Study Questions

1. Why don’t the birds want Tortoise to join them at the feast in the sky?

2. How does Tortoise convince the birds to allow him to join them at the feast?

3. How is Tortoise able to fly with the birds of the sky?

4. What are some of the hard things Tortoise’s wife takes out of the house to prepare for Tortoise’s fall?

5. Why does Ezinma cry when Chielo calls her “my daughter”?

6. Why does Ekwefi recoil from Chielo when she turns around?

7. Why does Ekwefi doubt the wisdom of her coming to the hills and caves?

8. How could a woman like Chielo carry a child the size of Ezinma for such a long distance?

9. How does Ekwefi know they have reached the ring of hills?

10. Who joins Ekwefi as she waits for Chielo and Ezinma?

Answers

1. The birds do not want Tortoise to join them at the feast in the sky because it is a time of famine. Tortoise is cunning and ungrateful.

2. Tortoise convinces the birds to allow him to join them by explaining that he is a changed man. Tortoise has a sweet tongue, and he is a great orator.

3. Tortoise is able to fly because the birds give him feathers to make wings.

4. Tortoise’s wife takes out hard things like hoes, machetes, spears, guns, and a cannon to prepare for Tortoise’s fall.

5. Ezinma cries because Chielo’s voice is different and everything seems strange.

6. Ekwefi needs human companionship and sympathy. However, Chielo is possessed; she is a different woman than she was in the marketplace.

7. Ekwefi doubts the wisdom of her coming to the hills and caves because she is powerless and she would not dare enter the underground caves.

8. It would take a miracle for a woman like Chielo to carry a child the size of Ezinma for such a long distance. On this night Chielo is not an ordinary woman; she is a priestess possessed by the spirit of Agbala.

9. As soon as Chielo steps into this ring, her voice doubles in strength and is thrown back on all sides.

10. Okonkwo joins Ekwefi as she waits for the priestess and her daughter.