82 pages • 2 hours read
Nnedi OkoraforWho Fears Death
Nnedi OkoraforFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 3, Chapters 26-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary
The group departs for the West. Binta poisons her father just before leaving, making Onye believe that she is, after all, prepared for the trip and what it will entail; Luyu is mildly frustrated that they are not taking camels, as the journey will take much longer on foot. Each of the group members had said their goodbyes with varying levels of difficulty—Fanasi’s and Luyu’s parents had threatened beatings and banishments; Onye had, too, struggled, but both she and her mother knew that her departure was inevitable.
Two days after leaving, Onye’s migraines become so intolerable that they must stop and rest. When her headaches recede, she realizes that she hasn’t eaten since they stopped the day before, and that her hunger helps make the world around her particularly clear. “The clarity I was experiencing made the world so crisp and clear. Every sound outside seemed right against my ear. I could hear a desert fox barking nearby and a hawk screeching. I could almost hear Mwita thinking as he came in” (170).
Later that night, she and Mwita discuss the possibility of intercourse. Onye argues against it because of Aro’s warnings; however, Mwita counters that she already knows how her journey ends, and that it is not with the death of a town. Further, Onye is already far more powerful than Sanchi, the other sorcerer, had been. Onye decides to change into a vulture and fly for a while; when she returns, she and Mwita make love.
Chapter 27 Summary
The next day, Onye’s headaches have mostly receded. However, she still refuses to eat, as she wants to try something. She and Mwita leave the others and walk out into the desert; Onye concentrates, and they travel west, into Nuru territory. Onye is amazed at some of the sights: “There was sand here but there were also patches of a strange darker colored ground. Then I saw why. I’d never seen so much water. […] Hundreds of people could swim in it and it wouldn’t matter” (177).
They stop at a crowd listening to a tall Nuru man talking about the Great Book. Most people hadn’t been able to perceive them, but when the man sees them, he stops his speech—his eyes grow wide and flash red: he is her biological father. Mwita, too, recognizes the man, and leaps onto the stage and attacks him. Before guards can grab them, Onye pulls them back; as she does, her father threatens them.
Once back East, Mwita is enraged, both at the man and at Onye. For her part, Onye is confused how Mwita knew that the man was her father. Further, she is confused how they were able to physically fight one another despite not actually being there.
Chapter 28 Summary
Things between Mwita and Onye are tense, and Onye begins to believe that Mwita is going to beat her or kill her—outwardly, he continues to act normal, but she sees the anger in his eyes. Further, she knows that though she could easily defend herself, she won’t.
Later that night, when Onye still insists on sleeping in the same tent with Mwita, Mwita tries to explain his feelings. For one, Mwita is frightened by her abilities—he, too, is confused how they could really have been in the town, physical enough for her father to have been able to hit him. More, though, Onye’s father had been Daib, his first teacher, “a powerful, powerful sorcerer […] He can bend time, he can make things appear that should never be there, he can make people think wrong things, and he has a heart full of the most evil stuff […] Even Aro couldn’t keep Daib from killing you” (185).
Onye realizes Mwita’s concern: he fears that they are all being manipulated, that Daib is bringing them there rather than traveling west of their own free will. Onye shares his concerns; however, she believes otherwise because she believes Daib’s look of shock and fear could only have been genuine.
Chapters 26-28 Analysis
Onye’s powers grow stronger once they depart, reinforcing the idea that her destiny as a sorcerer is impossible to be tamed—the ability to alu, or travel within, is an ability she didn’t know she had. We’ll learn later that there is a genetic reason that she is able to do so, but for now, we know only that she continues to develop, and that as she learns new skills, she does so at a level beyond what even someone trained might expect. For the first time, Mwita seems genuinely terrified of her following their travels—this is in part because his powerful and cruel former master is her biological father, but also because he recognizes just what kind of power is flowing through her. We are frequently reminded of his jealousy, which he will fight through the end of the novel, but here it does not appear to be jealousy, but fear.
Onye’s headaches symbolize the pressure she faces as well as the fact that she cannot escape her destiny—she is painfully and inextricably tied to it. That said, the novel questions the notion of destiny at points: will she die in the West because it’s her destiny? Or by choosing this path does she make it her destiny? Only Mwita, too, knows how he will die, and the knowledge burdens them both. In a sense, if we view it as a choice, it becomes even more powerful as they know what will happen; still, though, it isn’t clear that there is a choice, and they never seriously push back against it.
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