Barbara Kingsolves novel The Poinsonwood Bible as an example of post-colonial literature.

Barbara Kingsolves novel The Poinsonwood Bible as an example of post-colonial literature

The year is 1959 and the story unfolds in a Kilanga, a village 200 miles away from the capital Leopoldville. A family of five is plunged into the middle of the Congo with the initial intentions of converting the locals to Christianity. The story is set on top of an intense political backdrop as the Congo’s struggle for independence from Belgium continues. Throughout the book there are countless issues that Kingsolver deals with by using the story as a front. If we start to break up the fabrics of the Christian family, the fabrics of the Congolese community and analyse certain relationships a much deeper theme of race, religion and the ultimate affect of colonialism starts to emerge.

Status is a theme that is followed through from the basic story to the background ideas about colonialism. There is an obvious hierarchy of power and influence in the American family and also in the Conglonese community. If we compare the way the two communities work, in terms of power and relationships, we can also look at the way Kingsolver is portraying the Western civilisation in general. Nathan Price is the dominant figure in the Price family, which becomes obvious as the story unfolds. He is only portrayed through the eyes of his four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May and his wife, Orleanna. By not having a direct expression of thought as the other characters do, he is put at a distance from the reader, which in turn may symbolise his distance from his family.

‘The church service lasts twice as long now because the Reverend has to say it once in English and then…’.’On a walk one morning our father turned to his daughters and said…’

These quotes emphasise this point of distance between Mr.Price and his family. His daughters always address him as ‘the Reverend’ or ‘Father’ and never use colloquial, friendly slang such as dad or papa as they do with their mother. This just proves that there are clear elements of respect and even veneration in their father-daughter relationships. Instead of making him less influential within the family, as a distance like this might, it seems to make him more powerful as there is a fear factor among the women. It seems that they respect him because they fear him. There are certain aspects in his character that have gained him his status; his strong will, his stubbornness and his arrogance. He possesses such as strong will to change what he thinks is wrong that it would be hard for a character like Nathan Price to not influence everything around him to suit himself. When they are settling into their home Mr.Price decides to grow some vegetables for his family in their garden. An inhabitant of the village insists that-

‘Tata Price you got to be make dem hills, that flat land wont be making any crops’

Instead of listening to the locals he rejects the advice only to find that three days later his seeds were swamped by torrential rain. Because Price was so arrogant of his own knowledge, he dismissed the logical advice as unimportant or stupid.

‘The torrent had swamped the flat bed and the seeds rushed out like runaway boats. Father glared.’

This is an incident that particularly emphasises certain aspects in his character that he should be ashamed of. It shows that ...

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‘Tata Price you got to be make dem hills, that flat land wont be making any crops’

‘The torrent had swamped the flat bed and the seeds rushed out like runaway boats. Father glared.’

This is an incident that particularly emphasises certain aspects in his character that he should be ashamed of. It shows that he is reluctant to accept that there are other ways of doing things that don’t necessarily correspond with his own. It exaggerates this point of arrogance and pompousness.

Nathan Price’s influence in his family can be paralleled with Tata Ndu’s influence in his local community. Tata Ndu again is only portrayed briefly through the eyes of the wife and daughters but he comes across as the Conglonese equivalent of Nathan Price.

‘Tata Ndu is the chief of Kilanga and everything past it in several directions’

Tata Ndu seems to have the same stubbornness, arrogance and status within his ‘family’ that Nathan Price has. I think it is interesting that Kingsolver has placed such a strong minded character as the African leader as in most colonial tales the Africans or natives seem much more placid and submissive to the imposition of a different religion or culture. This seems to underline the fact that actually there was a huge resistance from Kilanga, on a small scale, and Africa, on a much larger scale.

‘I demand justice, he is a shamefaced chief with three wives and a sure cheek’

Nathan resents him bitterly because of his careless attitude towards religion and his stronger attitudes that oppose his own. The reasons for their bitterness towards each other don’t seem to be just because of their characters. There are feelings that are so deep-rooted with in them and differences so unmistakable between them that their relationship has to be taken for more than face value. The direct collision of religion seems to be the main reason for their strong antipathy.

‘Brother Anatole, I fail to see how the church can mean anything but joy, for the few here who choose Christianity over ignorance and darkness!’

