Plot Overview
Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected
warrior of the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian tribe
that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages. He is haunted by
the actions of Unoka, his cowardly and spendthrift father, who died
in disrepute, leaving many village debts unsettled. In response,
Okonkwo becomes a clansman, warrior, farmer, and family provider
extraordinaire. He has a twelve-year-old son named Nwoye whom he
finds lazy; Okonkwo worries that Nwoye will end up a failure like
Unoka.
In a settlement with a neighboring tribe, Umuofia wins
a virgin and a fifteen-year-old boy. Okonkwo takes charge of the
boy, Ikemefuna, and finds an ideal son in him. Nwoye likewise forms
a strong attachment to the newcomer. Despite his fondness for Ikemefuna
and despite the fact that the boy begins to call him “father,” Okonkwo
does not let himself show any affection for him.
During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo accuses his youngest
wife, Ojiugo, of negligence. He severely beats her, breaking the
peace of the sacred week. He makes some sacrifices to show his repentance, but
he has shocked his community irreparably.
Ikemefuna stays with Okonkwo's family for three years.
Nwoye looks up to him as an older brother and, much to Okonkwo's
pleasure, develops a more masculine attitude. One day, the locusts
come to Umuofia—they will come every year for seven years before
disappearing for another generation. The village excitedly collects
them because they are good to eat when cooked.
Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected village elder, informs Okonkwo
in private that the Oracle has said that Ikemefuna must be killed.
He tells Okonkwo that because Ikemefuna calls him “father,” Okonkwo
should not take part in the boy's death. Okonkwo lies to Ikemefuna,
telling him that they must return him to his home village. Nwoye
bursts into tears.
As he walks with the men of Umuofia, Ikemefuna
thinks about seeing his mother. After several hours of
walking, some of Okonkwo's clansmen attack the boy with machetes.
Ikemefuna runs to Okonkwo for help. But Okonkwo, who doesn't wish
to look weak in front of his fellow tribesmen, cuts the boy down
despite the Oracle's admonishment. When Okonkwo returns
home, Nwoye deduces that his friend is dead.
Okonkwo sinks into a depression, able neither to sleep
nor eat. He visits his friend Obierika and begins to feel revived
a bit. Okonkwo's daughter Ezinma falls ill, but she recovers after Okonkwo
gathers leaves for her medicine.
The death of Ogbuefi Ezeudu is announced to the surrounding villages
by means of the ekwe, a musical instrument. Okonkwo
feels guilty because the last time Ezeudu visited him was to warn
him against taking part in Ikemefuna's death. At Ogbuefi Ezeudu's
large and elaborate funeral, the men beat drums and fire their guns.
Tragedy compounds upon itself when Okonkwo's gun explodes and kills Ogbuefi
Ezeudu's sixteen-year-old son.
Because killing a clansman is a crime against the earth
goddess, Okonkwo must take his family into exile for seven years
in order to atone. He gathers his most valuable belongings and takes
his family to his mother's natal village, Mbanta. The men from Ogbuefi Ezeudu's
quarter burn Okonkwo's buildings and kill his animals to cleanse
the village of his sin.
Okonkwo's kinsmen, especially his uncle, Uchendu, receive
him warmly. They help him build a new compound of huts and lend
him yam seeds to start a farm. Although he is bitterly disappointed
at his misfortune, Okonkwo reconciles himself to life in his motherland.
During the second year of Okonkwo's exile, Obierika brings
several bags of cowries (shells used as currency) that he has made
by selling Okonkwo's yams. Obierika plans to continue to do so until Okonkwo
returns to the village. Obierika also brings the bad news that Abame,
another village, has been destroyed by the white man.
Soon afterward, six missionaries travel to Mbanta. Through
an interpreter named Mr. Kiaga, the missionaries' leader, Mr. Brown, speaks
to the villagers. He tells them that their gods are false and that
worshipping more than one God is idolatrous. But the villagers do
not understand how the Holy Trinity can be accepted as one God.
Although his aim is to convert the residents of Umuofia to Christianity,
Mr. Brown does not allow his followers to antagonize the clan.
Mr. Brown grows ill and is soon replaced by Reverend James Smith,
an intolerant and strict man. The more zealous converts are relieved
to be free of Mr. Brown's policy of restraint. One such convert,
Enoch, dares to unmask an egwugwu during the annual
ceremony to honor the earth deity, an act equivalent to killing
an ancestral spirit. The next day, the egwugwu burn
Enoch's compound and Reverend Smith's church to the ground.
The District Commissioner is upset by the burning of the
church and requests that the leaders of Umuofia meet with him. Once
they are gathered, however, the leaders are handcuffed and thrown
in jail, where they suffer insults and physical abuse.
After the prisoners are released, the clansmen hold a
meeting, during which five court messengers approach and order the
clansmen to desist. Expecting his fellow clan members to join him
in uprising, Okonkwo kills their leader with his machete. When the crowd
allows the other messengers to escape, Okonkwo realizes that his
clan is not willing to go to war.
When the District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo's compound,
he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself. Obierika and his friends
lead the commissioner to the body. Obierika explains that suicide
is a grave sin; thus, according to custom, none of Okonkwo's clansmen
may touch his body. The commissioner, who is writing a book about
Africa, believes that the story of Okonkwo's rebellion and death
will make for an interesting paragraph or two. He has already chosen
the book's title: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes
of the Lower Niger.
