Ch 8-9 Ekwefi's children

Ekwefi, one of Okonwo's wives, had had a terrible luck with children. Once got married in Umoufia you were supposed to bare children to your husband right away--it was the job of the woman. However, Ekwefi had a hard time with this subject because nine of the ten children she gave birth to died in infancy. After the death of her first child, she "found expression in the names she gave her children" (77). These names had to do with death and how she wanted death to stop taking her babies. It was very important to the villages to give meaning to names because that was who they were. They believed that names gave personality to the person but maybe the gods had other plans. Of course, this led her to become bitter but she did not envy the other wives for having healthy babies: "she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any"(79).She was afraid of losing her daughter Enzima, who was very sick. I can imagine how horrible it must have been for her to go through all of this, but perhaps her "chi" had something better in store for her--Enzima, who stopped being sick later on.