Existence as a Southern Baptist Reverend in a rural Congolese village is Nathanial Price’s ideal set of circumstances for the propagation of Western colonialism and patriarchy. Nevertheless, Reverend Price’s refusal to accept the intellectual value of his wife, daughters, and the native inhabitants of Kilanga in Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, proves fatal for his self-righteous plan. Consumed by his arrogant act of maintaining ignorance, the various targets of Nathan’s oppression use their presumed feeble mindedness to usurp the Reverend and the larger socio-economic systems he represents. God’s will, or what Nathan deems as such, might make him feel enabled, possibly even encouraged, to promote sexist and racist ideologies, but it is the exercising of free will which provide his family and the Congelese the ability to see through his ingenious agenda. Consequently, resulting in varied acts of resistance which showcases how nuanced maneuvering is imperative when fighting for mental, physical, and political autonomy.
One of the most repeated instances of oppressive overlap between colonialism and patriarchalism is the degradation of intuitive mothering. For both Orleanna and the mothers from the village, nothing they do will ever meet the Reverend’s demands of domestic Western expectations. Consider how after being told Leah and Adah are scholastically gifted, Orleanna shifts the girls’ focus from that of play to that of studying. In response, Nathan scolds Orleanna for educating their daughters, warning that
“sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,”
a mere waste of resources and time (Kingsolver 56). Or how Nathan singles out and publicly shames a woman for being “heedless in … nakedness” during his first sermon in Kilanga (Kingsolver 27). A comment which disregards the fact that she is simultaneously “toting a… child…on her hip,” prepping the welcoming meal, and trying her best to listen to the Reverend speak in a language she does not know. In this instance Nathan reduces this woman of color’s existence down to her ability of maintaining a white man’s cultural expectations of western modesty and respect, as if these were ever relevant metrics before the Prices came to Kilanga. An act which reminds readers that Nathan’s main priority always has been, and will continue to be, discouraging what he considers “ignorance, idleness, and moral degeneracy,” instead promoting his “own version of civilization” (Manji and O’Coill 569). The Reverend’s dismissal of situational and cultural context here serves to emphasize the pedestal Nathan has resided on and grown accustomed to for simply existing as a white Christian man.
In both instances, Nathan’s failure to empathize as a parent takes away from his credibility in the eyes of his wife and that of the Congelese. In turn, giving ample reason for both parties to openly resist his demands. On one hand, the Reverend wants absolute sovereignty, but on the other hand, by demanding input on child rearing he walks on a thin line which very nearly gives credit to the “unpaid domestic labor” he has come to expect, and rely on, the women in his life to provide (Spencer-Wood 478). Nathan’s superiority complex prevents him from seeing the contradictive nature of wanting control over how children around him are raised without participating in it himself. As a result, Orleanna overcomes her comfortable complacency in the matter and continues the girl’s schooling during their mission for as long as feasibly possible. Likewise, the Congelese largely resist adhering to Western urban standards of dress because in their rural village it doesn’t even compare to their most pressing concern. Albeit later in the novel it is noted that some women now cover themselves and their children, it is only when in view of the Prices at religious services and done only for their “benefit” (Kingsolver 47). This act, in part, illustrates how
“most forms of resistance involve some degree of conformity” (Spencer-Wood 482).
In addition to the construct of submissive motherhood idealized by patriarchal colonialism, the act of forbidding education is another shared experience between the Congelese and the Price women. Just as the Reverend believes his daughters should prioritize finding a husband to please, Belgium colonizers “have always had the policy of steering the Congelese… away from higher education” (Kingsolver 126). Whereas Nathan wishes to keep his daughters ignorant to prevent a potential threat interfering with their role as a good doting wives, the Belgums do this to discredit the integrity and intelligence of those which they have colonized. Of which, the damage of is put on full display when Orleanna expresses shock at the idea of Congelese independence since “not a soul among these people[the Congelese] has even gone to college or traveled abroad to study” (Kingsolver 166). Note how this comment invalidates knowledge gained through lived experiences and elevates the possession of academic knowledge above all else, a possession historically primarily reserved for wealthy white men. In turn, according to Spencer-Wood from Oakland University’s dept. of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, “legitimating the economic exploitation and social and political exclusion of subordinated groups” such as that of women and people of color (479).
