Discuss the villager's beliefs in the killing of the sacred python.

Nigerian
author s is a novel first published in 1958. It is set in the
south-eastern part of Nigeria, from pre-colonial times to the arrival of the Europeans in the
late nineteenth century. The book is divided into three parts: the first part chronicles s
personal history and the conventions of the Igbo society, while the second and third chronicle
the arrival of British colonialists and Christian missionaries.

In Igbo
culture, the pythons sacredness is rooted in the belief that it is the symbol of the god of
water. Apart from a special mode of address, there is also a special ceremony if it is killed
accidentally. In fact, there is no pre-planned ceremony for when the python is killed knowingly;
such a thing is unthinkable to the tribe:

No punishment
was prescribed for a man who killed the python knowingly. Nobody thought that such a thing could
ever happen.

Okoli, one of the Mbanta outcasts who
converted to Christianity, is alleged to have killed the sacred python in . When the elders of
Mbanta gathered to decide what is to become of Okoli, Okonkwo, one of the main protagonists,
insists on violence. He is disgusted, therefore, when the clan chooses to merely peacefully
ostracize the converted clan members. This bans them from the market, the stream, the chalk
quarry, and the red earth pit. Okoli, meanwhile, tries to assert his innocence but falls ill and
dies soon thereafter. His death is interpreted by the tribe as justice dispensed by the
gods.