CHAPTER ONE (THINGS FALL APART)

Okonkwo was a famous and respected man in the Nine Villages. He had gained fame by defeating the unbeatable wrestler, Amelins the Cat. Okonkwo was strong and feared by many due to his size and severe appearance. He had a stammer and was quick to anger, often resorting to violence. In contrast, his father, Yunoka, was lazy and irresponsible. He was in debt to many neighbors and was known for his love of music and festivities. Yunoka was poor and laughed at by others. One day, Okoye, a neighbor, visited Yunoka to ask for the return of the two hundred cowries he had borrowed. Yunoka laughed and showed Okoye the lines of chalk on his wall, representing his debts. Despite his debts, Yunoka did not prioritize paying them back. When Yunoka died, he had not achieved any titles and was heavily in debt. However, his son, Akonkwo, had achieved was well known throughout the Nine Villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen, he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amelins the Cat. Amelins was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten. From Umofia to Mbeno, he was called the Cat, because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest, since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights. The drums beat and the flutes sang, and the spectators held their breath. Amelins was a wily craftsman, but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms, on their backs, and their thighs, and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. In the end Okonkwo threw the Cat. That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush fire in the Harmadan. He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground, and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody, and he did pounce on people quite often. He 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 had no patience with his father. Yunoka, for that was his father's name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. If any money came his way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of palm wine, called round his neighbors, and made merry. He always said that, whenever he saw a dead man's mouth, he saw the folly of not eating what one had in one's lifetime. Yunoka was, of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. He had a slight stoop. He wore a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing on his flute. He was very good on his flute, and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments, hung above the fireplace. Yunoka would play with them, his face beaming with blessedness and peace. Sometimes another village would ask Yunoka's band and their dancing igwugwu to come and stay with them and teach them their tunes. They would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets, making music and feasting. Yunoka loved the good hire and the good fellowship, and he loved the season of the year, when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty. And it was not too hot either, because the cold and dry Harmadan wind was blowing down from the north. Some years the Harmadan was very severe, and a dense haze hung on the atmosphere. Old men and children would then sit round log fires, warming their bodies. Yunoka loved it all, and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season, and the children who sang songs of welcome to them. He would remember his own childhood, how he had often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely against the blue sky. As soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being, welcoming it back from its long, long journey, and asking it if it had brought home any lengths of cloth. That was years ago, when he was young. Yunoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor, and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money, because he never paid back. But Yunoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more, and piling up his debts. One day a neighbor called Okoye came in to see him. He was reclining on a mud bed in his hut playing on the flute. He immediately rose and shook hands with Okoye, who then unrolled the goatskin which he carried under his arm, and sat down. Yunoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a kola nut, some alligator pepper, and a lump of white chalk. I have kola, he announced when he sat down, and passed the disc over to his guest. Thank you. He who brings kola brings life, but I think you ought to break it, replied Okoye, passing back the disc. No, it is for you, I think, and they argued like this for a few moments before Yunoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. Okoye, meanwhile, took the lump of chalk, drew some lines on the floor, and then painted his big toe. As he broke the kola, Yunoka prayed to their ancestors for life and health, and for protection against their enemies. When they had eaten they talked about many things, about the heavy rains which were drowning the yams, about the next ancestral feast and about the impending war with the village of Mbeno. Yunoka was never happy when it came to wars, he was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood, and so he changed the subject and talked about music, and his face beamed. He could hear in his mind's ear the blood stirring and intricate rhythms of the ek, and the yudu, and the ajin, and he could hear his own flute weaving in and out of them, decorating them with a colorful and plaintive tune. The total effect was gay and brisk, but if one picked out the flute as it went up and down and then broke up into short snatches, one saw that there was sorrow and grief there. Okoye was also a musician, he played on the ajin, but he was not a failure like Yunoka. He had a large barn full of yams, and he had three wives, and now he was going to take the idemli title, the third highest in the land. It was a very expensive ceremony, and he was gathering all his resources together, that was in fact the reason why he had come to see Yunoka. He cleared his throat and began, thank you for the cola, you may have heard of the title one intend to take shortly. Having spoken plainly so far, Okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs. Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten. Okoye was a great talker, and he spoke for a long time, skirting round the subject and then hitting it finally. In short, he was asking Yunoka to return the two hundred cowries he had borrowed from him more than two years before. As soon as Yunoka understood what his friend was driving at, he burst out laughing. He laughed loud and long, and his voice rang out clear as the ajin, and tears. He stood in his eyes. His visitor was amazed, and sat speechless. At the end, Yunoka was able to give an answer between fresh outbursts of mirth. Look at that wall, he said, pointing at the far wall of his hut, which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone. Look at those lines of chalk, and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk. There were five groups, and the smallest group had ten lines. Yunoka had a sense of the dramatic, and so he allowed a pause, in which he took a pinch of snuff, and sneezed noisily. And then he continued, Each group there represents a debt to someone, and each stroke is one hundred cowries. You see, I owe that man a thousand cowries, but he has not come to wake me up in the morning for it. I shall pay you, but not today. Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. I shall pay my big debts first. And he took another pinch of snuff, as if that was paying the big debts first. Okoye rolled his goatskin, and departed. When Yunoka died he had taken no title at all, and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Akonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth, and not according to the worth of his father. Akonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young, but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer, and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles, and had shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars. And so although Akonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time. 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. Akonkwo had clearly washed his hands, and so he ate with kings and elders. And that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Yumofia by their neighbors to avoid war and bloodshed. The ill-fated lad was called Aikamafuna.