Respond to two of the below prompts in about 6 sentences each. You may respond to classmates’ posts, but your ideas must be unique.
Respond to two of the below prompts in about 6 sentences each. You may respond to classmates’ posts, but your ideas must be unique.
Ms Bularzik's Blog 
Evaluate the work the missionaries are doing among the Ibo people. Are there positive aspects to their influence? Negative aspects? And aside from their actual influence, how are the missionaries’ intentions positive and/or negative?
The missionaries are helping people by building places for people, and an even bigger market for the people. The economy of the Ibo people is flurishing because of the wealth that Palm wine brings them. The church is bringing happiness to the people who joined them, and feelings of safety for people joining the church. They have positive intentions because they think they’re doing a favor to the Ibo people.
The Church is providing security for the Ibo people. They are providing them with shelter, a place of safety, and larger markets. The church is also accepting those who were not accepted previously by the Ibo people, such as the outcasts, and pregnant mothers of twins. They are providing a feeling of safety, and providing them with the faith that they will be okay.
One positive fluency that the missionaries have is that they are creating an opportunity to start a new life. A negative influence e that hey have is that they are new, different, and overpowering.aside from influences i think most of the Ibo people are pretty mad that they are being taken over. But then again, a lot of them switched to Christianity so its even keel. 50/50
The missionaries positively influence the Ibo by providing an education for them. Mr. Brown builds a school and hospital, and begs clan members to send their children. Although much older members attend more, as they learn to read and write they are able to get jobs working for the white peoples’ court. Mr. Brown even sends Nwoye to college to further his education. However, the missionary work negatively impacts the clan because by educating the clan members, they can teach them aboutreligion too and lead the toward the ChristiN church.
I agree with Meaghan on some points. I do believe that the missionaries positively influence some aspects of the Ibo people. They bring over vital technology, like medicine and education. But I believe that they cause more harm than good. The missionaries cause chaos within the villages. They also cause rivalries and deaths. These are negative things that the missionaries being to the Ibo people.
I think over all the missionaries have been bringing positive aspects to the Ibo tribe. Mr. Brown builds schools to help educate people and hospitals to help cure the sick. Also, I think Mr. Brown could be giving a lot of people hope in their life when they convert. The only negative aspect really is that people who don’t believe in the missionaries are getting angry and restless and want to do something about them and it is tearing families apart. Overall, I think the intentions of the missionaries are good but people like Okonkwo take them the wrong way.
I agree with Janelle’s points. The missionaries are also bringing in schools that are not only for children but adults too. More and more Ibo people are giving into what the missionaries have to offer because it is beneficial to them which is what the missionaries intentions are. I also agree with the negative aspect Janelle brought up. Okonkwo is having a really hard time with change and he is getting very angry with everything happening around him. He is taking it a completely different way than it was intended.
I think there are both positive aspects to the missionaries’ influence among the Ibo people. They set up new trading stores and brought ibo commodities into the market, bringing in wealth to the ibo community. They also set up schools to educate the Ibo people with western education, so that they could gain positions within the new community and have a say in the matters of the community. However, there are also negative aspects. The missionaries attempt to destroy the native religion of the ibo people with Christianity. In a sense, they are destroying part of ibo culture, since religion has played a big part in their history. However, I think the missionaries come with good intentions. They desire to convert the natives so that they do not end up in hell, as it is said in the Christian Bible for those who do not believe in Christ. They also want to set up laws and order within the community, which is always good.
The missionaries did work among the Ibo people that had a positive influence. They helped by building house for people to stay in. They also made a big market place. Mr. Brown built a hospital and school that had a positive influence. They also are created a happy and safe environment at the church.
The missionaries had a positive influence on the Ibo people. They gave outcasts a place where they can fit in and feel safe. They built schools and hospitals to help the Ibo people. However the missionaries also bring negative aspects too. They are upsetting the Ibo people who refuse to convert to their religion.
The missionaries have done work among the Ibo people that have intrigued some to convert to Christianity. I think it is a negative influence, the Ibo will start to loose thier unique culture and way of life. As Okonkwo said “what has happened to our people? Why have thry lost the power to fight?” (175) the people of Umuofia have changed, they are afraid of destruction as it happened in Abame. But as the people of Umuofia go along with what the white men want they are destroying their culture.
There are some good things that come with the Christian church. They are building schools to help the people learn to read and write. They are also building hospitals and providing medicine that wasn’t available to the Ibo people before. They are willing to accept the outcasts and the leaders of the many tribes and teach them many things. They are also setting up a court to help the Ibo people.
The work that the missionaries have done among the Ibo people is influenced positively. Mr. Brown has built a hospital that helps all the sick people of the village. He has also built a school there, where the children can become educated. This will only positively influence the village. It makes it safer, and healthier. Religion is being taught in the church, and the church is now a more safe place for people to go.
I agree with Casey’s point that the missionaries have influenced the Ibo tribe in a positive way. The buildings and add ons to the village were good additions, the hospitals which help people become healthy, and schools obviously are educating the tribes. But on the other end here are negative aspects to the missionaries because they came in out of nowhere and changed everything and they are tearing the tribe apart.
The missionaries are providing a justice system and a Government within the Igbo culture. Positive influences is that the missionaries are providing a reasonable religion in comparison to the igbo religion. Positive aspects have been supplied to the Nigerians such as education and laws. They even placed a prison for the lawbreakers to reassure justice. The negative aspects include completely dominating the culture of the Igbo people with rights, culture, and religion. As seen in chapter 21 Nwoye changes his name to isaac. Although the missionaries intentions have good intentions for educating the native to become more intelligent men and women.
I think the work the missionaries have dove among the Ibo people is positive. They have built schools for the children to learn in and hospitals to take care of people. They have accepted the outcasts and given them shelter and a place to feel safe, and they have taught the Ibo people about their culture. The negative aspect is that the Ibo culture is slowly diminishing because of the missionaries. Also, the people who do not agree with the missionaries religion are upset because they are converting their family members and friends.
Out of everything, the missionaries are positively affecting the Ibo tribe. They are bringing positivity and hope for the people and trying to build schools in order to help their people to be educated. The missionaries also built hospitals to bring medicine for them and to help cure their illnesses. The negative side of the missionaries are that the people in the Ibo tribe that are not part of the converters are mad and angry to get rigor the missionaries, which is causing more trouble within the tribe.
Evaluate this quote in the context of recent chapters:
“How can he [understand our customs] when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (176).
This quote shows that things are falling apart on their villages. People are breaking away from their traditional religion. This is a causing a weakness in the village because of a split in the village. The Ibo people resent the church because it is weakening their culture, and people aren’t working together like they used to. Also, families are splitting because of this situation.
I agree with Keith. I think this quote illustrates the fact that things are continuing to fall apart. Everyone is coming apart. The church is no longer working with the people in the village because of the Christians who have entered the community, and families are growing apart. The village is becoming very weak due to all the changes in things falling apart.
Obierika is asking Okonkwo these rhetorical questions about why they would even bother to fight the missionaries. His reasoning’s are the Christians can’t even understand the language, they would be fighting against their own brothers and it is almost the clans fault for letting the missionaries set up on their land. The clan laughed at the Christians, thinking they would never last; but they were proven wrong. The Christians now have a lot of the clans people and Okonkwo and Obierika were blind to how clever the Christians were. Now, the clan can’t act as one like they used to. Things are falling apart even more because of these Christians.
This quote is used to explain the ibos frustrations with the missionaries. They have entered their land, and the ibos planned on tricking them and weeding them out. However, the white man has prospered. They have exceeded their expectations, causing many of the Ibo people to join their ranks. This angers okonkwo and his people because they did not expect the missionaries to be this successful. It also puts into perspective that the ibos people’s customs weren’t as successful as they had thought it would be.
The men are discussing how they cannot remove the missionaries. He was saying how so many if their men have converted and how they shouldn’t fight against heir own people who have went to the missionaries. Because the missionaries showed how the clan was wrong, people are beginning to see differently. Because so many people have left, it isn’t a true tribe anymore, which adds to the falling apart of their society and beliefs.
The two men are discussing how they would even be able to get the missionaries out of their land. Obierika is saying how their own men who have converted would only turn against them. It would be pointless to fight their own men only to lose. The missionaries have proved everyone wrong and now that people have seen it with their own eyes they are amazed. Since they have lost so many people in the tribe to the Christians they cannot even act as a clan anymore. If they cannot act as a clan then everything that used to be normal to them will vanish.
Okonkwo wants to fight the whitemen out of their country and bring his people back to its orignal state. His friend, Obierika, doesnt agree with him, if they start to fight the white men and thier brothers who joined them things will fall apart. Fighting among their own people will lead to serious consiquences and people will get hurt.
