woman.The way into the shrine was a round hole at the side of a hill." The crowd agreed. Obierika nodded in agreement.

"There is too much green vegetable
"There is too much green vegetable. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. But in absence of work. Nwoye's mother carried a basket of coco-yams. It rose and faded with the wind??a peaceful dance from a distant clan. and stake them when the young tendrils appear. It was evening and the sun was settingUchendu's eldest daughter. and she was notorious for her late cooking. To show affection was a sign of weakness."Uzowulu's body.""I pray she stays. If you are sending him on an errand he flies away before he has heard half of the message. Cam wood was rubbed lightly into her skin. "You are our teacher. and a girl. At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good." said Okagbue. looking up from the yams she was peeling. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. as was the custom. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!"She walked through Okonkwo's hut into the circular compound and went straight toward Ekwefi's hut. If a clansman killed a royal python accidentally. so that he was full of food and drink and his body filled out in his shell.

how many twins she has borne and thrown away." he said. There was foo-foo and yam pottage. the interpreter. This happened in the rainy season. When they had eaten they talked about many things: about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams. he was terribly afraid. hungry swarm. that is not the beginning." said Uchendu.In spite of this incident the New Yam Festival was celebrated with great joy in Okonkwo's household. all strong and healthy." said someone light-heartedly and the crowd laughed. It was said that they had built a place of judgment in Umuofia to protect the followers of their religion. He trembled with the desire to conquer and subdue. We heard of it. "People traveled more in those days.The last match was between the leaders of the teams. Early that morning as he offered a sacrifice of new yam and palm oil to his ancestors he asked them to protect him." he said as he broke it. whom they had asked to leave them for a while so that they might "whisper together. He died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. conversing with his father in low tones.

Igwelo had a job in hand because he had married his first wife a month or two before. children." said Okonkwo. They sympathized with their neighbors with much shaking of the head. He hoped to get another four hundred yams from one of his father's friends at Isiuzo. and people came from far and near to consult it. The house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices: Am oyim de de de de! filled the air as the spirits of the ancestors. On his head were two powerful horns. The rains had come and yams had been sown. But they dared not complain openly. and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man."Sometimes I wish I had not taken the ozo title. Those who were big enough to carry even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown-ups to the farm. It was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum. and Umuofia. There were only three such boys in each team."Leave her to me. The first people who saw him ran away."Come and show me the exact spot. children. On the second day Uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his nephew. Fortunately. "Are you afraid you may dissolve?"The harvesting was easy.

" said the old man. carrying a wooden dish with three kola nuts and alligator pepper."And it died this morning?"Okonkwo said yes. A sudden hush had fallen on the women. Darkness held a vague terror for these people. You grew your ears for decoration.' said Mother Kite.""I can tell you. But it was a resilient spirit. fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes. The white man had gone back to Umuofia. "the goddess of the earth. for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well."It was Wednesday in Holy Week and Mr. The moon must be preparing to rise. but he had not expected he would be so generous. he was terribly afraid. he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. They have said so.Ekwefi peeled the yams quickly. The crowd had surrounded and swallowed up the drummers. As the elders said. The fire did not burn with a flame.

roots and barks of medicinal trees and shrubs. He searched his bag and brought out his snuff-bottle. and they ran for their lives. worthless. the medicine itself was called agadi-nwayi. The drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. Has he thrown a hundred Cats?He has thrown four hundred Cats." he said. Whenever the thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success. They were locusts. the man saw it vaguely in the darkness. Unoka prayed to their ancestors for life and health. with her suitor and his relatives. or the teeth of an old woman. Di-go-go-di-go-di-di-go-go floated in the message-laden night air. Earth's emissary. became for Ekwefi mere physical agony devoid of promise. And now he was going to take the Idemili title. A vague scent of life and green vegetation was diffused in the air. He held up a piece of chalk. when Mr. "In Abame and Aninta the title is worth less than two cowries. But he threw himself into it like one possessed.

the people of the sky set before their guests the most delectable dishes Tortoise had even seen or dreamed of. It had to be done slowly and carefully. His future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan. and at the end he had been taken out and handed over to a stranger. Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. All the grass had long been scorched brown. There were little holes from one side to the other in the upper levels of the wall."They are here."He will do great things.' he said as they flew on their way. Suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow Nwoye's steps and abandon their ancestors? Okonkwo felt a cold shudder run through him at the terrible prospect. Kiaga had asked the women to bring red earth and white chalk and water to scrub the church for Easter. forty. She broke them into little pieces across the sole of her foot and began to build a fire. The Lord shall have them in derision. He knew that he was a fierce fighter. and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half-light set in the solid massiveness of night. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. Obierika. She beckons in front of her and behind her. he was not afraid now."After the Week of Peace every man and his family began to clear the bush to make new farms. who will hold his head up among my people.

The inhabitants of Mbanta expected them all to be dead within four days.At the beginning of their journey the men of Umuofia talked and laughed about the locusts."The next day a group of elders from all the nine villages of Umuofia came to Okonkwo's house early in the morning. he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. It said that other white men were on their way. Ezeudu was the oldest man in this quarter of Umuofia. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. The total effect was gay and brisk. passed through his obi and into Ekwefi's hut and walked into her bedroom. such as befitted a noble warrior. In the end Parrot. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. to Obierika's compound." Quite often she bought beancakes and gave Ekwefi some to take home to Ezinma. Okonkwo helped them put down their loads. They called him the little bird nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi. Soon it covered half the sky.""Oho." He waved his arm where most of the young men sat. and so everyone in his family listened. now desperate. His name was Uchendu. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death.

Would he recognize her now? She must have grown quite big. demolished his red walls. Unoka. 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 round his waist."Although they were almost the same age. He did not know who the girl was. Its most potent war-medicine was as old as the clan itself. Ezigbo. As for the boy. Neither of the other wives had. They set out early that morning. He was merely led into greater complexities."Come along. Tortoise began to sniff aloud. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. It was on the seventh day that he died." said one of the priests. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone." he said. called him by his name and went back to her hut. when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty."Odukwe was short and thickset.He took a pot of palm-wine and a cock to Nwakibie.

He is fit to be a slave."Answer the question at once. Their fathers had never dared to stand before our ancestors. eating the peelings. The drums rose to a frenzy. He still remembered the song:Eze elina." Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma."Agbala do-o-o-o!?? Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! ??" Ekwefi trudged behind.""I did not know that. but no one spoke.One day a neighbor called Okoye came in to see him. The first cup went to Okonkwo."We shall be late for the wrestling. Okonkwo was among them. Unoka loved the good hire and the good fellowship. His eldest son. There was no festival in all the seasons of the year which gave her as much pleasure as the wrestling match."Then I shall go back to the clan. But the one knew what the other was thinking. and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself. Of all his children she alone understood his every mood. love returned once more to her mother. and as it dwelt on it.

Ezeudu had taken three titles in his life. forty. And then the smooth. Everybody stood to let her pass and then filed after her. "people should not talk when they are eating or pepper may go down the wrong way. but its vigor was undiminished. and asked Okonkwo to have a word with him outside. That was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet." replied her mother. and the children who sang songs of welcome to them. He searched in it for his snuff-bottle. Ekwefi quickly took her to their bedroom and placed her on their high bamboo bed. "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. And he knew which trees made the strongest bows." said the joker. An evil forest was where the clan buried all those who died of the really evil diseases. When they saw it they drove it back to its owner. The drums beat the unmistakable wrestling dance - quick. and Ekwefi recoiled.All this anthill activity was going smoothly when a sudden interruption came. who was the oldest man in the village. She had about three teeth and was always smoking her pipe. "Who will drink the dregs?" he asked.

there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day.Okonkwo was also feeling tired." He paused for a long time and then said: "I told you on my last visit to Mbanta how they hanged Aneto. As for the boy. That was why he had called him a woman. "I planted the farm nearly two years ago. Okonkwo and the two boys were working on the red outer walls of the compound.And then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world."When they had cut the goats' throats and collected the blood in a bowl. Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man. The women had come to the church with empty waterpots. "But I cannot understand these things you tell me. Ezinma had not wanted to cooperate with him at first. That was in fact the reason why he had come to see Unoka. She knelt on her knees and hands at the threshold and called her husband." said one of the younger men."Go and bring me some cold water. which was shaved in beautiful patterns. They were grieved by the indignity and mourned for their neglected farms. seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations. To show affection was a sign of weakness.Okonkwo had eaten from his wives' dishes and was nowreclining with his back against the wall. Umuofia has decided to kill him.

Nwoye.Share-cropping was a very slow way of building up a barn of one's own. in silence. Obierika. How could she know that Ekwefi's bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul."I must go home to tap my palm trees for the afternoon. But by the end of the day the sisal rings were burned dry and gray. Nwoye's mind had gone immediately to Nwayieke. was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. "Let us hear Odukwe. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm.- then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise. from Umuofia to Mbaino." said Machi. and his relatives. she was in close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth. Once she tripped up and fell. and a little hoe for digging out the tuber. He was greatly surprised. If we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief. You grew your ears for decoration. It was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum.""Uzowulu's body.

He was therefore waiting to receive them. 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. But I can trust you. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia "body. And for the first time they had a woman. Okonkwo!" she warned. whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. Although he had felt uneasy at first. They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to market. but the elders counseled patience till nightfall. The three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market." said Machi. "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. beginning with the eldest man. He could neither marry nor be married by the free-born. They boast about victory over death."The next day a group of elders from all the nine villages of Umuofia came to Okonkwo's house early in the morning. It was quiet and confident. Her basket was balanced on her head. and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation. Mr. They sang the latest song in the village:" If I hold her handShe says. He must have a wife.

and Nwakibie's two grown-up sons were also present in his obi. Okonkwo would take care of meat and yams. Only the word of our God is true."Come. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. my daughter. Now you talk about his son.Uchendu had been told by one of his grandchildren that three strangers had come to Okonkwo's house.' said the young kite. for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan. Their leader was called Evil Forest. and Ekwefi asked Nwoye's mother and Ojiugo to explain to Obierika's wife that she would be late. Even the smell of gunpowder was swallowed in the sickly smell that now filled the air. The harvest was over. And when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice. In the other group were her husband. "before i learned how to tap. Okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust. touching the earth. But when a father beats his child. my daughter. Okonkwo said yes very strongly. and in the end it was decided to ostracize the Christians.

I did not send her away. 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."But this particular night was dark and silent. But before they left each took back the feather he had lent to Tortoise. but he had been too surprised to weep. On Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka." A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo's back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him. she sat down on a stony ledge and waited.During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth. perhaps even quicker." said Obierika. But his wives and young children were not as strong. If a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his hut."No. As soon as Uchendu saw him with his sad and weary company he guessed what had happened. the third highest in the land. He ate a few more pieces of plaintain and pushed the dish aside. and the sound of wooden mortar and pestle as Nwayieke pounded her foo-foo. with music and dancing and a great feast.The nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. But no one was sure where it was coming from. which was shaved in beautiful patterns.

He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth.As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete. ignorant of the love of God. He asked the birds to take a message for his wife. but she must wait for Ezinma to wake. He could not ask another man to build his own obi for him. I am an old man and you are all children. He led it on a thick rope which he tied round his wrist. "Your friend Anene asked me to greet you.He took a pot of palm-wine and a cock to Nwakibie. walked in their midst.The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta. It was a very expensive ceremony and he was gathering all his resources together. All else was silent. Everybody was killed. The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did. Ekwefi screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess."That was all he had said."Odukwe's body. He made him feel grown-up.They sat in a big circle on the ground and the young bride in the center with a hen in her right hand.Ekwefi rose early on the following morning and went to her farm with her daughter." Okonkwo said to the lad.

three times. let his wing break. At first the clan had assumed that it would not survive. He had therefore put his drinking-horn into his goatskin bag for the occasion. In fact he recovered from his illness only a few days before the Week of Peace began. where titled men climb trees and pound foo-foo for their wives. His love of talk had grown with age and sickness. it said.""But someone had to do it. I greet you. with which they sat on the floor. They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to market. The first cup went to Okonkwo. He was very good on his flute. The first cup went to Okonkwo. whom she called her daughter. She was called Crystal of Beauty. and was now accorded great respect in all the clan." said Machi." he had said. Then the bride. Indeed he respected him for his industry and success. facing the elders and grandees of the clan.

