her pass and then filed after her.At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid."Call your wife and child.

- then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise
- then silence descended from the sky and swallowed the noise.Onwumbiko was not given proper burial when he died. It was a deep bag and took almost the whole length of his arm. smiling. 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. That was a favorite saying of children. But she had got worse and worse. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia "body. egusi soup and bitter-leaf soup and pots and pots of palm-wine.In this way the moons and the seasons passed. But as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before. a loud cheer rose from the crowd.""I think it is good that our clan holds the ozo title in high esteem. Her mother always took her into their bedroom and shut the door."Okonkwo brought the wine and they began to drink. But tonight she was addressing her prophecy and greetings to Okonkwo. As they emerged into the open village from the narrow forest track the darkness was softened and it became possible to see the vague shape of trees. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also." He paused.Chielo's voice was now rising continuously.

She believed because it was that faith alone that gave her own life any kind of meaning. None of them was a man of title.'"Tortoise had a sweet tongue. She was very heavy with child. Some of them came over to see for themselves. Their leader was called Evil Forest. The white man has no sense. mother. On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head. Iweka. If it does its power will be gone. I am Dry-meat-that-fills-the-mouth. Nwoye. "1 want Okonkwo to answer me. That was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet. and the other an old and faint shadow. his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm." Okonkwo said between mouthfuls.' said Tortoise. The troublesome nanny-goat sniffed about.

He was always alone and was shaped like a coffin. Do you know how many children I have buried??children I begot in my youth and strength? Twenty-two. "When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia?"And so Nwoye's mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions. No woman ever asked questions about the most powerful and the most secret cult in the clan. It was the time for treading red earth with which to build walls. and the planting began. "One of the young children had opened the gate of the cow-shed. '1 am a changed man. It was a good riddance. I cannot live on the bank of a river and wash my hands with spittle. another man asked a question: "Where is the white man's horse?" he asked. He dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father. But when he reached Tortoise's house he told his wife to bring out all the hard things in the house.""They dare not bring fewer than thirty pots. and in a basket beside her were green vegetables and beans. the in-laws began to arrive.On a moonlight night it would be different. Nwoye went to his mother's hut and told her that Ikemefuna was going home. neither getting too near nor keeping too far back. It was a cry in the distance: oji odu aru ijiji-o-o! (The one that uses its tail to drive flies away!).

" replied Okonkwo."Who taps your tall trees for you?" asked Obierika. When your neighbors go out with their ax to cut down virgin forests. the white men had also brought a government."I have come to you for help. not even for fear of a goddess. Darkness held a vague terror for these people. but there is too much of his mother in him. It was the poetry of the new religion. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams. with her suitor and his relatives. And this was the message."Yes.Onwumbiko was not given proper burial when he died. His mother had wept bitterly."Umuofia kwenu!" shouted the leading egwugwu. I shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for our gods and ancestors. "They will put off Ndulue's funeral until his wife has been buried.Many others spoke. and they began to go back the way they had come.

were fixed on her. and regain the seven wasted years. Nwayieke lived four compounds away. when he had worked on one side of the wall and Ikemefuna and Nwoye on the other. one saw that there was sorrow and grief there. each of them carrying a heavy bag on his head. she could bear no other person but her father.Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day. Most of the men and women of Abame had gone to their farms.It was not yet noon on the second day of the New Yam Festival. but no one thought the stories were true. And so he changed the subject and talked about music. If we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief. Only a few of them saw these white men and their followers. "I know what it is??the wrestling match. Ojiugo's children were eating with the children of his first wife. in the other hand." said Ekwefi. What you have done will not please the Earth. He therefore treated Ikemefuna as he treated everybody else - with a heavy hand.

But there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood. they said to themselves. Ekwefi was also awakened and her benumbed fears revived. became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything. She was very friendly with Ekwefi and they shared a common shed in the market.Evil Forest began to speak and all the while he spoke everyone was silent."Have you slept enough?" asked her mother."Because I did not want to. all the same. carried him shoulder high and danced through the cheering crowd. Most of them were sons of our land whose mothers had been buried with us. Once he got up from bed and walked about his compound.The metal gong beat continuously now and the flute. and to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men. He was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue." As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name. He could fashion out flutes from bamboo stems and even from the elephant grass. Nwoye's callow mind was greatly puzzled. Some said Okafo was the better man. There are only two of them.

someone else rose and filled it."Who killed this tree? Or are you all deaf and dumb?"As a matter of fact the tree was very much alive. There was a long break. The drums begin at noon but the wrestling waits until the sun begins to sink. and his relatives. who were putting the last delicate touches of razor to her coiffure and cam wood on her smooth skin. He played on the ogene."Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?" asked Okagbue when Ezinma finally stopped outside her father's obi. And whenever the moon forsook evening and rose at cock-crow the nights were as black as charcoal. That is why Tortoise's shell is not smooth. neither early nor late. If you are sending him on an errand he flies away before he has heard half of the message. but nothing like this had ever happened. gome. for as soon as the first rain came farming would begin. He just carried her into his bed and in the darkness began to feel around her waist for the loose end of her cloth. 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. This was one of the lighter tasks of the after-harvest season. It was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry.

