The court messengers did not like to be called Ashy-Buttocks, and they beat the
men. But the song spread in Umuofia.
Okonkwo's head was bowed in sadness as Obierika told him these things.
"Perhaps I have been away too long," Okonkwo said, almost to himself. "But I
cannot understand these things you tell me. What is it that has happened to our people?
Why have they lost the power to fight?"
"Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?" asked Obierika.
"I have heard," said Okonkwo. "But I have also heard that Abame people were
weak and foolish. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes? We
would be cowards lo compare ourselves with the men of Abame. Their fathers had
never dared to stand before our ancestors. We must fight these men and drive them from
the land."
"It is already too late," said Obierika sadly. "Our own men and our sons have
joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold
his government. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find
it easy. There are only two of them. But what of our own people who are following their
way and have been given power? They would go to Umuru and bring the soldiers, and
we would be like Abame." He paused for a long time and then said: "I told you on my
last visit to Mbanta how they hanged Aneto."
"What has happened to that piece of land in dispute?" asked Okonkwo.
"The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family,
who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter."
"Does the white man understand our custom about land?"
"How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our
customs are bad, and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our
customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned