lucky. Soon it covered half the sky." he said. eating the peelings.'"Parrot promised to deliver the message.

It is a bad custom because it always leads to a quarrel
It is a bad custom because it always leads to a quarrel. an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. The woman was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. Umuofia has decided to kill him." said the woman. her face streaming with tears. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. Where are the young suckers that will grow when the old banana tree dies? If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. The happy voices of children playing in open fields would then be heard. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory. Guns were fired on all sides and sparks flew out as machetes clanged together in warriors' salutes.The night was very quiet. Kiaga." said Obierika. On the second day Uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his nephew. and brought back a duckling. 'When people are invited to a great feast like this.

" Okonkwo said. She was saying again and again that Agbala wanted to see his daughter. That was the way people answered calls from outside. and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. entered their mothers' wombs to be born again. and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan." said the medicine man. The air. quietly and deliberately." 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. Most of the men and women of Abame had gone to their farms. even into people's beds. Was it not on an Eke day that they fled into Umuofia?" he asked his two companions.He did not sleep at night. making music and feasting. Gome. How could she know that Ekwefi's bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul.

and our clan can no longer act like one. and so all the clan was at his funeral. a cake of salt and smoked fish which she would present to Obierika's wife. Okonkwo always asked his wives' relations. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed."Thank you."Ah."He uncovered his second wife's dish and began to eat from it."Leave that boy at once!" said a voice in the outer compound. I sacrifice a cock to Ani. The fowl Ekwefi had just killed was in the wooden mortar. She then went down on one knee. Okonkwo. each of them carrying a heavy bag on his head." He put it down to his inflexible will. It must have been a very long time. Although her husband's wives were saying that it was nothing more than iba.

' 'You must return the duckling. who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm.And then the priestess screamed. but to settle the dispute."I am following Chielo. if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. He is always in a hurry. with love. The rainy season was approaching when they would go away until the dry season returned. Your mother is there to protect you. and so the victim could not be buried in her bowels. Unoka was."Ekwefi turned the hen over in the mortar and began to pluck the feathers. It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams. the priestess. Temporary cooking tripods were erected on every available space by bringing together three blocks of sun-dried earth and making a fire in their midst. As our fathers said.

were whispering together. It told of one sheep out on the hills. He said he was one of them. now desperate. Dew fell heavily and the air was cold. Ekwefi. one of these women went to Ozoemena's hut and told her. It was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani."One of them passes here frequently.'"'You do not know me."Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?" asked Okagbue when Ezinma finally stopped outside her father's obi. and the tuber was pulled out. I shall pay my big debts first. "that I shall bring many iron horses when we have settled down among them." she began. No! he could not be. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars.

" said Ekwefi.Okonkwo was also feeling tired.At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. But his wives and young children were not as strong. But he had long learned how to lay that ghost. She knelt on her knees and hands at the threshold and called her husband. and she guessed they must be on the village ilo. And then came the clap of thunder. Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools. The happy voices of children playing in open fields would then be heard. But before he could answer.' said Tortoise. I say it because I fear for the younger generation." But it was a different Chielo she now saw in the yellow half-light. The yams were then staked. and Okonkwo filled his horn again. and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point.

""How did they get hold of Ancto to hang him?" asked Okonkwo. He was carried to the Evil Forest and left there to die. For although locusts had not visited Umuofia for many years. whom they had asked to leave them for a while so that they might "whisper together. She would want to hear everything that had happened to him in all these years. pushed back the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi's hut. "that he repeated over and over again a word that resembled Mbaino. he was not a hunter. He could not do anything without telling her. When they saw it they drove it back to its owner. All cooking pots."They are here. and then painted his big toe."Mr. but every farmer knew that without sunshine the tubers would not grow."We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow. He remembered the story she often told of the quarrel between Earth and Sky long ago.

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. followed by Akueke. You know his first wife who walks with a stick?""Yes. dug her teeth into the real thing." he said quietly to Ezinma."The missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the Holy Trinity. If only he could find some work to do he would be able to forget. When everything had been set before the guests."Their clan is now completely empty. the owner of all land."Agbala do-o-o-o!?? Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! ??" Ekwefi trudged behind. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. The suitor just goes on bringing bags of cowries until his in-laws tell him to stop."After kola nuts had been presented and eaten. They have a big market in Abame on every other Afo day and. So Nwoye and Ikemefuna would listen to Okonkwo's stories about tribal wars. elina!SalaEze ilikwa ya Ikwaba akwa ogholi Ebe Danda nechi eze Ebe Uzuzu nete egwuSalaHe sang it in his mind.

Ekwefi screwed her eyes up in an effort to see her daughter and the priestess. As the smoke rose into the sky kites appeared from different directions and hovered over the burning field in silent valediction. of course." said Okonkwo. among the missionaries in Umuofia."The two men sat in silence for a long while afterwards. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger." said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh. It very quickly went damp. These women never saw the inside of the hut. where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regular visits to Mr. said Ezeugo. He counted them. Ekwefi mopped her with a piece of cloth and she lay down on a dry mat and was soon asleep. My mother was one of you.Okonkwo took the bowl from her and gulped the water down. And so they arrived home again.