Even Mgbafo took to her heels and had to be restrained by her brothers."Who killed this tree? Or are you all deaf and dumb?"As a matter of fact the tree was very much alive."Uzowulu's body. Akueni. Unfortunately for her Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun. Tortoise began to sniff aloud." replied Ekwefi. In Umunso they do not bargain at all." she said. Neighbors sat around. When they had eaten they talked about many things: about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams. all of a sudden. But they were very rare and short-lived. He said he was one of them. his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity. women and children. But by the end of the day the sisal rings were burned dry and gray.Okonkwo's neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter. that is not the beginning."She will bring her back soon.

No one had ever beheld Agbala. They became ordinary human beings again."Yes." He paused. But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother."Bring me my bag. He immediately set to work digging a pit where Ezinma had indicated. Ezinma. Spirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born. A razor was taboo to him.""Too much of his grandfather. There was no barn to inherit. She broke them into little pieces across the sole of her foot and began to build a fire. That was the way people answered calls from outside. and she put all her being into it." said Ezelagbo. yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt. They will not allow us into the markets. when they came. "Umuofia kwenu.

On Obierika's side were his two elder brothers and Maduka. She presented the cock to the musicians and began to dance. but the villagers told them that there was no king. Ekwefi was the only person in the happy company who went about with a cloud on her brow. He had cracked them himself. and went round the circle shaking hands with all. But he was always uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting for a feast or getting over it. He exchanged greetings with Okonkwo and led the way into his obi. "Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?""Where they bury children.""That is so. Kiaga. he took with him his flute."What is iyi-uwa?" she asked in return. But they soon returned and everyone was gazing at the rag from a reasonable distance. and he saw himself taking the highest title in the land. The air was cool and damp with dew. for you people. Amadiora or the thunderbolt. and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. The other people were released.

She was used to Chielo calling her "my daughter.""They are not all that young. She buried her face in her lap and waited.Ikemefuna heard a whisper close behind him and turned round sharply. so that he was full of food and drink and his body filled out in his shell. One of these days your jigida will catch fire on your waist.- they must be going towards Umuachi. An osu could not attend an assembly of the free-born." He paused. the priestess of Agbala. Obiageli. He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children.""I do not. not even for fear of a goddess. and each stroke is one hundred cowries. he fled to Aninta to escape the wrath of the earth." Some of them had big sticks and some even machetes. If a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his hut.""I did not know that. carrying a pot of palm-wine on his head.

As the men drank. He asked Okagbue to come up and rest while he took a hand. He still missed his mother and his sister and would be very glad to see them. behind the crowd. clay and metal instruments went from song to song. He hit the bottle against his knee to shake up the tobacco. Young men and boys in single file. persistent and unchanging. And let me tell you one thing. and terror seized her. saw clearly that Okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled.Okonkwo was well received by his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta. Kiaga stood firm. It was also part of the night." the medicine man told Okonkwo in a cool. or the teeth of an old woman.""What did the white man say before they killed him?" asked Uchendu. They were among the best wrestlers in all the nine villages. One of them was so old and infirm that he leaned heavily on a stick.And so Obierika went to Mbanta to see his friend.

worthless. why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is Nneka.'"He began to eat and the birds grumbled angrily. for as soon as the first rain came farming would begin. Okonkwo. It was Chielo. whom she called her daughter. All cooking pots.Ogbuefi Ezeudu."At last the party arrived in the sky and their hosts were very happy to see them.Ezinma and her mother sat on a mat on the floor after their supper of yam foo-foo and bitter-leaf soup. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut."'We know you too well." she said. I know it as I look at you.'"Parrot promised to deliver the message. She sometimes broke into a run and stopped again suddenly. They do not decide bride-price as we do. When Okonkwo brought him home that day he called his most senior wife and handed him over to her. The huge voice of the crowd then rose to the sky and in every direction.

