Poisonwood Bible Blog post #3

In one of the first chapters from five-year-old Ruth she points out that there are only 6 white people in the village of Kilanga. She describes the tribesmen as sinners who are the sons of Ham (Ham’s children were cursed to be slaves—“that’s why they are so dark.” It is an important voice for the author to use when trying to express the racial tensions in this time period, because Ruth is the perspective of a young, impressionable child. Ruth is saying these things to the readers (not out loud) and does so with no aggression or hostility. She says it as fact, and explains that it is the word of God. She completely believes that segregation is put into practice for a reason and that her race was biologically and religiously created differently than the Congolese, because that is what she is told. She does not hold the same responsibility of an adult, who can form an opinion for themselves (whether they are religious or not). 

She does not say these things from a place of anger or superiority, because she is groomed by both her family and her society in Georgia (The Western World) that this is just the way things are meant to be, and that practices like segregation are put into practice for a reason. The segregation of Georgia is a contrast to this village environment. Here, they have no choice but to interact with the people of Kilanga. The girls can no longer live in a sheltered society that keeps them from sharing experiences and forming relationships with different ethnicities. Many of them change the opinions that they arrived with of the villagers. 

Orleanna is the first member of the family to have compassion for them, and hear their traditions and customs. The Reverend spends his first evening preaching to the people of Kilanga and trying to make them feel ashamed of their nakedness and their sins. However, this is not interacting with the Congolese, but commanding them. He interprets the word of God to fit what the U.S. has constructed, and preaches that God separated these races and intentionally placed one as the superior. It is hard to take his words from a place of logic or sense. It is even more difficult to read little Ruth's chapters as she explores life in the Congo and casually inserts her unknowingly racist views. Through the perspective of the youngest sister, the author successfully conveys the racial interpretations of the missionaries as they try to convert Africans—or at least their use of religion as an excuse to colonize the Congo. Though her ending is tragic, Ruth is one of the most honest and telling narrators in the novel.