"Things Fall Apart" - Part 2

Part Two of Things Fall Apart details Okonkwo's seven years in exile. During this time, the villages experience their first interactions with white men and Christianity. I found it interesting that when Mr. Bryan and Mr. Kiaga came to Mbanta, they didn't gain many followers when they conveyed their message to the villagers, but they gained the majority of their followers by not dying. The people of Mbanta gave the Christians part of the Evil Forest to build their church, figuring that the gods would kill them for simply coming, as well as for building in the Evil Forest. They lived. The same thing happened when they started rescuing twins from the forest. It was as if the converts converted because their gods seemed to be distant, or even dead, due to their lack of action over the breaking of so many rules. The converts figured they had a better chance of a good afterlife with the mighty Christians who defied the gods and lived than with their traditional gods.

The transformation of the attitude of the converts was also interesting to me. In Chapter 18, the town's outcasts were admitted into the church, but not without a major debate among the converts and Mr. Kiaga. During the debate one of the converts said, "'What will the heathen say of us when they hear we receive osu into our midst?'" (156) I was surprised when the convert referred to his fellow clansmen as "heathen" when just a short time ago he was fully enthralled in their traditional religion. "Heathen" has the connotation of being lesser than the speaker. Mr. Kiaga (the African interpreter for Mr. Brian who runs the Mbanta mission) also uses this term, even though this othering and superior nature is often associated with the European missionaries, and not with their converts who now look down upon those who were their friends, family, and equals (or more titled in society) before they converted and moved apart from the clan.