[Okonkwo] had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father.

Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.

Umuofia was feared by all its neighbors. It was powerful in war and in magic, and its priests and medicine men were feared in all the surrounding country. Its most potent war-medicine was as old as the clan itself. Nobody knew how old.

Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.