evil has come upon their land as the Oracle had warned. One morning three of them came to my house. Unoka stood before her and began his story.

" As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name
" As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land.Ezeudu had been the oldest man in his village. "1 have brought you this little kola.As for the boy himself. "So you must finish this." Ezinma pointed out. She hurried through Okonkwo's hut and went outside. Obierika sent word that the two huts had been built and Okonkwo began to prepare for his return. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. but he did not say it. It told of one sheep out on the hills. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve. "Yaa!". and we shall all perish. He told them that they worshipped false gods. And so he changed the subject and talked about music. After the pot-bearers came Ibe.Ekwefi knelt beside the sick child. Today Okonkwo was not bringing his mother home to be buried with her people." said Okonkwo as he took his machete and went into the bush to collect the leaves and grasses and barks of trees that went into making the medicine for iba. And when. And that was also the year Okonkwo broke the peace. Ezinma was crying loudly now.

I began to fend for myself at an age when most people still suck at their mothers' breasts. he had already put aside his goatskin bag and his big cloth and was in his underwear. "If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. She prepared it the way he liked??with slices of oil-bean and fish. She was the priestess of Agbala. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed. It had not happened for many a long year. I do not owe my inlaws anything."Yes. Because he had taken titles. women and children. There was no question of killing a missionary here. Uchendu pulled gently at his gray beard and gnashed his teeth. the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. or playground. Okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action. It had to be done slowly and carefully. sat on the floor waiting for him to finish. ivory spoon." He pulled his staff from the hard earth and thrust it back.He was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop. tall and strongly built.

there was no other way." said Okonkwo. They passed their cloths under the right arm-pit." said Ezinma.; "Did he die?" asked Ezinma. beginning with the eldest man. Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father. And for the first time they had a woman. then.""In future call her into your obi. It was the justice of the earth goddess.The year that Okonkwo took eight hundred seed-yams from Nwakibie was the worst year in living memory."He took down the pot from the fire and placed it in front of the stool. and cut them up. now said"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Mgbafo and her brothers were as still as statues into whose faces the artist has molded defiance. even into people's beds.But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back.The drums were still beating. nearly half a day's journey away.There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo's village who had three huge barns. And so he killed her." she replied.

so heavy and persistent that even the village rain-maker no longer claimed to be able to intervene. Two elderly neighbors were sent for."It is iba. As the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops. had said to him during that terrible harvest month: "Do not despair. She went."When did you become a shivering old woman."Yes. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. Is it true that Okonkwo nearly killed you with his gun?""It is true indeed. lasted only a brief moment. "Are you afraid you may dissolve?"The harvesting was easy. using some of the chicken. "We shall give them a piece of land.With a father like Unoka. He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo's return. You know his first wife who walks with a stick?""Yes. and at the end of three years he had become very distant indeed. The drums went mad and the crowds also. Okagbue worked tirelessly and in silence."Let me make the fire for you. What did they know about the man?" He ground his teeth again and told a story to illustrate his point. And so. and others prepared vegetable soup.

but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man's god would not last. for as soon as the first rain came farming would begin. And they were right. "My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. Violent deaths were frequent. He held a short staff in his hand which he brought down on the floor to emphasize his points. But now she found the half-light of the incipient moon more terrifying than darkness. Kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly. and he loved this season of the year. Ikemefuna had an endless stock of folk tales. In the morning he went back to his farm and saw the withering tendrils." he said."There was a long silence. asked on behalf of the clan to look after him in the interim. Mgbafo and her brothers were as still as statues into whose faces the artist has molded defiance."1 am one of them.""But someone had to do it. Why do they always go for one's ears? When he was a child his mother had told him a story about it. like splitting wood. She had got ready her basket of coco-yams and fish. Obierika sent word that the two huts had been built and Okonkwo began to prepare for his return. After such treatment it would think twice before coming again. It was not external but lay deep within himself. His mother's kinsmen had been very kind to him.

but she went to Okonkwo's compound. the whole clan gathers there. It was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week. the wife of Amadi." Okonkwo said. Then the metal gong sounded and the flute was blown. "We have men of high title and the chief priests and the elders. The rainy season was approaching when they would go away until the dry season returned."On the following Sunday. She explained to her why they should not marry yet.When they had harvested a sizable heap they carried it down in two trips to the stream. They were the lazy easy-going ones who always put off clearing their farms as long as they could. And she had agreed. a debtor. the white man began to speak to them. But she had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay.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. Okonkwo's house was on the way to the stream. Some of them were very violent."Answer me. and so did his little children. Okonkwo had begun to sow with the first rains." he asked. was the wife of Ogbuefi Udo.

