What does Okonkwo learn through the drought and poor harvest?

The year that Okonkwo took eight hundred seed-yams from Nwakibie was the worst year of his life. Nothing happened at its proper time–it was either too early or too late. The first rains were late, and when they came, lasted only a brief moment. The blazing seen returned, more fierce than it had ‘ever been known’. The earth burned like hot coals and roasted all the yams that had been sown. With first rain Okonkwo had sown four hundred seeds, when the rains dried up and the heat returned. He watched the sky all day for signs of rain clouds and lay awake all night. But the drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed.

Okonkwo planted what was left of his seed-yams, when the rains finally returned. He had one consolation. The yams he had sown before the drought were his own, the harvest of the previous year. He still had the eight hundred from Nwakibie and the four hundred from his father’s friend to make a new start. But the year had gone mad. Rain fell for days and nights together, it poured down in violent torrents, and washed away the yam heaps. That year the harvest was sad like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. Okonkwo remembered the tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life. He did not sink under the load of despair. He knew that he was a fierce fighter, but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion. Since he survived that year, he always said that he will become strong and would survive anything which he had put it to his inflexible will. And now he could survive any disaster.