Character Analysis
Agbadi is a minor chief and a wealthy man. He loves proud, arrogant women and falls in love with Ona, an absolutely unattainable woman. (Ona can't get married because her father has decreed it. He has no male heirs and if Ona produces a son, it will continue his bloodline.)
Agbadi, arrogant himself, grows tired of women when they become domesticated as mothers and wives. So he keeps marrying different women, but he always returns to Ona. When he discovers how much Ona cares for him after a hunting accident, he treats her cruelly. But they are still in love and they conceive Nnu Ego, who becomes the apple of his eye.
Agbadi wants his daughter to be cherished. Unfortunately, he isn't good at selecting husbands for his daughter. The first husband becomes cruel when Nnu Ego fails to produce a child. The second husband is an alcoholic and never gives Nnu Ego the support she needs and deserves. Though returning to her father's compound is always an option for Nnu Ego, she refuses to do it out of pride. She knows her father wouldn't want her coming back unless she were being severely abused.
Even though he lives many years after Ona dies, Agbadi never forgets her. During the illness leading up to his death, he frequently speaks to her as if she is in the room. When Agbadi dies, his family throws him the most expensive funeral Ibuza has ever seen.