For students to catch up.

1. Study Guide:
Okonkwo in Exile
Chapters 14-19
TEACHER

2.  Uchendu (uncle of Okonkwo) and kinsmen give a
warm reception - building a compound and lending
yam seeds.
 Farming season arrives. Okonkwo works hard, but
with less enthusiasm. He has toiled all his life, but
now his dream “to become one of the lords of the
clan” is not possible.
 Uchendu perceives Okonkwo’s disappointment; he
waits to speak until after his son’s wedding.
 Next day, Uchendu gathers entire family. Speaks
about most common names - Nneka, meaning
“Mother is Supreme.”
 “A man belongs to his fatherland and stays there
when life is good, but he seeks refuge in his
motherland when life is bitter and harsh.”
 Uchendu advises Okonkwo to receive the comfort of
the motherland gratefully.
 Uchendu lost all but one of his six wives and buried
twenty-two children. Even so, he says, “I did not
hang myself, and I am still alive.”

3.  Year 2 of exile: Obierika brings bags of cowries to
Okonkwo.
 Bad news: the village Abame has been destroyed
after a white man on an “iron horse” (bicycle).
 Oracle prophesied that he would be followed by
others, who would bring destruction to Abame, so
they killed him, tied his bicycle to their sacred tree.
 Weeks later, Abame’s market surrounded; almost
everybody died.
 Uchendu asks Obierika what the first white man said
to the villagers. Obierika: he said things that the
villagers did not understand.
 Uchendu declares that Abame was foolish to kill a
man who said nothing.
 Okonkwo agrees that villagers were fools, but he
believes they should have armed themselves.
 Obierika will continue to bring Okonkwo the money
from his yams until Okonkwo returns to Iguedo.

4.  3 years after Okonkwo’s exile: Obierika returns to
Mbanta. He has seen Nwoye with Christian
missionaries. Most converts are efulefu, men who
hold no status (titles).
 Nwoye’s mother tells Obierika of Nwoye’s
conversion: six missionaries, headed by a white man,
traveled to Mbanta, speaking through an interpreter.
 Interpreter’s dialect is different. He says “my
buttocks” when he means “myself.” He tells the
villagers that they are all brothers and sons of God.
 Missionaries try to persuade villagers to accept the
one true God. Villagers laugh at many beliefs.
 Missionaries use evangelical song. Okonkwo thinks
they must be insane. Nwoye is instantly captivated.
 The “poetry of the new religion” seems to answer his
questions about the deaths of Ikemefuna and the
twin newborns, soothing him “like the drops of
frozen rain melting on the dry palate.”

5.  The missionaries request a piece of land to build a
church. They’re given a plot in the Evil Forest.
 To elders’ amazement, missionaries rejoice in the
offer. Later, they are surprised when nothing bad
happens to missionaries; church soon wins 3 converts.
 The villagers point out that sometimes their ancestral
spirits will allow grace period of 28 days; astounded
when nothing happens after 28 days, church wins
more converts.
 One is a pregnant woman, Nneka. Husband & his
family are not sorry to see her go; she had 4 previous
sets of twins.
 Okonkwo’s cousin notices Nwoye among the
Christians. When Nwoye returns, Okonkwo chokes him
by the neck. Uchendu orders him to let go.
 Nwoye leaves his father’s compound, travels to school
in Umuofia to learn reading and writing. Okonkwo
wonders how he could ever have fathered such an
effeminate, weak son.

6.  Church wins many converts from the efulefu (titleless,
worthless men). Then osu (outcasts) come to church
and other converts do not want them there.
 Mr. Kiaga firmly argues that they will not die if they cut
their hair or break any of the other taboos.
 His steadfast conviction persuades most of the other
converts not to reject their new faith.
 Osu soon become most zealous members of the
church.
 One boasts that he killed the sacred royal python.
 Okonkwo urges Mbanta to drive the Christians out
with violence, but rulers & elders decide to ostracize
them instead. Okonkwo: this is a “womanly” clan.
 Later, elders learn - man who boasted of killing the
snake has died of an illness. Villagers’ trust in gods is
reaffirmed. They cease to ostracize the converts.

7.  Okonkwo’s 7 years of exile in Mbanta are
drawing to an end.
 He provides a large feast for his kinsmen.
 He is grateful for their 7 years of hospitality, but
more than this, he regrets missing out on the
chance to increase his status in Umuofia.
 He disagrees with the choices of Mbanta’s un-
masculine people.
 At the feast, one man is surprised by Okonkwo’s
generosity. Another praises Okonkwo’s
adherence to the bond of kinship.
 There is concern for the younger generation;
Christianity is winning more followers.
 What will become of their families and
traditions?