been warned that danger was ahead. by Ezeani. the shouting and the firing of guns. She greeted her god in a multitude of names??the owner of the future.

The faint and distant wailing of women settled like a sediment of sorrow on the earth
The faint and distant wailing of women settled like a sediment of sorrow on the earth. The egwugwu house into which they emerged faced the forest. and men dashed about in frenzy.The daughters of the family were all there. But the second time did not count. she did not hear them. her face streaming with tears.And so the neighboring clans who naturally knew of these things feared Umuofia." 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.But."It was my husband's. The story had arisen among the Christians themselves. Each of his three wives had her own hut. If such a thing were ever to happen. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears. The white missionary was very proud of him and he was one of the first men in Umuofia to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion." Quite often she bought beancakes and gave Ekwefi some to take home to Ezinma." He went away to his hut and Ekwefi began to tend the medicine pot almost as if it was itself a sick child. the priestess of Agbala.Ikemefuna came to Umuofia at the end of the carefree season between harvest and planting." He paused. She knew her daughter was safe." She went into the hut again and brought down the smoke-black basket in which she kept her dried fish and other ingredients for cooking soup.' replied the young kite.

As for the boy. He had fallen ill on the previous night. ignorant of the love of God. and on her waist four or five rows of jigida. "Kill one of your sons for me. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. but he went to the birds and asked to be allowed to go with them. But good men who worshipped the true God lived forever in His happy kingdom. His greatest friend. had died ten years ago. The hearing then began. No one had ever beheld Agbala. waving their palm fronds.As the last heavy rains of the year began to fall. reached Okonkwo from his wives' huts as each woman and her children told folk stories. Some of them had been heavily whipped. on their backs and their thighs. it would not be done."The medicine man then ordered that there should be no mourning for the dead child. As Idigo had said.There were no stars in the sky because there was a rain-cloud." said the priestess. folded her arms across her breast and sighed. who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle.

Chielo. He was like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his foo-foo." He turned again to Okonkwo and said. or rather to his death. and the meeting continued. which children were rarely allowed to eat because such food tempted them to steal. I began to fend for myself at an age when most people still suck at their mothers' breasts. asked on behalf of the clan to look after him in the interim." said Okonkwo. He was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue. No. And she went into her hut to warm the vegetable soup she had cooked last night. Only then did she realize. It was a little village called Mbanta. Then he and another man went before Ikemefuna and set a faster pace."Although they were almost the same age. paid regular visits to them. She only began to weep when they got near the iroko tree outside their compound.His life had been ruled by a great passion??to become one of the lords of the clan. Even the greatest medicine men took shelter when he was near.These outcasts. urging the others to hurry up. I began to own a farm at your age." and was allowed to go wherever it chose.

only waking to full life when Chielo sang. and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. it was true. It tried Okonkwo's patience beyond words. some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk. Every woman immediately abandoned whatever she was doing and rushed out in the direction of the cry. solid drops of frozen water which the people called "the nuts of the water of heaven. It might happen again this year. 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me. At any rate. Then the rain became less violent. called him by his name and went back to her hut. Like all good farmers. "You are not a stranger in Umuofia. There is not a single clan in these parts that I do not know very well. Could he remember them all? He would tell her about Nwoye and his mother. They had the same style and one saw the other's plans beforehand." said Okonkwo. without serious danger to his own health. He was greatly surprised.These outcasts." replied the other. Uchendu. You have many wives and many children??more children than I have.

The other people were released. Even a man's motherland is strange to him nowadays. for Mr. won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages. Why. and when they had seen it and thanked him. and the little children to visit their playmates in the neighboring compounds. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat." she said. turning to Obierika. When all was laid out. the son of Obierika.And then the egwugwu appeared. especially with the children. Once she tripped up and fell. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an Ibo man. Nothing wouldhappen to Ezinma.""And have you never seen them?" asked Machi. She was going to the stream to fetch water. She would die with her. forty."Do what you are told. Kiaga. who laughed uneasily because.

Anyone who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky.That year the harvest was sad. succulent breasts." pleaded from a reasonable distance." ';."We cannot all rush out like that. go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang. Okafo was swept off his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder high. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories. 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." said Okonkwo. "If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor."Although they were almost the same age. If we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief.And now the rains had really come. How else could they say that Ani and Amadiora were harmless? And Idemili and Ogwugwu too? And some of them began to go away. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger. all the same. The people surged forward.He went back to the church and told Mr. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed. had crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake. 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. At last Ogbuefi Ezeugo stood up in the midst of them and bellowed four times.

who must taste his wine before anyone else. She was peeling new yams. The first rains were late. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man.""Ee-e-e!""And this will not be the last. Okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth. The cloud had lifted and a few stars were out. who has promised everlasting life to all who believe in His holy name. and then passed two shares to Nwoye and Ikemefuna. He was ill for three market weeks. In fact he recovered from his illness only a few days before the Week of Peace began. And so when Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and imperious emissary of war. The drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. white foam rose and spilled over." But he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him. but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell.Okonkwo planted what was left of his seed-yams when the rains finally returned. And this was the message.All the umunna were invited to the feast. If ever a man deserved his success." said Obierika." said Ezinma at last. The pots of wine stood in their midst.

had entered his eye. I owe them no yams. He who brings kola brings life. Evil Forest represented the village of Umueru. someone else rose and filled it.Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from leaves of the raffia-palm. which. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him. On Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka. She felt cold. Obierika. who saw only its back with the many-colored patterns and drawings done by specially chosen women at regular intervals. "They are young tubers. He immediately set to work digging a pit where Ezinma had indicated. It was an angry. "He seemed to speak through his nose. Okonkwo slept."I did not say He had a wife. Uchendu pulled gently at his gray beard and gnashed his teeth. "I planted the farm nearly two years ago. So much of it was cooked that.And the little church was at that moment too deeply absorbed in its own troubles to annoy the clan. smiled broadly and said to his father: "Do you hear that?" He then said to the others: "He will never admit that I am a good tapper. closely followed by Nwoye and his two younger brothers.

that was how it looked to his father.A strange and sudden weakness descended on Ekwefi as she stood gazing in the direction of the voices like a hen whose only chick has been carried away by a kite. Ekwefi picked her way carefully and quietly. I shall give you some fish to eat. Even Mgbafo took to her heels and had to be restrained by her brothers.A hush fell on the compound immediately. He had had the same kind of feeling not long ago. father? You are beyond our knowledge. and he could hear his own flute weaving in and out of them."No." said one of the younger men.""What has happened to that piece of land in dispute?" asked Okonkwo."When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land." said one of the converts.Ekwefi went into her hut to cook yams." he began. There was no question of killing a missionary here."I must go home to tap my palm trees for the afternoon. As soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being. Ekwefi. and all the rest rushed away to see the cow that had been let loose. The suitor was a young man of about twenty-five. "I sold the big ones as soon as you left. Mgbafo.

The cut bush was left to dry and fire was then set to it. Obierika. Ekwefi hurried to the main footpath and turned left in the direction of the voice. 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. to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan. and he gave to Vulture rain wrapped in leaves of coco-yam. "These are now your kinsmen." And after a pause she said: "Can I bring your chair for you?""No. are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. Some kinsmen ate it with egusi soup and others with bitter-leaf soup."Is this yours?" he asked Ezinma." said Ekwefi. Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance. moved to the center. But she had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay. As the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops. 1 know how to deal with them. she had said. And so they fled into Umuofia with a woeful story. Palm trees swayed as the wind combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic coiffure. He then adjusted his cloth. sat on a mat on the floor. All this happened many years ago. Okonkwo had slaughtered a goat for her.

But the third created a big sensation even among the elders who did not usually show their excitement so openly. the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. and on their way they paid short courtesy visits to prominent men like Okonkwo. he is telling a lie.- one could not have known where one's mouth was in the darkness of that night. But on further thought he told himself that Nwoye was not worth fighting for. you wicked daughter of Akalogoli?" Okonkwo swore furiously. carrying on their heads various sizes of pots suitable to their years. The young men who kept order flew around. But he had recently fallen ill. She cut the yams into small pieces and began to prepare a pottage. And so. But no one who had ever crawled into his awful shrine had come out without the fear of his power. and on her waist four or five rows of jigida. The thick mat was thrown over both. "Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Only then did she realize. Twenty. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. though his dialect was different and harsh to the enrs of Mbanta. was telling two other men who came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu. you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labor to clear. nor even a young wife.

each brought her bowl of foo-foo and bowl of soup to her husband. Spirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born. nor the walls of his compound. and since he now had three wives his guests would make a fairly big crowd. He woke up once in the middle of the night and his mind went back to the past three days without making him feel uneasy. What would she do when they got to the cave? She would not dare to enter. 'Your dead father wants you to sacrifice a goat to him.""We have seen it. Children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing:"The rain is falling. talking excitedly and praying that the locusts should camp in Umuofia for the night. This one had only one hand and it carried a basket full of water. jumping over walls and dancing on the roof. I greet you." He paused. Yam stood for manliness." said Obierika. Ekwefi's mind went back to the days when they were young." And he told him what an osu was. Thelocusts had not come for many. "But I want all of you to note what 1 am going to say.""Yes. and went round the circle shaking hands with all. The children made endless trips to the stream. He was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood.

