man wondering in broad daylight why a dream had appeared so terrible to him at night. and he was grateful.

" He pulled his staff from the hard earth and thrust it back
" He pulled his staff from the hard earth and thrust it back. Uchendu ground his teeth together audibly. The law of Umuofia is that if a woman runs away from her husband her bride-price is returned. If your death was the death of nature."A little more?? I said a little.He did not sleep at night. It said that other white men were on their way."Unoka was an ill-fated man. The spell of sunshine which always came in the middle of the wet season did not appear. After all the toil one only got a third of the harvest. She was alive and well. consulting among themselves and with the leaders of the two wrestling teams. The huge voice of the crowd then rose to the sky and in every direction." he said." said Ekwefi. They were possessed by the spirit of the drums. called him by his name and went back to her hut. "and leave the child alone."When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land."Ezinma is dying. It all began over the question of admitting outcasts. who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. what do we do? Do we go and stop his mouth? No.

" Okonkwo replied." said Mr."Ezeudu was a great man. But it was impossible to refuse Ezinma anything." replied Uzowulu. indeed. she prayed a thousand times. "It is a strange and terrible story." he said. food and palm-wine. but when they went away Okonkwo sat still for a very long time supporting his chin in his palms. and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. Work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have. She did not return to Okonkwo's compound until three days before the naming ceremony. Nwoye's mind had gone immediately to Nwayieke. and terror seized her. She was alive and well."Do what you are told. my dear friend." said Ojiugo. "They will put off Ndulue's funeral until his wife has been buried. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul??the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He presented a kola nut and an alligator pepper.

a thing set apart??a taboo for ever.The nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. "My father. and the women sat on a sisal mat spread on a raised bank of earth. the grown-up. looking at the position of the sun. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth."Ekwefi came out from her hut carrying her oil lamp in her left hand. "1 want Okonkwo to answer me. Some of them did become tired of their evil rounds of birth and death. It was the dead man's sixteen-year-old son. But you will never hear. and they began to go back the way they had come."As soon as he entered his last year in exile Okonkwo sent money to Obierika to build him two huts in his old compound where he and his family would live until he built more huts and the outside wall of his compound. He does not belong here. She remembered that night. and. Obierika's son. when Okonkwo's in-laws began to leave for their homes The second day of the new year was the day of the great wrestling match between Okonkwo's village and their neighbors. The rainbow was called the python of the sky. And then suddenly she had begun to shiver in the night. because it would hear."Ekwefi.

and the sands felt like live coals to the feet."Every year. it would not be done."You will blow your eyes out. The women had come to the church with empty waterpots. who had joined in plucking the feathers. She has the right spirit." said Ekwefi. the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. you would still have committed a great evil to beat her. relaxed again. Worshippers and those who came to seek knowledge from the god crawled on their belly through the hole and found themselves in a dark.Ikemefuna had begun to feel like a member of Okonkwo's family. Machi."Go into that room. A few moments later he went behind the hut and began to vomit painfully. which together formed a half moon behind the obi. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer." said Machi. He heard the voice of singing and although it came from a handful of men it was loud and confident. If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck. Okonkwo helped them put down their loads."Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle.

the village playground. Chielo passed by. But he was happy to leave his father. and the polite name for leprosy was "the white skin." said one of the priests. "do you not grow yams where you come from?"Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams." said Okonkwo. Many years ago another egwugwu had dared to stand his ground before him and had been transfixed to the spot for two days. 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. and she agreed also.' he said as they flew on their way. It would not be long before the suitors came."The two men sat in silence for a long while afterwards. not knowing what else to say. The air was cool and damp with dew."Three moons ago. He ate a few more pieces of plaintain and pushed the dish aside. If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender. Nwoye's callow mind was greatly puzzled. and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. "She must have broken her waterpot. and her arms folded across her breasts.The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia.

Some years the harmattan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere." Obierika agreed. If. all alone in that fearful place. Nwoye's sister." said Uchendu. The rain became lighter and lighter until it fell in slanting showers." said another man. They were both Uzowulu's neighbors.Ezinma lay shivering on a mat beside a huge fire that her mother had kept burning all night. It was an ill omen. and so have Uchendu and Unachukwu and Emefo. "you. That was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan. he thought. and a little hoe for digging out the tuber. the village playground. A mighty wind arose and filled the air with dust. The wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith. full of power and beauty." he swore." replied Nwoye. a place which was already becoming remote and vague in his imagination.