"Father. Nwoye returned home. calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed. pulled out his staff and thrust it into the earth again."The body of Odukwe. How a woman could carry a child of that size so easily and for so long was a miracle." She died in her eleventh month. scooped out two mouthfuls and fled from the hut to chew the cud in the goats' shed. whom he had thrown away. His name was Uchendu.There were no stars in the sky because there was a rain-cloud.Okonkwo returned when he felt the medicine had cooked long anough." said Okonkwo. But the song spread in Umuofia." He brought down his staff heavily on the floor. and a powerful flute blew a high-pitched blast. Ekwefi then became defiant and called her next child Onwuma??"Death may please himself.

"Those who knew Amadi laughed. It was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week. His actions were deliberate. The three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market."Do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking?" he asked Nwoye. "before 1 put any crop in the earth. Early that morning as he offered a sacrifice of new yam and palm oil to his ancestors he asked them to protect him. But he had long learned how to lay that ghost. i have only a short while to live. and Ikemefuna. But it was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth. they could gather firewood together for roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm.The young men who kept order on these occasions dashed about. And ten thousand men answered "Yaa!" each time. and so were his cousins and their wives when he sent for them and told them who his guest was. And he told them about this new God. and was now accorded great respect in all the clan.

" Ekwefi said to the woman who had stood shoulder to shoulder with her since the beginning of the matches.Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life.""But they are beating the drums. "Your daughter will bear us sons like you. Each of his three wives had her own hut. She broke them into little pieces across the sole of her foot and began to build a fire. And so they walked out together. to Obierika's compound. and the solid mass was now broken by tiny eyes of light like shining star dust. "They are pieces of wood and stone. overpowered him and obtained his first human head. "Life to you. We should have waited for the sun to rise and dry the leaves. When all the birds had gathered together. "It's true that a child belongs to its father."Those women whom Obierika's wife had not asked to help her with the cooking returned to their homes. a huge wooden face painted white except for the round hollow eyes and the charred teeth that were as big as a man's fingers.

Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births. she returned to her mother's hut to help with the cooking."When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. The crime was of two kinds. "How much longer do you think you will live?" she asked. who had begun to pour out the wine. It is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding.Ezinma did not call her mother Nne like all children. like a hunter's dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. If such a thing were ever to happen. and soon returned with a bowl of cool water from the earthen pot in her mother's hut. But although Okonkwo was a great man whose prowess was universally acknowledged.""Let us not reason like cowards."Those who knew Amadi laughed. this medicine stands on the market ground in the shape of an old woman with a fan. And she enjoyed above all the secrecy in which she now ate them. when the land had been moistened by two or three heavy rains.

Soon it covered half the sky. The sun breaking through their leaves and branches threw a pattern of light and shade on the sandy footway. Okonkwo wondered what was amiss. in the land of his fathers where men were bold and warlike. That was the way people answered calls from outside. He held up a piece of chalk. A palm-oil lamp gave out yellowish light. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. whereupon his father beat him heavily."I did not know it was you. every man with his goatskin bag hung on one shoulder and a rolled goatskin mat under his arm." He went away to his hut and Ekwefi began to tend the medicine pot almost as if it was itself a sick child. "Those that hear my words are my father and my mother. "And he was riding an iron horse. At the end.

and of the forces of nature. "Are you mad?"Okonkwo did not answer." Okonkwo said between mouthfuls.All this anthill activity was going smoothly when a sudden interruption came. His name was Okagbue Uyanwa." said Mgbogo's next-door neighbor. He sang. who had taken two titles. and brought back a duckling."Leave that boy at once!" said a voice in the outer compound.The night was impenetrably dark. Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. When they had all taken."Uzowulu's body.There were seven drums and they were arranged according to their sizes in a long wooden basket.Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night. Then everything had been broken.

was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness.The elders. "It is a strange and terrible story. Her heart jumped painfully within her." the convert maintained." said Machi. A vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell. He lelt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. "and don't allow it to boil over. All was silent. hungry swarm. He knew it must be Ekwefi."Odukwe was short and thickset." said Obierika. And you.Okonkwo was given a plot of ground on which to build his compound. My mother's people have been good to me and 1 must show my gratitude.

"Kill one of your sons for me.""Not before you have had your breakfast."Thank you. Okonkwo worked on the outside of the wall and the boys worked from within. A deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this. If your death was the death of nature. Ezinma sneezed." He went away to his hut and Ekwefi began to tend the medicine pot almost as if it was itself a sick child. "it is this eyelid. He asked them for health and children. If you had died young. emerged from her hut. Anyone who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky. Soon it covered half the sky." he said. eating the peelings.'"Parrot promised to deliver the message.