The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

There are many stereotypes and single stories about Africa and Christianity and its not that these are untrue, but they are incomplete. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe strives to complete the story of Nigeria by telling stories of the Ibo people at the turn of the century.  Dargan Thomas in her article, “How valid are Christian Stereotypes?” tries to paint the full picture of  Christians and the single stories that people associate with Christianity. Achebe and Thomas complete their stories in different ways. Achebe does so by telling the story of Okonkwo and the Ibo people and Thomas through a magazine article which reveals the statistics of many of the stereotypical things associated with Christianity.

A single story about Africa that Achebe tries to complete is that everyone there is poor and in needs  help.  The main character in Achebe’s novel, Okonkwo reveals to us that not everyone in Africa is deprived, “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife.”(Achebe 8)  Obviously there are parts of Africa that are poverty stricken but that is not true of the whole continent. One reason we think that the people of Africa are  so poor and in need of help is because of how the media portrays  and simplifies it as one place.  Many things about what we hear and read are true but we must remember   that it may be incomplete or a single story.

There are many stereotypes and single stories about the Christian faith but one that Dargan Thomas tries to complete is that all Christians are Republicans. “A 2008 Barna study found 51 percent of Republicans have spiritual beliefs that qualify them as “born again” Christians. Significantly fewer Democrats hold the same beliefs, but it’s still a pretty high amount: 38 percent.”(Thomas 2)  So about half of the Republicans have Christian beliefs but what people forget is that a little less then the 40 percent of the Democrats have those same Christian beliefs.  . So in the end it comes down to what the individual believes as most important and not a stereotype that the world has given them.

Another single story about Africa that Achebe strives to complete in his novel Things Fall Apart is that all Africans are uneducated. Okonkwo and the Ibo people may not be scientists and world renowned doctors but they can live on their own and they are smart enough to take care of themselves and their families.  The Ibo people are not able to just run to a store and buy their food; they have to grow it themselves. “Okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his seed-yams. He looked at each yam carefully to see whether it was good for sowing. Sometimes he decided that a yam was too big to be sown as one seed and the he split it deftly along its length with his sharp knife.” (Achebe 32) The process of farming takes a lot of skill and knowledge about the earth around them and how to use it correctly. This is a skill that many Americans who think Africans are so uneducated wouldn't even be able to know how to do and that is why Achebe tries to complete it in his novel.

Dargan Thomas also explains why the stereotype that “Christianity is only an American thing” is very off in her article.  “The U.S. still has the largest number of Christians of any country, with over 246 million people who identify as Christians—almost 80 percent of the U.S. population. But there are 2.18 billion Christians around the world. And only 11.3 percent of those live in the U.S.”(Thomas 1) Evidently there are many Christians in America but in the whole world they only make up about 11 % of the believers. Percentage wise there are also many other countries that have a much higher rate of Christianity then the U.S.

 There are many single stories about Africa and the Christian faith that the world hears about but they forgot that these stories are incomplete.  Achebe and Thomas both try to complete these stories in their texts “Things Fall Apart,” and “How valid are Christian stereotypes.” Achebe through the story of Okonkwo and the Ibo people, and Thomas in her magazine article. When looking at a place or a faith or anything that could define a person or community it is important to know everything about them and not just assume with the stereotypes that people hear about.  

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