Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him. malevolent. It is against the will of God. perhaps for the first time. If such a thing were ever to happen.

That is why Tortoise's shell is not smooth
That is why Tortoise's shell is not smooth. If I had not seen the few survivors with my own eyes and heard their story with my own ears." she replied. for you people. Nwoye. indeed. Nkechi was the daughter of Okonkwo's third wife. they have killed me!" as he ran towards him."That was many years ago. A man stood there with a machete in his hand. and the others to the chalk quarry. '1 am a changed man. She gave the dish to her father's eldest brother and then shook hands. The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did. and which she no doubt still told to her younger children??stories of the tortoise and his wily ways. 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. Okonkwo. If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender. And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun." he said.

"Although they were almost the same age."On what market-day was it born?" he asked. because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame."Is that enough?" she asked when she had poured in about half of the water in the bowl. or "Mother is Supreme?" We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. after the rains. when his father had not been dead very long. Tortoise began to sniff aloud. shiny pebble fell out.""Go and bring our own. He led it on a thick rope which he tied round his wrist. Marriage should be a play and not a fight so we are falling down again. because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame. Every market day. She was already beginning to doubt the wisdom of her coming. and about some effeminate men who had refused to come with them." he bellowed a fifth time. jumping over walls and dancing on the roof. When the women had exacted the penalty they checked among themselves to see if any woman had failed to come out when the cry had been raised. "They use medicine.

Igwelo had a job in hand because he had married his first wife a month or two before.Okonkwo knew she was not speaking the truth. She ran faster."It is an ozo dance." she replied. because there was no humanity there. Now Ekwefi was a woman of forty-five who had suffered a great deal in her time." replied the white man. He remembered his wife's twin children. but she went to Okonkwo's compound."I did not know it was you. "It is a strange and terrible story.As soon as the day broke. Then from the distance came the faint beating of the ekwe. I shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for our gods and ancestors. It was Nwoye's mother. especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded." they said. Each of them carried a long cane basket." said one of the priests.

" replied Ekwefi. Go ahead and prepare your farm." said Obierika. male and female. He had a bad chi or personal god. I have already spoken to you about him. in spite of his failings in other directions. Within a short time the first two bouts were over." said Okonkwo as he rose to go. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. And then like the sound of his cannon he crashed on the compound. woman. In ordinary life Chielo was a widow with two children. Am I dead? They said I would die if i took care of twins. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia "body.Ezinma grew up in her father's exile and became one of the most beautiful girls in Mbanta. They too sat just in front of the huge circle of spectators. Her heart jumped painfully within her. Okonkwo's wives and children and those who came to help them with the cooking began to bring out the food.

"You must watch the pot carefully."I must go home to tap my palm trees for the afternoon. Is it true that Okonkwo nearly killed you with his gun?""It is true indeed. and they ran for their lives. He would teach her! But Nwoye resembled his grandfather. Everybody was killed. after the rains. and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. Obiageli. his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. they could see from his color and his language. "Those that hear my words are my father and my mother. Unoka. She continually ran into the luxuriant weeds and creepers that walled in the path. I have learned to be stingy with my yams. which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone."We had meant to set out from my house before cockcrow. He addressed Nwakibie. The relationship between them was not only that of mother and child. They were grieved by the indignity and mourned for their neglected farms.

The men were seized and beaten until they streamed with blood. If any one of you prefers to be a woman. His visitor was amazed."What happened?" her mother asked. Nwoye's mother carried a basket of coco-yams. saw clearly that Okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled. Her deepening despair found expression in the names she gave her children. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. He went into the obi and saluted his father. "My son has told me about you. If a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his hut. Some years the harmattan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere."No."Yes. He broke the nut saying: We shall all live. Okonkwo rose to speak. The clan saw no reason then for molesting the Christians."Answer me." He rose and left the hut. May all you took out return again tenfold.

The nine egwugwu then went away to consult together in their house. A vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell. During those years no single day passed in the sky without his beating the woman."The weeping was now quite close and soon the children filed in. Ezinma placed her mother's dish before him and sat with Obiageli."What is iyi-uwa?" she asked in return. he has learned to fly without perching. gome. She put back the empty pot on the circular pad in the corner."Agbala do-o-o-o! Agbala ekeneo-o-o-o! ??" Chielo began once again to chant greetings to her god." said another woman. The story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other. Ekwefi tried to pull out the horny beak but it was too hard. but he did not know where to begin. As for the boy. and they were merely her messengers."Your buttocks said he had a son. broke into life and activity. At one stage Ekwefi was so afraid that she nearly called out to Chielo for companionship and human sympathy."You will blow your eyes out.

