Chapter 7

After Ikemefuna settles in with Okonkwo’s family, he establishes a strong relationship with Okonkwo and Nwoye. He is seen to be helpful in developing strong traits in Nwoye who Okonkwo had determined was less masculine than he had hoped. Nwoye still prefers folktales to those of war but is feigning the characteristics that his father is seeking in him. Nwoye’s reluctant interest in Okonkwo’s world is a result of enjoying time with Ikemefuna and fear of his father.

A small swarm of locusts arrive and the Igbo people know that these are the scouting party, a large cloud of locusts will follow. The people are excited as the locusts are no threat to the crops due to the time of year but will be delicious to eat. A parallel is drawn between the arrival of the locusts and that of the westerners’, who will arrive in waves, first the early missionaries, then more religious settlements and finally government and power structures. Like the locusts, they will be tolerated but left unchecked could devour the land.

At this time, the tribal elders decide that Ikemefuna should be killed and they inform Okonkwo of their decision. Okonkwo decides to take part in the process despite being warned by Ezeudu to stay away as Ikemefuna considers Okonkwo a father and under clan law it is unlawful to kill a family member. Okonkwo lures Ikemefuna to the forest with the promise that he is going to take him to his home village. On the journey, some men turn on Ikemefuna to kill him and he turns to Okonkwo for help. Okonkwo strikes him and he dies. Okonkwo is bound by his own internal code of what a man would do and this supersedes his emotional attachment to Ikemefuna. It is this inner drive that once again, driven by his desire to avoid being like his father, isolates him from the next generation. First, Okonkwo is literally separated from Ikemefuna and second, an emotional breach occurs when Nwoye, seeing Okonkwo return without Ikemefuna, ‘snaps’ inside knowing his father has probably killed the boy.

Chapter 7 Quotes

And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth colour of the vast, hungry swarm. Chapter 7

Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land—masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told to her younger children—stories of the tortoise and his wily ways, and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. Chapter 7

‘That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.’ (Ezeudu) Chapter 7

As soon as his father walked in, that night, Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow. He did not cry. He just hung limp. Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Okonkwo is troubled by the Ikemefuna’s killing and is torn between his remorse at having been a part of the killing and not interceding when the order was given, and his personal doctrine of not feeling remorse as a real man should not be upset by the killing of a single boy. Ezinma tries to comfort her father through this time. Her attentiveness and presence pleases Okonkwo and he realises that he wishes she was a boy. This emphasises that Okonkwo strongly desires a boychild to perpetuate his traditional idea of what an offspring should be like. This emblematises the threat to the continuation of Igbo culture; being able to sustain it from one generation to the next.

Okonkwo spends time with his friends who are celebrating the success of their own children. Although unstated by Achebe, the reader is invited to imagine the difficulty Okonkwo has in reconciling his own frustration with having to kill Ikemefuna and his disappointment with Nwoye with wishing his friend’s son success in wrestling and marriage. A bride price is set for Obierika’s daughter-in-law – a sense that the patriarchal society see women as a commodity. Obierika is pleased with the price.

In a foreshadowing of the upcoming trouble, it is mentioned that Obierika heard of a man with skin the colour of chalk. This is indeed the scouting party, similar to the locusts, that will proceed the invasion.

Chapter 8 Quotes

‘You have not eaten for two days,’ said (Okonkwo’s) daughter Ezinma when she brought the food to him. ‘So you must finish this.’ She sat down and stretched her legs in front of her. Okonkwo ate the food absent-mindedly.
‘She should have been born a boy,’ he thought as he looked at his ten-year-old daughter. Chapter 8

‘I think it is good that our clan holds the ozo title in high esteem,’ said Okonkwo. ‘In those other clans you speak of, ozo is so low that every beggar takes it.’ Chapter 8

In this way Akueke’s bride-price was finally settled at twenty bags of cowries. Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Perhaps a result of Okonkwo troubling the spirits by taking part in Ikemefuna’s killing, trouble seeks his household. When he finally finds a peaceful sleep he is woken by his wife Ekwefi who tells him Ezinma, his treasured daughter, is dying. Okagbue, the medicine man, tries to break the cycle even finding a buried, wrapped pebble, called an iyi-uwa, that is used to link the spirit with the world. Typical of Achebe’s balanced approach, he doesn’t discount the events surrounding the search and location of the iyi-uwa but describes how Ezinma seemed to go into a trance and tell the medicine man where to look. This openness when describing Igbo culture helps sustain a sensible approach that was untypical at the time of writing. Likewise, traditional medicine is not discounted. In a rare chance to see the lighter side of Okonkwo, he gathers herbs for Ezinma and helps in the treatment. She inhales the steam and this appears to help break the illness.

Chapter 9 Quotes

The relationship between them was not only that of mother and child. There was something in it like the companionship of equals, which was strengthened by such little conspiracies as eating eggs in the bedroom. (About Ezinma and Ekwefi) Chapter 9

Everybody knew she was an ogbanje. These sudden bouts of sickness and health were typical of her kind. But she had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay. Some of them did become tired of their evil rounds of birth and death, or took pity on their mothers, and stayed. Ekwefi believed deep inside her that Ezinma had come to stay. Chapter 9

Chapter 10

In a counterbalance to the previous story that involved the bridal price, Chapter 10 opens with an account of a tribal meeting where the egwugwu (masked men impersonating the villagers’ ancestors) interrogate a man accused of being unreasonably cruel to his wife. The woman wishes to return to her family to escape the treatment. The council is sympathetic and reminds others that ‘it is not bravery when a man fights with a woman’. This reminds us that Okonkwo is not typical in his approach to his wives and children, beating them as his temper demands. Achebe is clearly using this trial to imply that Okonkwo isn’t as brave as he thinks he is because, after all, he still feels the need to beat his wives. Although bravery is Okonkwo’s driving force, his understanding of it is limited to his strength. He is not brave enough to deviate from what he believes is the right path or to be humble. The decision of the elders for the woman to remain with her husband is tempered by their implication that he should no longer beat his wife.

Chapter 10 Quote

‘Uzowulu’s body, I salute you,’ he said. Spirits always addressed humans as ‘bodies’. Uzowulu bent down and touched the earth with his right hand as a sign of submission. Chapter 10

Chapter 11

In a dramatic intervention into normal life, Chielo appears as the oracle and summons Ezinma, recently recovered from illness, to travel with her to the cave of Agbala. Okonkwo and Ekwefi are troubled by the visit and Ekwefi is seen to immediately follow Chielo despite warnings to stay away. Chielo carries Ezinma for some time, visiting a village and heading to a cave, screeching as she goes through the dark. Ekwefi waits outside the cave ready to risk her own life and dash inside if she believes Ezinma is in danger. Okonkwo appears with a machete, it later being revealed that he too was searching for Chielo and had come to the cave earlier. The concerned parents wait and eventually their daughter is returned to them. Ekwefi sees a side of Okonkwo that reminds her why she ran to him for protection many years ago.

Chapter 12

The village is alive with the nuptials of Obierika’s daughter, Akueke, but Okonkwo and Ekwefi are exhausted from their night’s ordeal. It is here that we learn that Okonkwo had visited the cave four times, a sign of his distress and concern for his beloved daughter. He doesn’t reveal this concern, once again bound by his perception of what would be masculine or effeminate.

The women of the village prepare a feast and the ceremony and celebration is a success. This is measured by the price of the dowry and the amount of pots of wine the groom’s family was willing to contribute. Obierika’s family formally gives away Akueke to the suitor, Ibe, and establishes an alliance between the two families.

Chapter 12 Quote

On the following morning the entire neighborhood wore a festive air because Okonkwo’s friend, Obierika, was celebrating his daughter’s Uri. It was the day on which her suitor (having already paid the greater part of her bride-price) would bring palm-wine not only to her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen called umanna. Everybody had been invited – men, women and children. But it was really a woman’s ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother. Chapter 12