Throughout history, the white man has used fear and religion to suppress and control blacks beginning with their very first encounter in 15th-century sub-Sahara desert. When Europeans first discovered that there was life beyond cape Bojador they assumed they must not be human. How could anyone live in such a hot desert climate? Whites assumed they must not be from god but from hell and that is why they are so black. Throughout hundreds of years of slavery and eventually emancipation whites have used religion to suppress blacks freedoms, beliefs, and human rights. Blacks have constantly been put down by the white man but finally in the early 1960’s Malcolm X uses religion to give the people hope for change. The book “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe, tells a very realistic, but fictional tale about a village in lower Nigeria. The story depicts the lives of the Igbo people which made up about 15 million people in Nigeria [ Don C. Ohadike]. The Igbo people believed in a supreme god named “ Chukwu” and that he created everything and in return, he asks for obedience. Religion played a huge part in these people’s everyday lives and the way they lived.
Soon after the first Europeans came in contact with these people, missionaries started to come and try to convert them to Christianity. The missionaries told the Igbo people that their religion was false and that there can only be one god. The Igbo people often times did not take this very well and sometimes attacked the missionaries and burnt down churches that white people built. Europeans soon realized that almost all of the Igbo people would not convert and stayed true to their ancestors culture and religion. The Igbo people are very proud of their history and obedient to “Chukwu” which will end up costing them.
Europeans knew that Converting the Igbo people would be met with resistance and would not end well for the natives. The Europeans used christianity a...