was not there to answer. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories.

Why had Okonkwo withdrawn to the rear? Ikemefuna felt his legs melting under him
Why had Okonkwo withdrawn to the rear? Ikemefuna felt his legs melting under him. I sacrifice a cock to Ani."But Nwoye's mother dropped her pot of hot soup the other day and it broke on the floor. she had said. To abandon the gods of one's father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination. "How dare you. gome. food and palm-wine. After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs.The two teams were ranged facing each other across the clear space. Her name was Nneka. Some birds chirruped in the forests around.The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia.The men then continued their drinking and talking. That was a favorite saying of children. The villagers were so certain about the doom that awaited these men that one or two converts thought it wise to suspend their allegiance to the new faith. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.

She wore the anklet of her husband's titles.The young church in Mbanta had a few crises early in its life. He who brings kola brings life. His body rattled like a piece of dry stick in his empty shell. Gome. became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything. 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth. Some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves.The drums were still beating. The drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink. Nothing happened at its proper time. She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage. Ekwefi mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep. But they were very rare and short-lived. They scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men.""I think it is good that our clan holds the ozo title in high esteem. But Ekwefi could not see her.

The heathen say you will die if you do this or that. Very often it was Ezinma who decided what food her mother should prepare. We pray for life. Evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wood and stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm-oil. carrying a basket full of water. The yams were then staked. for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well."Have you?" asked Obierika."Umuofia kwenu!" he roared. just beyond the borders of Mbaino."None. who stood beside her."We shall be late for the wrestling. for Mr. It was the time of the year when everybody was at home. The men were seized and beaten until they streamed with blood. She was going to the stream to fetch water.

' Do you know what he told the Oracle? He said. At his age I was already fending for myself. Ikemefuna looked back. but they are too young to leave their mother. not even for fear of a goddess."You need some sleep yourself. What did they know about the man?" He ground his teeth again and told a story to illustrate his point. As for the boy.""Ee-e-e!"The oldest man in the camp of the visitors replied: "It will be good for you and it will be good for us. they held them over an open fire to burn off the hair. but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Ezinma's voice soon faded away and only Chielo was heard moving farther and farther into the distance.""Not before you have had your breakfast. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors. and girls came from the inner compound to dance. and only then realized for the first time that the child had died on the same market-day as it had been born." said Mr.

Amadiora or the thunderbolt. It was the first time for many years that a man had broken the sacred peace.Ikemefuna came to Umuofia at the end of the carefree season between harvest and planting. He died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. It is a bad custom because it always leads to a quarrel. Tortoise stood up in his many-colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation. Ekwefi tried to pull out the horny beak but it was too hard. and brought back a duckling. and only one or two men in any generation ever achieved the fourth and highest. their legs and feet. If you had died young." said Obierika. There was so much food and drink that many kinsmen whistled in surprise.At first. and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. "You will find a pot of wine there. but offered to use his teeth.

"And let there be friendship between your family and ours. He was imprisoned with all the leaders of his family." Okonkwo was surprised.As these things went through her mind she did not realize how close they were to the cave mouth. There was nobody in the hut and the fireplace was cold." said Okonkwo.' said Mother Kite. They surged forward as the two young men danced into the circle."When did you become a shivering old woman. Then he poured out for the others. That week they won a handful more converts. They were duly presented to the women. Then the metal gong sounded and the flute was blown. was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness.Ekwefi knelt beside the sick child. I am an old man and you are all children. They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom.

Unoka. Without it."Ekwefi. The interpreter explained each verse to the audience. Okagbue was a very striking figure. At last I went to my in-laws and said to them. That was why Okonkwo had been Chosen by the nine villages to carry a message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young man and a virgin to atone for the murder of Udo's wife. They only saw the red earth he threw up mounting higher and higher. the matter lies between him and the god. long way from home. Now Ekwefi was a woman of forty-five who had suffered a great deal in her time. You may ask why I am saying all this. Obierika presented kola nuts to his in-laws. It all began over the question of admitting outcasts. the suitor. 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."Because I did not want to.

