Suggested answers for Ch.8-11
2) Nwoye did not resemble Okonkwo. “A bowl of pounded yams can throw him in a wrestling match.” (p.57)
3) “If I were you I would have stayed at home. What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families.” (p.58)
4) It means that a mother will never hurt her child. Likewise, Okonkwo believes the Earth goddess will not punish him for obeying her.
5) Okonkwo feels that the simultaneous deaths of Ogbuefi Ndulue and Ozoemena are very strange. He cannot believe that Ndulue and his wife had “one mind.” He thought Ndulue was a strong man. This reaction reveals that Okonkwo does not understand the nature, function, and power of the feminine principle in Igbo cosmology. (SORRY I KNOW WE DIDNT COVER THIS ONE IN CLASS)
8) The two men laughed about the white man and joked that a leper was also called “the white skin” in their language.
9) “Ezinma was an only child and the centre of her mother’s world.” (p.67)
She got to decide the food her mother should prepare.
Ekwefi always gave Ezinma eggs, which were considered delicacies that “children were rarely allowed to eat.” It was said to be delicious and would “tempt them to steal.”
They were not only like mother and child but “like the companionship of equals.”
11) Ogbanje is said to be an evil child who dies and returns to his/her mother’s womb to be reborn, but only to die again to torment the mother. Iyi-uwa is a sacred stone that links the ogbanje child with the spirit world. Once it is broken, the child will become normal and survive.
12) Okonkwo followed the ritual of digging up the iyi-uwa closely to ensure his child would no longer be an ogbanje. Later, when Ezinma fell ill again, he handpicked the medicine for his daughter and oversaw Ekwefi taking care of Ezinma.
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Chapter 11:
1) It could be seen that the Tortoise used language to deceive the birds. The story is commonly seen as an allegory to colonialism. Tortoise is like a colonial power, and the birds are like colonized people. Tortoise uses language to deceive the birds, while parrot uses language to deceive Tortoise. The conflict is resolved when Tortoise falls upon his own weapons, perhaps indicating both language and arms are necessary for oppressed people to resist domination.
2) She warned Okonkwo not to interject her: “Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!”
3) Ezinma cried because Chielo’s voice was different, and everything seemed strange.
4) Ekwefi needed human companionship and sympathy. However, Chielo was possessed; she was a different woman than she was in the marketplace.
5) It would take a miracle for a woman like Chielo to carry a child the size of Ezinma for such a long distance. On this night Chielo was not an ordinary woman; she was a priestess possessed by the spirit of Agbala.
6) Ekwefi’s night long-work revealed her love and dedication to her daughter. It also revealed that she was willing to risk disturbing the goddess. Okonkwo was equally devoted to his daughter Ezinma. Even though he did not challenge the Oracle openly, he supported his wife and daughter spiritually.
7) He cared for both his wife and daughter in action, standing beside Ekwefi for the entire night to wait for Chielo to carry Ezinma out of the cave. In the beginning of Ch.12, it was revealed that Okonkwo was very anxious despite not showing it. He made four trips from his compound to the shrine and became “gravely worried” when he finally found Ekwefi. (p.99)
Suggested answers for Ch.12-13
1. The uri is part of a betrothal ceremony. This marks the payment of the bride-price.
3. “A heavy fine” was “imposed on anyone whose cow was let loose on his neighbours’ crops”.
4. The role of wife and mother is extremely important for women in Igbo society. The nine sons represent the nine villages of Umuofia and the nine founding fathers of the clan.
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1. It is a foreshadowing of another tragic accident that will affect Okonkwo gravely.
3. Okonkwo accidentally killed Ezeudu’s son when his gun went off by mistake as the men were clashing their machetes.
4. He committed the crime of killing a clansman, which was a crime against the earth goddess. His crime was female ochu (manslaughter) because it was inadvertent. He was banished from Umuofia for seven years.
5. He stormed Okonkwo’s compound along with a few other clansmen to restore justice to the earth goddess. However, he mourned for his friend’s calamity and wondered why a man should suffer so grievously for an offence he has committed inadvertently.
Answers for Chapter 14-16
1. It takes place in Mbanta, the home of Okonkwo’s mother.
2. His kinsmen gave him land, helped him to build a new compound and gave him sufficient seed yams to start a new farm.
3. “It was like beginning life anew without the vigour and enthusiasm of youth…Work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have.”
