Chapter 13

In a pattern that follows the stages of life, Achebe has documented the events of childhood through Nwoye, Ikemefuna and Ezinma, of adulthood through the recent marriage of Uri, and now the final stage through the death of Ezeudu. Ezeudu was one of the most respected elders of the Igbo villages and his funeral is heralded by drums and dancing. As a celebrated warrior, young men honour him through running and cutting down trees and animals as they encounter them. The egwugwu, masked elders join the lament. At the height of the frenzy when the drums are beaten loudly, guns and a cannon are fired when an accident occurs. In what some may consider an omen, after Ezeudu warned Okonkwo not to participate in Ikemefuna’s (his pseudo-son’s) killing, it is Ezeudu’s son who is accidently killed. Okonkwo has fired his old gun and it has exploded, a piece of the weapon striking Ezeudu’s sixteen year old son, killing him.

It is a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who commits it must flee from the land. The crime is of two kinds: male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years. After years of striving for two main things, Okonkwo’s dreams are shattered in a moment. His desire to rise through the clan as a respected elder is blocked as he will have to leave the village with his family. Also, Okonkwo’s lifelong struggle to only commit masculine acts has ended with his being charged with an effeminate crime.

Okonkwo’s wives and children are upset but they quickly pack their most valuable belongings and flee before morning to Mbanta, the village of Okonkwo’s mother. In the morning, men enter Okonkwo’s compound and carry out the traditional punishment of destroying his compound, barns and animals. Among the men is Okonkwo’s friend Obierika who is saddened by Okonkwo’s departure and wonders why the punishment is so severe for an accident. Again, Obierika ponders the old traditions, remembering how his own twin children were abandoned in the forest because of tribal tradition. Achebe ends the chapter with the prophetic proverb, ‘If one finger brought oil, it soiled the others’, suggesting that Okonkwo’s crime and pride may lead to the ultimate downfall of Umuofia itself.

Chapter 13 Quotes

It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the center of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man’s sixteen-year-old-son, who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart. Chapter 13

It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years… Chapter 13

As soon as the day broke, a large crowd of men from Ezeudu’s quarter stormed Okonkwo’s compound, dressed in garbs of war. They set fire to his houses, demolished his red walls, killed his animals and destroyed his barn. It was the justice of the earth goddess, and they were merely her messengers. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. His greatest friend, Obierika, was among them. They were merely cleansing the land which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman. Chapter 13

Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer. He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife’s twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? (Obierika on Okonkwo’s exile) Chapter 13

Chapter 14

The time in exile is a period of waiting for Okonkwo. He is extremely unhappy and focused solely on returning to his old way of life. Although events have occurred and times have changed, Okonkwo is not adapting. This stubborn attitude is symbolic of the traditional life of the Igbo villages; they may be forced to change as they will never exactly regain what they once had. Okonkwo starts to rebuild under the cover of his Uncle Uchendu who has helped him plant yams after the hail storm. Okonkwo has lost his fervour for hard work as he begins again from the start, so far from his life dream.

Noticing that Okonkwo is still mourning the old way of life, Uchendu gathers together his entire family and explains the difference between ‘fatherland’, a place to fight and grow, and ‘motherland’, where Okonkwo has returned as a place of nurturing. He suggests that remaining angry in the motherland will offend the mother spirit by not accepting the care and nurturing of his ancestors. Okonkwo’s mood is uplifted by the explanation.

Chapter 14 Quotes

When the rain finally came, it was in large, solid drops of frozen water which the people called ‘the nuts of the water of heaven’. They were hard and painful on the body as they fell, yet young people ran about happily picking up the cold nuts and throwing them into their mouths to melt. Chapter 14

The old man, Uchendu, saw clearly that Okonkwo, had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled. Chapter 14

‘It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland.’ (Uchendu) Chapter 14

Chapter 15

After two years, Obierika comes to visit Okonkwo in Mbanta. He brings cowries as payment for the yams he harvested for Okonkwo. They are pleased to see each other and discuss the events of the communities while eating kola with Uchendu. Obierika talks about how an entire group of villages were destroyed. Once again Achebe balances the events with a mix of traditional and new world views. The traditional represented by the Oracle’s prediction that a white man who had arrived was a like a scout locust who would bring others. Also, the traditional and innocent view that he had an ‘iron horse’ (bicycle) that needed to be tied up. The villagers killed the white man. Shortly afterward, more white men arrived with a large number of African attendants and saw the bicycle and left. Several weeks later, white men and a group of African subordinates came into the Abame marketplace armed with powerful guns and shot everyone in sight.

