Monday, April 18, 2011

The White Man's Religion

When the missionaries invaded the surrounding tribes of Mbata and Umuofia, I could not help but feel a little sympathy for the tribes. The Word of God is absolutely wonderful, but these white men neglected one important aspect of these tribes' culture- their government. The white men did not only attempt to change their religion (as they should have). They also tried to impose the ideals of white men on the tribes suffocating the cultural life out of the tribes. Page 176 illustrates the perfect example of this: "The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family, who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter" "Does the white man understand our custom about land?" "How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad." Introducing God and His son to a people group is beautiful and should be done as the missionaries did. The missionaries declared a loud statement when they built their churches and homes on the land of the Evil Forest. By doing so, they said, "Our God is bigger than your God." However, by creating and implementing their own government the missionaries arrogantly denied the tribesmen and women their cultural traditions and made the statement, "We, as white men, are far more superior to your subordinate race." The Umuofia tribe governed themselves differently than the traditional white missionary. Unless someone's life was in danger, the missionaries should have not placed a foreign court system in the land of the tribesmen without the counsel, education, and acceptance from the tribe council. As the old saying goes, "Separation of church and state." The missionaries did not introduce a viable religion that the clansmen could understand, rather many of them did not follow the Word of God by preaching on their level, but above their heads and stating that their governmental customs were the direct result of their God. The missionaries needed to focus more on proving the clansmen's gods subordinate to God. Not their governmental system.

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