The use of the word darkness here suggests that Nathan clearly believes their religion and their culture to be evil and ‘dark’. He also uses the word ‘voodoo’ and ‘witchcraft’ to describe the local religion. It is no coincidence that they are two rivals on ether side of a religion. Tata Ndu seems to represent Africa and Mr.Price seems to represent the West. I think by taking these two figureheads and separating them by race and religion Kingsolver is making a point about the cash of religion in a colonial Africa. The political state at the time corresponds with the story as Africa is rejecting Belgium as its ruler as Tata Ndu is rejecting Christianity as its religion. In both circumstances the key word is imposition as the West have intruded on Africa and forced a culture on them. The Reverend is obviously looks down on their beliefs and practises, which connects with the point of pompousness that the reverend seems to possess. It seems that he prides himself with his religion and strong beliefs so when Anatole questions it:

‘Our chief, Tata Ndu, is concerned about the moral decline of this village…He worries that the people who go to church are neglecting their duties’

-He is enraged and can’t understand why the locals don’t accept Christianity as he does. I think that from the very beginning Mr.Price is blinded by his religion. His faith is so strong that it seems to have moulded his decisions and actions and magnified his stubbornness and arrogance. In this case instead of what in theory should have ‘shown him he light’ has in actual fact twisted his perspective on reality and perverted his views of what is morally acceptable. His religion is so important to him that he jeopardises his own life and gambles the safety of his family just to spread the word of Christ in a small African village.

As soon as the Reverend sets foot in the village he is immediately faced with the afflicting views and diverse culture of Africa. The nakedness episode is chronologically Reverend Prices first attempt to impose the Christian laws on the locals. Not surprisingly, because of his character, he reacts very strongly and quickly to the issue of ‘nakedness’ among the Kilangan women.

‘ “For nakedness,” Father repeated, “is the darkness of the soul!” All the eyes in the room followed fathers accusing glare.’

This incident just illuminates Reverend Price’s arrogance of his own culture and ignorance of theirs. He is built in with such a pretentious attitude towards his own beliefs that he fails to notice the fact that these people have lived that way for years because that is their culture. Throughout the book Price is desperately trying to gain the village’s faith in Christianity. However any effort he makes to convert the locals, through bible readings or improvised baptisms, seems to be in vain because of the language barrier and because of the inconvenience of Christianity in comparison to their native religion.

Inconvenience is a key point in the rejection of Christianity in Kilanga. ‘The riverbank, though attractive from a distance, is not so lovely when you gat down there…the River Kwilu is not the River Jordan chilly and wide but lazy, warm and infested with crocodiles’

This is a quote from Orleanna Price commenting on Kilanga’s rejection of Reverend Price’s baptism. It seems that the reverend had dreamed of dunking children into cold water while uttering the words of Jesus Christ but in reality the environment of Africa simply doesn’t allow for the Christian idealist.

This raises another issue about the way Christianity is portrayed through out the story. It seems that the self-important, pretentious, arrogant Mr.Price is a symbol for the West’s arrogance and pretentiousness in the imposition of religion on the unsuspecting native lands.

‘There are Christians and then there are Christians’

This is a quote from Brother Foweles, another Christian missionary in Africa, in explanation from some awful decisions that Reverend Price made. I think that Brother Foweles kind, warm hearted and generous character was dropped into the story to save Christianity from being totally blamed because I think that Kingsolver didn’t want Christianity as a religion to be held totally responsible for the imposition of the western culture. This is taking into account that it wasn’t just the religion that was being forced onto Africa but a totally different way of life, a totally different culture.

There came a reckoning, a moment of truth in which the villagers voted for Jesus Christ or against him.

‘The collapse of things started in October, with the vote in the Church, we should have known to bow our heads and leave the Congo right there and then.’

This ‘vote’ is maybe the most important Reverend Price vs. Tata Ndu, Christianity vs. ‘voodoo’ face off that implies the Western culture vs. African culture. It is an example of Tata Ndu and Reverend Price in combat but it also highlights the discussed point of the inconvenience of Christianity in Africa.

‘We will be making a vote for Jesus Christ in the office of personal God of Kilanga village…Jesus Christ a white man, so he will understand the law of la majorite, Tata Price.’

This vote is relatively humorous to the reader because Tata Ndu is using the western idea of democracy against ‘Mr.Western himself’-Reverend Price- which is highly ironic. Jesus Christ lost, eleven to fifty six because most of the locals voted for there own religion as a matter of practicality. It is this practicality that is Reverend Price’s downfall. As the ‘Kwilu River’ quote highlights- in theory the world joining to become Christian is beautiful but in practice it just doesn’t work.

By investigating the efforts of Nathan Price to impose his religion on the small village of Kilanga we notice that Nathan Price is a representation of the whole of the western civilisation and the small town of Kilanga is a representation of Africa as a whole. By using these examples as metaphors I can come to some sort of a conclusion about Barbara Kingsolvers novel as an example of post-colonial literature. I think that behind the story of a family’s struggle to be accepted in a foreign country lies a guilt that her society once grew prosperous from exploiting others. I think that by using this story as a front she is subtly expressing her beliefs about the effects that colonialism has had on the third world. She enables the reader to delve into the world of a postcolonial Africa and discover the dark, dark roots.