Agbala do-o-o-o!

One day, Ezinma, the daughter of Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s third wife, gets very sick. Apparently, according to the Igbo culture and the ‘doctor’ of the clan Ezinma was one of Ekwefi’s previous, now dead babies that came back to her to basically haunt her; she was a bad spirit. Later, once Ezinma is well, she is taken by Chielo, the Agbala’s, or God, priestess claiming that Agbala wanted to talk to Ezinma. The way the narrator explains the course of events helps us sense the tension in the atmosphere while the whole commotion is going on. Ekwefi is so nervous that, breaking the rules, she follows the priestess all the way through the villages to her Agbala’s cavein the hills. Shortly, we find out that Okonkwo, even though he never presented any affection towards Ezinma, always saying how he wished that she had been born a boy, also followed Chielo to the cave and was pretty shaken up too. Both of these events might foreshadow upcoming incidents. I predict that Ezinma might be some sort of special spirit or semi-goddess that might somewhat ‘save’ the entire Igbo population when the Europeans, or the white men, come to Umofia to try to conquer and colonize.