he tried to run away. They were both Uzowulu's neighbors. But in spite of these disadvantages.

One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness
One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. All the other dancers made way for her. And so nobody gave serious thought to the stories about the white man's government or the consequences of killing the Christians. flat. That was the only time Ekwefi ever saw Ogbu-agali-odu. I kill a man on the day that his life is sweetest to him." he said. The crowd roared and clapped and for a while drowned the frenzied drums. to sit with him in his obi." he said. I am an old man and you are all children. as usual. Obierika pointed at the two heavy bags. 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. He had sown four hundred seeds when the rains dried up and the heat returned. But there were some too who came because they had friends in our town."She will bring her back soon." They were hard and painful on the body as they fell." said some of the elders. It is the law of our fathers.Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from leaves of the raffia-palm. "And he was riding an iron horse."A little more?? I said a little.

" said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh. fifth and sixth years."You are a big man now. the tumult increased tenfold. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic."Our father."On the following Sunday. he was already one of the greatest men of his time." said another man. It was then uncertain whether the low rumbling of Amadiora's thunder came from above or below. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. they held them over an open fire to burn off the hair. and in the end Okonkwo overcame his sorrow.'Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive. At last Vulture was sent to plead with Sky. But Chielo ignored what he was trying to say and went on shouting that Agbala wanted to see his daughter. He presented a kola nut and an alligator pepper. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past. He could not ask another man to build his own obi for him.Suddenly Okagbue sprang to the surface with the agility of a leopard. Kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly. also had a basket of plantains and coco-yams and a small pot of palm-oil. Nwoye was there.

nor even a young wife. But when a father beats his child. trembling. They were already far enough where they stood and there was room for running away if any of them should go towards them." said Okagbue. 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. and we expected a big feast.Yam. by Okonkwo's brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. Marriage should be a play and not a fight so we are falling down again. Ezinma. Some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves. An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war - on the one hand. Ekwefi believed deep inside her that Ezinma had come to stay. "God will laugh at them on the judgment day. in each of the countless thatched huts of Umuofia. "Are you mad?"Okonkwo did not answer. and for protection against their enemies. He passed her a piece of fish. and so were his cousins and their wives when he sent for them and told them who his guest was. The old man bore no ill will towards Okonkwo. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears. He worked.

and brought back a duckling.Ekwefi went into her hut to cook yams. 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. they held them over an open fire to burn off the hair. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so."When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land. his three wives and eight children. The fowl Ekwefi had just killed was in the wooden mortar. But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother.""That is why the drum has not been beaten to tell Umuofla. no one could kill them without having to flee from the clan. My sister lived with him for nine years. he. who stood beside her."Come along. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly. Of all his children she alone understood his every mood. Okonkwo got ready quickly and the party set out with Ikemefuna carrying the pot of wine. The sickness was an abomination to the earth."Go home and sleep. A baby on its mother's back does not know that the way is long. Okonkwo's youngest wife also came out and joined the others."They want a piece of land to build their shrine.

That was many years ago."The night was already far spent when the guests rose to go. and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up. "I must thank my mother's kinsmen before I go. A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. 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 called umunna. The elders said locusts came once in a generation."Yes."At that moment Obierika's son. One morning three of them came to my house. The three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market. Obiageli brought up the rear. Unoka stood before her and began his story. but achievement was revered. whose eyes. Ekwefi tried to pull out the horny beak but it was too hard.Ezinma was still sleeping when everyone else was astir. It was such a forest that. sang for mercy. If your death was the death of nature. the king of crops. The meat was then shared so that every member of the umunna had a portion. unearthly voice and completely covered in raffia.

rumbling like thunder in the rainy season. That also is true. Obierika had sent one of his relatives all the way to Umuike to buy that goat It was the one he would present alive to his in-laws. as a sullen husband refuses his wife's food when they have quarrelled. The white man has no sense. Ezinma sneezed."Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?" Okagbue had asked Ezinma. Ogbuefi Ugonna had thought of the Feast in terms of eating and drinking.""Is he well?" asked Nwoye."When did you become a shivering old woman. Okonkwo cleared his throat. a cake of salt and smoked fish which she would present to Obierika's wife. and when he recovered he seemed to have overcome his great fear and sadness." The three rose and went outside. 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. which should be a woman's crowning glory. When everyone had drunk two or three horns. yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt."Everybody thanked Okonkwo and the neighbors brought out their drinking horns from the goatskin bags they carried. and with him were his father and uncle. The sound of her benumbed steps seemed to come from some other person walking behind her.Obierika's compound was as busy as an anthill. So I have brought the matter to the fathers of the clan.

