Barbette

“It was the time of the full moon. But that night the voice of children was not heard. The village ilo where they always gathered for a moon-play was empty. The women of Iguedo did not meet in their secret enclosure to learn a new dance to be displayed later to the village. Young men who were always abroad in the moonlight kept their huts that night. Their manly voices were not heard on the village paths as they went to visit their friends and lovers. Umuofia was like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffing the silent, ominous air and not knowing which way to run.”
― Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART

“But the Ibo have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.”
― Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART

“He sang it in his mind, and walked to its beat. If the song ended on his right foot, his mother was alive. If it ended on his left, she was dead. No, not dead, but ill. It ended on the right. She was alive and well. He sang the son again, and it ended on the left. But the second time did not count. The first voice gets to Chukwu, or God's house. That was a favorite saying of children. Ikemuna felt like a child once more. It must be the thought of going home to his mother.”
― Chinua Achebe