Later in this chapter we witness the very beginning of Okonkwo's downfall. In the last salute of gun and cannons in the funeral, "Okonkwo's gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy's heart" (p. 108). Nothing like this has ever happened in Umoufa before and although this incident was an accident but the reader cannot help associating it with Okonkwo's warrior qualities. It seemed to be like some sort of curse. Earlier Okonkwo had committed the sin of killing Ikemefuna who called Okonkwo "father", despite Ezeudu's warning and now Okonkwo inadvertently kills the dead man's son. If there was a curse involved, it may be because Okonkwo is warlike and aggressive. .
From this incident, the reader learns that in Umoufa murder within the clan leads to exile. There was also a distinction between the punishment for deliberate murder and accidental murder which the village classified as two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female kind because the murder had been inadvertent therefore is banished for seven years, after which time he could return. Okonkwo and his family leave, fleeing to Mbanta, the land from which Okonkwo's mother came. .
Although the female characters in the novel are merely background characters whose presence is referred to but not detailed in any important way, the importance of women in Africa is seen as Okonkwo flees to his mother's land. Achebe presents Mother Africa as nurturing, long suffering and forgiving. The day to day experiences of women have been discounted or ignored that is until real trouble starts. This is seen as Okonkwo returns to his motherland; women become the bedrock of strength and stability. The view of women was one of the many issues that Achebe was writing against, as back then, African women had a very specific image in the colonial imagination. To the western society, tribal women were just seen as the very lower class of society and symbols of negative sexuality.
