Things Fall Apart, Chapter 20&21 - 'How Should One Be Punished?'

"When he killed Oduche in the fight over the land, he fled to Aninta to escape the wrath of the earth. This was about eight days after the fight, because Oduche had not died immediately from his wounds. It was on the seventh day that he died. But everybody knew that he was going to die and Aneto got his belongings together in readiness to flee. But the Christians had told the white man about the accident, and he sent his kotma to catch Aneto. He was imprisoned with all the leaders of his family. In the end Oduche died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged" (Achebe 177).

In this part of the novel Okonowo is learning from his friend, Obierika the things that have happened in his fatherland Umuofia and how the white man is changing a lot of the culture they have known for so long. One of their traditional cultures that is challenged by imperialism is when a man kills another man he is to flee from his fatherland with his family into exile for at least seven years. But when one man named Aneto got into a fight with Oduche where Aneto beats him to the point of being on the verge of death and his opponent Oduche is able to name who did this to him. Unfortunately for Aneto the Christians told the white man about this incident and before Aneto could flee his fatherland, he was taken away as well as his family to prison in Umuru and Aneto was hanged for his crime. Compared to the traditional culture of Umuofia where Aneto could have fled to another village and return to his fatherland after the crime he has committed, the imperialist culture would not see to that and punished Aneto for his crimes in a different way by hanging him.