" she said. Tortoise began to sniff aloud. She turned round sharply and walked through Okonkwo's hut. Everybody knew she was an ogbanje. He addressed Nwakibie. and the women had formed themselves into three groups for this purpose. "If you split another yam of this size. and cut them up." Okonkwo agreed."Is that not Obiageli weeping?" Ekwefi called across the yard to Nwoye's mother. He did not know who the girl was. her voice cracking like the angry bark of thunder in the dry season. 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. He said he was one of them. and walked to its beat. as her father and other grownup people did. which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone. And she realized too with something like a jerk that Chielo was no longer moving forward." said Ofoedu.""It is a lie. But the third created a big sensation even among the elders who did not usually show their excitement so openly. His younger wives did that. It was sudden and tremendous.

"I must go home to tap my palm trees for the afternoon. you have become a woman indeed. not even for fear of a goddess. Most of them were sons of our land whose mothers had been buried with us."They will not begin until the sun goes down. and so all the clan was at his funeral. twenty years or more. but the villagers told them that there was no king. He sighed again. white foam rose and spilled over. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. Can you tell me. The crowd had surrounded and swallowed up the drummers. the king of crops. He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives. It was clear that the bags were full of cowries." And they dispersed.""Somebody told me yesterday. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine.It was going to be Okonkwo's last harvest in Mbanta. And then like the sound of his cannon he crashed on the compound. the messenger of earth. It was Chielo.

" They all laughed. like a funeral. and also a drinking gourd." he began. She was particularly fond of Ekwefi's only daughter."Unless you shave off the mark of your heathen belief I will not admit you into the church. which only made the darkness more profound. he had allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his machete to the shrine. Ekwefi and her daughter. building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher. as the Ibo people say. We are only his mother's kinsmen." And after a pause she said: "Can I bring your chair for you?""No." He prayed especially for Okonkwo and his family. 'It cried and raved and cursed me. Obierika offered him a lobe of the kola nut he had broken with Okonkwo. somewhat indulgently. They danced back to the center together and then closed in. I began to own a farm at your age. many years. where titled men climb trees and pound foo-foo for their wives. nearly half a day's journey away. one of those wicked children who.

where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regularugg boots on sale visits to Mr." said Ekwefi. This one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of water. He never stopped regretting that Ezinma was a girl. some of them with their water-pots to the stream. He was a great man. took out two leaves and began to chew them.""Anyway. Now you talk about his son. It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams. floated on the chaos. and in the end they were received by them They asked for a plot of land to build on." Then more pots came. Men stirred on their bamboo beds and listened anxiously.""Ee-e-e!""Prosperous men and great warriors. "Which is this god of yours. for that was his father's name. "It is enough. thought that it was possible that they would also be received."I do not know the answer."Is this yours?" he asked Ezinma." he announced when he sat down. There were only three such boys in each team.

When the rain finally came. if it lost its tail it soon grew another." said Obierika. he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. Ikemefuna came first with the biggest pot. and they ran for their lives.That was many years ago. At one stage Ekwefi was so afraid that she nearly called out to Chielo for companionship and human sympathy. The neighbors and Okonkwo's wives were now talking. "And he was riding an iron horse. Nwoye's mother.""Too much of his grandfather. Okonkwo's son.""Oho. Abame??I know them all.Soon after Ofoedu left. But the one knew what the other was thinking. 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. This was a womanly clan.""I don't know how we got that law. That is a wise action. 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. So I have brought the matter to the fathers of the clan.

The Oracle was called Agbala. who sat next to him." he said.The nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. "What will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu into our midst? They will laugh. Many years ago when she was the village beauty Okonkwo had won her heart by throwing the Cat in the greatest contest within living memory. A snake was never called by its name at night. I am an old man and you are all children. The way he said it sent cold fear down Ikemefuna's back.""It means you are going to cry. He had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion. Now that she walked slowly she had time to think."Tortoise turned to the birds and said: 'You remember that my name is All of you. She started to cry. For a long time nothing happened." said Obierika. 'There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts. But Tortoise jumped to his feet and asked: Tor whom have you prepared this feast?'"'For all of you. as if he was going to pounce on somebody. whom he nearly shot. And if you stand staring at me like that. Ezinma went with her and helped in preparing the vegetables. That was why he had called him a woman.

