Who Fears Death

Onye returns home, and Aro doesn’t request her presence for another week, during which time nightmares continue to plague her, this time ones in which she is stoned to death, “haunted by someone else’s demise” (131).

After a few days, Onye’s friends come to visit at her mother’s request. In an effort to get her to open up about her experiences, Binta confesses that if the elder women hadn’t helped her the night of their Rite, she had been planning to poison her father. This gets Onye’s attention, and she confides in them her full story, including her mother’s rape, but leaving out the specifics of the initiation.

As the girls ask her about her experience with Mwita, he comes up the road, and they in turn tease him about it. Mwita is annoyed at first that Onye didn’t keep her secret, but they all swear themselves to her and promise that they, too, can be trusted. Mwita accepts, then tells Onye that it’s time for her to return to Aro and begin her work.