During Okonkwo's second year in exile, his good friend Obierika and two other young men pay him a visit in Mbanta. After his introduction to Uchendu, Obierika relays tragic news about the village of Abame.
One day a white man rode into the village on a bicycle, which the villagers called an "iron horse." At first, the people ran away from the man, but the ones who were less fearful walked up to him and touched his white skin. The elders of Abame consulted their Oracle, which told them that the white man would destroy their clan, and others were on their way, coming like locusts. Confronting the villagers, the white man seemed only to repeat a word like "Mbaino," perhaps the name of the village he was looking for. They killed the white man and tied his bicycle to their sacred tree.
Weeks later, three other white men and a group of natives — "ordinary men like us" — came to the village while most villagers were tending their farms. After the visitors saw the bicycle on the tree, they left. Many weeks later, the whole clan was gathered at the Abame market and then surrounded by a large group of men; they shot and killed almost everyone. The village is now deserted.
Okonkwo and Uchendu agree that the Abame villagers were foolish to kill a man about whom they knew nothing. They have heard stories about white men coming with guns and strong drink and taking slaves away across the sea, but they never believed the stories.
After their meal together, Obierika gives Okonkwo the money that he received for selling some of Okonkwo's yams and seed-yams. He promises to continue giving Okonkwo the profits until he returns to Umuofia — or until "green men [come] to our clan and shoot us."