He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors. will you go to see the wrestling?" Ezinma asked after a suitable interval. If they imagined what was inside. For three or four moons it demanded hard work and constant attention from cock-crow till the chickens went back to roost. As the rains became heavier the women planted maize. Njide. a length of cloth and a hundred cowries. A steady cloud of smoke rose from his head."After the Week of Peace every man and his family began to clear the bush to make new farms. who was also the youngest man in the group. roots and barks of medicinal trees and shrubs." replied Okoye. And so they each took a new name. red in tooth and claw. Your mother is there to protect you. Soon it covered half the sky. Some years the harmattan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere.

leaving a regular pattern of hair. just as he would not attempt to start it in the heart of the dry season. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet."Ekwefi. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. not for hearing."When your wife becomes pregnant again."The next day." Ezinma said."Come along then and show me the spot.Ezinma grew up in her father's exile and became one of the most beautiful girls in Mbanta. I did not send her away.Ezeudu had taken three titles in his life."As he was speaking the boy returned. but even if you came into your obi and found her lover on top of her. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine. they take new names for the occasion.

and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. broken now and again by singing. And they might also have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of egwugwu. And so he killed her. The egwugwu house into which they emerged faced the forest.The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began."He belongs to the clan. do you know me?""How can I know you. Children were warned not to whistle at night for fear of evil spirits. the Oracle of the Hills and Caves."How can I know?" Ekwefi wanted her to work it out herself."When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. But I can trust you. Nwoye's sister. She was." he said. They will serve you when I have eaten.

Ezinma had not wanted to cooperate with him at first. looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty??the new year. 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. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man's spirit." replied her mother. Aninta."Akueke moved to the other end of the hut and began to remove the waist-beads. "It wounds my heart to see these young men killing palm trees in the name of tapping. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess. for although nobody else knew it. He had never been fond of his real father."As they spoke Ezinma emerged from the hut." And he arranged the requisite rites and sacrifices. They will not allow us into the markets. It was not until the following day that Okonkwo told him the full story. they could gather firewood together for roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm. "She must have broken her waterpot.

Iweka. But he was not a failure like Unoka. "And these white men. So much of it was cooked that. 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."The next day. Ekwefi. And if anybody was so foolhardy as to pass by the shrine after dusk he was sure to see the old woman hopping about." she said when they got to the tree. when they came.""Somebody told me yesterday.Ezinma took the dish in one hand and the empty water bowl in the other and went back to her mother's hut." He paused. We all know him. but they are too young to leave their mother. On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head.Okagbue went back into the pit.

who suddenly gave up his trade. before the first cock-crow. and walked to its beat. 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. It is a poor soil and that is why the tubers are so small. Are you deaf?" Okonkwo roared at her. and prayed that the rain might fall in the night. the shouting and the firing of guns. But all he said was: "When shall I go home?" When Okonkwo heard that he would not eat any food he came into the hut with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams. you have become a woman indeed. It was Ekwefl's turn to tell a story. "Three or four of us should stay behind. who was greatly perplexed.It was a great funeral."Who is that?" he growled.' he said as they flew on their way.They sat in a big circle on the ground and the young bride in the center with a hen in her right hand.

At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. Thelocusts had not come for many. As for his converts. 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. "We have men of high title and the chief priests and the elders. occasionally feeling with her palm the wet. hung his goatskin bag on his shoulder and went to visit his friend. working feverishly from one drum to another. After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs. pushed back the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi's hut.There were seven drums and they were arranged according to their sizes in a long wooden basket. "We shall give them a piece of land. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness." said her mother.The priestess' voice was already growing faint in the distance. Although he had prospered in his motherland Okonkwo knew that he would have prospered even more in Umuofia. go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang.

" said Okonkwo." he asked Obierika. Age was respected among his people.""I think it is good that our clan holds the ozo title in high esteem. 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 to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men. How could she know that Ekwefi's bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul. It is like Dimaragana. and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive.And then the priestess screamed. he was told."Answer the question at once. Idigo was the man who knew how to grind good snuff. and she put all her being into it. It was a sad miscalculation. You have committed a great evil. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger.

'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth. His visitor was amazed.""I think it is good that our clan holds the ozo title in high esteem. Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools."We have now built a church. Obierika. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him. The air was cool and damp with dew. He knew the names of all the birds and could set clever traps for the little bush rodents. He was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm-wine. She is buried there. but they were really talking at the top of their voices. was expected to invite large numbers of guests from far and wide. and brought out his snuff-bottle from the goatskin bag by his side. When he brought out the snuff-bottle he tapped it a few times against his knee-cap before taking out some snuff on the palm of his left hand. I have come to pay you my respects and also to ask a favor." Ezinma said.

women and children. he would use his fists. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears. Obierika's relatives counted the pots as they came. who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter. but there is too much of his mother in him. The house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices: Am oyim de de de de! filled the air as the spirits of the ancestors. Some of them came over to see for themselves. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death."Come and show me the exact spot." said the old man. But they have cast you out like lepers. sandy footway began to throw up the heat that lay buried in it. But there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood. such as befitted a noble warrior."Okoli was not there to answer. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories.