Chapter 19

Okonkwo’s time in exile is over and to thank his uncle and the village he throws a lavish feast. He impresses many with his generosity and it seems that in some ways Okonkwo may have changed. However he is covertly regretful that his rise to be a clan leader was halted and feels punished at having to spend time with people he sees as effeminate because they refuse to fight the missionaries. He had previously asked his daughters to refrain from marrying until his return to his own village so he could try and resume his position in that community by marrying them to prominent families in Umuofia. At the feast there is concern that the younger generation is falling away, that the traditional kinship bond is broken and family obligation has been replaced by new ideas brought by the white man.

Even though many of the converts are low status in the Igbo community, Okonkwo imagines that he will lose honour as the great cannot be measured against the worthless if the worthless have disappeared.

Chapter 19 Quote

But I fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Okonkwo is eager to return to his village of Iguedo. He plans to marry his daughters to prominent families, and resume his farming and rebuild his compounds. However upon return he is dismayed that his village has substantially changed. The white men have come and established a religion and a government in the area. Okonkwo is discouraged that the men of the village have not wanted to fight the intruders. He cannot understand why white men control the land and decisions when they do not understand the local language or customs. Obierika and Okonkwo believe that the white men were clever and that they came in peace with their religion but slowly seized power through government and trade.

Chapter 20 Quotes

‘How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs bad.’ (Okonkwo) Chapter 20

He sent for the five sons and they came and sat in his obi. The youngest of them was four years old. ‘You have all seen the great abomination of your brother.. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people. If any one of you prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him: If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck.’ (Okonkwo to his family) Chapter 20

But apart from the church, the white men had also brought a government. Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Mr Brown is leading the mission and is careful to consider the local people when making decisions. He is willing to discuss Igbo beliefs with the elders and listen to their views. Some of the Igbo clan are accepting of the new ways as the white colonists have brought wealth to the region through selling palm oil and nut kernels. The missionaries have a school and a hospital and Nwoye is attending a training college to become a teacher. Mr Brown urges others to attend schools saying that this is the way for them to take part in the new society. Education is presented as a way to be a part of the government and retake some control of their lands. Mr Brown meets Okonkwo but he is chased away, Okonkwo demonstrating his unwillingness to compromise or solve the problem with communication instead of violence. Mr Brown becomes unwell and he returns home.

Nothing about the return to his village has gone well for Okonkwo. The changes in his community mean that his return has gone largely unnoticed. His desire for title ceremonies for his sons are on hold as it is the wrong year for ceremonies. He feels that the Umuofia has become soft ‘like women’ and lost its warrior ways, breaking up and falling apart. This perception is realised in the title of the novel.

Chapter 21 Quotes

‘You said one interesting thing,’ said Mr. Brown. ‘You are afraid of Chukwu. In my religion Chukwu is a loving Father and need not be feared by those who do His will.’
‘But we must fear Him when we are not doing His will, ‘ said Akunna. ‘And who is to tell His will? It is too great to be known.’ Chapter 21

He had just send Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, who was now called Isaac, to the new training college for teachers in Umuru. (about Mr Brown) Chapter 21

Chapter 22

In contrast to Mr Brown, the incoming head of the mission Reverend James Smith displays none of the characteristics that endeared Mr Brown to the locals. Mr Smith is zealous and unwilling to compromise his beliefs. He begins by narrowing the understanding of the new converts to strictly observing church rules. He shows he is disinclined to allow any Igbo culture that contradicts his viewpoint. He suspends a young woman whose husband mutilated her dead ogbanje child in the traditional way.

The new fanatism in the congregation has consequences when a young convert named Enoch provokes the egwugwu. He taunts them until one strikes him with a cane. Enoch retaliates by tearing the mask of the elder, symbolically revealing the flaws in the egwugwu system. The Igbo believe that the unmasking will kill the ancestral spirit. Retaliation is swift as the egwugwu gather from neighbouring villages to destroy Enoch’s huts and chase Enoch to the church. It is only out of respect for Mr Brown that they don’t perpetrate violence against Mr Smith and Enoch.

Chapter 22 Quote

One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public, or to say or do anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated. And this was what Enoch did. Chapter 22

Chapter 23

In a sign of the escalating power wielded by the new arrivals, the introduction of the District Commissioner shows that the Igbo are now under foreign control. The District Commissioner calls for a meeting with the community elders after the incident at the church. Okonkwo calls for war and urges the elders to take their machetes. The elders’ plan is thwarted as the group is intercepted in the meeting room and taken prisoner. The guards treat the men unfairly and beat them while they are prisoners. Okonkwo still urges the men to take action and kill the white men. He is beaten with the others as a result. Okonkwo is ‘choked with hate’.

In the same way that Enoch had acted on impulse and deliberately provoked the clan, Okonkwo likewise is driven by emotion and unwillingness to compromise. Both actions propel the white and the Igbo parties toward trouble. They share a common flaw of pride.

Chapter 23 Quotes

‘An Umuofia man does not refuse a call,’ he said. ‘He may refuse to do what he is asked; he does not refuse to be asked.’ (Okonkwo) Chapter 23

Umuofia was like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffing the silent, ominous air and not knowing which way to run. Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Okonkwo and the leaders are humiliated, sent home and ordered to pay a fine. The village responds by calling a meeting and Okonkwo hopes it will be to declare war. Okonkwo prepares for the fight. He knows that he cannot escape his own destiny and will go to war even if the village will not join him. He recalls the glory days of tradition and fighting and of the days of the warriors. His thoughts are soured by the thought that Egonwanne, a skilled talker, will aim for peaceful resolution. Such an ending would be considered cowardly to Okonkwo.

The meeting starts and the discussion fluctuates between peaceful resolution and Okonkwo’s desire for war. The meeting is disrupted by messengers from the court. Here the three worldviews are represented. The old traditional ways of the warrior are present in Okonkwo. Compromise and partnership are expressed by Egonwanne. Tyranny and oppression can be read into the messenger’s appearance. In a decisive moment it is Okonkwo who acts, striking the messenger and killing him. Okonkwo watches and when he sees the others let messengers flee, he knows that he is alone in his desire for war.

Chapter 24 Quotes

Our fathers never dreamed of such a thing, they never killed their brothers. But a white man never came to them. So we must do what our fathers would never have done. Eneke the bird was asked why he was always on the wing and he replied: ‘Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig.’ We must root out this evil. Chapter 24

‘The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.’ In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete… and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body. Chapter 24

Chapter 25

The District Commissioner intervenes and searches for Okonkwo. Obierika and the others inform him that Okonkwo is not there. Eventually there is an agreement reached that the men will lead the Commissioner to Okonkwo if he agrees to help in a local matter. He agrees and is led to Okonkwo’s body, hanging from a tree in his compound. He has committed suicide. The favour the men ask of the Commissioner in exchange is that he arranges for someone to remove the body as it is prohibited under Igbo law to handle a clan member’s body.

Obierika shows a glimpse of Okonkwo’s fighting spirit and berates the Commissioner, blaming him for Okonkwo’s death and speaking highly of Okonkwo. The Commissioner fulfils his part of the agreement and has the body removed by his assistants. As he leaves, he commends himself and imagines that the circumstances of Okonkwo’s death will make an interesting paragraph or two in the book he is writing. He has already chosen the title: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. A title that insinuates colonisation at its very worst.

Chapter 25 Quotes

Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend’s dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…’ Chapter 25

The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. Chapter 25

He (the Commissioner) had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. Chapter 25