Nathan Price believes that it is his duty to bring the Congolese towards Christianity. However, the real reason for colonization by the western world was for extraction of raw materials that would profit the economies of foreign nations. For example, Axelroot (an american pilot in the village) tells Nathan Price that Belgium had been syphoning rubber out of the Congo for decades.
“I do not like to contradict, but in seventy-five years the only roads the Belgians ever built are the ones they use to haul out diamonds and rubber. Between you and me, Reverend, I do not think the people here are looking for your kind of salvation.” (Kingsolver 122).
Nate's Take
Price's mission to convert the natives through religious colonization was doomed from the start. Although, the villagers welcomed him and his family with open arms to their village they were never going to become Christians. The villagers saw Price in the same light as the Belgian colonists that had occupied their nation decades prior. When Nathan told the villagers he wanted to bring them towards the light of God, they saw it as another "road" that the Belgians built.
Question
Should the villagers have viewed Nathan Price as just another western colonist or should they have been more opened minded towards him?
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