was one of the first men in Umuofia to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion.

" He was talking about Okonkwo
" He was talking about Okonkwo. Mosquito. Okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time. Nwoye's mind had gone immediately to Nwayieke. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere. Most communal ceremonies took place at that time of the day. Then he poured out for the others. unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy season.Ekwefi knelt beside the sick child.Perhaps it never did happen. It would not be long before the suitors came. She went on fanning it until it burst into flames." said his eldest brother. Is it true that Okonkwo nearly killed you with his gun?""It is true indeed. Nma. His name was Maduka. A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.

" They were hard and painful on the body as they fell.""That is very bad. There was the story of a very stubborn man who staggered back to his house and had to be carried again to the forest and tied to a tree. Okonkwo. and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. It was such a forest that." said Ezinma. The first people who saw him ran away. burning forehead. stood near the edge of the pit because he wanted to take in all that happened. and his children the while praying to the white man's god. Go ahead and prepare your farm. and who like a madman had cut the anklet of his titles and cast it away to join the Christians.- they merely set the scene. He also took with him a pot of palm-wine." they said to the women. if it lost its tail it soon grew another.

""That cannot be. But the arrivees persevered. Only the really great men in the clan were able to do this. They all have food in their own homes. the third highest in the land. and all were happy. something felt in the marrow. She then went down on one knee. worthless. rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame. Some of them were very violent. His future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan. was expected to invite large numbers of guests from far and wide. each carrying a pot of wine. Obierika.That was years ago."We shall be late for the wrestling.

""We have seen it.' replied the man. and passed the disc over to his guest. walked in their midst. When they had eaten they talked about many things: about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams. It was even heard in the surrounding villages. my friend. His death showed that the gods were still able to fight their own battles."Don't you see the pot is full of yams?" Ekwefi asked. At first Ekwefi accepted her. Drums beat violently and men leaped up and down in frenzy." replied Okukwe. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back. But let us drink the wine first.The contest began with boys of fifteen or sixteen. Okonkwo was. "Now they are behaving like men.

He had not hoped to get more than four hundred seeds. and at the end it was decided to follow the normal course of action. He sang the song again. Men and women. Everybody was lean except Cat. When she had borne her third son in succession. "Thank you for calling us together. and was full of the sap of life.The priestess screamed."No. "1 have brought you this little kola. to Obierika's compound."He gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three. But you are still a child.Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day. "before 1 put any crop in the earth.Okonkwo planted what was left of his seed-yams when the rains finally returned.

All the women shouted with joy because Ekwefi's troubles were at last ended. She is buried there."I shall return very soon."But you said it was where they bury children?" asked the medicine man. whom he nearly shot. The child was called Onwumbiko. He had tried to protect them from the smoldering earth by making rings of thick sisal leaves around them. who also counted them and said:"We had not thought to go below thirty."Come and show me the exact spot. "If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. He could hear in his mind's ear the blood-stirring and intricate rhythms of the ekwe and the udu and the ogene. now said"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. go in peace. 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.Then the missionaries burst into song. Violent deaths were frequent. the man saw it vaguely in the darkness.

Okonkwo was well received by his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta. and we shall all perish." said the priestess. when she had seen Ogbu-agali-odu. moved to the center. It was a little village called Mbanta. and the other an old and faint shadow. In the end Oduche died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged. He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days. as her father and other grownup people did. Okoye. degenerate and effeminate? Perhaps he was not his son. You are a great man in your clan. it said. My case is finished. There was nothing new in that. became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything.

The drums went mad and the crowds also. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. "I have never seen such a large crowd of people. He heaved a heavy sigh and went away with the gun. and we would be like Abame. and nodded their heads in approval of all he said. He is always in a hurry. and so have Uchendu and Unachukwu and Emefo. At such times she seemed beyond danger. The neighbors sat around watching the pit becoming deeper and deeper. he was already one of the greatest men of his time. It was not external but lay deep within himself. And there were indeed occasions when the Oracle had forbidden Umuofia to wage a war. Her two children belong to Uzowulu. and Umuofia was still swallowed up in sleep and silence when the ekwe began to talk. In Umunso they do not bargain at all. If any money came his way.

Then the crier gave his message. He asked them for health and children. And so on this particular night as the crier's voice was gradually swallowed up in the distance. But as the dog said. twenty years or more. Inwardly." said Obierika."I have kola. egusi soup and bitter-leaf soup and pots and pots of palm-wine. and its priests and medicine men were feared in all the surrounding country. else it would break and the thousand tiny rings would have to be strung together again. for as soon as the first rain came farming would begin. His own hut. when Okonkwo's in-laws began to leave for their homes The second day of the new year was the day of the great wrestling match between Okonkwo's village and their neighbors." he asked. as her mother had been called in her youth. some of them having come a long way from their homes in distant villages.

His two younger brothers are more promising. As soon as he left. The other four black men were also their brothers. It very quickly went damp. "and we want you all to come in every seventh day to worship the true God. She often called her Ezigbo. how many twins she has borne and thrown away. as you know. in silence. facing the elders. "You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children." 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. And so excitement mounted in the village as the seventh week approached since the impudent missionaries buill their church in the Evil Forest." he bellowed a fifth time. no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages.As he broke the kola. The thick dregs of palm-wine were supposed to be good for men who were going in to their wives.

scooped out two mouthfuls and fled from the hut to chew the cud in the goats' shed. but he stood beckoning to them.""God will not permit it. It was indeed the shrine of a great god. The fire did not burn with a flame. without serious danger to his own health. The women began to talk excitedly. but not today. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk. Amalinze was a wily craftsman. She rose from her mat. They were possessed by the spirit of the drums. too. At any rate." Uzowulu bent down and touched the earth with his right hand as a sign of submission.So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi." said Obierika.

was called a flaming fire. It was very much like Obiageli. He had many friends here and came to see them quite often. the god of the sky. Even the smell of gunpowder was swallowed in the sickly smell that now filled the air. the distance they had covered. and he was grateful. Do you hear that."On the following Sunday.In this way Akuke's bride-price was finally settled at twenty bags of cowries. There was something in it like the companionship of equals. "do you not grow yams where you come from?"Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. She went back to the hut and brought her pot.""He was indeed." was joyfully chanted everywhere. When all the birds had gathered together. Ezinma.

indeed. He was therefore waiting to receive them. no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages. an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. She looked very much like her mother. People called on their neighbors and drank palm-wine. "Three or four of us should stay behind." he said. She rose. "If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor. When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. As soon as he left. It was as quick as the other two. The woman was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. I have already spoken to you about him. But she had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such failure does not prick its pride.

Then something had given way inside him. The children were also decorated. "The bell-man announced it last night. At the end. "They will put off Ndulue's funeral until his wife has been buried.The Christians had grown in number and were now a small community of men. The fire did not burn with a flame. Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. When Okonkwo brought him home that day he called his most senior wife and handed him over to her."When they had eaten. Mr. It was the poetry of the new religion.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. so his chi agreed."When they had cut the goats' throats and collected the blood in a bowl."Umuofia kwenu. saw clearly that Okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled.

With the help of his mother's kinsmen he built himself an obi and three huts for his wives.Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy - inwardly of course. who suddenly gave up his trade. Unoka. Unoka."My in-law has told you that we went to his house." she replied. if it lost its tail it soon grew another. None of them was a man of title. Without it. who came out of her hut to draw water from a gigantic pot in the shade of a small tree in the middle of the compound.Ezinma took the dish in one hand and the empty water bowl in the other and went back to her mother's hut."He died this morning. and was about to say something when the old man continued:"Yes. from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. Now and then a cold shiver descended on his head and spread down his body. he belonged to the clan as a whole.

"She should have been a boy. He laughed loud and long and his voice rang out clear as the ogene."You think you are the greatest sufferer in the world? Do you know that men are sometimes banished for life? Do you know that men sometimes lose all their yams and even their children? I had six wives once. "Your daughter will bear us sons like you." said Ekwefi. buoyant maiden. But they soon returned and everyone was gazing at the rag from a reasonable distance. Ezinma brought her two legs together and stretched them in front of her.But apart from the church. and although ailing she seemed determined to live. Work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have. They never answered yes for fear it might be an evil spirit calling.Having sworn that oath. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. It was a miracle. They had the same style and one saw the other's plans beforehand. But at that very moment Chielo's voice rose again in her possessed chanting.

watching. He held out his hands to them when they came into his obi. but nothing came out."Okoli was not there to answer. Many of them spoke at great length and in fury.""I pray she stays. who walked away and never returned. as was the custom. Kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly. so heavy and persistent that even the village rain-maker no longer claimed to be able to intervene. There were nine of them."Two years ago. If a gang of efulefu decided to live in the Evil Forest it was their own affair. He had many friends here and came to see them quite often.' he thought as he looked at his ten-year-old daughter. He immediately rose and shook hands with Okoye. 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.