When she had borne her third son in succession. They saluted one another and then reappeared on the ilo.

if one finger brought oil it soiled the others
if one finger brought oil it soiled the others. she could not ignore the fact that some really evil children sometimes misled people into digging up a specious one.The priestess screamed. and the cannon shattered the silence. 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. "I remember now. "The world has no end. Okagbue emerged and without saying a word or even looking at the spectators he went to his goatskin bag."Akueke moved to the other end of the hut and began to remove the waist-beads. How then could he have begotten a son like Nwoye. Nwoye was there. No! he could not be. Ekwefi quickly moved away from her line of retreat. so his chi agreed. and ate up all the wild grass in the fields. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland.

He would build a bigger barn than he had had before and he would build huts for two new wives. Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. They also drank water from small pots and ate kola nuts. The bush was alive with the tread of feet on dry leaves and sticks and the moving aside of tree branches. she thought. When he walked. His mother's kinsmen had been very kind to him.And the little church was at that moment too deeply absorbed in its own troubles to annoy the clan.The sun rose slowly to the center of the sky. They danced back to the center together and then closed in.Everybody agreed that Igwelo should drink the dregs. Ekwefi mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep. Kiaga. All was silent. Evil Forest rose to his feet and order was immediately restored. "Whoever has a job in hand.

he cried in his heart. But his fondness only showed on very rare occasions." said Okonkwo. "If I had a son like him I should be happy. floated on the chaos. and Ezinma brought his goatskin bag from the far end of the hut. and sleepy. She was used to Chielo calling her "my daughter."He sprang to his feet. "Look at those lines of chalk. It was a sad miscalculation. He had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion. They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to market. go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang.But Ekwefi did not hear these consolations. He raised his voice once or twice in manly sorrow and then sat down with the other men listening to the endless wailing of the women and the esoteric language of the ekwe.

As long as they lasted. there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day.- instead of thirty there were now only fifteen. The crowd roared and clapped and for a while drowned the frenzied drums. 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. Okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust. Okonkwo.'Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive. And so when Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and imperious emissary of war.Am oyim de de de de! flew around the dark. what did the mother of this duckling say when you swooped and carried its child away?' 'It said nothing. living in a special area of the village. But they dared not complain openly. and a great land case began. She gave the dish to her father's eldest brother and then shook hands."Before God.

whom he had thrown away. and they began to go back the way they had come. except his priestess." he said. and also a drinking gourd. and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna.Go-di-di-go-go-di-go."Don't cry. Then he began to speak. As the Ibo say: "When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk." answered his first wife."It should be ready in four days or even three. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly. "My daughter's suitor is coming today and I hope we will clinch the matter of the bride-price.""Too much of his grandfather. the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot.

I am not afraid of work. but he did not answer. others Abame or Aninta. Ezinma shook every tree violently with a long stick before she bent down to cut the stem and dig out the tuber. He is not my father. His death showed that the gods were still able to fight their own battles.What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter's son. one of those evil essences loosed upon the world by the potent "medicines" which the tribe had made in the distant past against its enemies but had now forgotten how to control." and they argued like this for a few moments before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. She could no longer think. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. At his age I was already fending for myself. and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. My sister lived with him for nine years. Their hosts took him as the king of the birds."Outside the obi Okagbue and Okonkwo were digging the pit to find where Ezinma had buried her iyi-uwa.

roots snapped below. Unoka loved the good hire and the good fellowship. should bring to your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful or you may displease the dead. He brought another seven baskets and cooked them himself. He would return with a flourish." said another man. They only saw the red earth he threw up mounting higher and higher. Okonkwo took up his goatskin bag to go. She did not marry him then because he was too poor to pay her bride-price. Do not bear a hand in his death. i fear for the clan.During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost. He did not inherit a barn from his father. rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame. It was a tremendous sight." he said.

"So you must finish this.That was years ago. Ani. and earth rose. Although he had prospered in his motherland Okonkwo knew that he would have prospered even more in Umuofia. They faced the elders. Some of them will even ride the iron horse themselves. Okonkwo's first son. and he told them stories of the land??masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Has he thrown a hundred men?He has thrown four hundred men. and he spoke as he performed them:"1 hope our in-laws will bring many pots of wine. who had lived about two hundred years before. Kiaga. They scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men. Obiageli. and something seemed to give way inside him.

