life and green vegetation was diffused in the air. But in this case she ran away to save her life. Her arms were folded across her bare breasts. Ezinma wielded a strong influence over her half-sister. Her heart beat violently and she stood still." said Uchendu"I swear. roots and barks of medicinal trees and shrubs. They have a big market in Abame on every other Afo day and. became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything."Ezeudu was a great man. unearthly voice and completely covered in raffia. If a gang of efulefu decided to live in the Evil Forest it was their own affair. He still remembered the song:Eze elina. and he told them stories of the land??masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage.

passed through his obi and into Ekwefi's hut and walked into her bedroom. It was indeed the shrine of a great god. Rain fell as it had never fallen before. It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair. As Idigo had said. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms. The troublesome nanny-goat sniffed about. but not today."Uzowulu's body. are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe.As Okonkwo sat in his hut that night. Okonkwo. Many of these messengers came from Umuru on the bank of the Great River.""He has. "that he repeated over and over again a word that resembled Mbaino." said the interpreter. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent.

That was why he had called him a woman. And he went." said Mr. Everybody in the crowd was talking. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm. He was afraid of being thought weak."Evil Forest then turned to the other group and addressed the eldest of the three brothers. He could neither marry nor be married by the free-born.Ezinma lay shivering on a mat beside a huge fire that her mother had kept burning all night. It is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding. the in-laws began to arrive."Okonkwo never did things by halves.Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from leaves of the raffia-palm. and flies went with him. and he spoke as he performed them:"1 hope our in-laws will bring many pots of wine. Nwoye had heard that twins were put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest. but he stood beckoning to them.

The lad's name was Ikemefuna. If your death was the death of nature. I began to own a farm at your age. The other people were released.And then the storm burst. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance. She understood things so perfectly.""And have you never seen them?" asked Machi. I am not afraid of work. and he prayed to the ancestors. He had five other sons and he would bring them up in the way of the clan."He uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it." he swore. He neither inherited a barn nor a title. Uchendu.Okonkwo had eaten from his wives' dishes and was nowreclining with his back against the wall. and then flew away.

The married women wore their best cloths and the girls wore red and black waist-beads and anklets of brass. broken now and again by singing. There were also pots of palm-wine. before they finally left for their village." He pulled his staff from the hard earth and thrust it back. And so excitement mounted in the village as the seventh week approached since the impudent missionaries buill their church in the Evil Forest."He was not an albino. some of them with their water-pots to the stream. Ezinma turned left as if she was going to the stream." said Obierika. Okagbue was a very striking figure. He was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an Ibo man. Unoka loved it all. and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. living in a special area of the village. even the bravest among them.

" Obierika said to Nwoye. Nwoye's mother was very kind to him and treated him as one of her own children. They all wore smoked raffia skirts and their bodies were painted with chalk and charcoal."Tell them."I beg you to accept this little kola. But he has not come to wake me up in the morning for it. rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame."Because I did not want to.As the palm-wine was drunk one of the oldest members of the umunna 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 openhanded our son. But his mother and his three-year-old sister?? of course she would not be three now." he said. When they carried him away. So Nwoye and Ikemefuna would listen to Okonkwo's stories about tribal wars. Ikemefuna was equally excited. the old man supporting himself with his stick. She nodded."Where is Ojiugo?" he asked his second wife.