Predict what might happen later in the book from the conversation of Obierika, Machi, and Okonkwo when they talk about "what is good in one place is bad in another . . ." and that the polite name for leprosy is "white skin".

It appears that the white man will arrive and cause trouble for the people, trying to impose their own ways upon the people of Umuofia. Talking about leprosy and referring to white skin gives a negative foreshadowing of what is to come when white people arrive, that they will bring the rotting away of the clan's ways.