CHAPTER TEN
Large crowds began to gather on the village ilo as soon as the edge had worn off the
sun's heat and it was no longer painful on the body. Most communal ceremonies took
place at that time of the day, so that even when it was said that a ceremony would begin
"after the midday meal" everyone understood that it would begin a long time later, when
the sun's heat had softened.
It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men.
There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders. The titled
men and elders sat on their stools waiting for the trials to begin. In front of them was a
row of stools on which nobody sat. There were nine of them. Two little groups of
people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools. They faced the elders. There
were three men in one group and three men and one woman in the other. The woman
was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. In the other group were her
husband, Uzowulu, and his relatives. Mgbafo and her brothers were as still as statues
into whose faces the artist has moulded defiance. Uzowulu and his relative, on the other
hand, were whispering together. It looked like whispering, but they were really talking
at the top of their voices. Everybody in the crowd was talking. It was like the market.
From a distance the noise was a deep rumble carried by the wind.
An iron gong sounded, setting up a wave of expectation in the crowd. Everyone
looked in the direction of the egwugwu house. Gome, gome, gome, gome went the
gong, and a powerful flute blew a high-pitched blast. Then came the voices of the
egwugwu, guttural and awesome. The wave struck the women and children and there
was a backward stampede. But it was momentary. They were already far enough where
they stood and there was room for running away if any of them should go towards them.
The drum sounded again and the flute blew. The house was now a pandemonium
of quavering voices: Am oyim de de de de! filled the air as the spirits of the ancestors,
just emerged from the earth, greeted themselves in their esoteric language. The
egwugwu house into which they emerged faced the forest, away from the crowd, who