Obierika (pronounced Oh-bee-air-ree-kah), while not a major character, is worthy of some consideration around his interactions with Okonkwo. Obierika is not an antagonist to Okonkwo by any means, but he does exist as an alternative tribal male that is able to separate violence from masculinity in a way Okonkwo is not. Okonkwo never questions Obierika’s will to fight nor his prowess in battle, showing that Obierika is able to achieve acknowledgement and respect within Umuofia through violence, something that Okonkwo values highly. However, Obierika is also able to see the bigger picture of his world where Okonkwo cannot. This is first seen in his abstinence to the murder of Ikemefuna, where he refuses to join in what he sees as the murder of a clansman and Okonkwo does not. We see this further when the egwugwu along with Okonkwo destroy the church of Reverend Smith but Obierika is not present. Rather, it is Obierika who negotiates the release of the men once they are captured, further demonstrating how Obierika is able to see how the values of the world he lives in are shifting, especially with the arrival of colonialists. Obierika is able to adapt and compromise and therefore survive; he sees that violence is not the answer to colonialism for Umuofia, else it ends up like Abame. While this compromise comes with its own sets of flaws, Obierika is useful to analyse as a potential model for what Okonkwo could have become.