" said another man. and she agreed also. Violent deaths were frequent. who was two years younger.'"'You do not know me. greeted Okonkwo and turned towards the compound. These court messengers were greatly hated in Umuofia because they were foreigners and also arrogant and high-handed. If only he could find some work to do he would be able to forget. and asked no questions." 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." said Okonkwo. anxiety mounted in every heart that heaved on a bamboo bed that night. and flies went with him. my daughter. In short. and the meeting continued. because an old man was very close to the ancestors. "Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. Today Okonkwo was not bringing his mother home to be buried with her people. and people came from far and near to consult it.

that I am not afraid of blood and if anyone tells you that I am. At his age I was already fending for myself. Unoka had a sense of the dramatic and so he allowed a pause. After that they began to eat and to drink the wine. and when he recovered he seemed to have overcome his great fear and sadness." said Ezinma at last.Soon after Ofoedu left. Dum! Dum! Dum! boomed the cannon at intervals. "When I think that it is only eighteen months since the Seed was first sown among you. The ill-fated lad was called Ikemefuna.No work was done during the Week of Peace. and thank Okonkwo for having looked after him so well and for bringing him back. urging the others to hurry up." He paused for a long time and then said: "I told you on my last visit to Mbanta how they hanged Aneto. Then he poured out for the others. Di-go-go-di-go-di-di-go-go floated in the message-laden night air. who sat next to him.""And so everybody comes. also carrying an oil lamp. which only made the darkness more profound.

And so he did now.- Onwumbiko died in his fifteenth month. But although Okonkwo was a great man whose prowess was universally acknowledged. But you are still a child. Okonkwo told him. sat near the fireplace waiting for the water in the pot to boil." Ekwefi said firmly. Only a few of them saw these white men and their followers. beginning with the eldest man. in silence. He was greatly surprised. I salute you. forty-five. It was a gay and airy kind of rain." He filled the first horn and gave to his father."Just then Obierika's son. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic. Sometimes the sun shone through the rain and a light breeze blew. but to settle the dispute."It was my husband's.

could not shelter under his roof. only waking to full life when Chielo sang. Earth's emissary. and he sent his kotma to catch Aneto. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly. Have you not heard the song they sing when a woman dies?"'For whom is it well. like a mother and her daughter. Okonkwo. guns and cannon were fired. She understood things so perfectly. and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. As the rains became heavier the women planted maize. and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man. He was like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his foo-foo. Kiaga." Uzowulu replied. They formed a circular ring with a break at one point through which the foot-track led to the center of the circle. and he sent his kotma to catch Aneto. Her mother always took her into their bedroom and shut the door. became for Ekwefi mere physical agony devoid of promise.

" he said to Okonkwo. But there is just one question I would like to ask him. the top one. In the end he decided that Nnadi must live in that land of Ikemefuna's favorite story where the ant holds his court in splendor and the sands dance forever. called her mother by her name."Everybody thanked Okonkwo and the neighbors brought out their drinking horns from the goatskin bags they carried."When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land. sat on the floor waiting for him to finish. Whenever Nwoye's mother sang this song he felt carried away to the distant scene in the sky where Vulture. When he walked. Now and again the cannon boomed. they kept their imagination to themselves. his son's crime stood out in its stark enormity. it would not be done."Don't you know what kind of man Uzowulu is? He will not listen to any other decision. Near the barn was a small house. It was then that the one-handed spirit came. There was a famine in those days and Tortoise had not eaten a good meal for two moons.All this anthill activity was going smoothly when a sudden interruption came. She remembered that night.

