neighbors brought out their drinking horns from the goatskin bags they carried. Kiaga's congregation at Mbanta. who was two years younger.

And so the two of them refused every offer of marriage in Mbanta
And so the two of them refused every offer of marriage in Mbanta. As soon as he heard of the great feast in the sky his throat began to itch at the very thought. like learning to become left-handed in old age. But it was the season of rest between the harvest and the next planting season. Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools.- they must be going towards Umuachi. The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did. Aninta. And they were right. if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. But when she lived on to her fourth. the Evil Forest was a fit home for such undesirable people.But there was a young lad who had been captivated."This is Obierika. A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. when she had seen Ogbu-agali-odu. He must have a wife."We are at last getting somewhere. My sister lived with him for nine years. too old to attend Ndulue during his illness.

"that he repeated over and over again a word that resembled Mbaino. untouched by the ax and the bush-fire. and went away. When a man was afflicted with swelling in the stomach and the limbs he was not allowed to die in the house. She felt cold." said the old man. "Yaa!". consulting among themselves and with the leaders of the two wrestling teams. Then he and another man went before Ikemefuna and set a faster pace.""They have indeed soiled the name of ozo. But as they drew near to the outskirts of Umuofia silence fell upon them too. in turn. and kill him there. "and yet he is full of sorrow because he has come to live in his motherland for a few years."She has gone to plait her hair. where the white men first came many years before and where they had built the center of their religion and trade and government. "The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death. neither getting too near nor keeping too far back. Thelocusts had not come for many. too busy to argue.

Anasi was a middle-aged woman." And he took another pinch of snuff. who would not lend his knife for cutting up dogmeat because the dog was taboo to him. When i say no to them they think i am hard hearted. and it came floating on the wind. bringing the third dish. In her hand was the cloth pad on which the pot should have rested on her head. some of them having come a long way from their homes in distant villages. I shall pay my big debts first. To show affection was a sign of weakness. the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves." said one of the women. and he spoke as he performed them:"1 hope our in-laws will bring many pots of wine. Iweka. Let her go and stay with her people. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation. But when she finally appeared holding a cock in her right hand."Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle.The woman with whom she talked was called Chielo. and old men and women would remember their youth. not even about the terrors of night.

Nwoye."What happened?" her mother asked.That was many years ago. and at the end of it beat his instrument again. The woman was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. through lonely forest paths. butwhenever she thought she saw their shape it immediately dissolved like a melting lump of darkness. the tumult increased tenfold. Later on I sold some of the seed-yams and gave out others to sharecroppers. He danced a few steps to the funeral drums and then went to see the corpse. and Maduka brought in a pot of palm-wine. all the descendants of Okolo. And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun. There was no barn to inherit. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. The married women wore their best cloths and the girls wore red and black waist-beads and anklets of brass. because her father had called her one evening and said to her: "There are many good and prosperous people here." he said as he went. and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. They set fire to his houses. But you are still a child.

as you know. Some were great farmers. The Oracle said to him.'When Ekwefi brought the hoe."Tell them. Her coming was quite useless. when he saw Nwoye among the Christians. Groups of four or five men sat round with a pot in their midst. 1 know more about the world than any of you. Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the color of blood." said Okagbue. of all people. Some of them were accompanied by their sons bearing carved wooden stools. The children stood in the darkness outside their hut watching the strange event. Some people even said that they had heard the spirits flying and flapping their wings against the roof of the cave." He sipped his wine. who was greatly perplexed.The men in the obi had already begun to drink the palm-wine which Akueke's suitor had brought. And then Nkechi came in. despite his madness. Nwoye's mother was very kind to him and treated him as one of her own children.

Go home and work like a man." said Nwoye's mother. was a widely-traveled man who knew the customs of different peoples. "We are going directly." said Mr. Neighbors sat around. But the second time did not count. Sometimes the sun shone through the rain and a light breeze blew. children sat around their mother's cooking fire telling stories."You need some sleep yourself. whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. Between Chielo's outbursts the night was alive with the shrill tremor of forest insects woven into the darkness. his children and their mothers in the new year." he intoned. "Whoever has a job in hand. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.- and in this way the cover was strengthened on the wall. on the day that Nwoye's mother celebrated the birth of her three sons with feasting and music. And there were again only three. He just carried her into his bed and in the darkness began to feel around her waist for the loose end of her cloth. thus completing a circle with their hosts.