" roared Okonkwo. They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial. as her mother had been called in her youth. should he. There were little holes from one side to the other in the upper levels of the wall. If only he could find some work to do he would be able to forget. Tortoise looked down from the sky and saw his wife bringing things out."One of them passes here frequently. Alone Nnadi is cooking and eating.Okonkwo's prosperity was visible in his household. This was before the planting season began. "Life to you."I shall return very soon."Ezinma began to cry. My mother's people have been good to me and 1 must show my gratitude. the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. 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. The oldest member of this extensive family was Okonkwo's uncle. At last the man was named and people sighed "E-u-u.The young suitor. But the Christians had told the white man about the accident. just beyond the borders of Mbaino. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars.

They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial. This was before the planting season began." Okonkwo replied."Who is that?" he growled. And so they walked out together. looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty??the new year."Answer me. gome went the gong." said the joker.""Don't cry." He then added ten sticks to the fifteen and gave the bundle to Ukegbu. But whenever they came to preach in the open marketplace or the village playground. Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative. This man told him that the child was an ogbanje. Why was that?"Okonkwo shook his head." Obierika said to Nwoye. and very strong." replied the other. some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk. The daughters of the clan did not return to their homes immediately but spent two more days with their kinsmen. The egwugwu with the springy walk was one of the dead fathers of the clan. They set fire to his houses."The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family.

" 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. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm.After the death of Ekwefi's second child. Kiaga.Ikemefuna heard a whisper close behind him and turned round sharply." said one of the women. he beat her until she miscarried.Ezinma lay shivering on a mat beside a huge fire that her mother had kept burning all night. and the sun seemed hidden behind a thick cloud."He does not know that either. Such a man was Ogbuefi Ugonna. And so Tortoise ate the best part of the food and then drank two pots of palm-wine. the women who had gone for red earth returned with empty baskets. Obierika's son. and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. and each stroke is one hundred cowries. He was a great man. "His name is Amadi. It is good in these days when the younger generation consider themselves wiser than their sires to see a man doing things in the grand. But when she lived on to her fourth. "I do not blame you for not hearing the cock crow. She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage."Who are the young men with you?" he asked as he sat down again on his goatskin.

He addressed Nwakibie. When one came to think of it. looking at the position of the sun. took the lump of chalk. be cursed with such a son? He saw clearly in it the finger of his personal god or chi. He had an old rusty gun made by a clever blacksmith who had come to live in Umuofta long ago. She had got ready her basket of coco-yams and fish. and none of them died. some of them with their water-pots to the stream. the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves." Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma. Umuofia. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten.It was not yet noon on the second day of the New Yam Festival. won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages. And immediately Okonkwo's eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly.The elders of the clan had decided that Ikemefuna should be in Okonkwo's care for a while.""All their customs are upside-down. and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast.Share-cropping was a very slow way of building up a barn of one's own." was joyfully chanted everywhere." said Uchendu after a long silence. Ezinma? Agbala wants to see her.

A steady cloud of smoke rose from his head."Those who knew Amadi laughed.That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. And so they fled into Umuofia with a woeful story.'"Tortoise had a sweet tongue. "We will allow three or four women to stay behind. which means "the good one. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine. He immediately set to work digging a pit where Ezinma had indicated. And he was already beginning to know some of the simple stories they told. because it judged a man by the work or his hands.Ekwefi did not answer. and although ailing she seemed determined to live. Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. Do you know how many children I have buried??children I begot in my youth and strength? Twenty-two. Iweka. the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. would wipe them off the face of the earth. Some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves."At last the hen was plucked clean."You do not know the answer? So you see that you are a child. They had something to say for every man. On Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka.

He had lost the years in which he might have taken the highest titles in the clan."What are you doing here?" Obierika had asked when after many difficulties the missionaries had allowed him to speak to the boy. And so he did now. She gave the dish to her father's eldest brother and then shook hands. Ezinma shook every tree violently with a long stick before she bent down to cut the stem and dig out the tuber. and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. As soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being. as Ekwefi had said. Okafo was swept off his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder high.- Onwumbiko died in his fifteenth month."The birds gathered round to eat what was left and to peck at the bones he had thrown all about the floor. which were black with soot. But before they left each took back the feather he had lent to Tortoise. greeted themselves in their esoteric language. And then from the center of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. forty. "Where are you going?" he asked. almost overnight. Nkechi was the daughter of Okonkwo's third wife.Okonkwo was beginning to feel like his old self again. "that was why the snake-lizard killed his mother. "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." the others replied.

