African Culture In The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, a novel that explores the fraternization of African culture with foreign ones, states that “No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill [as Africa].” Similarly, Nigerian-born Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart examines the “foreign thievery” of the well-developed village, Umuofia, by the European Christians as they gradually colonize on the African continent and “steal” Umuofia by replacing its culture with their own. By defamiliarizing Christianity and the Western perspective, Achebe asserts that African culture is not primitive.

Achebe, vigilant and aware of the Western influence of his audience, ensures that readers first see

the genuine and untouched African culture of Umuofia to separate African culture from Western bias and legitimize the villagers’ society.

The first half of the novel develops customs, religious beliefs, and governmental systems of a functional society and presents the Umuofians’ open-minded views to readers. Obierika’s brother reveals an enlightened, nonpartisan view of a neighboring village’s disparate customs when he says that “what is good in one place is bad in another place” (Achebe 74). Despite lack of exposure to Western culture, the Umuofians already exhibit nondiscriminatory beliefs and a level of tolerance that Europeans historically struggled to achieve. Umuofians also do not engage in war unless they have valid reasons to do so, which is evident in the beginning of the novel when “[Ikemefuna] was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia… to avoid war and bloodshed” and continues through the end when one of the Umuofian leaders declares that “it is not [their] custom to fight for [their] gods” (Achebe 8, 158). In this way, the Western perspective is culpable of hypocrisy since it debases the African culture that avoids war, calling it “primitive,” but they themselves have historically engaged in unjust wars. Additionally, Umuofian religion stems from logic since it is based off

of an agricultural lifestyle, the only way of life they have exposure to. Although Western readers may see the belief of “the justice of the earth goddess” and other agriculturally based gods in Umuofian religion as insensible or unusual, practical rationale supports it; worshipping those gods means they get to live another day (Achebe 125). Functional cultures make sense to the people who live in them, which justifies Umuofian belief and culture. Lastly, Achebe notably does not establish a time in his setting, which allows readers to appreciate and understand how far Umuofia has progressed without comparing it to Western culture at a specific time. As Achebe eventually unfolds the time setting and introduces Christians into the plot, he uses tone to continue to affirm that African culture is far from primitive.
Different stages of integration of Christians into Umuofian society adopt different authorial tones to defamiliarize Christianity and validate their culture as refined rather than primitive. Achebe first introduces the Christians to the Umuofian villagers humorously, portraying the white man as a novelty to the villagers, with “everyone coming to see [him]” when he first arrived in the village (Achebe 144). The Umuofians even take more interest in the “iron horses” than in the white man’s preaching and “broke into derisive laughter” thinking Christians “must be mad” (Achebe 145, 146). The disbelief and facetious reactions of the Umuofians to Christian beliefs allow Achebe to further defamiliarize Christianity since even the introduction of a stereotypically-defined “sophisticated” culture did not pose threat to the Umuofians. To the Umuofians, a society that had already established customs, religious beliefs, and a government proves to be functional and legitimate, so “they had not thought about” a foreign tradition as threatening, no matter its reputation (Achebe 145). As Christian control of Umuofia progresses, authorial tone shifts from humorous to serious. After the momentous conversion of two outcasts to Christianity that spurred many to turn away from the native religion and kill the sacred python, the humor and disbelief of the Christians’ presence disappears and is replaced by concern for their village, as a council convenes concerning the issue of converts and the desecration of the python. The council that convenes echoes the conciliarism movement of Christianity that emerged after the Great Schism of the Church, which ironically aligns the two seemingly different cultures and lifts Umuofia to the sophistication of Europe. The shift from a lighthearted tone in which Umuofians scoffed at the Christians’ beliefs to a grave tone in which they realize the gravity of the Christians’ influence on the village exposes the Umuofians’ fear of their culture’s disintegration. The Umuofians even began to take precautionary measures to protect their culture, “excluding [the adherents of the new religion] from the life and privileges of the clan” (Achebe 159). Cultures are inherently unique and an amalgamation of the passions, beliefs, and systems of a specific people group; one that exists and maintains itself for many years, like the Umuofians’, is obviously valuable and cannot be labeled as primitive.
Achebe aligns Christianity with African religion, which undermines Western perspective of Christianity as the only ethical religion.

Although religion is not monolithic, Achebe focuses on certain aspects of each religion and expurgates others to convey the similarities between the cultures and that African religion measures closely to Western religion, so it therefore cannot be called primitive. When a Christian man, Mr. Brown, meets with the Umuofian leader Akunna to discuss their respective religions, they surprisingly have a productive and civil discussion. As Mr. Brown, the only compromising Christian, talks to Akunna about each religion’s supreme God, he says that “Chukwu (God) is a loving Father and needs not be feared by those who do his will,” while Akunna responds that “[they] must fear Him when [they] are not doing His will” (Achebe 181). Ironically, Mr. Brown’s description of a loving God excludes the aspect of fear that Akunna mentioned, which conservative Christianity emphasizes in its teachings. Each culture’s religion differs in belief due to the different environments surrounding each culture, which in turn affects what they do not know and what they fear. Mr. Brown’s focus on the love of God emphasizes that for European Christians, religion is more of an addition to their lives rather than essential because they have a larger understanding of science and technology and greater access to the necessary resources for physical survival. However, Europe’s

distinct classicism and poor treatment of outcasts causes them to find Christianity attractive, since religion gives them a place to belong and promises the love of God. While conservative Christians could argue that one’s emotional and spiritual survival relies on religion since God supposedly sustains and protects the human race, at a biological level, humans are not dependent on a supreme being for survival. Conversely, Akunna’s focus on the fear of God reiterates that for the Umuofians, abiding by their agriculturally based religion is essential to their survival because angering their gods could indicate famine or death. For both cultures, religion acts as a means of explaining the unknown and fear, which differs in each society based on environment. Aligning the Christian and the Umuofian religions in this way allows even a Western-influenced reader to see that African culture is not primitive, but merely shaped by an environment with less information than the Europeans’.
The largely Westernized culture of the world has created a dearth of understanding of cultures on the African and Asian continents, whose beginnings come from non-European peoples. Achebe’s refreshingly African-centered novel defamiliarizes the all-too-familiar Western perspective. In Things Fall Apart, he is greatly aware of Western beliefs about African culture and crafts an African village that vastly contradicts the typical primitive society: enlightened and with functional systems, but still with the unique cultural identity of Africa in its proverbs and superstitions. Ultimately, the Europeans’ colonization of Africa stole Africa’s true ethos and replaced it with images of primitive and uncivilized culture, but Achebe’s Things Fall Apart quickly reminds readers of the “foreign thievery” that took place.