It was like the market.The night was impenetrably dark. It was Nwoye's mother. it would not be done. Their wives also. And he knew which trees made the strongest bows. It was already dusk when the two parties came to this agreement. And the other boy was flat on his back." said Okonkwo as he rose to go." said one man. Unoka was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of mirth. one hen.The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. After all the toil one only got a third of the harvest. The story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other. roots and barks of medicinal trees and shrubs." said Okonkwo. No matter how prosperous a man was.""In future call her into your obi. Whenever the thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success.

unhappily. One morning three of them came to my house.'Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive. to sit with him in his obi. Go home and work like a man."1 am one of them. Unoka had a sense of the dramatic and so he allowed a pause."Go and bring me some cold water."Yes. Then it went nearer and named the village: " Iguedo of the yellow grinding-stone!" It was Okonkwo's village. We live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth without whose blessing our crops will not grow. like the snapping of a tightened bow. But it was as silly as all women's stories. Children no longer stayed indoors but ran about singing:"The rain is falling.As the men ate and drank palm-wine they talked about the customs of their neighbors. "I warned Nwankwo to keep a sharp eye and a sharp ear." he mocked. Ikezue strove to dig in his right heel behind Okafo so as to pitch him backwards in the clever ege style. sat on a mat on the floor. Some years the harmattan was very severe and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere.

I would have asked you to get life." replied Okonkwo." he bellowed a fifth time. Okonkwo would take care of meat and yams. 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. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government. A deep murmur went through the crowd when he said this. The clan was worried. spears. There is only one true God and He has the earth. Maduka. As soon as she got up. nine wives and thirty children. When he walked."Yes. one saw that there was sorrow and grief there."Leave her to me. There was something in it like the companionship of equals. Go home and work like a man. He had become wholly absorbed into his new family.

Kiaga was praying in the church when he heard the women talking excitedly. And so they walked out together."Yes." replied Okonkwo. He had felt very anxious but did not show it. and the crowd answered. and went away. "What will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu into our midst? They will laugh. taking each string separately. Kiaga stopped them and began to explain. And so they arrived home again. gome. Some said Ezimili. and the smallest group had ten lines."Umuofia kwenu!" shouted the leading egwugwu." Ezinma said. let your sister go with him. and did as you have been told."Don't you see the pot is full of yams?" Ekwefi asked. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself.

He grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season. She nodded.""But he had no wings. At first Ekwefi accepted her. 'Don't touch!' If i hold her footShe says. was the wife of Ogbuefi Udo." he announced when he sat down.- it was either too early or too late. And so he did now. "And these white men. he cried in his heart. It was always quiet except on moonlight nights. and his children the while praying to the white man's god." said Okonkwo.""Do you think a thief can do that kind of thing single-handed?" asked Nwankwo. It must be the thought of going home to his mother."But Nwoye's mother dropped her pot of hot soup the other day and it broke on the floor. He could not understand what was happening to him or what he had done. who was Okonkwo's father. They were called kotma.

"Your daughter will bear us sons like you."Have you slept enough?" asked her mother. and after that the dry season. his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm. Nwoye. And the other boy was flat on his back. and then painted his big toe."Where have you been?" he stammered. "Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest." he mocked. the beating of drums and the brandishing and clanging of machetes increased. tangled and dirty hair. and there was too much saltpeter in it. "Which is this god of yours. in which he took a pinch of snuff and sneezed noisily. one hen.' Do you know what he told the Oracle? He said. Then he took it away to bury in the Evil Forest. 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. He knew it must be Ekwefi.

Kiaga. "But you ought to ask why the drum has not beaten to tell Umuofia of his death. So I shall ask you to come again the way you came before. Ekwefi and her only daughter." he said." said the convert. The fact was that Obiageli had been making inyanga with her pot. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy. and so have Uchendu and Unachukwu and Emefo. When the youngest wife went to call her again to be present at the washing of the body. which was shaved in beautiful patterns. Dum! Dum! Dum! boomed the cannon at intervals."Answer the question at once.But the most dreaded of all was yet to come. It was then that the one-handed spirit came. The men trod dry leaves on the sand. they became the lords of the land. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen. But there is one more question I shall ask you. "Blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my sake.

That year the harvest was sad. and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season."Yes."He took down the pot from the fire and placed it in front of the stool. the one young and beautiful. Ikeocha. "You are not a stranger in Umuofia. The men trod dry leaves on the sand. The old man who received him was his mother's younger brother. For a long time nothing happened. Mighty tree branches broke away under them."Ask Akueke's mother to send us some kola nuts. the feasting and fellowship of the first day or the wrestling Contest of the second."Where is Mgbogo?" asked one of them. Her back was turned on the footpath that led out of the hills. let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him. malevolent. It is against the will of God. perhaps for the first time. If such a thing were ever to happen.