Okonkwo, famed for defeating the undefeated wrestler Amalinze, emerges as a powerful, wealthy farmer with multiple titles and barns of yams, contrasted with his lazy, indebted father Unoka. Unoka’s final encounter with neighbor Okoye reveals his perpetual debt and eventual death without title. The chapter ends with Okonkwo’s elevated status and his assignment to care for the sacrificial boy Ikemefuna.
Umuofia summons all men for a council; Ogbuefi Ezeugo announces that Mbaino killed a Umuofia woman, prompting an ultimatum for war or compensation. Okonkwo is sent as emissary to Mbaino, returns with a fifteen‑year‑old boy, Ikemefuna, and a virgin. The clan decides the virgin will marry Ogbuefi Udo, while Ikemefuna is placed under Okonkwo’s care for three years. Detailed description of Okonkwo’s compound, his strict, fear‑driven rule, his relationship with his three wives and eight children, and his anxieties about resembling his lazy father. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s twelve‑year‑old son, shows early signs of laziness, causing Okonkwo further concern.
Okonkwo’s humble origins are revealed: his father Unoka’s chronic debt, failure to inherit a barn, and death from a forbidden swelling. Okonkwo secures his first yam seed stock by performing a ritual offering to the wealthy man Nwakibie, who grants him eight hundred seed yams after a formal kola‑nut and palm‑wine ceremony. He endures an extremely poor agricultural year marked by a long drought followed by torrential rains that wash away the yam heaps, yet survives through relentless toil and prayer. The chapter ends with Okonkwo recalling his father’s dying counsel about never despairing, reinforcing his personal resolve.
Okonkwo insults a fellow at a kindred meeting and later apologises; Ikemefuna becomes ill, recovers, and forms a close bond with Nwoye; Okonkwo beats his wife Ojiugo during the Week of Peace and is chastised by priest Ezeani, who demands a sacrificial offering; elders recall ancient severe penalties for breaking the peace; Okonkwo prepares seed‑yams, harshly disciplines Nwoye and Ikemefuna, and oversees the planting season.
Chapter Five introduces the annual New Yam Festival in Umuofia. Okonkwo hosts the feast, reluctantly participates, beats his second wife Ekwefi for a minor offense, then nearly shoots her with a rusted gun. The festival’s rituals are described, including yam offerings, palm‑wine, and a large wrestling match that captivates Ekwefi. Ekwefi and her daughter Ezinma prepare food, interact with Nwoye’s mother, and attend the wrestling festivities. Ikemefuna, now living in Okonkwo’s household, helps fetch the gun and is present during the celebrations. The chapter ends with the village’s drums beating continuously as the wrestling contest approaches.
The village hosts a large wrestling festival; Maduka, son of Obierika, wins the preliminary bout; Ekwefi speaks with priestess Chielo during the intermission; the climax features Okafo defeating Ikezue in the final match, earning heroic acclaim.
Ikemefuna spends three years in Okonkwo’s house, becoming a brother to Nwoye and steering him toward masculine duties; the village experiences a rare locust swarm that provides abundant food; the Oracle orders Ikemefuna’s execution, Ezeudu warns Okonkwo not to partake, but Okonkwo ultimately kills Ikemefuna during the exile ceremony, and Nwoye, traumatized, becomes deeply alienated from his father.
Okonkwo mourns Ikemefuna, wrestles with weakness, visits Obierika, hears the odd death of Ogbuefi Ndulue and his wife, debates ozo customs, and participates in Akueke’s bride‑price negotiation using broom‑sticks, ending with men comparing neighboring customs and mentioning a leper called Amadi.
Okonkwo awakens to find his daughter‑in‑law Ezinma gravely ill with iba; Ekwefi’s tragic history of losing ten children to ogbanje is revealed, and the medicine man Okagbue Uyanwa locates and extracts Ezinma’s iyi‑uwa, breaking the ogbanje cycle and restoring her health, though she later falls ill again, prompting Okonkwo to prepare a potent medicinal brew.
The clan’s egwugwu council convenes to hear a bride‑price and domestic‑violence dispute between Uzowulu (Mgbafo’s husband) and Mgbafo’s brothers; the egwugwu leader Evil Forest rules that Uzowulu must bring wine to his in‑laws and reconcile, while Odukwe must allow his sister to return with him. The decision is followed by a brief discussion among elders and the start of a separate land‑case.
Ekwefi tells Ezinma a folk tale about Tortoise; later the priestess Chielo, Oracle of Agbala, summons Ezinma to the shrine; Ekwefi pursues Chielo through night‑long, fear‑filled terrain toward the hills and caves; Okonkwo tries to intervene, eventually confronts Ekwefi as dawn approaches.
Obierika’s daughter’s uri (wedding) ceremony unfolds with village-wide preparations, a massive feast, exchange of bride‑price, and Okonkwo’s participation in the rituals, including the presentation of snuff and two cocks to the guests.