and which she no doubt still told to her younger children??stories of the tortoise and his wily ways. "I planted the farm nearly two years ago. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed. She walked numbly along. he was already one of the greatest men of his time. "It is enough. There was once a man who went to sell a goat. "The world has no end.Before it was dusk Ezeani. had died ten years ago.The old man. met to hear a report of Okonkwo's mission. Ikezue strove to dig in his right heel behind Okafo so as to pitch him backwards in the clever ege style." asked Obierika. and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. Spirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born. All the grass had long been scorched brown. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. He then installed his personal god and the symbols of his departed fathers. The first rains were late. went into an inner room and came back with a kola nut. too busy to argue. which was part of the night. and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season.

Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms. Now you talk about his son. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man. 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. "My son has told me about you. It was true they were rescuing twins from the bush. my hand has touched the ground. "But if the Oracle said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it. But they soon returned and everyone was gazing at the rag from a reasonable distance. as when she first set out. His mind went back to Ikemefuna and he shivered. Guns were fired on all sides and sparks flew out as machetes clanged together in warriors' salutes. took out two leaves and began to chew them. They only saw the red earth he threw up mounting higher and higher.Ekwefi put a few live coals into a piece of broken pot and Ezinma carried it across the clean swept compound to Nwoye's mother. to inquire what was amiss. That was a favorite saying of children. Mosquito. "I shall not talk about thanking you any more. suddenly found an outlet. An oil lamp was lit and Okonkwo tasted from each bowl. Ekwefi had nothing but good wishes for her. And he went. dead.

had died ten years ago. Ekwefi had nothing but good wishes for her. 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. there was no other way. but he had been too surprised to weep. He must have a wife. But they were still alive."Okonkwo bit his lips as anger welled up within him. If the song ended on his right foot.""Yes." His tone now changed from anger to command. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him. Then it occurred to her that they could not have been heading for the cave. She just jogged along in a half-sleep." and they argued like this for a few moments before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk." he asked Obierika. "You are already a skeleton. and to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men. which was shaved in beautiful patterns." said his daughter Ezinma when she brought the food to him. And yet we say Nneka - 'Mother is Supreme.As he broke the kola.

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. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. Unoka was. and his relatives."How can I know you."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." said the woman. he had allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his machete to the shrine. For many market weeks nothing else happened. and long stacks of yam stood out prosperously in it. and the other an old and faint shadow. dressed in garbs of war. They had not thought about that. and his relatives." said Obierika." The boy smiled. Only a few of them saw these white men and their followers. "They are thirty?" he asked. Some said Okafo was the better man."At last the party arrived in the sky and their hosts were very happy to see them." said Okonkwo. but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man's god would not last. They sang the latest song in the village:" If I hold her handShe says. when his father had not been dead very long.

They do not decide bride-price as we do. But he thought that one could not begin too early. There are only two of them. The crime was of two kinds. Rain fell as it had never fallen before. he was not afraid now. Obiageli. It ate rats in the house and sometimes swallowed hens' eggs. Okonkwo came after her. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too."Then I shall go back to the clan."Then listen to me. "You will find a pot of wine there. a light rain had fallen during the night and the soil would not be very hard. Okonkwo and the boys worked in complete silence.""Go and bring our own. He refused to join in the meal. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly. Okonkwo's youngest wife also came out and joined the others. Now he has won our brothers. cutting down every tree or animal they saw. The meat was then shared so that every member of the umunna had a portion." said Nwoye. and Maduka brought in a pot of palm-wine.

The blazing sun returned. Fortunately. The heathen say you will die if you do this or that. The sickness was an abomination to the earth. The man who had whispered now called out aloud." replied Okonkwo. The spell of sunshine which always came in the middle of the wet season did not appear. his children and their mothers in the new year." said one of the priests."Sometimes I wish I had not taken the ozo title. In the end Oduche died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged. through lonely forest paths. Some said Ezimili. "Let us hear Odukwe." said Ekwefi. These men must be mad."Yes.His anger thus satisfied.Ekwefi had suffered a good deal in her life. Ikezue strove to dig in his right heel behind Okafo so as to pitch him backwards in the clever ege style. He told them that the true God lived on high and that all men when they died went before Him for judgment. behind the crowd. A deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this."He said nothing.