returning. They usually stay if they do not die before the age of six. In that way she will elude her wicked tormentor and break its evil cycle of birth and death. And it was not too hot either. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere. He was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue." Ezinma said. Okonkwo's first wife.The way into the shrine was a round hole at the side of a hill." He was talking about Okonkwo. the third highest in the land. welcoming it back from its long. and sat down. You know his first wife who walks with a stick?""Yes. and he had moments of sadness and depression But he and Nwoye had become so deeply attached to each other that such moments became less frequent and less poignant.But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government. forty-five.""I was only speaking in jest. each brought her bowl of foo-foo and bowl of soup to her husband. "Mother Kite once sent her daughter to bring food. The next child was a girl. the fear of failure and of weakness. occasionally feeling with her palm the wet. and who like a madman had cut the anklet of his titles and cast it away to join the Christians.

How his mother would weep for joy." said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh.""That means you will see something. Do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake. The blazing sun returned."The two outcasts shaved off their hair. When they did. the sky."At last the great day came and Tortoise was the first to arrive at the meeting place. Okonkwo's son. She had not as much as looked at Okonkwo and Ekwefi or shown any surprise at finding them at the mouth of the cave. thirty-five. and turned to his sons and daughters. But Ekwefi could not see her. because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame. And in a clear unemotional voice he told Umuofia how their daughter had gone to market at Mbaino and had been killed. Tortoise stood up in his many-colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation.Okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his seed-yams. As long as they lasted. He would remember his own childhood. and the smell of burning hair blended with the smell of cooking." he said. when they died. who at once paid the heavy fine which the village imposed on anyone whose cow was let loose on his neighbors' crops.

where he thought they must be.But the most dreaded of all was yet to come. to inquire what was amiss. Nwoye's mother."Umuofia kwenu.The drummers took up their sticks and the air shivered and grew tense like a tightened bow. after the rains.The woman with whom she talked was called Chielo."I did not know it was you." She died in her eleventh month. and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. beat me up and took my wife and children away." said Nwoye's mother. Mighty tree branches broke away under them. An evil forest was."Once upon a time. cooking and eating."Five women stayed behind to look after the cooking-pots. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. Okonkwo took up his goatskin bag to go. If it does its power will be gone. It was not done earlier because the rains were too heavy and would have washed away the heap of trodden earth. "We are going directly. persistent and unchanging.

On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank UGG Bailey Button Bootshis palm-wine from his first human head. perhaps for the first time." Obierika said to his son. 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. the troublesome nanny goat. the shouting and the firing of guns. Darkness was around the corner. "that Abame is no more?""How is that?" asked Uchendu and Okonkwo together." replied her mother. So he would make a fresh start. There were only four titles in the clan." Ezinma began. yellow and dark green. that was how it looked to his father."On the following Sunday. who was also the youngest man in the group. She was the priestess of Agbala. when the land had been moistened by two or three heavy rains. when his father walked in that night after killing Ikemefuna. his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs. As she buried one child after another her sorrow gave way to despair and then to grim resignation. And he knew which trees made the strongest bows."You have not eaten for two days.Ikemefuna came to Umuofia at the end of the carefree season between harvest and planting.

She saw the other children with their water-pots and remembered that they were going to fetch water for Obierika's wife. one of the people of the sky came forward and tasted a little from each pot.That night a bell-man went through the length and breadth of Mbanta proclaiming that the adherents of the new faith were thenceforth excluded from the life and privileges of the clan." Ezinma began."Who is that?" he growled. are white like this piece of chalk. and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest. calling him "Our father. all talking in low voices. and the dry."But this particular night was dark and silent. "You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children. But you were a fearless warrior."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." Okonkwo thundered. carried him shoulder high and danced through the cheering crowd. "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.She set the pot on the fire and Okonkwo took up his machete to return to his obi. Those men of Abame were fools." and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk. i have only a short while to live. Those things a man built for himself or inherited from his father." and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk. gome.

" she replied.""What did the white man say before they killed him?" asked Uchendu. It was clear from his twinkling eyes that he had important news. he was already one of the greatest men of his time. Yam. She pulled again and it came off. He brought out a sharp razor from the goatskin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to mutilate the child. But they were very rare and short-lived. Nwoye returned home. The drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink. a debtor. Okonkwo. his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity.- they all fled in terror."Has Nweke married a wife?" asked Okonkwo. 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. A bowl of pounded yams can throw him in a wrestling match." Mosquito went away humiliated. His name was Nwoye.""The world is large. and only the old people had seen them before. asked on behalf of the clan to look after him in the interim." said Obierika.The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta.

But two years later when a son was born he called him Nwofia??"Begotten in the Wilderness."They say that Okoli killed the sacred python. He hit the bottle against his knee to shake up the tobacco. Obiageli.'"Tortoise had a sweet tongue. and was punished. The elders of the clan replied."Evil Forest then turned to the other group and addressed the eldest of the three brothers. "As our people say. closed hut like tongues of fire. Okonkwo stood by. And that could not be. Unoka was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of mirth. It was only then that they exchanged greetings and shook hands over what was left of the food. Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed.- you stay at home and offer sacrifices to a reluctant soil." He paused." said the bride. Why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.""Don't cry." But he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him. Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. Ikemefuna had an endless stock of folk tales. It was a very good wine and powerful.

"before 1 put any crop in the earth. Obierika's second wife followed with a pot of soup."Remove your jigida first. Ekwefi had been returning from the stream with her mother on a dark night like this when they saw its glow as it flew in their direction." He presented the kola nut to them."You do not know the answer? So you see that you are a child.She walked up to her husband and accepted the horn from him. Okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time. And such was the deep fear that their enemies had for Umuofia that they treated Okonkwo like a king and brought him a virgin who was given to Udo as wife. and stayed.These outcasts. The married women wore their best cloths and the girls wore red and black waist-beads and anklets of brass."It was Wednesday in Holy Week and Mr. before they finally left for their village. She put back the empty pot on the circular pad in the corner.And then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world. It was a fierce contest. But it was a resilient spirit."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. There was once a man who went to sell a goat. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. and flies went with him. and even in the trees. At such times.

" said Okonkwo. "One of the young children had opened the gate of the cow-shed. Ikemefuna looked back. Let her go and stay with her people. Unoka was never happy when it came to wars." The crowd agreed. She hit her left foot against an outcropped root. The harvest was over.One day a neighbor called Okoye came in to see him. The barn was built against one end of the red walls. He remembered once when men had talked in low tones with his father. and did as you have been told. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past. If you think you are the greatest sufferer in the world ask my daughter. Its most potent war-medicine was as old as the clan itself. Nwoye's callow mind was greatly puzzled." said Ekwefi.The priestess had now reached Okonkwo's compound and was talking with him outside his hut." said Ekwefi. Gome." said the bride.Mr." said the joker. "But I have also heard that Abame people were weak and foolish.

They cross seven rivers to make their farms. they ought to know that Akueke is the bride for a king. who was Okonkwo's father."They want a piece of land to build their shrine." he said. the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. He could hear in his mind's ear the blood-stirring and intricate rhythms of the ekwe and the udu and the ogene. And before the cock crowed Okonkwo and his family were fleeing to his motherland.Even in his first year in exile he had begun to plan for his return.; "Did he die?" asked Ezinma. The troublesome nanny-goat sniffed about. 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. if it lost its tail it soon grew another." replied Okonkwo."Ekwefi did as she was asked. But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves. until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke on the stony Earth. The women were screaming outside. but no one thought the stories were true. and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half-light set in the solid massiveness of night. pulled out his staff and thrust it into the earth again. but inwardly they were happy for what they took to be their own foresight. setting up a wave of expectation in the crowd. and the planting began.

who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter. as you know. lest he should be found to resemble his father." she said. The elders said locusts came once in a generation." Umuofia obodo dike! Umuofia obodo dike! It said this over and over again. She must have heard a noise behind her and turned round sharply. or osu. away from the crowd. before the first cock-crow. who laughed uneasily because. At such times she seemed beyond danger. fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes. He must have a wife. Okonkwo.""That is very strange."It was my husband's. She went. Everyone looked in the direction of the egwugwu house. now said"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. He then roused Ezinma and placed her on the stool." He prayed especially for Okonkwo and his family. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back." replied the other.

And the little church was at that moment too deeply absorbed in its own troubles to annoy the clan."We still have a long way to go." He threw his head down and gnashed his teeth.Ekwefi still had some cassava left on her farm from the previous year.Ekwefi went into her hut to cook yams. If the clan had disobeyed the Oracle they would surely have been beaten.Although such stories were now often told they looked like fairy-tales in Mbanta and did not as yet affect the relationship between the new church and the clan. "It pleases me to see a young man like you these days when our youth has gone so soft." she replied."Having spoken plainly so far.That night he collected his most valuable belongings into head-loads. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun. watching. Darkness held a vague terror for these people.He did not sleep at night. by Ezeani."Will you give Ezinma some fire to bring to me?" Her own children and Ikemefuna had gone to the stream. Kiaga."You are right. "They had been warned that danger was ahead. by Ezeani. the shouting and the firing of guns. She greeted her god in a multitude of names??the owner of the future.