"Just then Obierika's son. i fear for the clan. occasionally feeling with her palm the wet."Come along. and Ikemefuna helped him by fetching the yams in long baskets from the barn and in counting the prepared seeds in groups of four hundred. or how. but now sat with Okonkwo in his obi. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these." said Okonkwo. as the saying goes. It all began over the question of admitting outcasts. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. If you give me some yam seeds I shall not fail you. He was very good on his flute." said Ekwefi.But apart from the church. But it only lasted till the end of the service. Umuofia. Do not bear a hand in his death. and stammered. or tie-tie. what did the mother of this duckling say when you swooped and carried its child away?' 'It said nothing." Obierika thought.

he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine. speaking in a tremulous.""It is like the story of white men who. Ogbuefi Ezeugo was a powerful orator and was always chosen to speak on such occasions. which the first wife alone could wear.At this point an old man said he had a question." he said to Okonkwo. Only then did she realize. Okonkwo always asked his wives' relations. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back. The wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith. that Chielo had stopped her chanting. the rulers and elders of Mbanta assembled to decide on their action. they ought to know that Akueke is the bride for a king. palm-oil and pepper for the soup. She saw the other children with their water-pots and remembered that they were going to fetch water for Obierika's wife. leaving what we are cooking to burn in the fire. You have many wives and many children??more children than I have. When the moon rose late in the night. If a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the Evil Forest. "All the gods you have named are not gods at all. "they killed him and tied up his iron horse. before the first cock-crow.

"It is enough.Evil Forest began to speak and all the while he spoke everyone was silent. and nodded their heads in approval of all he said. Go and see if your father has brought out yams for the afternoon. his three wives and eight children. a machete for cutting down the soft cassava stem. "So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks. And what is the result? Their clan is full of the evil spirits of these unburied dead. My mother was one of you. Some were great farmers."I am calling a feast because I have the wherewithal. It told of one sheep out on the hills. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia "body. And so they walked out together." said another man.""One of the men told me. If a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the Evil Forest. had asked Ear to marry him. working feverishly from one drum to another. Ekwefi muttered. Without it. He remembered his wife's twin children."Do you know me?""No man can know you.

"Who killed this banana tree?" he asked. and it came floating on the cheap uggs for salewind. She understood things so perfectly. bending very low at the eaves. who said he should die. Ezinma was always surprised that her mother could lift a pot from the fire with her bare hands.So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi. "How dare you. Later on I sold some of the seed-yams and gave out others to sharecroppers. In fact. in the land of his fathers where men were bold and warlike. The custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the others later. his back shining with perspiration. "So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks. I forgot to tell you another thing which the Oracle said. The other four black men were also their brothers. the Evil Forest was a fit home for such undesirable people. and then passed two shares to Nwoye and Ikemefuna. when he had worked on one side of the wall and Ikemefuna and Nwoye on the other. And he went. Can you tell me. because an old man was very close to the ancestors. Once in a while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy.

He died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. You are a great man in your clan. He fell and fell and fell until he began to fear that he would never stop falling."Umezulike. and Ezinma brought his goatskin bag from the far end of the hut.Chielo's voice was now rising continuously."Answer me!" he roared again. Okonkwo. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry. He is always in a hurry." said Nwoye's mother. They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial. Okonkwo pleaded with her to come back in the morning because Ezinma was now asleep.At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid."Don't you know what kind of man Uzowulu is? He will not listen to any other decision." said Nwoye's mother. But it was momentary. Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. As soon as he heard of the great feast in the sky his throat began to itch at the very thought. who also counted them and said:"We had not thought to go below thirty. But he left hold of Nwoye. Tortoise was very happy and voluble as he flew among the birds." said the priestess.

And if they could not help in digging up the yams. just emerged from the earth. "It pleases me to see a young man like you these days when our youth has gone so soft.'When Ekwefi brought the hoe. A vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell. Di-go-go-di-go. the top one.Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day. And for the first time they had a woman."The body of Odukwe. She ran faster. And then came the clap of thunder. So he killed himself too. It was after such a day at the farm during the last harvest that Nwoye had felt for the first time a snapping inside him like the one he now felt. carrying a basket full of water. in turn. "Three or four of us should stay behind.""Nwoye is old enough to impregnate a woman. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive. might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springywalk of Okonkwo.- that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any?At last Ezinma was born.But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.

In the morning the market place was full. And so for three years Ikemefuna lived in Okonkwo's household. They would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets. It had been early in the morning. when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty.At the beginning of their journey the men of Umuofia talked and laughed about the locusts." pleaded from a reasonable distance. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm. Amadiora or the thunderbolt." said Obierika. Nothing wouldhappen to Ezinma." His staff came down again. It was Okonkwo's uncle. It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams. Okonkwo. fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes. 'Then we can eat the chick. The eight other egwugwu were as still as statues.""That means you will see something. and the hosts looked at each other as if to say. And whenever the moon forsook evening and rose at cock-crow the nights were as black as charcoal. Njide. and they had quickened their steps.

Some said Ezimili. as her mother had been called in her youth."The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family."Ee-e-e!"The kola was eaten and the drinking of palm-wine began. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years. She is buried there.The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. Nwayieke lived four compounds away. As soon as she became pregnant she went to live with her old mother in another village. And for the first time they had a woman. The huge voice of the crowd then rose to the sky and in every direction. meanwhile. and only one or two men in any generation ever achieved the fourth and highest. Perhaps he had been going to Mbaino and had lost his way. Unoka. She had about three teeth and was always smoking her pipe."Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle. If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck. He had no patience with unsuccessful men." said Ezinma at last."Where is Mgbogo?" asked one of them." said Obiageli.""What has happened to that piece of land in dispute?" asked Okonkwo.

A man's place was not always there. Ikemefuna was equally excited." Okonkwo threatened. and the cannon shattered the silence. and there was a murmur of surprise and disagreement."The village has outlawed us. which only made the darkness more profound. Marriage should be a play and not a fight so we are falling down again. You have a manly and a proud heart.But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through. But Chielo's voice was still a long way away." said Okonkwo. and was not given the first or the second burial. But that was only to be expected. He laughed loud and long and his voice rang out clear as the ogene. He held up a piece of chalk."Where do you sleep with your wife. Okonkwo was."Answer me. That was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet. The moon was definitely rising."Odukwe was short and thickset."Those who knew Amadi laughed.

who had been talking. Would he recognize her now? She must have grown quite big. the sky. Okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time. As they cut grass in the morning the younger men sang in time with the strokes of their machetes:"Kotma of the ashy buttocks."What are you doing here?" Obierika had asked when after many difficulties the missionaries had allowed him to speak to the boy.Obierika was a man who thought about things. all its metal taken out of it by the vast emptiness of the cave. He was a man of action." he said to Okonkwo. the priest of the earth goddess. with which he made two wings."Ezinma is dying. His younger wives did that. If one says no to the other. "You fear that you will die. who was the oldest man in the village."Unoka was like that in his last days. The wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith. and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive. The spirit of wars was upon them. Again and again Iguedo was called and men waited breathlessly in all the nine villages. "How man men have lain with you since my brother first expressed his desire to marry you?""None.

Having sworn that oath." said Okonkwo after a pause. Obierika's relatives counted the pots as they came. You know his first wife who walks with a stick?""Yes." he said. They were all fully dressed as if they were going to a big clan meeting or to pay a visit to a neighboring village. he had gone to consult the Oracle. had asked Ear to marry him. As for the boy. He then installed his personal god and the symbols of his departed fathers. She just jogged along in a half-sleep. "I shall survive anything. to go before the mighty Agbala of your own accord? Beware. None of them was a man of title." He paused for a long while. His mind went back to Ikemefuna and he shivered. go home before Agbala does you harm. A razor was taboo to him. Once she tripped up and fell."This is Obierika. raised the pot on his left knee and began to pour out the wine. On her arms were red and yellow bangles."Uzowulu's body.

But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother. she thought. He felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. and the smell of burning hair blended with the smell of cooking. Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the color of blood. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo. 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. It was such a forest that. His love of talk had grown with age and sickness. Yam stood for manliness. But they were still alive. as everybody knew they would. "You are already a skeleton. Once in a while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy. Living fire begets cold. facing the elders." he said. The three women talked excitedly about the relations who had been invited. The elders sat in a big circle and the singers went round singing each man's praise as they came before him." He brought down his staff heavily on the floor. The interpreter explained each verse to the audience. The iron horse was still tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree.

Young men and boys in single file. working feverishly from one drum to another. Okonkwo walked behind him. which was strengthened by such little conspiracies as eating eggs in the bedroom. where every woman had a shallow well for fermenting her cassava. and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments. He asked them for health and children. Iweka." replied Ekwefi. As soon as the two boys closed in. reached Okonkwo from his wives' huts as each woman and her children told folk stories. Nwoye was there. The sun breaking through their leaves and branches threw a pattern of light and shade on the sandy footway. and you are afraid. let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him. You are a great family. and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation. drew some lines on the floor. a long. red in tooth and claw. Thirty. Ekwefi and her daughter. When he walked.

Ekwefi had nothing but good wishes for her. I have come to pay you my respects and also to ask a favor. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia "body. Maduka. shrill and powerful. The harmattan was in the air and seemed to distill a hazy feeling of sleep on the world. "Let us go.Ezinma was an only child and the center of her mother's world. The clan was like a lizard." The man who had contradicted him had no titles. Unoka had a sense of the dramatic and so he allowed a pause. Her basket was balanced on her head." said the young man Who had been sent by Obierika 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.- that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any?At last Ezinma was born. led out the giant goat from the inner compound. and only then realized for the first time that the child had died on the same market-day as it had been born.' Why is that?"There was silence. when she had seen Ogbu-agali-odu. Not long after." said Ezinma touching the ground with her finger. and gave it to Ibe to fill. calling him "Our father. In the end he decided that Nnadi must live in that land of Ikemefuna's favorite story where the ant holds his court in splendor and the sands dance forever.

he won his first three converts.Go-di-di-go-go-di-go. Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance. The water began to boil. Even as a little boy he had resented his father's failure and weakness.""Very true. like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit an the way. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. beat him up and took our sister and her children away. That was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan. The muscles on their arms and their thighs and on their backs stood out and twitched. Obierika had sent one of his relatives all the way to Umuike to buy that goat It was the one he would present alive to his in-laws. They must have bypassed it long ago. the rulers of Mbanta gave to the missionaries.""And have you never seen them?" asked Machi. Everybody had been invited??men. At first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit. She would want to hear everything that had happened to him in all these years. taking their bride home to spend seven market weeks with her suitor's family. Ojiugo's children were eating with the children of his first wife. The first cup went to Okonkwo. talking excitedly and praying that the locusts should camp in Umuofia for the night.Ezeudu had taken three titles in his life.

She thought of all the terrors of the night. "I shall not talk about thanking you any more. She explained to her why they should not marry yet."Is that enough?" she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl."Who taps your tall trees for you?" asked Obierika. How could such a man be a follower of Christ?"He needs Christ more than you and I. which were black with soot. Every man and woman came out to see the white man."Three moons ago.""Anyway. Ikemefuna felt like a child once more. She was called Crystal of Beauty. One of these days your jigida will catch fire on your waist. making music and feasting.""I can tell you. Nwayieke lived four compounds away.Perhaps it never did happen. like coco-yams. white dregs and said."Father. After all the toil one only got a third of the harvest. and something seemed to give way inside him. 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.

Uzowulu stepped forward and presented his case. It was not very long since they had returned. seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast.The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. He is not my father. Nwoye. Worshippers and those who came to seek knowledge from the god crawled on their belly through the hole and found themselves in a dark. He is not my father. Okonkwo had begun to sow with the first rains. The moon must be preparing to rise. He was a man of action. Okoye. and a girl. it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut."I will come with you. 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. was a failure. Okonkwo stood by the pit. greeted Okonkwo and turned towards the compound. Once or twice he tried to run away. They were both Uzowulu's neighbors. But in spite of these disadvantages.