Where Does Okonkwo Bring His Family After Being Banished From His Village?
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Things Autumn Apart, Chapter Xiv
Okonkwo was well received by his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta. The old human being who received him was his mother's younger brother, who was at present the eldest surviving member of that family. His name was Uchendu, and it was he who had received Okonkwo'south mother 20 and ten years earlier when she had been brought home from Umuofia to exist buried with her people. Okonkwo was only a boy and so and Uchendu all the same remembered him crying the traditional farewell: "Mother, mother, mother is going."
That was many years ago. Today Okonkwo was non bringing his mother home to exist buried with her people. He was taking his family of three wives and their children to seek refuge in his motherland. Equally shortly as Uchendu saw him with his deplorable and weary company he guessed what had happened, and asked no questions. It was not until the post-obit day that Okonkwo told him the total story. The old human being listened silently to the end so said with some relief: "It is a female ochu." And he arranged the requisite rites and sacrifices.
Okonkwo was given a plot of basis on which to build his compound, and two or iii pieces of land on which to farm during the coming planting season. With the help of his mother's kinsmen he built himself an obi and three huts for his wives. He then installed his personal god and the symbols of his departed fathers. Each of Uchendu's five sons contributed iii hundred seed-yams to enable their cousin to establish a farm, for as soon as the offset rain came farming would brainstorm.
At terminal the rain came. It was sudden and tremendous. For two or 3 moons the sun had been gathering strength till it seemed to exhale a breath of fire on the globe. All the grass had long been scorched brown, and the sands felt like live coals to the anxiety. Evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown. The birds were silenced in the forests, and the world lay panting under the live, vibrating oestrus. And and so came the clap of thunder. It was an angry, metallic and thirsty handclapping, unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy flavour. A mighty current of air arose and filled the air with grit. Palm trees swayed equally the air current combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic crew.
When the rain finally came, it was in large, solid drops of frozen h2o which the people called "the nuts of the h2o of sky." 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 cook.
The world quickly came to life and the birds in the forests fluttered around and chirped merrily. A vague olfactory property of life and light-green vegetation was diffused in the air. Equally the rain began to fall more soberly and in smaller liquid drops, children sought for shelter, and all were happy, refreshed and thankful.
Okonkwo and his family worked very hard to establish a new farm. But it was similar beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become lefthanded in old age. Work no longer had for him the pleasance it used to accept, and when in that location was no piece of work to do he sat in a silent one-half-sleep.
His life had been ruled by a great passion—to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-jump. And he had all but achieved information technology. Then everything had been broken. He had been bandage out of his association like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true—that if a man said yea his chi also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation.
The old man, Uchendu, saw conspicuously that Okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled. He would speak to him afterward the isa-ifi anniversary.
The youngest of Uchendu'southward five sons, Amikwu, was marrying a new wife. The bride-cost had been paid and all but the last ceremony had been performed. Amikwu and his people had taken palm-wine to the bride'southward kinsmen nearly two moons before Okonkwo's arrival in Mbanta. And then it was time for the final anniversary of confession.
The daughters of the family were all at that place, some of them having come a long way from their homes in distant villages. Uchendu's eldest daughter had come from Obodo, most half a mean solar day's journey abroad. The daughters of Uchendu'south brothers were besides there. It was a full gathering of umuada, in the same way as they would meet if a expiry occurred in the family. There were 20-2 of them.
They saturday in a big circle on the basis and the helpmate sat in the center with a hen in her correct hand. Uchendu sat by her, holding the bequeathed staff of the family unit. All the other men stood exterior the circle, watching. Their wives watched also. It was evening and the lord's day was setting.
Uchendu's eldest girl, Njide, asked the questions.
"Recall that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth," she began.
"How many men take lain with you since my brother starting time expressed the desire to marry y'all?"
"None," she answered merely.
"Answer truthfully," urged the other women.
"None?" asked Njide.
"None," she answered.
"Swear on this staff of my fathers," said Uchendu.
"I swear," said the bride.
Uchendu took the hen from her, slit its throat with a sharp pocketknife and immune some of the claret to fall on his ancestral staff.
From that solar day Amikwu took the young bride to his hut and she became his wife. The daughters of the family unit did not render to their homes immediately but spent two or iii days with their kinsmen.
On the second day Uchendu called together his sons and daughters and his nephew, Okonkwo. The men brought their goatskin mats, with which they sat on the floor, and the women sat on a sisal mat spread on a raised bank of world. Uchendu pulled gently at his grayness beard and gnashed his teeth. Then he began to speak, quietly and deliberately, picking his words with slap-up care:
"It is Okonkwo that I primarily wish to speak to," he began. "Only I want all of you lot to notation what I am going to say. I am an quondam man and you are all children. I know more most the globe than any of y'all. If there is whatsoever one amongst you who thinks he knows more allow him speak up," He paused, but no one spoke.
"Why is Okonkwo with us today? This is not his clan. Nosotros are only his mother'due south kinsmen. He does non belong here. He is an exile, condemned for seven years to live in a foreign land. And so he is bowed with grief. But there is simply one question I would like to ask him. Can you tell me, Okonkwo, why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is Nneka, or "Mother is Supreme?" We all know that a human being is the head of the family and his wives practice his bidding. A kid belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A human belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland. And notwithstanding nosotros say Nneka—'Female parent is Supreme.' Why is that?"
There was silence. "I want Okonkwo to answer me," said Uchendu.
"I do not know the reply," Okonkwo replied.
"You lot exercise not know the answer? So yous see that you lot are a child. You have many wives and many children—more than children than I accept. Yous are a corking man in your clan. But you are still a child, my kid. Listen to me and I shall tell you. Just there is one more question I shall inquire you. Why is information technology that when a adult female dies she is taken abode to be cached with her ain kinsmen? She is not buried with her married man's kinsmen. Why is that? Your mother was brought home to me and buried with my people. Why was that?"
Okonkwo shook his caput.
"He does not know that either," said Uchendu, and withal he is full of sorrow because he has come to alive in his motherland for a few years." He laughed a mirthless laughter, and turned to his sons and daughters. 'What near yous? Tin can you lot respond my question?"
They all shook their heads.
"And so mind to me," he said and cleared his throat. "It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its female parent'south 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. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that female parent is supreme. Is it correct that you, Okonkwo, should bring to your mother a heavy face and pass up to exist comforted? Exist careful or you may displease the dead. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and have them back to your fatherland afterwards seven years. Merely if yous allow sorrow to weigh you down and impale you, they volition all die in exile." He paused for a long while. 'These are now your kinsmen." He waved at his sons and daughters.
"Yous think you are the greatest sufferer in the globe? Do you know that men are sometimes banished for life? Practise you know that men sometimes lose all their yams and even their children? I had six wives once. I have none at present except that immature daughter who knows not her right from her left. Do you know how many children I have buried—children I begot in my youth and forcefulness? Twenty-two. I did not hang myself, and I am still live. If you lot think you are the greatest sufferer in the world inquire my girl, Akueni, how many twins she has borne and thrown abroad. Have you non heard the vocal they sing when a woman dies?"
'For whom is it well, for whom is information technology well?
There is no one for whom it is well.'
"I have no more to say to you lot."
Are yous an artist at run a risk or know someone who is?
Source: https://pen.org/things-fall-apart-chapter-fourteen/
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