Detailed Summary:Things Fall Apart Summary & critical analysis chapteers sixteen to nineteen, Part Six(VI)
Things Fall Apart Chapter Fifteen:
In the second year of Okonkwo's exile his friend Obierika came to visit him with two men. During conversation Okonkwo's uncle said that he knew every clan but Obierika interrupted and informed him that Abame, the clan, has been wiped out. They wanted to listen why. He told that a white man had got into that town. The people consulted Oracle and it announced that he had brought destruction with him, "so they killed the white man". He reported that the white men came searching for their man. "The three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market. They must have used a powerful medicine to make themselves invisible until the market was full. And they began to shoot. Everybody was killed, except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of men and women whose chi were wide awake and brought them out of that market."
Uchendu, the uncle of Okonkwo, said that the people of Abame were fools that killed a stranger that did them no harm. They should have not killed him. Then Obierika shared his fear: "We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true." Okonkwo refused to believe the story. He then gave Okonkwo some money which he had obtained by selling yams of Okonkwo.
Things Fall Apart Chapter Sixteen:
Obierika visited his friend after two years. Now the circumstances had utterly changed. The missionaries had stronghold. They had established churches and people were being converted to Christianity. What brought Obierika to his friend was the fact that he met his son, Nwoye, with the missionaries. The white man was accompanied by some blacks that interpreted on his behalf. He asked the people to change their course of life and abandon the false gods and goddesses they have: ""All the gods you have named are not gods at all. They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children. There is only one true God and He has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us." Okonkwo's first son, Nwoye, had been captivated by the charm of the new religion which was primarily due to his feeling for Ikemefuna's loss.
Things Fall Apart Chapter Seventeen:
The white men began to preserve in the village and when they sought land for building church, they were shown the Evil Forest where the village believed evil spirits ruled. The white men build their shrine at that spot and nothing happened to them against expectations. This spread their terror in the village. Nwoye once passed by the church and heard the hymn which inspired him. The people of the village believed that within seven market weeks the missionaries would be dead by their gods' wrath. Nothing happened and the missionaries kept on prospering with new converts.
Nwoye was sighted with the missionaries by his cousin that reported it to his father. When Okonkwo was almost beating him, Uchendu interfered and set Nwoye free. He ran away to the missionaries and asked them to send him to Umuofia where children studied. Okonkwo thought for his son as if he were falsely begotten son by his wife. But his son, Nwoye, resembled his father, so he could not say anything. He could merely pity himself.
Things Fall Apart Chapter Eighteen:
The villagers were happy that they had kept the missionaries within the bounds of Evil Forest. But the missionaries kept on creeping into the village. They sent their converts back into the village to pronounce that their gods and goddesses were fake or dead. But it was being observed with dread that "the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government. It was said that they had built a place of judgment in Umuofia to protect the followers of their religion. It was even said that they had hanged one man who killed a missionary".
Then the people of the village sent an outcast, a person denied social life in African clans that used to live only to serve the shrines of gods. The converts refused to accept the outcast among them. A convert left but the teacher Mr. Kiaga stood firmly that no outcast can be driven out of the church. This engulfed the church with outcasts. An outcast killed a priest of the god of water. This led to a clash with the clan. The elders of the village thought of fighting at first but later it was agreed that if a man blasphemes with the god then it is his power to punish and not their role to meddle.
Okonkwo did not agree and forced his opinion that they should act. The villagers decided to boycott the Christians and stop them forcibly from mixing with the clan. They also stopped them from getting water from the stream and lashed the women that tried despite warnings.
Things Fall Apart Chapter Nineteen:
Seven years were about to complete in Okonkwo's exile. He sent some money to Obierika to build his cottage before he reached. He wanted to go earlier but he had to wait before the full seven years had been completed. Before leaving he decided to give a grand feast to his kinsmen in this village.