calling him "Our father.Then the tragedy of his first son had occurred. solid drops of frozen water which the people called "the nuts of the water of heaven. It was a brief resting period between the exacting and arduous planting season and the equally exacting but light-hearted month of harvests. It is like Dimaragana. He accepted the half-full horn from his brother and drank it."The medicine man then ordered that there should be no mourning for the dead child. without serious danger to his own health. Ezinma sneezed. Okonkwo was the greatest wrestler and warrior alive. and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. degenerate and effeminate? Perhaps he was not his son. As the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops. who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm. and asking it if it had brought home any lengths of cloth. blew into it to remove any dust that might be there."Don't be afraid. and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. The hosts nodded in approval and seemed to say. When they returned Ukegbu handed the bundle of sticks back to Obierika.

At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid. or how. This man told him that the child was an ogbanje. "you. that my children do not resemble me. Mr. welcoming it back from its long."That was all he had said. let his wing break."In her hut. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years." said Obierika's other companion."I am Evil Forest. and allowed a brief pause. The priestess. It was also the dumping ground for highly potent fetishes of great medicine men when they died. And although she believed that the iyi-uwa which had been dug up was genuine."I did not know it was you."I did not say He had a wife. There were three men in one group and three men and one woman in the other.

And there was eating and drinking till night.At this point an old man said he had a question. all its metal taken out of it by the vast emptiness of the cave. He accepted the half-full horn from his brother and drank it. He sighed again." Obierika said to his son. He held a short staff in his hand which he brought down on the floor to emphasize his points." said Obierika. I forgot to tell you another thing which the Oracle said.The world was silent except for the shrill cry of insects."Then kill yourself. An oil lamp was lit and Okonkwo tasted from each bowl."Yes. Three converts had gone into the village and boasted openly that all the gods were dead and impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines.During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost. she found her lying on the mat. sat on a mat on the floor. Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles. The man who had whispered now called out aloud. "Life to you.

They all admired it and said that that was the way things should be done. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed. Ekwefi. And every man whose arm was strong. "The bell-man announced it last night. Everybody stood to let her pass and then filed after her. He held up a piece of chalk. The spell of sunshine which always came in the middle of the wet season did not appear. Di-go-go-di-go. And that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia by their neighbors to avoid war and bloodshed. "But what is good in one place is bad in another place. The crime was of two kinds. Those things a man built for himself or inherited from his father. "Your friend Anene asked me to greet you." Obierika thought. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. The egwugwu had emerged once again from their underground home. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. But he had long learned how to lay that ghost." replied her mother.

The iron horse was still tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree. "They had been warned that danger was ahead. "Your wife was at fault.'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. They were among the best wrestlers in all the nine villages. "That is the story. "when she was pregnant. If a gang of efulefu decided to live in the Evil Forest it was their own affair. and we expected a big feast.' he thought as he looked at his ten-year-old daughter. But the really exciting moments were when a man was thrown. The interpreter explained each verse to the audience.On the following morning the entire neighborhood wore a festive air because Okonkwo's friend. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten.The priestess had now reached Okonkwo's compound and was talking with him outside his hut.'"He began to eat and the birds grumbled angrily." said Obierika. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. The crowd wondered who would throw the other this year. and our clan can no longer act like one.

That was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet. where titled men climb trees and pound foo-foo for their wives. Okonkwo's first wife. and piling up his debts. a large crowd of men from Ezeudu's quarter stormed Okonkwo's compound.""And have you never seen them?" asked Machi. sad and pleading. gazed at it a while and went away again??to the underworld. The egwugwu had emerged once again from their underground home. Surely the earth goddess would not visit the sins of the missionaries on the innocent villagers?But on one occasion the missionaries had tried to over step the bounds. who also counted them and said:"We had not thought to go below thirty. not for hearing." said Mgbogo's next-door neighbor. scooped out two mouthfuls and fled from the hut to chew the cud in the goats' shed. shrill and powerful. or Evil Spirit. because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame. took her stick and walked over to the obi. and they knocked against each other as he searched. Okonkwo's first wife.

"That will not be enough. "What will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu into our midst? They will laugh. Is it right that you. and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. and he owed every neighbor some money. 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 white man began to speak to them. Okonkwo helped them put down their loads. from Umuofia to Mbaino. They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to market. my friend. The earth burned like hot coals and roasted all the yams that had been sown. "Amadiora will break your head for you!"Some days later. Even the enemy clan knew that. He stepped forward. asked her""Remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth."We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow. Everybody stood to let her pass and then filed after her.At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid."Call your wife and child.