Okonkwo learns of the death of the elder Ezeudu; the clan holds a massive, violent funeral with cannons, drums, and many egwugwu spirits. During the celebrations a mis‑fired gun owned by Okonkwo kills Ezeudu’s sixteen‑year‑old son, making Okonkwo responsible for the inadvertent killing of a clansman. As a result Okonkwo is condemned to female‑type crime and must flee for seven years. That night his compound is razed, his yams burned, and his property destroyed by members of Ezeudu’s quarter acting as the earth goddess’s messengers, though they bear no personal hatred. Obierika helps Okonkwo pack his belongings, carries yams to his barn, and later reflects on the harshness of the goddess’s justice and on his own past actions concerning his discarded twin children.
Okonkwo reaches his mother’s clan Mbanta, where Uchendu welcomes him, grants him land, and helps him build a new compound. Uchendu’s sons give seed‑yams and the first rains revive the farm, though Okonkwo finds the work exhausting and reflects on his exile. Uchendu later officiates Amikwu’s marriage ceremony, including a bride‑confirmation rite, and then summons Okonkwo for a lengthy lecture about the supremacy of the mother, burial customs, and the danger of succumbing to despair while in exile.
Obierika visits Okonkwo in exile, bringing two young men with bags of cowries and offering financial support; Uchendu recounts the recent annihilation of the Abame clan by a white man on an “iron horse” and the Oracle’s warning of more white men, foreshadowing future danger.
Missionaries have built a church in Umuofia and attracted a handful of low‑status converts; Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, abandons his father to join them. The missionaries then travel to Mbanta, where the white evangelist, speaking through an Ibo interpreter, preaches a single God, condemns the clan’s idols, promises iron‑horses, and sings a gospel hymn that moves Nwoye, while Okonkwo dismisses the message as madness.
In Mbanta the missionaries are granted a parcel of the dreaded Evil Forest, clear it, and erect a church that survives the expected curse; they attract new converts including Nwoye, the heavy‑pregnant Nneka, and others. Okonkwo discovers Nwoye among the Christians, assaults him, and Nwoye flees to the missionary school in Umuofia. Okonkwo internally debates violent retaliation but instead ruminates on his son’s betrayal, his own chi, and the threat of cultural collapse.
Missionaries establish a fledgling church in Mbanta; Mr Kiaga defends the admission of outcasts (osu) and orders them to shave, converting many. An osu later kills the clan’s sacred python, prompting a heated council where Okonkwo urges violence but the elders opt to ostracize the Christians instead. A bell‑man publicly declares the Christian community excluded from clan privileges, and women are barred from the stream, quarry and market, leading the male converts to confront the bell‑man and learn that the osu responsible, Okoli, has died, confirming the gods’ continued power.
Okokwo, after seven years of exile in Mbanta, has two huts built in his old compound, waits for the dry season, and organizes a grand feast to thank his mother’s kin before returning to Umuofia; the feast includes a cassava harvest by Ekwefi, three goats slaughtered, abundant dishes and palm‑wine, and a solemn speech by Uncle Uchendu warning the younger generation about the emerging Christian religion.
Okonkwo, after seven years in exile, vows to rebuild his compound, add a larger barn and two new wives’ huts, and initiate his surviving sons into the ozo society to regain lost status. He reflects on his daughters, especially Ezinma, whom he wishes were a boy and who promises to marry in Umuofia. The chapter also details Umuofia’s changes: the conversion of Ogbuefi Ugonna to Christianity, the establishment of a white colonial court with District Commissioner, the arrival of kotma (Ashy‑Buttocks) messengers who run a prison and force labor, a protest song against them, Obierika’s recounting of the white man’s annihilation of Abame, the capture and hanging of Aneto after a land‑kill, and a court ruling that disputed land belongs to Nnama’s family.
Mr. Brown, a conciliatory white missionary, engages in theological dialogue with the Igbo elder Akunna, builds a school and a small hospital in Umuofia, and gradually attracts villagers—including many adults—to his classes by offering gifts and promising literacy. His school produces rapid results, creating clerks, messengers, and teachers, and new churches appear in surrounding villages. Brown’s health deteriorates, and after the first rainy season following Okonkwo’s return, he departs for England. Meanwhile Okonkwo returns to a Umuofia transformed by trade, the new Christian religion, and colonial administration; his two daughters draw many suitors, but the clan pays little attention to his personal comeback, and the customary ozo initiation is postponed for almost two years, deepening Okonkwo’s grief for the changing, softened community.
Reverend James Smith succeeds Mr. Brown, imposes a rigid, unforgiving Christianity, and suspends a woman for violating church rules. His zeal provokes Enoch, the son of the snake‑priest, to unmask an egwugwu during the annual earth‑deity ceremony. The offended egwugwu gather a massive masked force, burn Enoch’s compound, and storm the church. Smith confronts the spirits, is aided briefly by his interpreter Okeke, and is addressed by the chief egwugwu Ajofia, who declares the church must be destroyed but spares Smith’s life.