Going to another culture

• Knowing what you know now about Kilanga, what would you carry with you if you were the one heading to Kilanga for missionary work?  Why would these things be important?  What steps would you take to prepare yourself for your time in this culture?
• Describe some of the cultural misunderstandings between the Prices (especially Nathan) and the villagers.  What other examples can you find of the Prices failing to take into account the African context?
• What is significant about Nathan's first speech to the villagers who have come to greet the family?  What is Kingsolver saying about missionary work in Africa and how/if it should be conducted?
• If you were a Christian missionary to that culture, how would you handle certain cultural practices, e.g., polygamy?  Would you try to change the practice?  If so, how would you go about it?  If not, what difficulties might you encounter in trying to coexist with the practice?
• Depictions of Christ/saints:  If the best way to make Christ and Christian saints relevant to an African population was to depict them as African, would you be willing to do so?  If you were a missionary in a culture whose traditional religion had a female as its most important deity, would you describe Christ as a female to make Christianity relevant?  Why or why not?
• What is the significance of Ruth May's story (starting on p. 20) about Africans being from the "Tribes of Ham"?
• While the Igbo village of Umuofia (Things Fall Apart) and the Congolese village of Kilanga are greatly separated by physical distance, do you see any similarities (cultural or otherwise) between the two places?

• How would you describe each member of the Price family in a few words?  With whom did you identify and why?  Which member of the family fits in best in the African context?  How does each change in the course of the novel?
• Nathan Price:  He is the character around whom the lives of the other characters seem to revolve in the first two-thirds of the book.  Yet he has no voice of his own; rather we learn about him through the eyes of his wife and daughters.  Why do you think Kingsolver did that?  Do you think it weakens the novel in any way to not allow Nathan to speak for himself?  Do you think his beliefs and motivations are adequately explained through the eyes of others?  What additional information would you like to get from Nathan himself?
• Is Nathan Price a realistic villain or an offensive stereotype?  What differences exist between Nathan and his predecessor, Brother Fowles?  To what extent is Nathan this novel's version of Okonkwo (see pp. 96-97 for example)?
• What view of God does Nathan promote?  In what ways do the other members of the family question that belief?  How does Nathan's view of God differ from the way the villagers see their gods and the roles they play?  What consequences do these differences have for Nathan's missionary work?