Over the five years after Winterbottom broke guns in Umuaro, Ezeulu and Nwaka’s conflict within the village grows. Even after Nwaka seems to defy the gods, or suggest that Ulu would abandon the village, he “[survives] his rashness” (40). Over time, it emerges that Ezidemili, priest of Idemili, supports Nwaka. Ezeulu knows that the priests of other gods are unhappy “with their secondary role since the villages got together and made Ulu and put him over the older deities” (41).

Ezidemili and Nwaka, friends since infancy, come together against Ezeulu until Ezidemili becomes “Ezeulu’s mortal enemy” (41). While they drink wine one day, Nwaka incites Ezidemili to tell about Idemili, the “Pillar of Water” (41) who holds up the raincloud. Idemili should not be buried in earth as a result. Nwaka explains that “the first Ezeulu was an envious man like the present one” and he “ask[s] his people to bury him with the ancient and awesome ritual accorded to the priest of Idemili” (42).

Ezeulu thinks differently about the village, its gods, and its ancestry. From his compound he can hear the bells at the church nearby. At first, he had sent

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