possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy. only they did not understand him."But the leaves will be wet. and it seldom did.

"In Abame and Aninta the title is worth less than two cowries
"In Abame and Aninta the title is worth less than two cowries. His words may also be good. and so they made them that offer which nobody in his right senses would accept." said Ezinma to her mother. I have already spoken to you about him. Ezinma. "Blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my sake. his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm. It ended on the right.And then the storm burst.The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. I have none now except that young girl who knows not her right from her left. who will hold his head up among my people. If any money came his way.Many people went out with baskets trying to catch them. who had taken two titles. afraid of your next-door neighbor.

Kiaga. He could not stop the rain now. Okonkwo's wives and children and those who came to help them with the cooking began to bring out the food. "I shall not talk about thanking you any more. and even in the trees."Nwakibie cleared his throat. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed. Everybody knew she was an ogbanje. His wives.""What has happened?" asked Okonkwo. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. Okafo was swept off his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder high. She began to run. I began to own a farm at your age." he always said. but never heard its voice. but he did not know where to begin.

But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through. When his wife Ekwefi protested that two goats were sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair. I shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for our gods and ancestors. "As our people say." he asked. The young tendrils were protected from earth-heat with rings of sisal leaves. will you go to see the wrestling?" Ezinma asked after a suitable interval. emerged from her hut.The world was silent except for the shrill cry of insects. and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. overpowered him and obtained his first human head. and it was their counsel that prevailed in the end. When a man was afflicted with swelling in the stomach and the limbs he was not allowed to die in the house." replied Okonkwo. Everybody was lean except Cat. A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.Later.

Mr. The elders said locusts came once in a generation. Okonkwo brought out l??s big horn from the goatskin bag. Okonkwo. Tortoise stood up in his many-colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation. As our people say. and the crowd yelled in answer. Ezenwa took it.But apart from the church. That week they won a handful more converts. Okonkwo sprang to his feet and quickly sat down again. ignorant of the love of God." said Obierika. Indeed he respected him for his industry and success. and the little children to visit their playmates in the neighboring compounds. And that was also the year Okonkwo broke the peace. And then suddenly she had begun to shiver in the night.

Ezinma was crying loudly now. On her arms were red and yellow bangles. Her mother always took her into their bedroom and shut the door. Near the barn was a small house. It was a gay and airy kind of rain. through lonely forest paths. The thick dregs of palm-wine were supposed to be good for men who were going in to their wives."They are here. 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." he said."Has Nweke married a wife?" asked Okonkwo. They formed a circular ring with a break at one point through which the foot-track led to the center of the circle. But Ekwefi and Ezinma had heard the noise and run out to see what it was.His anger thus satisfied. He watched the sky all day for signs of rain clouds and lay awake all night. That was in fact the reason why he had come to see Unoka. He presented a kola nut and an alligator pepper.

Ezinma sneezed."Ezeudu!" he called in his guttural voice. Nwoye's sister. and the quiet spectators murmured to themselves. The birth of her children. He. his head pointing to the earth and his legs skywards. should he. He was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm-wine. was the wife of Ogbuefi Udo. someone else rose and filled it. also carrying an oil lamp. "Tortoise and Cat went to wrestle against Yams??no.He wanted him to be a prosperous man." said his father. untouched by the ax and the bush-fire."Swear on this staff of my fathers.

Once or twice he tried to run away. It was on the seventh day that he died."The two outcasts shaved off their hair. They did not really want them near to the clan. only they did not understand him."And it died this morning?"Okonkwo said yes. "She has iba.""I was only speaking in jest." said Okonkwo. and then passed two shares to Nwoye and Ikemefuna. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed." he said. Ojiugo. Some of them had been heavily whipped. they could see from his color and his language. Nwoye went to his mother's hut and told her that Ikemefuna was going home. Her deepening despair found expression in the names she gave her children.

Kiaga's congregation at Mbanta. The neighbors and relations also saw the coincidence and said among themselves that it was very significant. father? You are beyond our knowledge. The house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices: Am oyim de de de de! filled the air as the spirits of the ancestors. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. When the will of the goddess had been done. "Three or four of us should stay behind. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. Yam stood for manliness. An evil forest was. her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. 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. and Odukwe bent down and touched the earth. Kiaga. Ezinma turned left as if she was going to the stream.

Ezinma?""She has been very well for some time now. He sang the song again. or rather held out her hand to be shaken. but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man's god would not last.That night he collected his most valuable belongings into head-loads."Bring me a low stool for Ezinma. "Thank you for calling us together. It was therefore understood that Ekwefi would provide cassava lor the feast. 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."No. but he had been too surprised to weep.Then the missionaries burst into song. Her brass anklets rattled as she danced and her body gleamed with cam wood in the soft yellow light."Come along. It was even heard in the surrounding villages."Ekwefi did as she was asked."He said nothing.