Okonquo is very angry about all of the white men coming to the Ibo tribes and have converted people to their religion. He is angry that they come over and don’t even try to learn about the Ibo culture or language before they decide that it is wrong and they need to be like the white people. He believes that the white men are tearing the villages and culture apart and he hates it. Now that many of the Ibo are on the side of the white men it would be more a fight against his own people than it is against the missionaries. Oberika says theses things to try and get okonquo to realize what would happen if he did start a war.
Obierka is talking to Okonkwo and tries to reason with him that their is no point to fighting the missionaries. Obierka goes on about how it would be fighting their own people because most of them are converted and it wouldn’t be right. He also states that they thought the white men would never last, but they proved them wrong. He also explains the white people are quite clever and smart and the fact that they survived in the evil forest means that they are very powerful people. Okonkwo stubbornness towards the religion will eventually lead to things falling apart.
This quote represents the break apart of the e tribe. the missionaries are coming between the people of the tribe and destroying the culture of the tribe. They talk about how the people are smart and are getting between the other people and just tearing the religion limb from limb. Due to the fact that the missionaries want people to convert it changes the tribe and causes controversy .
Okonkwo wants to fight the missionaries to drive them out of their village, but obierka disagrees. If Okonkwo starts a fight, he will hurt his own people who have converted. Okonkwo does no think its right that the white men came to their village and told them their customs were wrong, because they do not even speak the Igbo language. Obierka tells Okonkwo that the white men are smarter than they all thought they were because they were able to survive in the evil forest and they were also able to convert many people in their village. Also, if Okonkwo tries to fight the missionaries he will also be fighting his own people who have converted.
Explain and evaluate Mr. Brown and Akunna’s conversation about gods. What parallels are they able to find between their different religions? Do they or could they provide a basis for mutual understanding? How so or how not?
Mr. Brown is arguing with Akunna over the legitimacy of the Ibo gods. Mr. Borwn beliefes that the Ibo are worshipping many small gods more than their main god, Chukurwu. Akumna rebutes to tbis by stating that the Ibo fear that by asking Chukurwu too much, they will overwhelm him. Mr. Brown argues that the ibo should not be living in fear of their God, they should know their god is friendly and loves them like the Christian god loves his peiple. Akunna also tries to explain that the Ibo only go to Chukurwu after the smaller gods fail, because you should only bother a master if his servants fail you. Althugh Mr. Brown’s argument that the Ibo living in fear has validity, he doesn’t realize that they live in fear because they wish only to please their god.
Alumna and Mr. Brown both agree that here is one superior gods. Mr. Believes he is he only god while Akunna believes in messenger gods to contact the highest god. Akunna explains how the Ibo fear heir god because they only want to please the highest god. Mr. Brown argues that people should never fear their god but know he loves them.
Mr. Brown and Akunna discuss the idea of lesser gods that are used to communicate to the main god, Chukwu. Mr. Brown argues that there are no such lesser gods and that one should communicate directly to God, while Akunna claims that the lesser gods should be used as messengers so as to not worry Chukwu with mortal problems. They find that they both believe in a superior god, known as Chukwu in Ibo culture. While they don’t arrive at a solid mutual understanding, they both discuss their beliefs and make valid points based off of them. For example, Akunna says that people should not anger or worry the Chukwu with their problems and should rather communicate their messages through the lesser gods. However, Mr. Brown goes off this point to say that his God is a loving father who should not be feared.
Mr. Brown and Akumna argue over the Ibo gods. Mr. Brown believes that the Ibo fear god while Akumna just wants to please god and make him happy. Akumna believes that there is a messenger that reports to god while Mr. Brown thinks that everyone should just go directly to god instead of the messenger. They both believe in a superior god but they cannot come to a mutual understanding.
Mr. Brown and Akumna’s conversation about religion was a positive thing that happened in this chapter. Mr. Brown seemed to begin to understand what the Ibo religion was like. The connections that Akumna was trying to make with Mr. Brown were trying to help Mr. Brown understand the Ibo religion better. Akumna pointed out that the smaller gods were messengers for the one big god, Chukwu. Akumna also said that Mr. Brown was like a smaller god, a messenger for his bigger and all powerful God. Mr. Brown didn’t understand this at first but he began to understand what Akumna was trying to say.