The Ibo People vs. The White men

Lily Tikijian
September 24, 2008
Literature Period 6
Mrs. Pfanschmidt


Ibo People vs. The White Man

The Ibo people first believe that the white people aren’t so bad at first. They think this because of Reverend Brown. He tries to learn about their religion and there culture by talking to them. He tries to understand them and there belief system. All of the Ibo people respect him and think he is a nice man. Reverend Brown is the only one of the missionaries that tries to learn and respect their cultures and beliefs. Even though he doesn’t agree with them, he still tries to respect them and try to set them straight. He tells them about how there is only one main god and then they explain that they do only have on god but he created many other gods as his messengers. This starts to become clearer to Brown. The rest of the white men just automatically assume that the Ibo people are savages and that the culture is stupid and it doesn’t make any sense. When Reverend Brown falls ill, he must return to England. When he leaves Reverend James Smith takes over. Reverend Smith sees only in black and white, whatever he says goes, and he is very arrogant and selfish. This is really when the culture turns around and things start falling apart. The British think that the Africans way of life and culture is ridiculous and they don’t understand it. They think this because they don’t even try and understand it. They just think that what they belief in is right and everyone else is wrong. The Ibo people are taken advantage of and are the victims by the end of the story. They were once a string culture and now everything they ever knew has just fallen apart.