Part Two Chp. 14-19

A1. If you commit a “female crime,” like Okonkwo did by accidentally killing that boy when his gun exploded, it was required that you flee from the clan for seven years. So Okonkwo took his family to his motherland. That was probably the only other place were he had extended family that would welcome him and his family and besides that was were his mother had grown up. Okonkwo despaired because he had to start all over again and had to replant but on a new farm and work extra hard. Okonkwo was getting older and to start completely over held no excitement or pleasure in it. Okonkwo had wanted to be one of the lords of his clan and he was nearly there and then the accident happened and he lost everything, except his family. Uchendu was somewhat mad at Okonkwo because he was yielding to despair and Uchendu and his family were doing so much for Okonkwo and his family already. Uchendu tells Okonkwo that one reason for coming back to the motherland is to be comforted, like went the children came to be comforted by their mothers after being beaten by their father, but Okonkwo was refusing to be comforted and it was very rude. If he continued to despair then he would die in exile and leave his family in exile probably never to return to Umuofia.

A2. The Abame clan was completely destroyed with the exception of a few survivors. The people had killed a white man who came on an “iron horse” and so more white men can with other men and killed all the people who were in the market, which was everyone except the sick, the old, and a few men and women who stayed home. Uchendu was mad at the people of Abame because they killed the white man and he didn’t say anything. Uchendu gave a story about a mother kite who told her daughter to find some food. So she went out and brought back a duckling whose mother had no protest to her taking it. When she told her mother this her mother told her to take it back. “There is something ominous behind the silence.” So the daughter took it back and brought a chick whose mother raved and cursed. The mother tells the daughter “There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.” And they ate the chick. The people of Abame were fools in Uchendu’s eyes because the white man said nothing and they should have suspected something because he didn’t say a thing. Okonkwo thought they were fools because none of them had their machetes or guns on them and they were warned by their Oracle that danger was ahead but they didn’t do anything to protect themselves. In a way I think that Uchendu’s reaction is wiser to responding to new challenges to old ways of living because if a man doesn’t say a thing when he knows that he is going to die then there is something ominous behind him and you probably shouldn’t kill him. It’s like kicking a man while he is down. You never know, he could just catch your foot just as you are about to kick him and bring you down to a crashing end. (That happens in the movie Enough.) But then again those people probably wouldn’t have thought of that but they should have been smart enough to protect themselves with their guns and machetes if they were warned that danger was ahead. But I would go with Uchendu’s reaction. It really brings the old to the new. When Uchendu says “There is no story that is not true,” he means that even the stories that seem like they are totally made up may have some truth to them so you should still take them into account and consider them sometimes. So there is no story that is not true or at least partially true.

A3. Obierika visits Okonkwo the first time while Okonkwo was in exile because he came to give him the money that he made when he sold Okonkwo’s yams and seed yams. The second time Obierika comes it is to tell Okonkwo about the white missionaries in Umuofia and to tell him that he saw Nwoye amongst them. Nwoye’s motive for converting to Christianity was that this new religion answered this question, through a hymn, that he had had since he was young; about the crying twins in a bush and why Ikemefuna had been killed. When the Christian missionaries first came the people didn’t like them and thought they were crazy and made fun of them. When they asked for land and were given the evil forest the Igbo people thought they were even crazier and thought that surely their gods would destroy them with in a matter of time. The Christian missionaries lived longer than the people expected and then some of the people joined them but others thought that they were evil and that was how they were able to survive in the evil forest. After a while the people got really mad and sad because they were leading more and more people away, even women and children, and so they decided to try and run them out by not allowing them to go to town get water from the water place and other things and if they tried to get into town then they would whip them and run them out. Through out the times the missionaries would teach in the market places and in the village playground and then eventually built the church in the evil forest. They accepted any and everybody, even the outcasts. Some of the sources of the misunderstandings between the Igbo and the missionaries were that the Igbo were not used to the idea of only one god and that he had a son but didn’t have a wife and those that did convert were not used to being among the outcasts who were considered heathens basically because of their beliefs which they had to give up if they wanted to become Christian. The men that were attracted to the new religion were mainly the worthless, empty men who held no titles and were looked down upon and with the new religion they probably felt like they were actually equal to those that did look down on them. Others that were attracted were the outcasts or osu who had heathen beliefs and was dedicated to a taboo, could not marry a free-born, carried the mark of his caste which was long, tangle, dirty hair. They could not attend free-born meetings, live under a free-born roof, take a title, and would be buried in the evil forest. They figured if the church took in twins and other abominations that they would accept them and they did but with slight opposition. Nwoye converts because they did answer his question and it made more sense to him them the religion of his father and forefathers. Okonkwo was very, very angry with Nwoye for forsaking his religion and joining the Christians and he wanted to kill him and he probably would have had it not been for Uchendu.

A4. The main crises that they had were admitting the outcasts into the church which I’ve already talked about, and ended with one of the converts returning to the clan because of the admittance of the outcasts. But after the two outcasts were admitted the rest of the osu converted to Christianity. One of those osu converts ended up making more conflict with the clan a year later when they killed a sacred python and got the congregation, which had grown and was now numbered with men, women, and children, excluded from the life and privileges of the clan. The people of Mbanta are allowing the Christians to stay because they had never had to fight for their gods before and didn’t think they need to now. If they were doing abominable things then the gods would take care of it and administer justice were it was needed. They didn’t want to intervene because if they got in the way they might get the punishment that was intended for the Christian people. The Mbanta religion believes in many different gods for the different things in their lives and has ranks of respect for those with titles, those without, and those who are outcasts. The Christian missionaries believe in the Trinity and that everyone is brother and sister in God’s way and that everyone is equal. Two very different beliefs.

A5. Because of the new Christian church a man could leave his family, his father, his brothers and he can turn against them and curse his father and his ancestors. The elders fear for the younger generation and the future clan because they will not be able to stand together as well or as strong as kinsmen if they are turning on each other and cursing their fathers and ancestors. The bond of kinship can be very, very strong if they stand together but this new church has come and told them it is okay to turn against their family and forsake everything they’ve ever know. If the Igbo people see that it is okay to leave their families and join a new religion and their old gods do nothing to stop them or kill them when they join, more and more people will start joining and everything that they thought was wrong or they didn’t quite like about their fathers’ religion, they can now leave behind and not have to worry about being beat because they don’t see the sense in those things they don’t like. The white man will have the upper hand in things if the Igbo people don’t run them out soon and they will take over and be successful.