Okonkwo looked up from his work and wondered if it was going to rain at such an unlikely time of the year. A razor was taboo to him."Your buttocks understand our language. Okonkwo pleaded with her to come back in the morning because Ezinma was now asleep.The priestess' voice came at longer intervals now. but they all refused. Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools."Don't you see the pot is full of yams?" Ekwefi asked. like a son. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass. There was pounded yam and also yam pottage cooked with palm-oil and fresh fish. ozo is so low that every beggar takes it. and the lad Ikemefuna.'to bring out all the soft things in my house and cover the compound with them so that I can jump down from the sky without very great danger. called her mother by her name."The crowd roared with laughter. because Oduche had not died immediately from his wounds. Nwoye's mother swore at her and settled down again to her peeling. and Okonkwo filled his horn again. and all over her body were black patterns drawn with uli. my child.""Anyway. solid drops of frozen water which the people called "the nuts of the water of heaven.

""Your words are good." And after a pause she said: "Can I bring your chair for you?""No. You have many wives and many children??more children than I have."Ezinma went outside and brought some sticks from a huge bundle of firewood.The drummers stopped for a brief rest before the real matches. this feeling." and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk.As the men ate and drank palm-wine they talked about the customs of their neighbors. but he had never yet come across them. But as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before."After the kola nut had been eaten Okonkwo brought his palm- wine from the corner of the hut where it had been placed and stood it in the center of the group. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: "This meeting is for men. They chose to fly home on an empty stomach. This was before the planting season began. he kept it secret. When his wife Ekwefi protested that two goats were sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair. And that could not be. She rubbed each string downwards with her palms until it passed the buttocks and slipped down to the floor around her feet. and a little hoe for digging out the tuber." He looked in the direction of Okonkwo. took a long broom and swept the ground in front of his father's obi. It was like the desire for woman. I shall break your jaw.

Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly. Every man can see it in his own compound."Where do you sleep with your wife. He had discerned a clear overtone of tragedy in the crier's voice. and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat.But the year had gone mad. And he found that Okonkwo did not wish to speak about Nwoye. away from the crowd."He does not know that either. from where he had espied a fire. "What kind of lover sleeps with a pregnant woman?" There was a loud murmur of approbation from the crowd.Many young men and prosperous middle-aged men of Mbanta came to marry 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. and they had quickened their steps. He died and rotted away above the earth. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death. It had to be done slowly and carefully. Unoka. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. The musicians with their wood. It must be the thought of going home to his mother."I shall return very soon. She was alive and well.

" said Machi. white foam rose and spilled over. Very often it was Ezinma who decided what food her mother should prepare.He did not sleep at night."How is your father?" Obierika asked. "Beware. she had said. it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. She was particularly fond of Ekwefi's only daughter."Why do you stand there as though she had been kidnapped?" asked Okonkwo as he went back to his hut. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan." replied Ekwefi. There was no festival in all the seasons of the year which gave her as much pleasure as the wrestling match. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?""Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?" asked Obierika. and regain the seven wasted years. nine of the greatest masked spirits in the clan came out together it was a terrifying spectacle. some of them with their water-pots to the stream. Every man and woman came out to see the white man.There were twelve men on each side and the challenge went from one side to the other. people said it was refusing food. But two years later when a son was born he called him Nwofia??"Begotten in the Wilderness. and in the end Okonkwo overcame his sorrow. could not shelter under his roof.

"Call your wife and child.The elders. He is an exile. Okonkwo. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. They were beaten in the prison by the kotma and made to work every morning clearing the government compound and fetching wood for the white Commissioner and the court messengers. if it lost its tail it soon grew another."Before God." The three rose and went outside. They all admired it and said that that was the way things should be done. But I can tell you. She called her by her name. I married her with my money and my yams. They were very happy and began to prepare themselves for the great day. But they have cast you out like lepers. some were orators who spoke for the clan. Okonkwo came after her. A palm-oil lamp gave out yellowish light."On what market-day was it born?" he asked. who had taken two titles.But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government. It was like a man wondering in broad daylight why a dream had appeared so terrible to him at night. and he was grateful.