Summary

Chapter 5 serves, along with the other odd-numbered chapters in the novel, as a brief interlude into the first-person collective point of view of “The Children” (the chapter’s title) before a return back to the first-person singular perspective of an individual character. In the chapter, the children discover (along with the rest of the village) that the Pexton representative they referred to as “the Sick One” is dying. Sakani, the village medicine man, refuses to treat the Sick One, and Woja Beki cares for him in his home.

The children describe being made to swear on a bundle of umbilical cords (comprised of every villager’s umbilical cord going back generations) that they will not reveal the actions of their fathers, capturing the Pexton representatives and taking them hostage.

The Sick One dies in Woja Beki’s home. The next day, Lusaka and...