Okonkwo wants Ekwefi to make him roasted plantains with slices of oil-bean and fish.
After Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, he's extremely depressed. Although he believes it is the right thing to do, it brings him no happiness. He loves the boy and only kills him because the oracle says it has to be done—and he doesn't want the other people in the village to think he is weak. He's so sad that he's unable to eat and his daughter points out that he has gone two days without food. He's so weak that it's difficult for him to walk.
When he asks his second wife to make him plantains the way he likes them, she agrees. He shares a piece of the fish with Ezinma and thinks that the ten-year-old girl should have been born a son rather than a daughter. He also asks her to bring him some cold water and the goatskin bag with his snuff bottle.
At this point in the story, Okonwoko's fallen headlong into a prolonged bout of depression. The village oracle had declared that Ikemefuna, who was almost like a son to Okonwoko, should be killed. Reluctantly, Okonwoko participates in the brutal slaying, and it shakes him to the core, so deep is his despondency that he cannot eat for two whole days.
What Okonwoko needs more than anything else at such a difficult time is the no-nonsense care and support of his second wife, Ekwefi. Although Okonwoko remains in a slough of despond, he is at least able to eat something again after his impromptu fast. So he asks Ekwefi to roast some plantains for him. When she gives Okonwoko the dish, she curtly tells him to eat it all up. It's just such a brusque response that Okowonko needs from Ekwefi. Though even here, he admires her, not so much for her ability to understand his needs, but more for her tough, masculine qualities. She should have been a boy, he says.
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