For absent and struggling students to catch up.

1. Study Guide:
Okonkwo’s Rise to
Power in Umuofia
Chapters 1-13
TEACHER

2. “Let me first make one general
point that is fundamental and
essential to the appreciation of
African issues by Americans.
Africans are people in the same
way that Americans, Europeans,
Asians, and others are people.
Africans are not some strange
beings with unpronounceable
names and impenetrable minds.
Although the action of Things Fall
Apart takes place in a setting with
which most Americans are
unfamiliar, the characters are
normal people and their events
are real human events.”
-Chinua Achebe

4. Chapter 1
• 9 connected villages, including Okonkwo’s
village, Iguedo
• Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of
the Umuofia clan
• Okonkwo won honor in his youth; he beat
“Amalinze the Cat” in a wrestling match
• Unoka was his father, a “weak” man who
always borrowed money and couldn’t pay his
debts
• Unoka’s laziness meant his wife and children
often went hungry
• Unoka was a skilled flute player and eloquent
(skilled, excellent) speaker

5. Chapter 2
• Town crier rings the ogene (gong) to let clansmen know
they should gather in the market in the morning
• Orator (good speaker) Ogbuefi Ezeugo announces the
murder of a woman in the market of neighboring village
(Mbaino)
• Anger, indignation. As the fiercest warrior, Okonkwo chosen
to deliver message to Mbaino; they must hand over a virgin
and a young man or go to war
• Umuofia has reputation for fierce warriors, powerful magic
• Okonkwo has taken five human heads in past battles. He
drinks palm-wine from his first head on important occasions.
• Mbaino agrees to Umuofia’s terms
• The boy, Ikemefuna, goes to Okonkwo for safekeeping
• Okonkwo instructs his first wife to care for Ikemefuna

6. Chapter 3
• Unoka never had successful harvest, numerous debts
unpaid, couldn’t afford titles. Lazy, Ill-fated, died of a
shameful illness, “swelling which was an abomination to
the earth goddess.”
• Unoka left in the Evil Forest to die (so as not to offend
earth by being buried)
• Okonkwo builds fortune alone; starts as a sharecropper –
becomes a warrior, farmer, and family provider
• His start: Nwakibie gives him 800 seed yams to start a farm
(when Okonkwo only asked for 400
• Unoka’s friend gives him another 400, but horrible droughts
and rains destroy majority of harvest
• Harvest left profound mark on Okonkwo; considers this
proof of his fortitude/inner mettle (strength)
• Okonkwo feels only disgust for father’s reliance on
words(need to speak); he uses either action or silence

7. Chapter 4
• At first, Ikemefuna is homesick and scared, but soon
becomes part of the family (tells stories; an older brother to
Nwoye, calls Okwonkwo “father”)
• Okonkwo grows fond of Ikemefuna, but does not show
affection (believes it is sign of weakness)
• During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo beats his youngest
wife, Ojiugo, after she leaves her hut to have her hair
braided without first cooking dinner
• Because of nso-ani (transgression/breaking tradition), priest
demands sacrifice of nanny goat and hen, plus a fine
• Okonkwo repents (says he is sorry), follows the priest’s orders.
Ogbuefi Ezeudu: “The punishment for breaking the Peace of
Ani has become mild in Umuofia.”
• After Week of Peace, villagers begin to clear land, prepare
for planting farms.
• Nwoye and Ikemefuna help Okonkwo prepare the seed
yams, but he finds fault with their work (even though he
knows that they are too young to understand farming)

8. Chapter 5
• Just before harvest, village holds “Feast of the New
Yam” to thank the earth goddess, Ani
• Okonkwo considers feasts times of idleness
• Women scrub and decorate huts, throw away unused
yams, and decoratively paint their skin and their
children’s with cam wood
• After beating second wife, Ekwefi, he wants to go
hunting. Ekwefi mutters remark about “guns that never
shot,” and Okonkwo shoots at her (but misses)
• Okonkwo won Ekwefi’s love (she ran away from her
husband to be with him) by defeating the Cat, so she
especially enjoys the annual wrestling contest the day
after the feast
• In turn, Okonkwo’s daughters bring a bowl of food to
Okonkwo’s hut

9. Chapter 6
• With excited spectators, the wrestling match takes
place on the village ilo (a field)
• Maduka (son of Okonkwo’s friend Obierika) wins
one match within seconds.
• Ekwefi speaks with Chielo, who takes the role of
the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and
Caves
• At the match, they speak as friends; Chielo
inquires about Ezinma, whom she calls “my
daughter”
• They conclude that Ezinma seems to have “come
to stay” (she has reached the age of ten and is
unlikely to die).

