Ezeulu is a high priest of Umuaro
village. He faces a lot of challenges from the rest of the
villagers and his own family.
He declares all the important festivals in the
village and most activities can’t happen without his consent, which he gives on behalf of Ulu, the god Umuaro worships. But it is a time of change and the Europeans have infiltrated into the heartland of the country and Umuaro is not an exception. Ezeulu decides to take Oduche, one of his younger sons to the white man’s school against the better judgment of the rest of the
villagers. He argues that Oduche will act as his eye and ear and inform him about the white man’s ways. Oduche commits an abominable act by locking up the royal python in his school box and the villagers are shocked at his audacity and flock the compound to see what happened. Ezeulu has two wives, Matefi and Ugoye who are competitive and don’t get along quite well due to jealousy. The villagers engage in dispute over a plot of land with Okperi, the neighbouring village. The consequence is that Akukalia who was sent to deliver the message of peace to Okperi ends up dead and this results in war between the two villages. Ezeulu had warned the villagers against going to war over the piece of land as he said that it did not belong to Umuaro village and Ulu would not support them. The Europeans intervene to stop the war and gives favorable judgment to Okperi, with Ezeulu testifying against his village. This makes the villagers to hold a grudge against him for standing up against the clan. Edogo is Ezeulu’s first born son who is good at carving. He is jealous of his two younger brothers Oduche and Nwafo who he thinks his father might overlook him and live priesthood the priesthood to one of them. Therefore, he sends Akubue who is one of his father’s best friends to talk to him about the probability of creating unnecessary rivalry in the family if he dies and lives the priesthood to an undeserving son. Obika is Ezeulu’s’ second son. He has a quick temper and a love for palm wine. His father does not approve of his friendship with Ofoedu as he sees it influencing Obika negatively but Obika refuses to break off his friendship with him. The missionaries and colonialists were just starting to settle in Nigeria and Captain Winterbottom decides to choose Ezeulu to be paramount chief in his village because he thinks that he is an honest man as he believes that he is the only one who spoke the truth during the trial about the disputed land. He sends two policemen who are accompanied by one of his house servants, John Nwodika, who was familiar with the area to Umuaro to summon Ezeulu to appear before him. But as luck would have it, he falls ill and is rushed to Nkisa hospital. The Africans believe it was Ezeulu’s omen that is affecting Mr. Wintabota, as the natives call him. After consulting with the clan elders, Ezeulu together with Obika sets of on the journey to Okperi, where Mr. Winterbottom''s office is located to see him. By the time they arrive, they find that he is quite sick and they have to wait for sometime to see if he will recover. Mr. Tony Clarke took temporary charge until Mr. Winterbottom was to recover. He sees Ezeulu and proposes that he becomes the paramount chief. Ezeulu refuses and Mr. .Clarke gets quite angry and decides to lock him up. Seeing that there was justifiable reason he could give to higher authorities for locking up the old man he releases him. Obika gets married to Okuata who soon becomes pregnant. When the time for the new yam festival arrives, Ezeulu refuse to announce the feast as he argues that the yams he eats every new moon are not over due to the long time he spent in Okperi. There are still three yams to be eaten while traditionally the feast would be announced when there is only one yam remaining. Ezeulu would eat one yam every time he sighted a new moon. A new year was over when he had eaten all the twelve yams he had collected from the year’s harvest. Some of hihelpers and the village elders pay him a visit to urge him to announce the feast but he refuses saying he could not defy Ulu and tradition. Therefore, the yams which were in the field rot and people are faced with famine as they could not harvest their yams until the feast had been carried out. The villagers are very bitter with Ezeulu as they fill that he is doing that to avenge all the bad things they did to him and for allowing him to be confined in Okperi by the Whiteman. The villagers become hostile towards Ezeulu’s family and most of them turn to Christianity which is the new religion which agreed to take the villagers offering of one yam, they preferred this to dying of famine. Obika is invited to Amalu’s funeral feast which was taking place at night and Obika dies as the Ogbazulobodo was passing by. Ozumba and some of the men carry Obika’s body back to his fathers compound. The whole village is shocked.