Who Fears Death

The next night, the women walk to a spot in the desert a mile away from camp. In the reverse order of their Rite, Onye performs magic on them; the procedure is painful, and their screams loud enough that they reach Fanasi and Mwita back at the camp, which Onye had intended. The women leave for the camp; Onye wishes to stay behind, however, and rest, as the procedure had taken a lot out of her—“My skin was chaffing […] A swath of it the size of the entire back of my hand sloughed off. I dropped it on the sand. Right before my eyes, I saw the new skin begin to dry and chafe” (230).

Mwita arrives and helps to heal her. “It was always so humiliating,” she thinks. “I would do something and I’d always need Mwita to put me back in order” (231). Mwita finally realizes that he can’t help her, but that she can heal herself if she drops into the wilderness “where there is no time or flesh” (232). She does, and the peeling skin ceases.

When they return to camp, however, the others are fighting with one another. Mwita reminds Onye that she can’t fix everything.

The next day, Onye is too weak to travel, so they remain camped; Fanasi and Mwita go off to talk together, while Luyu and Onye practice Nuru in Onye’s tent. Onye says that Diti is just being stupid, but Luyu believes that Diti is getting her first taste of freedom in a way she was never able to back home: “None of us were ever allowed to be that free in Jwahir” (235).

That night, Onye hears footsteps walking toward Fanasi’s tent, followed by the sounds of intercourse. At first, she is happy that Diti has come to her senses; then she is upset when she realizes that it is Luyu rather than Diti in the tent with Fanasi. The next day, Luyu acts normally, while Onye notices that Fanasi keeps stealing glances at her.

Over the next couple weeks, Onye trains as they travel: she practices cutting and healing herself over and over until it is easy; she practices traveling through visions; and she practices dropping into the wilderness, where she again sees the red eye of her father.

She also confronts Luyu privately and strongly encourages her to tell Diti what’s going on between her and Fanasi, arguing that it’s only a matter of time until she finds out anyway. Luyu resists, and that night Onye once again hears her in Fanasi’s tent.

They arrive at the town of Papa Shee. Mwita remembers the town, which is close to the beginning of the Seven Rivers Kingdom, and “one of the last towns [they’ll] encounter that won’t be … hostile to Okekes” (238).

Once again, the camels remain while the others go into town. Onye and the others are a bit confused upon arriving in town, as they hear and see not only Okeke and Okeke dialects, but also Nurus: “I’d never imagined Nurus walking among free Okekes in peace” (239). They feel uncomfortable, though, so they agree to buy their supplies quickly and be on their way.

However, it isn’t long before someone calls them out and a crowd begins to gather around them. Onye is transfixed by the man calling out to her when she feels the first stone hit her; she responds by dropping into the wilderness and tearing the “witch doctor who had the nerve to not recognize a true sorcerer” apart (240).

When she returns, Binta is yelling at the crowd; before Onye can react, though, a brick hits Binta, killing her instantly. People descend upon her, continuing to beat her and throw stones at her dead body. Onye is horrified, and she blinds the entire town: “I didn’t want to show these people the worst of the West. I wanted to show them darkness. They were all blind and that’s what I made them. The entire town. Men, women, children. I took the very ability that they chose not to use” (240).

Once they are blinded, Onye makes her way to Binta and searches for her spirit; however, she has already left, making Onye wonder if Binta “understood that bringing her back and healing her would probably have killed me” (241).

They return to the camels outside of town. They move away from Papa Shee, then bury Binta in the desert and move on.

Onye recounts a story in the Great Book “about a boy destined to be Suntown’s greatest chief” (242). Suntown had a rule that the first of the chief’s sons to be born out of wedlock would succeed him, so when he impregnated a mistress of his, he ordered her killed. However, the woman outran the soldiers sent to kill her and gave birth to her son, Zoubeir, in secret, the same day as a peasant girl, Tia, was born. Zoubeir was naturally boisterous and well liked, whereas Tia was silent, a result of being beaten and molested by her father. They grew up near one another and grew to know one another. When Suntown’s chief died, rumors had flown that Zoubeir was his illegitimate son, so soldiers came for him; however, Tia takes the bullet for Zoubeir, allowing him to escape. Zoubeir eventually does become Suntown’s greatest chief, but he never honors Tia for her sacrifice, and her name is never again mentioned in the Great Book. Onye says that she has always disliked the story, “And since Binta’s death, I’ve come to hate it” (244).

Luyu stays away from Fanasi for two weeks before resuming her affair with him. One night, Onye draws Mwita’s sleepy attention to the sounds coming from the tent; Onye is annoyed that he’s known, but Mwita responds that Diti isn’t trying to sleep with Fanasi, anyway, and they should have joy while they can.

Just then, they hear Diti rushing toward Fanasi’s tent. Diti catches them mid-coitus. Diti yells at them, then collapses in tears; after a while, Onye draws her away from the others, and they talk briefly. However, when Onye senses that Diti is about to blame her, she turns into a vulture and flies away.

When she returns, Diti and Fanasi have just completed their divorce. They continue to bicker, and Mwita chastises Diti for her behavior, calling her childish for rejecting Fanasi while simultaneously expecting him to remain loyal to her. Everyone goes to bed angry; when they wake up the next morning, a wall of sand is approaching.