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Go to the Beginning (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) We go several months into the past to meet Richard, a white Englishman with an obsession for Igbo pottery, who arrives in Lagos, hoping to write a book about Nigeria. He starts out living with Susan, an alcoholic expatriate. But then he meets Kainene and Olanna at a party; he's attracted to both, but fascinated by Kainene with whom he starts an affair. He's never really sure if the aloof Kainene likes him. She decides to move to Port Harcourt to run her father's businesses while Richard will live in Nsukka to do his Nigerian art research, and they will continue their affair on weekends. Richard moves to Nsukka and gets an older houseboy named Harrison who is obsessed with English cooking; he starts visiting Odenigbo's nightly gathering of intellectuals. He visits Kainene at Port Harcourt and is intimidated by her friend Madu, an Igbo major in the Nigerian army. Chapter 4: Odenigbo's mother Mama visits with her slave/companion Amala, wrests control of the kitchen from Ugwu, and starts cooking. Olanna arrives and Mama screams at her and accuses her of being a witch. This is their first meeting: shocked, Olanna retreats to her own flat that she has continued to rent even while living with Odenigbo. Ugwu goes into town to persuade Odenigbo to take Olanna's side, but Odenigbo shrugs everything off. Chapter 5: Olanna remains at her flat, furious at Odenigbo for not defending her against his mother. She phones Kainene in Port Harcourt but her sister is sarcastic. Finally Olanna forgives Odenigbo and returns home after his mother leaves. She speaks to Richard who drops by to return a book and they experience a brief moment of mutual attraction. Later Odenigbo brings up the fact that Olanna won't marry him, but asks if she'll have a child with him. She agrees. Chapter 6: Richard feels like he'll never fit in with Odenigbo's friends. He frets about his unfinished manuscript. He drives to Port Harcourt to visit aloof Kainene. Part Two – The Late Sixties. Note to readers: Here the author jumps ahead in time about four years and alludes to things we haven't seen yet. So don't go flipping back through Part One, trying to find what you missed. In Part Three, she will return to the early sixties to catch us up. Chapter 7: After a week in his old village, Ugwu returns to Nsukka where Olanna bathes infant daughter Baby. They hear on the radio that the Igbo people have carried out a coup against the Hausa in the north. Odenigbo's friends show up and discuss everything excitedly. Ugwu misses Richard who never comes over anymore, and thinks about how Olanna and Odenigbo almost broke up right before Baby was born. Chapter 8: Olanna visits her uncle's family in Kano; her favorite cousin Arize is now pregnant. Her Igbo relatives all speak approvingly of how the Igbo killed the northern premier, a Muslim Hausa known as the Sardauna. Olanna and Arize go shopping, but notice that the villagers are harassing the Igbo in retribution for the coup. Pretending to be Yoruba, they manage to get away unscathed. Chapter 9: Richard and Kainene talk to Madu at a party at Port Harcourt. He thinks there will not be a retaliatory coup against the Igbo, and Richard disagrees. Two weeks later, the Hausa start slaughtering the Igbo, especially Igbo military officers in the north. Two weeks after that, Colonel Madu shows up at Kainene's house, having barely escaped the massacre in the north. Chapter 10: Ugwu and Odenigbo wait in Nsukka for Olanna to return from visiting her relatives in Kano. They are terrified as Igbo refugees flee south with stories of Hausa atrocities. Chapter 11: Olanna is visiting her Hausa ex-boyfriend Mohammed when the massacres start in Kano. He disguises her as a Muslim woman and they rush to her uncle's house, but all her relatives have been slaughtered. She takes the train home to Nsukka. It's crammed with desperate Igbo refugees. A woman carries the severed head of her young murdered daughter. |
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