Ezeulu summons the elders of Umuaro after the messenger leaves his compound. The drum that makes the call, the Ikolo, is “not beaten out of season except in a great emergency” (141), and so those who hear it are alarmed.

Ezeulu apologizes to the men for coming with such urgency and without palm wine. He tells them that “the white ruler has asked him to go to Okperi” (143). After he speaks, Nwaka rises. He accuses Ezeulu of shaking “hands with a man of white body” (144). He suggests that since “you tied the knot, you should also know how to undo it” (144), to break his own link to the white man. Most speakers following Nwaka speak less harshly. They feel that “it would be foolhardy to ignore the call of the white man” (144), even if it is against custom for the High Priest to travel.

Some people, including Akuebue and his half-brother, volunteer to travel with Ezeulu. But Ezeulu decides to travel alone. He is not close with his brother, Okeke Onenyi, who is a medicine-man and with whom he split the formidable powers his father had held.