4. He no longer agreed with the statement and blamed his chi, believing that his chi was not “made for great things”, and “a man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” (p.115)
5. He asked if Okonkwo knew the meaning of “Nneke”. According to Uchendu, Okonkwo’s duty is to comfort his wives and children and return them to his fatherland after seven years. Uchendu said if Okonkwo allowed sorrow to weigh him down and kill him, his family would die in exile. Okonkwo must accept his cousins as his kinsmen.
6. It is because a mother’s nurturing love is respected in Ibo culture.
7. It implies that it is not easy for anyone to lose his or her mother.
8. Uchendu is Okonkwo's uncle on his mother's side and acts as a father and guiding figure to Okonkwo. He helps Okonkwo adjust to life in Mbanta. In contrast to Okonkwo, Uchendu recognises the importance of the feminine principle in Ibo culture.
Chapter 15
1. The younger generation does not travel to distant clans. They are so afraid of their neighbours, they do not even visit their mothers’ homes.
2. The clan of Abame was wiped out. The Ibos killed a white man who appeared in the clan. They tied his “iron horse” (bicycle) to a sacred tree. Later, on the market day when the whole clan was gathered together, the men surrounded the market and killed almost everyone in the clan.
4. Obierika jokingly told Okonkwo to kill himself.
Obierika introduced an element of dark humour in response, which gave both men something to laugh about in an otherwise difficult time. However, the joke Obierika made about Okonkwo killing himself foreshadowed Okonkwo’s tragic end. This moment of levity bore great symbolic weight.
5. This chapter illustrates Obierika’s loyal friendship. Not only did Obierika act as a steward of Okonkwo’s fortune in yams, he also acted as a link between Okonkwo’s clan and Mbanta.
Chapter 16
1. Christianity was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of Umuofia, but many believe the new faith would not last.
2. She meant that they were the outcasts and the lowest members of the clan.
3. Nwoye became captivated by the new religion and eventually became a convert. He told Obierika that “he is not my father.”
5. It captivated him and seemed to “answer a vague and persistent question” towards his confusion and doubts towards the Ibo callous religious practices.
Chapter 17-19 ans
1. The missionaries asked for the king of the village, but there was no king.
2. Every clan and village has an Evil Forest where they bury those who die of diseases like leprosy and smallpox. The Evil Forest is a dumping ground for the potent fetishes of great medicine men when they die.
3. The inhabitants of Mbanta expected that the missionaries would be dead within four days in the Evil Forest, which was filled with sinister forces. However, the missionaries lived on, and the Ibos felt that “the white man’s fetish had unbelievable power.” (p.131)
4. She gave birth to four sets of twins, who were all abandoned in the Evil Forest. She was pregnant again and wanted to avoid the same ill fate befall upon her children.
5. It was as if the Forest was “waiting to snap its teeth together” (p.132).
6. Nwoye did not fully understand the teachings. However, he and the other converts were attracted to Christianity because the missionaries provide support and acceptance to the social outcasts.
7. Nwoye abandoned the gods of his ancestors and acted like an effeminate old man.
8. Okonkwo realized that his fiery temper left behind coldness and powerlessness in others, as it has in his son.
1. A worthless man in Ibo society.
2. The villagers felt that if a gang of efulefu decided to live in the Evil Forest, it was their own affair. The Evil Forest was filled with sinister forces; therefore, it was a good home for the marginal people.
3. Even though Christian converts were considered worthless, they still belonged to the clan.
5. Nobody thought such a blasphemy could be committed intentionally.
6. He was disgusted that the Mbanta elders decided not to take violent action against the Christians.
1. Okonkwo regretted his exile even though he prospered in his motherland because he believed he would have prospered even more in Umuofia. He did not learn the values of the feminine principle and continued not to balance his masculine and feminine energies even after his exile.
2. Although Okonkwo showed reverence to his kinsmen by naming his daughter Nneka (“Mother is supreme”) in honour of the feminine principle, he still feels like his mother’s home is a wilderness for him, naming his son Nwofia (“Begotten in the Wilderness”).
3. It means Okonkwo cannot repay his kinsmen for sustaining his life.
4. The young people did not know the value of kinship or how to speak with one voice. The clan was being divided by Christianity.
Chapter 20-22 answers
Ch.20
3. The city of Umuru is located on the Niger River. White men arrived there many years ago and built their center of religion, trade and government. The kotma (court messenger) came from Umuru.
4. “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (p.156)
Ch.21
2. The initiation ceremony for the ozo society was only performed every three years, and he could not make a stir by sending his two sons into it until the next round, which would be two years later.
3. It is a nonevent to the rest of the villagers.
Ch.22
2. It is to unmask an egwugwu in public or do anything that might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated.