Things Fall Apart Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 9 Summary

Chapter 9 Summary

That night, for the first time in three nights, Okonkwo sleeps. He is woken in the morning, however, by his wife Ekwefi who tells him that Ezinma is dying. Running to her hut, he finds Ezinma lying on a mat beside the fire. Declaring her illness to be iba, he goes into the bushes to collect leaves, grass, and tree bark for medicine. Ezinma is the center of Ekwefi's world. She even gives her eggs - a delicacy seldom given to children because, ostensibly, it tempts them to steal -- in spite of Okonkwo's rebukes.

In her lifetime, Ekwefi had given birth to ten children, nine of which died during infancy, most often before the age of three. After the death of her second child, Okonkwo consulted a medicine-man who told him that the child was an ogbanje, a wicked child that upon death entered its mother's womb to be...
(read more)