The nine fathers of the clan was just below the oracle. These spiritual beings represented the clan. These spiritual figures were called eegwugwu by the people. The leader of the nine fathers was named Evil Forest. These egwugwu would judge on events that happened in Umiofia. The egwugwu were kind of like the court system of Umiofia. In one of the trials in the story, a man named Uzowulu claimed that his inlaws came and took his wife and children away. Odukwe Uzowulu's brother inlaw told the egwugwu that it was true, but only because Uzwulu was a beast that beat his sister every day. Of course Uzowulu denied this acuzation. So the egwugwu decided that if Uzowulu could recover from his maddness his wife and children would be returned. So you see that the egwugwu are much like a jugde, jury, and executioner.

Umiofia had laws as well in every day life these laws were created by the gods. These gods were either vengeful or giving to the people of Umiofia. In one instance a clansman accidentaly killed the sacred python. This was a major offence to the gods. The elders decided to do nothing, because they felt if they acted upon the man that the gods would be angry at them as well. So the people of Umiofia left him be and sure enough the man died four days later. The people of Umiofia thought that this was just the gods taking thier retribution for what had been done.

The white man came and for a while every thing was alright in the village. First they brought the white man brought thier religon. That was not so bad, some of the villagers were converted and it was accepted. Then they the white man brought thier law. This is were all the trouble started. The white mans view of Umiofia was that it was a savage land needing to be tamed. They came and jailed people for things they the clan considered law, but this did not go with the white mans law. The white mans law protected the rights of the white man and only the white man. An example of this is when the egwugwu burned the church down. They did this act because one of thier own was killed by one of the converted villagers. But in the eyes of the white man this was only a great travisty to them, and had to be delt with. So the commisioner had the leaders of Umiofia put in jail. They were treated with no respect because to the white man all these men were are savages. The white mans law was unjust to the people of Umiofia and was probably the undoing of the villages.