I need to read this. When I went to Bible college in Lubbock in 1973 there were several Nigerian Bible majors training to go back to evangelize their country. I got to know them and their culture over the 3 years I was there. They came to the college as converts to the church of Christ via the Nigerian Christian Hospital ministry co-founded by one of the professors at the college who had spent years in Nigeria doing evangelistic benevolence work (actually flew medical supplies and food to villages during the Biafran war, at night, over treetops in an unlit plane). One of the men worked in the cafeteria as a cook and accidentally cut off his index finger. It sent him into a deep depression, spiritual crisis and existential black hole because, in Nigeria, if you were missing a digit you were not considered a "real man" and no one would listen to him as a minister.....
I bet you would find it very compelling. I don’t know how much those traditional mores and assumptions hold today, but during that transitional window, in which Achebe was writing, there was real conflict around beliefs like that.
I need to read this. When I went to Bible college in Lubbock in 1973 there were several Nigerian Bible majors training to go back to evangelize their country. I got to know them and their culture over the 3 years I was there. They came to the college as converts to the church of Christ via the Nigerian Christian Hospital ministry co-founded by one of the professors at the college who had spent years in Nigeria doing evangelistic benevolence work (actually flew medical supplies and food to villages during the Biafran war, at night, over treetops in an unlit plane). One of the men worked in the cafeteria as a cook and accidentally cut off his index finger. It sent him into a deep depression, spiritual crisis and existential black hole because, in Nigeria, if you were missing a digit you were not considered a "real man" and no one would listen to him as a minister.....
I bet you would find it very compelling. I don’t know how much those traditional mores and assumptions hold today, but during that transitional window, in which Achebe was writing, there was real conflict around beliefs like that.