1. Things Fall Apart
Chapters 7-8

2. Chapter 7
Having lived with Okonkwo’s family for three years, it appears that the village elders have forgotten about Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo believes that his own son, Nwoye, is changing because of Ikemefuna’s influence. Pleased, Okonkwo encourages the boys to sit with him while he tells stories of the land.

3. Chapter 7
Suddenly the locusts come, eating all the wild grass in the fields. When suddenly the locusts descend on the village; the villagers are anxious to collect them because they are good to eat.
The next day Ogbuefi Ezeudu visits Okonkwo telling him the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must die. A group of men from the nine villages come to take Ikemefuna. Okonkwo tells the boy that he is being taken home.
On the journey from the village Ikemefuna is stricken down by the tribesmen. The boy cries out to Okonkwo. Afraid to be seen as weak, Okonkwo finishes the deed.

4. Chapter 8
Okonkwo is depressed. He feels sick and cannot eat or sleep. Three days later, Ezinma brings Okonkwo his evening meal and tells him that he must eat it all. Silently, Okonkwo wishes that Ezinma were a boy as he admires her spirit.
Feeling better, Okonkwo visits his friend Obierika and congratulates Maduka on his victory at the wrestling match. Obierika asks Okonkwo to stay while his daughter’s suitor arrives, and Obierika bargains with the suitor’s family.
Have you ever heard of a dowry? – It was property or money brought by the bride to her husband on their marriage.

5. Chapter 8
After they leave, the two men discuss many things including whether or not it is right that Okonkwo should have had a hand in Ikemefuna’s death.
Ofoeboe announces that the oldest man in the village has died, but no drum sounded the announcement. Ogbuefi Ndule’s first wife goes back to her dwelling after hearing of her husband’s death and dies.

6. Chapter 8
Okonkwo returns home briefly to tap his palm tree. When he returns, Okonkwo finds seven men in Obierika’s hut: the suitor, his father and his uncles, as well as Obierika’s two older brothers and his own son Maduka.
In many small villages, making palm wine was a way of making ends meet. It was a common trade and could be equated with a good social standing in the community

7. Chapter 8
In the end it is agreed that Obierika’s daughter Akuke’s bride-price should be twenty bags of cowries.
Cowrie shells were once the most popular currency in Africa. They were often used in foreign transactions.

8. Chapter 8
Following the negotiations Obierika and his future in-laws discuss many things, including the stories of seeing men with skin as white as a piece of chalk.
Machi tells Obierika that such a man passes through the village and that his name is Amadi, the leper.
In Pre-colonial Nigeria, missionaries were used to expand into new regions. For many Nigerians, missionaries were the first Europeans with whom they came into contact.