" But she could not.Ekwefi did not answer. But he was struck.""Is he well?" asked Nwoye. But the boy was afraid of him and slipped out of the hut as soon as he noticed him dozing. he made sacrifices of atonement and performed an expensive burial ceremony such as was done for a great man. and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half-light set in the solid massiveness of night."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." The boy smiled. Then he remembered that he had not taken out his snuff-spoon. The crowd then shouted with ainger and thirst for blood. and Obiageli told her mournful story. But she had grown so bitter about her own chi that she could not rejoice with others over their good fortune. stopped them.Okonkwo returned when he felt the medicine had cooked long anough. It was only from Nwoye's mother that he heard scraps of the story.

But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother. I sacrifice a cock to Ani. At his age I was already fending for myself. drank a little and handed back the horn. There were nine of them."He uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it. Nwoye's mother and Okonkwo's youngest wife were ready to set out for Obierika's compound with all their children. Ezinma sneezed. and saw those who stood or sat next to them. was called a flaming fire."Everybody in the assembly spoke. We live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth without whose blessing our crops will not grow."1 don't know."I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve."But Nwoye's mother dropped her pot of hot soup the other day and it broke on the floor.

But before they left each took back the feather he had lent to Tortoise. You yourselves took her. Gome. Okonkwo's first son.""Ee-e-e!"The oldest man in the camp of the visitors replied: "It will be good for you and it will be good for us. Whenever the thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success. the Creator of all the world and all the men and women. "The people of Umuike wanted their market to grow and swallow up the markets of their neighbors. eating the peelings. during the last harvest season." said Ezinma. Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He sat down again and called two witnesses."Those who knew Amadi laughed. to go before the mighty Agbala of your own accord? Beware. Old men and children would then sit round log fires.

They were returning home with baskets of yams from a distant farm across the stream when they heard the voice of an infant crying in the thick forest. Machi. and all were happy. He had had the same kind of feeling not long ago." said Obierika.Ekwefi still had some cassava left on her farm from the previous year. He had one consolation. She is called Ozoemena. now said"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god.""Anyway. as her father and other grownup people did. If you give me some yam seeds I shall not fail you. some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk." replied Okonkwo."He will do great things." urged the other women"None?" asked Njide.

Ezinma did not call her mother Nne like all children." Quite often she bought beancakes and gave Ekwefi some to take home to Ezinma. He would build a bigger barn than he had had before and he would build huts for two new wives. But he was happy to leave his father.Everybody at the kindred meeting took sides with Osugo when Okonkwo called him a woman. "Okonkwo! Agbala ekme gio-o-o-o! Agbala cholu ifu ada ya Ezinmao-o-o-oi"At the mention of Ezinma's name Ekwefi jerked her head sharply like an animal that had sniffed death in the air. How could such a man be a follower of Christ?"He needs Christ more than you and I. beginning with the eldest man. before the first cock-crow. The first cup went to Okonkwo. The clan was worried."Ezinma ran in the direction of the barn and brought back two yams from the dwarf wall. reappeared every year for seven years and then disappeared for another lifetime." Okonkwo said to the lad. Do you hear that."We have heard both sides of the case.

The earth quickly came to life and the birds in the forests fluttered around and chirped merrily. He was always alone and was shaped like a coffin. Nwayieke lived four compounds away. His body rattled like a piece of dry stick in his empty shell. But it is not our custom to debar anyone from the stream or the quarry. Again and again Iguedo was called and men waited breathlessly in all the nine villages. just as he would not attempt to start it in the heart of the dry season. The moon had been rising later and later every night until now it was seen only at dawn. But the Christians had told the white man about the accident."Is that enough?" she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl. Obierika offered him a lobe of the kola nut he had broken with Okonkwo. and before they began to speak in low tones Nwoye and Ikemefuna were sent out. Tortoise looked down from the sky and saw his wife bringing things out.The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia. so she cupped her right hand to shelter the flame.""They have indeed soiled the name of ozo.

The missionaries had come to Umuofia. and through these Okonkwo passed the rope. was a failure. whose name was Ibe."Every year. who was then an ailing man. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. and then flew away. I am Fire-that-burns-without-faggots. when his father had not been dead very long. whom he had thrown away.The world was silent except for the shrill cry of insects. And he did pounce on people quite often. 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." he said. At first the bride was not among them.

The only work that men did at this time was covering the walls of their compound with new palm fronds. but that year-had been enough to break the heart of a lion. their legs and feet. Men stirred on their bamboo beds and listened anxiously. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past." He paused. It was a gay and airy kind of rain. They stood round in a huge circle leaving the center of the playground free. The elders said locusts came once in a generation. A great evil has come upon their land as the Oracle had warned."Ekwefi went into her hut and came out again with Ezinma. away from the crowd. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo.Anasi was a middle-aged woman. When she had borne her third son in succession. They saluted one another and then reappeared on the ilo.