Chapter Eight Summary

After Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo did not eat for two days. He drowned his sorrow in palm wine and was unable to sleep. On the third day, his daughter Ezinma brought him food and as she sat with her father, Okonkwo wished that she had been a boy.

Okonkwo was struggling with his grief and guilt more so because it was the season of rest between harvest and planting and he had nothing to do. He derided himself for being a weak person and decided to visit his friend Obierika, who was the father of the wrestling hero Maduka. He complained to Obierika of Nwoye’s frailty and his desire that Ezinma should have been a boy. He wondered why Nwoye was like his grandfather Unoka but abolished the thought by casually bringing up Ikemefuna’s murder.

Obierika was against the killing and maintained his opinion. He also admonished Okonkwo for participating in the murder of Ikemefuna. As the two men talked, they were brought news of an old man passing away and his wife passing away, a few minutes after him. In Igbo culture, the wife was buried first and the man after, and hence, the drums had not been beaten to announce the death of an old man. Obierika questioned their clan’s ways and customs but was met with resistance from Okonkwo, who was blindly loyal to the clan authorities and oracles.

Okonkwo returned to his friend Obierika’s house to support him in his meeting with his prospective son-in-law and family. After some polite bargaining, the bride price was set at twenty bags of cowries. Talking about customs of different villages, Obierika mentioned white men, where women lead the family. This was considered silly and impossible by Okonkwo and the other men. They asked if any of them had ever seen a white man but none of them claimed to have done so.

Chapter Eight Analysis

This chapter records Okonkwo’s silent grief at the death of Ikemefuna. As a man, he cannot express his grief for fear of being considered weak.

Igbo traditions become more apparent in the bargain over the bride price for Obierika’s daughter. While Okonkwo is traditional and conservative, his friend is more open-minded. He chides Okonkwo for participating in the murder of a young boy who treated him as his father but this seems to have little effect on Okonkwo.

The men discuss customs of the villages around and this is the first time in the novel that white men are introduced. The rumors about them are that they have no toes and in their culture, the family and children belong to the women. The tribesmen laugh over this, with no clue about the impending fate of their villages at the hands of these white men.