In a time when African Americans had few piercing voices in the “sea of racial injustice, Asa Philip Randolph made huge waves socially and politically Introduction Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida on April 15, 1889 to Elizabeth Robinson Randolph and James William Randolph. His father James a tailor and African Methodist minister taught him the importance of having a strong voice and character. Elizabeth Randolph was a skilled seamstress and put high priority on education and the right to defend one physically. The second son of the Rev. James William Randolph, a tailor and ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Although, in the novel Things Fall Apart by Achebe, he combats that idea through various examples of stories from the Igbo culture to show that the African people are much more complex than how the Europeans sees them as. From their language to their beliefs, the African people prove to be a real society with real thoughts oppose to the European’s idea of them. One of the first things we are introduced to the Igbo culture and their people is their language. European perceives Africans as people of silence because they would not know how to speak or talk. But instead, Achebe shows us that the people of the Igbo culture speak a very complex language that includes many literary devices.
Some good influences arose due to European imperialism; nevertheless in the long run it plagued the Gikuyu and left the society torn in pieces. The Western onslaught against the Gikuyu was led by Reverend Livingstone who had established a mission at Siriana for the intention of training Africans in Christian doctrine and potential leadership roles. Like his name implied, his view of the Africans was cast in stone, he treated them as children who needed guidance from the whites. Livingstone took on the attitude that the Europeans felt, that they were clearly the superior race. The white man had a burden, which was the responsibility to help others whom were not up to the standard of the Europeans, as they “did the natives a favor by bringing civilization to them”.
Men in the colonies also were in charge of cultivation and labor work. The women in Native American tribes did the outside work. Europeans disapproved of this gender role difference greatly. Indian men did not even wish to interact with the Europeans who they saw as feminine because of the gender role differences. Religion was another difference between the Europeans and Indians.
I also did not like the way Okonkwo despised Unoka. To me, Unoka’s cowardice is actually not entirely a flaw. During the part of the book when the white men came to Umuofia and introduced their culture and religion, which subsequently dominated over Umuofia’s orginal culture and religion, I felt that Okonkwo should not have attacked the white men. I felt that his pride and determination, which in this case was stubbornness, was a major flaw that brought his death. If he had been more cowardly and just
He was arrested more than once for resisting the government. His view on just and unjust laws was that an unjust law did not harmonize with the moral law- it just was not right. Martin Luther King Jr. did not want to "evade or defy the law as a rabid segregationist would", but he did not want to stand there and let the government do him and other African Americans wrong; therefore, he broke only the unjust laws, and he did so openly. Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. were two men fighting against unfair laws peacefully. Peacefully is the key word.
Marriage, it goes without saying is very critical in African society. Since it is forbidden in Catholicism for pastors and bishops to marry, the Catholic Church in particular did not have much success in converting many Africans to their religion during these earlier centuries. The Protestant Church had more success in converting Africans who then became clergy because it allowed for monogamous marriages by the clergy. Interestingly, many African churches identified themselves as Protestant yet permitted their priests and bishops to marry more than one wife, a practice that is still common today. These are the churches that I referred to earlier as practicing Africanized forms of Christianity.
In 1835, James Phillipo, a Baptist missionary, bought 10 hectares of land in the mountains behind Spanish Town(during apprenticeship) the new community was named Sligoville from the Governor of Jamaica, Marquis of Sligo. As apprenticeship came to its end, the Baptist missionary, William Knibb foresaw that the planters would force work on the free labourers by increasing the rent on the homes on the estates. He took steps to help his congregation to meet the threat. In 1839, after he was lent money to buy land, he was busily organising a number of ‘free villages’ for labourers who did not want to risk rising their rents on their homes and garden plots. Knibb and the other missionaries who followed him did not plan for the free villages to be a complete alternative to working on the estates.
Having come from a dysfunctional family, he finds refuge in living with Father Gilbert, a missionary that is in Cameroon spreading Christianity in the name of the church. However, Toundi recalls ‘a kick’ he was given when he was caught ‘mimicking him in the sacristy’ (pg.9), pertaining to his experience with Father Gilbert; an act that Toundi fails to register as inconsistent with Father Gilbert’s supposed role as a
Bella Myers Pre-AP lit Ms. Draper 1.24.14 Aspects of Religion in Things Fall Apart Religion is a major aspect in Things Fall Apart. The beliefs of the Christian and Ibo people are represented in both negative and positive ways. Specifically, the Christian people built hospitals, schools and places of resource for the Ibo people. Where the Ibo people were also thrown in jail by the Christians law, and had these beliefs pressed on them against their will. However, the perspective on these religions are not biased.