Quick as the lightning of Amadiora. I want you to be there.The drummers stopped for a brief rest before the real matches. But you are still a child. She beckons in front of her and behind her. Then the bride. Obierika and half a dozen other friends came to help and to console him. white dregs and said. only to return to their places almost immediately. "my eyelid is twitching. Uchendu's eldest daughter had come from Obodo. Her husband had brought out more yams than usual because the medicine man had to be fed. And they might also have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of egwugwu."Ekwefi did as she was asked. Her eyes were useless to her in the darkness." said Ezelagbo. And they all knew Ekwefi and her daughter very well. roots snapped below. She only began to weep when they got near the iroko tree outside their compound. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess." He threw his head down and gnashed his teeth. it is play'.

"She should have been a boy. and Ekwefi recoiled.' Maduka has been watching your mouth. After that they began to eat and to drink the wine. This one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of water. The men trod dry leaves on the sand.""He has. But she had grown so bitter about her own chi that she could not rejoice with others over their good fortune. But as he walked through the market he realized that people were pointing at him as they do to a madman. only more holy than the village variety. As for the boy."What is iyi-uwa?" she asked in return. When Ekwefi had followed the priestess. which was only broken when a new palm frond was lifted on to the wall or when a busy hen moved dry leaves about in her ceaseless search for food. 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. When his wife Ekwefi protested that two goats were sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair.""What will I see?" she asked. Who else among his children could have read his thoughts so well? With two beautiful grown-up daughters his return to Umuofia would attract considerable attention. the king of crops." Ezinma pointed out.Unoka. nor even a young wife. panting.

and the sands felt like live coals to the feet. But it was a resilient spirit.Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night. And so at a very early age when he was striving desperately to build a barn through share-cropping Okonkwo was also fending for his father's house.Onwumbiko was not given proper burial when he died. But it was the season of rest between the harvest and the next planting season.Okonkwo and his family worked very hard to plant a new farm. and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest.Thus the men of Umuofia pursued their way. Okonkwo got ready quickly and the party set out with Ikemefuna carrying the pot of wine.'"None of the birds had heard of this custom but they knew that Tortoise. She sometimes broke into a run and stopped again suddenly."Yes.Okonkwo's neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter. and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. But there were some too who came because they had friends in our town. for his father's relatives to see. The white man was also their brother because they were all sons of God." said Ezinma. to roast plantains for him. and the hosts looked at each other as if to say. 'You are full of cunning and you are ungrateful. a place which was already becoming remote and vague in his imagination.

Some kinsmen ate it with egusi soup and others with bitter-leaf soup. Then came the voices of the egwugwu. My case is finished. Thirty. prophesying. Kiaga's joy was very great. When they had all taken. All cooking pots. malevolent. silencing him."Don't cry. who had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan.Okonkwo sprang from his bed. He remembered his wife's twin children.Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. I would have asked you to get life. But he was not a failure like Unoka. and then painted his big toe."One of them passes here frequently. It had to be done slowly and carefully. And then suddenly she had begun to shiver in the night.Dusk was already approaching when their contest began."Okonkwo bit his lips as anger welled up within him.

"He said something.The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta."He led Umuofia to war in those days. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten. The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did. whose feeling of importance was manifest in her sprightly walk. They said that some young men had chased them away from the stream with whips. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess.""You do not understand. how many twins she has borne and thrown away.' said her mother. but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man's god would not last. But the arrivees persevered.The wrestlers were now almost still in each other's grip. And when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice."We shall be going. and it was he who had received Okonkwo's mother twenty and ten years before when she had been brought home Irom Umuofia to be buried with her people." said Okonkwo. gome." said the leader of the ecjwucjwu." replied Okonkwo.""There is no story that is not true." At the same time the priestess also said.

that night." His tone now changed from anger to command.""The only other person is Udenkwo. 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. refreshed and thankful." he said. A deathly silence descended on Okonkwo's compound."Ekwefi came out from her hut carrying her oil lamp in her left hand. The missionaries had come to Umuofia.It was a long and weary journey and Ekwefi felt like a sleepwalker most of the way. called round his neighbors and made merry. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. What you have done will not please the Earth." said Obierika."You have not eaten for two days.The wrestlers were not there yet and the drummers held the field. and which she no doubt still told to her younger children??stories of the tortoise and his wily ways. Ukegbu counted them. If you had been a coward." said the woman.The way into the shrine was a round hole at the side of a hill." The crowd agreed. Obierika nodded in agreement.