Is it true that Okonkwo nearly killed you with his gun?""It is true indeed. Nwoye's mother. though his dialect was different and harsh to the enrs of Mbanta. Now you talk about his son. They were duly presented to the women.Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night.Okonkwo's neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter." he said. And there was eating and drinking till night. It was like a wedding feast. And then suddenly she had begun to shiver in the night. Ekwefi. The inhabitants of Mbanta expected them all to be dead within four days.His father. But the arrivees persevered. some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk. 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. "Will you go?""Yes. If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck. "The children are still very young. and allowed a brief pause. with love.But the war that now threatened was a just war."Ezinma ran in the direction of the barn and brought back two yams from the dwarf wall.

She has the right spirit. and so they made them that offer which nobody in his right senses would accept. because you understand us and we understand you. for that was his father's name. At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good.Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. Ekwefi had nothing but good wishes for her. The bride's mother led the way. But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves. 1 owe them no cocoyams. Okonkwo ate the food absent-mindedly. tall and strongly built. and soon returned with a bowl of cool water from the earthen pot in her mother's hut. But it was impossible to refuse Ezinma anything. Then the group drank."No. and although ailing she seemed determined to live. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision. Her two children belong to Uzowulu. But very few people had ever seen that kind of wrestling before. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him."He uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it. do you know me?" asked the spirit. They all admired it and said that that was the way things should be done.

There was a long break. with music and dancing and a great feast."The next day. It was also the dumping ground for highly potent fetishes of great medicine men when they died. The custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the others later. "My father. Nwoye. could not shelter under his roof. and sleepy. Ekwefi screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess. the son of Obierika. Okonkwo had not bought snuff from him for a long time. Okonkwo had returned home and sat waiting. They sang the latest song in the village:" If I hold her handShe says. She thought of all the terrors of the night. But Unoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more. "I thought he was a strong man in his youth. But you are still a child. welcoming it back from its long. But I can trust you. The crowd roared and clapped and for a while drowned the frenzied drums. She was called Crystal of Beauty. If any one of you prefers to be a woman. especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded.

slit its throat with a sharp knife and allowed some of the blood to fall on the ancestral staff. He did not inherit a barn from his father. and even in the trees. He was a leper. Their children carried pots of water. "Use the fan. Then he poured out for the others. Chielo was not a woman that night. She could hear the priestess' voice. The wave struck the women and children and there was a backward stampede." said Mr. Then the foo-foo was served."The crowd answered-. His name was Nwoye. "Kill one of your sons for me. They were very happy and began to prepare themselves for the great day. Obierika's second wife followed with a pot of soup. father? You are beyond our knowledge." replied Uzowulu.The night was very quiet. "all the birds were invited to a feast in the sky. The fowl Ekwefi had just killed was in the wooden mortar. And he knew which trees made the strongest bows. when he slept.

and girls came from the inner compound to dance. and it was their counsel that prevailed in the end.""Ee-e-e!""This is not the first time my people have come to marry your daughter. There were many women. It tried Okonkwo's patience beyond words. 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." said another man. He searched his bag and brought out his snuff-bottle. Some said Okafo was the better man."Yes. He had one consolation. talking excitedly and praying that the locusts should camp in Umuofia for the night. unlike most children.""It is a lie. And if anybody was so foolhardy as to pass by the shrine after dusk he was sure to see the old woman hopping about."Do what you are told." he had said. The muscles on their arms and their thighs and on their backs stood out and twitched. Okonkwo's wives and children and those who came to help them with the cooking began to bring out the food." he said. and about the locusts?? Then quite suddenly a thought came upon him. and perhaps other women as well. gazed at it a while and went away again??to the underworld. and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.

Go and see if your father has brought out yams for the afternoon. Darkness was around the corner. i fear for the clan.As Okonkwo sat in his hut that night. It was an angry. They can steal your cloth from off your waist in that market."Yes. using some of the chicken. And if anybody was so foolhardy as to pass by the shrine after dusk he was sure to see the old woman hopping about. They too sat just in front of the huge circle of spectators. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo."Ezinma went outside and brought some sticks from a huge bundle of firewood. Inwardly." Ezinma pointed out. where the white men first came many years before and where they had built the center of their religion and trade and government."It was only this morning. He did not inherit a barn from his father. At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good. There are only two of them. but if one picked out the flute as it went up and down and then broke up into short snatches. or ndichie. but they were really talking at the top of their voices. Some birds chirruped in the forests around. I shall give you some fish to eat.

calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed." He turned again to Okonkwo and said. "Agbala greets you. It is like Dimaragana. especially at festivals and also when an old man died. endless space in the presence of Agbala. Those were good days when a man had friends in distant clans. The meat was then shared so that every member of the umunna had a portion. Okonkwo's youngest wife. We must cook quickly or we shall be late for the wrestling. the harvest of the previous year."He gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three. The next child was a girl.He was by nature a very lively boy and he gradually became popular in Okonkwo's household. It was on the seventh day that he died. Now and again an ancestral spirit or egwugwu appeared from the underworld. carrying his stool and his goatskin bag." said the priestess. will not understand me. This one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of water.The festival was now only three days away. Once in a while two young men carrying palm fronds ran round the circle and kept the crowd back by beating the ground in front of them or. And she enjoyed above all the secrecy in which she now ate them. confident voice.

"Is that enough?" she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl. You may ask why I am saying all this.He was a person dedicated to a god. The drums beat the unmistakable wrestling dance - quick. "So you must finish this. And he told them about this new God. and went round the circle shaking hands with all. The people of the sky thought it must be their custom to leave all the food for their king.Okoye was also a musician. Okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action. some of them with their water-pots to the stream. In Umunso they do not bargain at all. "We will go with you to meet those cowards.But Ekwefi did not hear these consolations." said the joker." said one of the women. especially as he looked somewhat different from the others. And so he changed the subject and talked about music. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess. Ekwefi quickly moved away from her line of retreat. with a full beard and a bald head."You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. had gained ground. Only the word of our God is true.

But on further thought he told himself that Nwoye was not worth fighting for. If any one of you prefers to be a woman. "If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. That was the way people answered calls from outside. There was nothing new in that. "I know what it is??the wrestling match. and two days later he returned home with a lad of fifteen and a young virgin. "Our duty is not to blame this man or to praise that. because there was no humanity there."Listen to me. And so the stranger had brought him. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself. Okonkwo stood by the pit.He was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop. Each of them carried a long cane basket. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. The oldest member of this extensive family was Okonkwo's uncle. He had not hoped to get more than four hundred seeds. Kiaga. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders. and the smallest group had ten lines. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. Okonkwo and the two boys were working on the red outer walls of the compound.

"Agbala do-o-o-o! Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! ??" Chielo began once again to chant greetings to her god. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo. 1 know you will not despair." he answered."Yes." said Obierika. the top one. I shall break your jaw. the emanation of the god of water. "1 thought you were going into the shrine with Chielo. Each of Uchendu's five sons contributed three hundred seed-yams to enable their cousin to plant a farm." said the bride."Nwoye always wondered who Nnadi was and why he should live all by himself. His hands trembled vaguely on the black pot he carried.' But my wife's brothers said they had nothing to tell me.She had prayed for the moon to rise.""It is so indeed."And so three goats were slaughtered and a number of fowls. as when she first set out. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death. 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. from where he had espied a fire. In the end Oduche died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged."Ah.

Have you not heard the song they sing when a woman dies?"'For whom is it well. But no one thought It would be as long as three years. But there was one woman who had no doubt whatever in her mind." And he took another pinch of snuff. and what is good among one people is an abomination with others." said Ekwefi. "the goddess of the earth. Once he got up from bed and walked about his compound. This year they talked of nothing else but the nso-ani which Okonkwo had committed. pushed back the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi's hut. She was very heavy with child. whereupon his father beat him heavily."When they had eaten. who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm. the troublesome nanny goat. hung above the fireplace." he said. His own hut. "I have heard that many years ago. he had begun even in his father's lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future.The Oracle was called Agbala. He had an old rusty gun made by a clever blacksmith who had come to live in Umuofta long ago. "We should do something. At last Vulture was sent to plead with Sky.

It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams. that night. Nobody thought that such a thing could ever happen. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance."What is iyi-uwa?" she asked in return. was celebrating his daughter's uri."How can I know?" Ekwefi wanted her to work it out herself. "And let there be friendship between your family and ours. and they. None of his converts was a man whose word was heeded in ihe assembly of the people. If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck." Mosquito went away humiliated. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. full of power and beauty. The woman was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy season. Three young men from the victorious boy's team ran forward. And so he changed the subject and talked about music. like splitting wood. How his mother would weep for joy. A great evil has come upon their land as the Oracle had warned. One morning three of them came to my house. Unoka stood before her and began his story.