CHAPTER TWELVE
On the following morning the entire neighbourhood wore a festive air because
Okonkwo's friend, Obierika, was celebrating his daughter's uri. It was the day on which
her suitor (having already paid the greater part of her bride-price) would bring palmwine not only to her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide and extensive
group of kinsmen called umunna. Everybody had been invited--men, women and
children. But it was really a woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride
and her mother.
As soon as day broke, breakfast was hastily eaten and women and children
began to gather at Obierika's compound to help the bride's mother in her difficult but
happy task of cooking for a whole village.
Okonkwo's family was astir like any other family in the neighbourhood.
Nwoye's mother and Okonkwo's youngest wife were ready to set out for Obierika's
compound with all their children. Nwoye's mother carried a basket of coco-yams, a cake
of salt and smoked fish which she would present to Obierika's wife. Okonkwo's
youngest wife, Ojiugo, also had a basket of plantains and coco-yams and a small pot of
palm-oil. Their children carried pots of water.
Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous
night. It was not very long since they had returned. The priestess, with Ezinma sleeping
on her back, had crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake. She had not as
much as looked at Okonkwo and Ekwefi or shown any surprise at finding them at the
mouth of the cave. She looked straight ahead of her and walked back to the village.
Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance. They thought the priestess
might be going to her house, but she went to Okonkwo's compound, passed through his
obi and into Ekwefi's hut and walked into her bedroom. She placed Ezinma carefully on
the bed and went away without saying a word to anybody.