This story is the beginning of intrusive colonialism in Nigeria. There have always been rumours of white men that took slaves away in the past but this trouble was now present in their region. It seems that white men and colonisation was inevitable and unstoppable. The existence of fate, like that that befell Ikemefuna and later Okonkwo, would now take control of the Igbo region.

Chapter 15 Quote

‘…I forgot to tell you another thing which the Oracle said. It said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. And so they killed him.’ Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Another two years has passed and Obierika visits Okonkwo again. He brings news that the missionaries have come to Umuofia. The relay of news through this intermittent way gives an impression of the slow encroaching style of the whites. The missionaries had built a church and had been adding converts to their congregation, although the community considered that most of the converts were ‘men whose word was heeded in the assembly of the people’ or men of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu: worthless, empty men. The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was ‘a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle’. However it is also noted that Nwoye has joined them after being captivated by the hymn he heard about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear. It reminded him of the twins crying in the bush and of Ikemefuna.

Chapter 16 Quotes

He told them that the true God lived on high and that all men when they died went before Him for judgment. Evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wood and stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm-oil. But good men who worshipped the true God lived forever in His happy kingdom. Chapter 16

It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul—the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth. (About Nwoye) Chapter 16

None of his converts was a man whose word was heeded in the assembly of the people. None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless, empty men. The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle. Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 17 recounts the interaction between the village elders and the missionaries when the missionaries ask for land to build a church. The elders offer them land in the Evil Forest expecting the missionaries to hold the same understanding and fear of the location. To their surprise they accept the offer and construct a church there. This emphasises the chasm of difference in faith and understanding between the two cultures. The elders wait for the spirits of the forest to kill the missionaries. When nothing happens, the church wins converts. When the elders remind themselves that sometimes the gods have given a warning period of up to 28 days, they feel that fate will intervene soon. Once again as the missionaries are not struck by the gods of Umuofia, more converts join the group including a pregnant woman, Nneka, who had had four previous pregnancies resulting in twins that were discarded by the community.

Among those to join the missionaries is Nwoye. When Okonkwo finds out, he grabs him by the throat and is only halted by Uchendu’s intervention. Okonkwo is devastated and wonders how he could have raised such an effeminate son. He fails to consider the courage it would take Nwoye to abandon his traditional ways, knowing the temper and physical nature of his father. Nwoye joins the missionaries in school, learning to read and write. Okonkwo is left to consider how ‘living fire begets cold, impotent ash’. Along with Nwoye, more and more villagers reconsider their beliefs as they witness the missionaries thriving despite offending Igbo gods.

Chapter 17 Quotes

Why, he cried in his heart, should he, Okonkwo, of all people, be cursed with such a son. He saw clearly in it the finger of his personal god or chi. For how else could he explain his great misfortune and exile and now his despicable son’s behaviour? Chapter 17

An ‘evil forest’ was, therefore, alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness. It was such a forest that the rulers of Mbanta gave to the missionaries. They did not really want them in the clan, and so they made them that offer which nobody in his right senses would accept. Chapter 17

Okonkwo’s eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply. Chapter 17

Chapter 18

The defining difference for many between the traditional Igbo culture and that of the newly arrived missionaries is the missionaries’ willingness to associate and accept all people. Mr Kiaga, a representative for the missionaries, intercedes when members of the newly formed congregation hesitate to include ‘osu’ members. Osu are a class of people that are vehemently rejected according to Igbo traditions. The congregation rescues twins that have been discarded in the forest. This seemingly unpunished breach of Igbo law only strengthens the congregation and wins more converts.

Achebe’s balanced account highlights the dangers of overzealous approaches on both sides. Among the converts are three enthusiastic men who threaten to burn the local shrines to prove that the Igbo gods are impotent. They are beaten severely. It will also be shown that Okonkwo’s overzealous nature in resistance will not lead to success. Achebe accentuates that it takes a balanced approach to change, with mutual respect. Okonkwo calls for war, limited by his narrow worldview that imagines all problems can be solved with physical answers.

Chapter 18 Quote

These outcasts, or osu, seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations, thought that it was possible that they would also be received. And so one Sunday two of them went into the church. There was an immediate stir; but so great was the work the new religion had done among the converts that they did not immediately leave the church when the outcasts came in. Chapter 18