Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis

Odemo, the head of a large nearby town called Isara, where Essay is from, visits the village. Essay and Wole, in turn, visit Odemo's palace. He is ordered to prostrate himself before one of Odemo's chiefs. He refuses, stating that he wouldn't prostrate himself before God, so why would he prostrate himself before a man? This causes much commotion among the chiefs of Odemo, and Essay fails to explain where Wole may have gotten such a notion.

The family takes a lorry (truck) to near Isara, and then walk another seven miles. The family is distantly related to some traders there (the caravanserai), and closely related to Father and Mother, the parents of Essay. Despite the tall and exotic tales the caravanserai told Wole about Isara, in reality the town is provincial and unsanitary, as children are allowed to defecate in...