Perhaps a projection of her own intellectual insecurities, Orleanna’s comments on the lackluster education of the Congelese carries a weight of irony with them considering how she also lacks a college education. To address urban elitism on a smaller scale, analysis of the patronizing manner which Orleanna is spoken to and about by her husband and daughters further emphasizes the likeness of patriarchal oppression and colonial oppression, as well as their intersection. At the start of the Price’s time in Kilanga, Leah expresses complete shock that her mother, “who grew up way deeper in Dixie,” has applicable, useful knowledge on the trees and fruits of the Congo (Kingsolver 101). Leah goes as far as exclaiming “who would have thought,” which is only reinforced by her husband talking to her in the same tone one would use whilst reprimanding “dogs that have peed in the house” (Kingsolver 133). Another similarity being the children’s perception of the Congelese language as one “that burgles and rains” and the missionary liaison laughing at the family’s “charming southern accent[s]” (Kingsolver 18). The inclusion of these interactions amongst characters consequently point to the classist belief that English more closely resembling that from England than America is inherently more correct; in other words, the one more resemblant to the colonizers way of speech than that of the colonized.
In summary, patriarchal practices and beliefs are embedded into the frameworks of colonization. With this in mind, a collaborative effort between Euro-American women and the inhabitants of colonized countries could potentially bear more fruitful results of autonomy than isolated instances of resistance. However, this can only be done if Euro-American women interrupt their own conscious and unconscious acts which reinforce the oppressive idea that they are somehow better than people of color.
Works Cited
Aldersey, Heather M., et al. “Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Causality and Implications for Resilience and Support.” Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, vol. 52, no. 3, 1 June 2014, pp. 220-33. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-52.3.220.
Coetzee, Azille. “Afrikaner Nationalism and the Light Side of the Colonial/modern Gender System: Understanding White Patriarchy as Colonial Race Technology.” Feminist Review, vol. 129, no. 1, 1 Nov. 2021, pp. 93-108. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789211041677.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible : a Novel. HarperFlamingo, 1998.
Krupianskaia, V. Iu, and M. G. Rabinovich. “The Ethnography of the City and the Industrial Settlement.” Sociological Research, vol. 3, no. 2, 1 Oct. 1964, pp. 13-19. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.2753/sor1061-0154030213.
Manji, F., and C. O’Coill. “The Missionary Position: NGOs and Development in Africa.” International Affairs, vol. 78, no. 3, 1 July 2002, pp. 567-83. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.00267.
McLean, Kate C., et al. “Integrating Systems of Power and Privilege in the Study of Resilience.” American Psychologist, vol. 79, no. 8, 1 Nov. 2024, pp. 999-1011. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001260.
Mkhize, Gabi. “Good Governance in Check: The Plight of Rural Women’s Development Agendas in Democratic South Africa.” African Journal of Development Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, 1 June 2020, pp. 219-35. Academic Search Premier, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=72fa75e0-234f-342e-ad7c-b5ad279f43ff.
Ngcobo, Seipati L. “The Conquest of Black African Women: A Collusion of Church and Coloniality in Africa.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies, vol. 80, no. 2, 1 Mar. 2024, pp. 1-6. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v80i2.9034.
Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language.
Passemiers, Lazlo. “Apartheid South Africa’s Reaction to Congo’s White Refuge Seekers, 1960–61<sup> 1 </sup>.” Africa Today, vol. 69, no. 1/2, 1 Sept. 2022, pp. 37-61. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.69.1_2.03.
Pecinovsky, Tony. “Conference Presentation 2021 Working Class Studies Association Conference Forging a Cross-Atlantic ‘Red-Black Alliance’: W. Alphaeus Hunton and the Council on African Affairs.” American Communist History, vol. 20, no. 3/4, 1 July 2021, pp. 131-38. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1080/14743892.2021.1964272.
Peel, J.d.y. “LONG-DEAD SOCIOLOGISTS AND AFRICAN HISTORY.” Journal of African History, vol. 32, no. 3, 1 Sept. 1991, p. 501. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700031571.
Pienaar, Jacques. “‘A Policy of Sacrifice’: G.B.A. Gerdener’s Missionally Founded Racial Theory and the Religionization of Apartheid.” Religions, vol. 14, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2023, p. 39. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010039.
Spencer-Wood, Suzanne. “Feminist Theorizing of Patriarchal Colonialism, Power Dynamics, and Social Agency Materialized in Colonial Institutions.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology, vol. 20, no. 3, 1 Sept. 2016, pp. 477-91. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0356-3.
Wilson, Suzanne, and Kim McGuire. “‘You Feel a Bit Lost’: A Case Study Interpreting White, Working-class Mothers’ Engagement through Habitus.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 43, no. 2, 1 Mar. 2022, pp. 314-31. Academic Search Premier, https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2022.2026762.
Sprockets and Springes 