Christian Missionaries Things Fall Apart

Christian Missionaries. Good or Bad?

Missionaries are often sent into the land with a message of Christ before the military or government follow them up. Missionaries are good people trying to teach and educate the locals. They come with the mission to convert the tribal people to their religion not to conquer or harm the people of the villages. Many people believe that the Missionaries where the people to take over tribes and the ones who go to war with tribes, but that is the military and the government that come in after the Missionaries. Christian missionaries, not British soldiers or government, influenced the Ibu tribe in a mostly positive way by freeing people from harsh living environment and by accepting osus. Within the Igbo tribe,

The tribe has no rules restricting the treatment of the citizens. Men of older statue have to power to do pretty much whatever they want to each other. Nwoye, Okonkwo's eldest son, was often a victim of his father madness. In the beginning of the book it states,”... he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating”(Achebe 13-14). Nwoye was beat on a regular by his father for simple disagreements. Nwoye was more of the generous type and had fallen in love with the Christian religion. One morning in the village Okonkwo’s cousin, Amikwu, saw Nwoye with the Christian people. And with this, he transferred the information to Okonkwo. When Nwoye returned later that night and went inside to greet his father. Okonkwo then jumped behind and grabbed him. Okonkwo then said, “Where have you been”, followed by, “Answer me before i kill you!”(Achebe 151). Okonkwo knowing that his son was among the Christians, threatened to murder his son. After striking his son multiple times, Nwoye was saved by Okonkwo’s uncle Uchendu. Without Uchendu, Nwoye would have likely been killed by his father at

A big part of their movement was that the Christian missionaries did not care who attended their sermons. As long as someone showed up they were happy. Seeing that the new religion accepted farfetched things like having twins, the osus believed that they could be accepted too. When they church had a service, two osu men attended. Usually when osu men come near, people of title or any normal people will avoid them by removing themselves from that area. In this case the Osus were blessed. Usually in the situation where the Osus went into the church, things would have been a lot different. On page 155 it states” there was an immediate stir: but so great was the work the new religion had done among the converts that they did not immediately leave the church when the outcast came in”(Achebe 155). With just that being said, within the church, osus had a different amount of respect than normal. But, the native people were not happy. They kept back their anger until the end of the service. When it was over they broke out in to argument and protested having the osu people among them. Mr. Kaiga, a christian missionary, had something to say. He stated,”Before God there is no slave or free. We are all children of God and we must receive these our brothers”(Achebe 156). Mr. Kaiga told to the face of many angry people that under this roof and under God, these people are just