10. Chapter 7
• Ikemefuna has been with the family for three years, having “kindled a
new fire” in Nwoye (becomes more masculine, which pleases
fire” in Nwoye
Okonkwo)
• Okonkwo frequently invites the two boys to listen to warrior stories in
his obi (Nwoye misses his mother’s stories, but says he dislikes women’s
(Nwoye misses his
concerns to please his father)
• Locusts descend upon Umuofia (happens once in a generation;
come every year for 7 years before disappearing for another lifetime)
• Villagers happy – they collect and eat them
and
• Ogbuefi Ezeudu visits to inform Okonkwo of the Oracle’s decree. He
tells Okonkwo not to take part Ikemefuna’s death, as the boy calls
him “father”
• Okonkwo lies to Ikemefuna, telling him that he will be returning to his
will returning to his
home village; Nwoye bursts into tears
• The men of Umuofia walk for hours with Ikemefuna, who thinks about
Ikemefuna, about
seeing his mother.
• When attacked, Ikemefuna cries to Okonkwo for help. Okonkwo
doesn’t wish to look weak, so he kills him with machete
machete
• Nwoye understands Ikemefuna is dead and is very upset
and upset

11. Chapter 8
• Okonkwo in depression, feels weak, cannot sleep or eat; berates
weak, cannot or eat; berates
(thinks poorly of) himself for acting like a “shivering old woman.”
• Ezinma tells him he must eat; brings him his evening meal (Okonkwo
repeatedly wishes that she were a boy)
she were
• He visits Obierika and congratulates Maduka for wrestling; complains
Maduka for wrestling;
his sons are not manly enough, while Ezinma has “the right spirit”
• He argues with Obierika about taking part in Ikemefuna’s death
Obierika
• Okonkwo begins to feel revived; news of the death of oldest man in a
neighboring village and wife’s death shortly after. Okonkwo questions
the man’s reputed (reputation of) strength once he learns how the
man’s reputed (reputation
man seemed attached to his wife
• Obierika requests that Okonkwo stay for daughter’s fiancé to
Okonkwo stay for daughter’s fiancé to
determine bride-price. Afterward, they all talk about differing customs
in villages (tapping palm trees for palm-wine, white-skinned people)
• Foreshadowing: someone speaks of Amadi, a leper. He passes
through village frequently; those who know Amadi laugh (polite term
for leprosy is “the white skin”)
white skin”)

12. Chapter 9
• Ekwefi awakes Okonkwo very early in the morning (believes
Ezinma - the “center of her world” - is dying).
• Ekwefi is very lenient with Ezinma (Ezinma calls her by her first
name; relationship approaches equality) because Ekwefi had 9
miscarriages
• Okonkwo knows it is just fever; collects medicine
• Ekwefi’s previous births had symbolic names -
“Onwumbiko/Death, I implore you” and “Ozoemena/May it not
happen again”
• Medicine man warned an ogbanje (“wicked” child who
continually re-enters its mother’s womb only to die again and
again)
• So he mutilated the dead body of Ekwefi’s third child to
discourage ogbanje’s return
• Ezinma suffered many illnesses after birth, but recovered
• When Ezinma was 9, a medicine man found her iyi-uwa (small,
buried pebble - ogbanje’s physical link to the spirit world)
• Ezinma every illness still brings terror and anxiety to Ekwefi

13. Chapter 10
• Village holds a ceremonial gathering (a court)
• Clan’s ancestral spirits – egwugwu - emerge (come out)
from a secret house (no woman allowed inside)
• Egwugwu - masked men, including Okonkwo
• Women and children are afraid even though they
understand men are playing the role of the spirits
• First dispute - Uzowulu says his wife’s 3 brothers beat him
and took her and the children, refused to return bride-price.
Mgbafo’s brothers say the husband beats their sister
mercilessly (caused her to miscarry once). Brothers threaten
Uzowulu - will cut his genitals off if he ever beats her again
• Egwugwu decide Uzowulu must beg for Mgbafo to return
• One village elder complains that such a trifling
(unimportant, insignificant) matter should not be brought to
egwugwu

14. Chapter 11
• Ekwefi’s story: greedy, cunning tortoise and the birds invited to a
feast in the sky (Tortoise persuades them to take new names for
the feast according to custom; his name will be “All of you”)
• Chielo, in her role as priestess, informs Ekwefi that Agbala wishes
to see Ezinma
• Frightened, Okonkwo and Ekwefi try to persuade Chielo to wait
until morning
• Chielo angrily takes Ezinma on her back and forbids anyone to
follow
• Ekwefi overcomes fear of divine punishment – follows Chielo,
making rounds of the 9 villages
• Ekwefi determined to save Ezinma at cave if needed—even
against a god
• Okonkwo startles her when he arrives at the cave with a
machete
• They sit together; she recalls running away from her first husband

15. Chapter 12
• At dawn, Chielo exits cave shrine with Ezinma on her back
• She silently takes Ezinma to Ekwefi’s hut and puts her to
bed
• Okonkwo had been worried about Ezinma, but did not
show it – he had made four trips to and from the cave. By
the last trip, he was “gravely worried”
• Okonkwo’s family begins to prepare for Obierika’s
daughter’s uri (wedding ceremony)
• Villagers contribute food; Obierika buys huge goat to
present to future in-laws
• Brief interruption – women must retrieve escaped cow;
cow’s owner pays a fine
• Fiancé's family arrive – generously giving fifty pots of wine
• The feast is a success.

16. Chapter 13
• Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s death is announced using ekwe (musical
instrument), making Okonkwo shudder
• Their last visit had been the warning not to take part in
Ikemefuna’s death
• Ezeudu had been great warrior (3 of 4 titles); his funeral is large
and elaborate
• There are beating drums and firing of guns
• Okonkwo accidentally kills Ezeudu’s 16-yr-old son
• Killing a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess;
Okonkwo must take his family into exile for 7 years
• They go to Okonkwo’s mother’s village, Mbanta
• According to tradition, the men burn Okonkwo’s buildings and
kill his animals to cleanse the village
• Obierika asks why a man should suffer greatly for an accidental
killing; also mourns the deaths of his twins, whom his wife was
forced to throw away (wonders what crime they committed)