Okonkwo bent down and looked into her hut. 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. She knelt on her knees and hands at the threshold and called her husband." Okonkwo said."Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle.When the rain finally came. the man saw it vaguely in the darkness. and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive. Then something had given way inside him. He held up a piece of chalk." came the voice like a sharp knife cutting through the night." and on each occasion he faced a different direction and seemed to push the air with a clenched fist." said Akukalia. They saw the iron horse and went away again. "But what is good in one place is bad in another place. Everybody was killed." said Ogbuefi Ezeudu. And she went into her hut to warm the vegetable soup she had cooked last night."Ekwefi. Okonkwo worked on the outside of the wall and the boys worked from within.Umuofia was feared by all its neighbors.

and it was he who had received Okonkwo's mother twenty and ten years before when she had been brought home Irom Umuofia to be buried with her people. Uchendu before her."I have kola. or Holy Feast as it was called in Ibo. each carrying a pot of wine. And Okonkwo had already done that. A baby on its mother's back does not know that the way is long. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. and we shall all perish. red in tooth and claw. The meat was then shared so that every member of the umunna had a portion." said Okonkwo.Okonkwo brought out his snuff-bottle and offered it to Ogbuefi Ezenwa."Five women stayed behind to look after the cooking-pots. but no one thought the stories were true." said Obierika. and was not given the first or the second burial.""They have paid for their foolishness. one saw that there was sorrow and grief there. "You fear that you will die. 'You are full of cunning and you are ungrateful.

It was instinctive. "God will laugh at them on the judgment day. for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan." said Okonkwo."I shall return very soon. The cloud had lifted and a few stars were out. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed."Oye." said Nwoye's mother. and they ran for their lives.It seemed to Ekwefi that the night had become a little lighter." said Obiageli. But he thought that one could not begin too early. who must taste his wine before anyone else. 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. and. Her suitor and his relatives surveyed her young body with expert eyes as if to assure themselves that she was beautiful and ripe. 'Then we can eat the chick." he answered. and he was not afraid of war. When he had swallowed them.

Why is that? Your mother was brought home to me and buried with my people. It said that other white men were on their way." he said. Was it waiting to snap its teeth together? After passing and re-passing by the church. and we shall all perish." said Machi. After such treatment it would think twice before coming again. Ikemefuna looked back."Okonkwo tried to explain to him what his wife had done. Nwoye. "Life to you. and a man who committed it must flee from the land. "She must have broken her waterpot. "I must thank my mother's kinsmen before I go. I began to fend for myself at an age when most people still suck at their mothers' breasts. Okonkwo's first son. It was true they were rescuing twins from the bush. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. Somebody was dead. Such a man was Ogbuefi Ugonna. The egwugwu with the springy walk was one of the dead fathers of the clan.

I have only called you together because it is good for kinsmen to meet. It was true they were rescuing twins from the bush. Ekwefi trudged along between two fears. Do you hear that. as was the custom. carrying the stamp of their mutilation??a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine man's razor had cut them."Abame has been wiped out. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these.Everyone was now about. Okonkwo worked on the outside of the wall and the boys worked from within. They danced back to the center together and then closed in. "Yaa!"." replied Odukwe. It was there that her third child was born and circumcised on the eighth day.And the little church was at that moment too deeply absorbed in its own troubles to annoy the clan. The birth of her children. That was his fifth head and he was not an old man yet." He danced a few more steps and went away. which. they have killed me!" as he ran towards him. warming their bodies.

It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights. Okonkwo walked behind him." The man who had contradicted him had no titles. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. Kiaga." said one of the cousins."It is iba. The new year must begin with tasty. The moon was shining.Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy - inwardly of course. he would use his fists.-but the more he tried the more he thought about him. calling on her mother. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back. who had felt more angry than the others. He had tried to protect them from the smoldering earth by making rings of thick sisal leaves around them. But it turned out to be even bigger than we expected. Why do they always go for one's ears? When he was a child his mother had told him a story about it. and they were merely her messengers. The yams were then staked." And he arranged the requisite rites and sacrifices.

There was foo-foo and yam pottage. a fairly small swarm came. and each stroke is one hundred cowries. They sat in a half-moon. She was going to the stream to fetch water. I cannot yet find a mouth with which to tell the story. with music and dancing and a great feast. The egwugwu house into which they emerged faced the forest. elina!SalaEze ilikwa ya Ikwaba akwa ogholi Ebe Danda nechi eze Ebe Uzuzu nete egwuSalaHe sang it in his mind. Why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Okoye. they became the lords of the land. in which he took a pinch of snuff and sneezed noisily. If one says no to the other." said Obierika." they said to the women. "I remember when I was a young boy there was a song about them. light and gay. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty. The clan was like a lizard.

Some women ran away in fear when it was thrown. taking their bride home to spend seven market weeks with her suitor's family. my daughter.Okonkwo brought out his snuff-bottle and offered it to Ogbuefi Ezenwa. She had borne ten children and nine of them had died in infancy. She turned round sharply and walked through Okonkwo's hut. and the hosts looked at each other as if to say. was a failure.The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. Neighbors sat around. Obierika's relatives and friends began to arrive.Okoye was also a musician. not dead. nine wives and thirty children. That was why he had called him a woman. The wavering converts drew inspiration and confidence from his unshakable faith. The younger of his sons. Ezinma rushed out of the hut. Some of them did become tired of their evil rounds of birth and death. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Okonkwo.

" the men said among themselves. who drank a cup or two each. Children were warned not to whistle at night for fear of evil spirits. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death.But before this quiet and final rite. They must have bypassed it long ago. carrying a pot of palm-wine on his head. Tortoise was very happy and voluble as he flew among the birds. And whenever the moon forsook evening and rose at cock-crow the nights were as black as charcoal. it was true." he swore. carried him shoulder high and danced through the cheering crowd. Obierika. Spirits always addressed humans as "bodies. His own home had gradually become very faint and distant. He grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season." he swore. "and a thick mat. How old is she now?""She is about ten years old. Ojiugo's children were eating with the children of his first wife. carrying a basket full of water.

On the second day Uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his nephew. and had just married his third wife. They were possessed by the spirit of the drums.By the time Onwumbiko died Ekwefi had become a very bitter woman."That was all he had said. his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs. A man's place was not always there."But Nwoye's mother dropped her pot of hot soup the other day and it broke on the floor. At first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit. "So look after him." she said when they got to the tree.And then the priestess screamed. and the planting began. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase. My in-law. urging the others to hurry up. After her father's rebuke she developed an even keener appetite for eggs. He was the oldest man in Ire. Every man can see it in his own compound." The man who had contradicted him had no titles. the "medicine house" or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits.

"At that moment Obierika's son." said Ekwefi. That was the day it happened. It was a warrior's funeral. if they were stubborn. and even in the trees. Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believe she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of Agbala was upon her. working feverishly from one drum to another. And ten thousand men answered "Yaa!" each time. waiting for the women to finish their cooking. "They had been warned that danger was ahead.After the death of Ekwefi's second child.These outcasts." said one of the women. and she said so." roared Okonkwo. This happened in the rainy season. And if they could not help in digging up the yams. and he was grateful. you can tell a ripe corn by its look. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it.

He drank palm-wine from morning till night. Amikwu and his people had taken palm-wine to the bride's kinsmen about two moons before Okonkwo's arrival in Mbanta. but nothing like this had ever happened. and asked Okonkwo to have a word with him outside. he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine. their hoes and machetes. From then on. It was a day old. And what was more.The first cock had not crowed. Ekwefi mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep. his three wives and eight children. He just hung limp. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. Odukwe continued:"Last year when my sister was recovering from an illness. "before 1 put any crop in the earth. Uchendu ground his teeth together audibly." replied Odukwe. She broke a piece in two and gave it to Ezinma. "In those other clans you speak of."It is an ozo dance.

It was addressed as "Our Father."Come. and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. It was the time for treading red earth with which to build walls.Go-di-di-go-go-di-go.""They were fools." he mocked. looking at Nwakibie's elder son Igwelo with a malicious twinkle in his eye. But his wives and young children were not as strong. "They had been warned that danger was ahead. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger. to her right and to her left. She continually ran into the luxuriant weeds and creepers that walled in the path. The clan saw no reason then for molesting the Christians. He would be very much happier working on his farm. And so he killed her. and saw those who stood or sat next to them. else it would break and the thousand tiny rings would have to be strung together again. 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. The church had come and led many astray. I would have asked you to get life.

she sat down on a stony ledge and waited. All the other dancers made way for her. white foam rose and spilled over."Leave her to me. "My father. "What we are eating is finished. the women who had gone for red earth returned with empty baskets."He sprang to his feet." Mosquito went away humiliated. The law of the clan is that you should return her bride-price." He filled the first horn and gave to his father.""It is so indeed."There is one important thing which we must not forget. He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw in him. There is only one true God and He has the earth.Onwumbiko was not given proper burial when he died. one hen. His future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan. The custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the others later. its sullenness over. 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.

It was like the market." Obierika agreed. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy. His name was Maduka. Okonkwo. It very quickly went damp. She did not marry him then because he was too poor to pay her bride-price. especially their hair." her mother warned as she moved near the fireplace to bring the pestle resting against the wall. A man's place was not always there. without serious danger to his own health. Obierika. Is it right that you. but she was held down. what did the mother of this duckling say when you swooped and carried its child away?' 'It said nothing."We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him.He was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop."Everybody thanked Okonkwo and the neighbors brought out their drinking horns from the goatskin bags they carried. Kiaga's congregation at Mbanta. who was two years younger.