44 pages • 1 hour read
Flora NwapaEfuru
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
As the chapter opens, Adizua has become distant. He stays out late at night and does not eat the dinners that Efuru prepares for him. He never tells her where he has gone. Efuru is upset and wonders what she can do to win back his love. She is convinced that he is seeing another woman. She does not mind if Adizua wants to take another wife, but she does not understand why he is hiding it from her.
One day, Adizua goes to Ndoni, a town that is far away, and does not return. In the market, Efuru hears that a woman left her child with her mother, went to Ndoni, and did not return. Efuru realizes that this is the woman her husband is seeing, but she feels powerless to do anything about it.
Efuru confides in Ajanupu, and Ajanupu advises her to be patient. She does not condone Adizua’s conduct, but she believes Efuru should do her duty as a wife, even if it means that she must suffer. Efuru does not like this advice. Ossai also advises Efuru to wait, telling Efuru the story of her own marriage. Adizua’s father left her, returned after more than 10 years, and then disappeared again. He came back ill six months later, and the dibia said that his own actions were to blame. By the time Ossai came back from the market that day, her husband was dead.
Efuru listens, but she does not accept that this kind of suffering is part of her duty as a wife: “Perhaps self-imposed suffering appeals to her. It does not appeal to me. I know I am capable of suffering for greater things. But to suffer for a truant husband […] is to debase suffering” (Chapter 4, Location 1104).
Ogonim becomes ill, and neither the women nor the dibia can cure her. After a tense period, she dies.
Chapter 5 Summary
Efuru receives the mourners for Ogonim, but she can barely keep herself together. The people send word to Adizua in Ndoni that his daughter has died, but Adizua does not return. The women prepare Ogonim’s body and put her in the coffin. The men take the coffin across the lake and bury it in the graveyard.
Since Adizua has not come home, Ajanupu reprimands Ossai for not raising her son correctly: Igbo culture holds that the misfortunes or bad behavior of one generation can affect the next. For instance, a relation who comes to pay her respects asks Efuru “in what ways have you offended our ancestors? What is the reason for this – a child who was more than two years old” (Chapter 5, Location 1297).
Six months after Ogonim’s death, Ajanupu asks Efuru what she wants to do. Adizua has been gone for eight months, and there is no sign that he plans to return. Efuru learns that Adizua heard about Ogonim’s death and said that he would come home, but that was a month ago. Ajanupu tells Efuru to give Adizua one year; then she will be free to marry again.
One day, a man named Gilbert, a childhood friend of Efuru, comes to visit her. Gilbert’s Igbo name is Eneberi Uberife, but he was baptized and given a Christian name when he attended school. He usually requests that people call him Gilbert, but he lets Efuru call him by his Igbo name. Although financial restraints prevented him from continuing school past fifth grade, he has become a successful trader and owns a large stall in the market.
After Gilbert’s visit, Efuru goes to see Ajanupu. They talk about a woman who owes a debt to Efuru. When Efuru mentions that she would like to go to Agbor, a town where she can trade in yams, Ajanupu realizes that she is using this as an excuse to search for her husband.
Chapter 6 Summary
Efuru goes from town to town in search of Adizua but does not find him. When she returns, she tells Ossai, Ajanupu, and her father that she plans to move out of Adizua’s house. Ajanupu says that she would advise Efuru to wait if Ogonim were still alive, but now Efuru has no reason to stay.
It is now more than a year since Adizua left. Efuru moves back in with her father and tidies up the house. Everyone welcomes her back and assures her that she will find another husband. She brings Ogea, who has become like a daughter, with her to her father’s home.
Nwosu and Nwabata, Ogea’s parents, come to visit. They give their condolences about Ogonim and tell Efuru that she was right to move out of Adizua’s house. Nwosu, Ogea’s father, is ill, and Efuru says she will pay for him to see a doctor. She cooks him a good meal because she suspects that hunger is playing a part in his illness.
The doctor, Dr. Uzaru, is a childhood friend of Efuru. They grew up together; Efuru lived with his mother until she was 15. Dr. Uzaru was interested in marrying Efuru, but when he returned from college, he discovered that she was already married. Dr. Uzaru checks Nwosu, who has swelling in his “male organ” and tells him that he will need an operation. Nwabata does not trust the white doctors and believes they will kill Nwosu. Efuru manages to persuade her otherwise, and the operation is a success.
After the yam harvest festival, Ogea asks her parents if they have paid Efuru the money they owe her. Her parents are chagrined that they have not, nor did they bring her yams from their harvest.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
These chapters show the decline and aftermath of Efuru’s marriage. When Adizua does not return, Efuru faces a decision familiar to many wives: to stay and wait for her husband, or to move on with her life. Despite her desire to fulfill her duty as a wife, Efuru draws the line at what she sees as suffering needlessly once she is positive that her husband will not return.
When Ogonim dies, Efuru has even less reason to stay. Ogonim’s death affects her profoundly. Afterward, Efuru ruminates on her visit to the dibia who said that some harm would befall the child. Since the dibia died before he could tell her exactly what would happen, Efuru wonders if she could have done something to prevent her daughter’s death. Eventually, she accepts that it is the will of God and her chi, or path, that Ogonim has died. At the same time, Efuru is glad that she had a child and can relate to other women about the joys of motherhood.
Others also wonder why Ogonim has died. The woman who asks if Efuru angered the ancestors does so because Efuru comes from a respected household; her father is of “noble parentage. A man who is upright and whose ancestors were upright and just” (Chapter 5, Location 1309). Therefore, Ogonim’s death cannot be attributed to an earlier generation’s failings. The idea is not so much that bad things happen because a family is “cursed,” but because actions have repercussions—if not immediately, then in the future. Because family and community are so important in Igbo society, the identity of the family takes precedence over that of the individual, including in the realm of moral responsibility.
A prevalent motif in these chapters is hunger. Nwosu and Nwabata do not have any food, and yet they refuse to eat when Efuru offers them food, saying that they have already eaten lunch. In one telling passage, the narrative switches briefly to Nwosu’s point of view: “Nwosu looked at his wife. Looked at her lean body, her protruding belly, hissed and went to his room and locked himself up” (Chapter 6, Location 1800). Another passage describes “a troop of children with shining tummies in front of them” (Chapter 6, Location 1836). Even Dr. Uzaru’s family is suffering from hunger.
Efuru is not wealthy, but she is a benefactor. She always has enough food to share with others, she lends money to those in need, and she pays for Nwosu’s operation. Aside from the cooking, these activities are usually carried out by men. While Efuru’s independence benefits herself and her neighbors, she runs the risk of being seen as less than a woman. This is not an idle concern: Nwabata comments that she stopped nagging Nwosu about paying their debt because she did not want to be “accused of being a ‘male woman’” (Chapter 6, Location 1920). Even though most of the women in Efuru’s town have strong characters, women who are assertive or aggressive risk flouting gender norms.
