Chapter 20-25 Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo has many plans now that he is coming home and he wishes to have a great return. He wants to rebuild his compound, have more wives and introduce their sons in the ozo society. Umofia was very changed after 7 years and his clan’s men are very changed too, they were not the strong men clan that Okonkwo remembered and the white men had gained a lot of power and a lot of people are now converts.

Everything is not that bad in Umofia because they have brought many good things to the village.

Okonkwo nearly killed Nwoye when he saw him, he was really involved by now but he decided to forget about him and move on. Mr. Brown left Umofia because of health problems after building a hospital and a school. Okonkwo’s return attracts many people because of his beautiful daughters, but no one was really attracted because he was back. He couldn’t introduce his sons in the ozo society because that happens each 3 years and he had to wait for 2 more. Okonkwo really regrets that he was out of his clan for such a long time.

Mr. Brown is replaced by Reverend Smith. They are very different and things changed a lot after that.

The biggest crime that can be committed in Umofia is to unmask an  “egwugwu” and Enoch, a convert, did it. The next day the egwugwu went to Enoch’s compound and burnt it and later they went to Reverend Smith’s church because they wanted to burn it, but he tells them to calm down and that we would resolve this problem, but they didn’t hear him and they burnt the church.   

Everyone was armed after the burn of the church because they didn’t want the white men to take them by surprise. Okonkwo was happy again with his clan because they were about to fight against the white men. The District Commissioner asked the leaders to meet him. He told them that they would be prisoners until they pay him 2 hundred bags of cowries as a fin for burning the church. They were in prison, were they were treated horrible, until the clan paid for their release.

Everyone would meet the other day to discuss what was happening. Okonkwo was really excited because they would finally have a war against the white men.

The next day everyone was gathered in the town and they began to talk about what was going on with the white men but they were interrupted by the messengers who were asking them to stop the meeting. Okonkwo couldn’t stand it and he killed one of the messengers. The others left and everyone couldn’t believe what was happening. Okonkwo threw his machete and ran away. He hanged himself.

When the district commissioner arrived to Okonkwo’s compound, he asked where Okonkwo was and Oberika told him that he was not there but that maybe his men could help to bring down Okonkwo from the tree because the clan’s people couldn’t do that because he committed suicide and that was a great crime in Umofia.

The district commissioner finally brought Okonkwo’s body down and thought that these would be something interesting for his book, which he would name “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Nigeria”.

 Achebe, C. (1994) Things Fall Apart . New York: Anchor Books , p.