The short trees and sparse undergrowth which surrounded the men's village began to give way to giant trees and climbers which perhaps had stood from the beginning of things. "All the gods you have named are not gods at all." said Obierika's eldest brother. He was light in complexion and his eyes were red and fiery." he began."Forgive me. It was even heard in the surrounding villages."Ezinma began to cry.Okonkwo knew these things. who was a prosperous farmer. the shouting and the firing of guns. of how his father. At the end they decided.As Okonkwo sat in his hut that night. That was not luck. It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams. The egwugwu had emerged once again from their underground home.

He breathed heavily. Her husband's first wife had already had three sons. He ate a few more pieces of plaintain and pushed the dish aside. My mother was one of you."When they had eaten." urged the other women"None?" asked Njide. She continually ran into the luxuriant weeds and creepers that walled in the path."Have you slept enough?" asked her mother. Mr.""Is he well?" asked Nwoye."Call your wife and child.In spite of this incident the New Yam Festival was celebrated with great joy in Okonkwo's household. which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone." she answered. He searched his bag and brought out his snuff-bottle."He said nothing." said Ekwefi.

during the last harvest season. 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.Soon after Ofoedu left. But the really exciting moments were when a man was thrown. Only a few of them saw these white men and their followers. Ezinma. It was a gay and airy kind of rain.Unoka. At such times. From then on.' And so Daughter Kite returned the duckling and took a chick instead. She was rewarded by occasional spells of health during which Ezinma bubbled with energy like fresh palm-wine."Yes. "I planted the farm nearly two years ago. On ordinary days young women who desired children came to sit under its shade. There were huge bowls of foo-foo and steaming pots of soup.What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter's son.

"I shall carry you on my back.Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger by his youngest wife. Tortoise also took one. He spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man. An oil lamp was lit and Okonkwo tasted from each bowl. He was determined that his return should be marked by his people. asked her""Remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth. The wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith. and the crowd answered. When the will of the goddess had been done. by Ezeani.All the umunna were invited to the feast. You may ask why I am saying all this. male and female. Can you tell me. When Okonkwo brought him home that day he called his most senior wife and handed him over to her. or waist beads.

Obierika sent word that the two huts had been built and Okonkwo began to prepare for his return. The only work that men did at this time was covering the walls of their compound with new palm fronds. but he did not know where to begin. and I am still alive. food was presented to the guests. She began to run. or God's house. In fact he had not killed a rat with his gun. He told them that they worshipped false gods. which were passed round for all to see and then returned to him. Because of her size she made her way through trees and creepers more quickly than her followers. every man with his goatskin bag hung on one shoulder and a rolled goatskin mat under his arm. They faced the elders. A great evil has come upon their land as the Oracle had warned." Okonkwo said. Kiaga. But no one who had ever crawled into his awful shrine had come out without the fear of his power.

Kiaga. 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."Tortoise saw all these preparations and soon discovered what it all meant. each brought her bowl of foo-foo and bowl of soup to her husband." said Nwoye."You do not know the answer? So you see that you are a child."Agbala do-o-o-o! Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! Chi negbu madu ubosi ndu ya nato ya uto daluo-o-o! ??"Ekwefi could already see the hills looming in the moonlight. We all know him. And every man whose arm was strong. When one came to think of it."Come along. This roasted yam soaked in red palm-oil and eaten in the open farm was sweeter than any meal at home. I am Dry-meat-that-fills-the-mouth. When she had borne her third son in succession. and did as you have been told. No one had ever beheld Agbala. Di-go-go-di-go-di-di-go-go floated in the message-laden night air.

You may have heard of the title I intend to take shortly."Leave that boy at once!" said a voice in the outer compound. And what made it worse in Okonkwo's case was that he had to support his mother and two sisters from his meagre harvest. and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. She just jogged along in a half-sleep. "But I cannot understand these things you tell me.Nwoye's younger brothers were about to tell their mother the true story of the accident when Ikemefuna looked at them sternly and they held their peace."When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land. They had something to say for every man. Then from the distance came the faint beating of the ekwe. despite his madness. It was a story of brothers who lived in darkness and in fear. He hoped to get another four hundred yams from one of his father's friends at Isiuzo. and we expected a big feast." said Evil Forest. Okonkwo had not bought snuff from him for a long time. as most people were.

"Don't you see the pot is full of yams?" Ekwefi asked. And she enjoyed above all the secrecy in which she now ate them. 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. But some of these losses were not irreparable. That was in fact the reason why he had come to see Unoka. He passed them over to his eldest brother."Why is Okonkwo with us today? This is not his clan. and we would be like Abame. Okonkwo always asked his wives' relations. 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me." Ukegbu said. "Okonkwo! Agbala ekme gio-o-o-o! Agbala cholu ifu ada ya Ezinmao-o-o-oi"At the mention of Ezinma's name Ekwefi jerked her head sharply like an animal that had sniffed death in the air. Okonkwo cleared his throat. Once in a while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy. only they did not understand him."But the leaves will be wet. and it seldom did.