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CONVERTING CULTURE: READING CHINUA ACHEBE'S "MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR"

IN LIGHT OF BERNARD LONERGAN'S THEOLOGY OF CONVERSION
Author(s): William F. Purcell
Source: Religion & Literature, Vol. 45, No. 1 (spring 2013), pp. 81-101
Published by: The University of Notre Dame
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CONVERTING CULTURE: READING CHINUA ACHEBE'S
"MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR" IN LIGHT OF
BERNARD LONERGAN'S THEOLOGY OF CONVERSION
William F. Purcell
"Marriage is a private affair." So declares the ironic title of Chinua

Achebe's 1952 short story, which proceeds to demonstrate just how untrue
the assertion is. Nnaemeka, a young Igbo man living in Lagos away from
his family and village, has fallen in love with Nene, an attractive, highly
admirable, and urbanized Nigerian woman of the Ibibio ethnic group.
When Nnaemeka informs his father Okeke of his decision to marry Nene, it
causes a rift between this staunchly Christian father and son that takes years
to heal, and even then can only be overcome after the father experiences
a change of heart that is no less than a conversion of Pauline proportions.
Scholars have discussed this story as yet another fictional exploration of the
clash between traditional African cultures and Western Christian culture
regarding marriage.1 This sort of reading is, however, limited because it
misses a deeper theological point. With its focus on Okeke and his eventual
acceptance of Nnaemeka's exogamous (i.e. intertribal) marriage, the story
examines the ongoing process of conversion, particularly as articulated by
Bernard Lonergan. That is, this story dramatizes the process of the Gospel
encountering, challenging, and eventually leading Igbo culture toward a new
praxis based on its message of the universal familihood of humankind.
Christianity, African Literatures, and the Critics
Christianity and Christian missionary activity are recurring subjects in

colonial and postcolonial African fiction, often taking the thematic form
of a clash between Christian missions and indigenous culture. Postcolonial
critics usually discuss these texts as narrative explorations of Christian
ity's fundamental incompatibility with indigenous culture. Surprisingly,
R&L 45.1 (Spring 2013)

81
82 Religion (fc Literature
there has been relatively little academic discussion about them

examinations of the encounter between Christianity and Afric
at the religious level. This is particularly remarkable since Afr
the fastest growing Christian continent on the planet.2 By th
the twentieth century, second- and third-generation adherents
denominations brought to Africa by European missionaries were co
maturity. African-initiated churches were also rapidly increasing i
and membership. By the 1950s and 1960s, as the African colon
from European colonial control, Christianity was undergoing trans
from a foreign religion intervening in and undermining traditiona
what Simon Gikandi has called "a crucial part of the social an
fabric of postcolonial societies]" throughout the continent. N
those papers and chapters that have been published on the
Christianity and African literatures have primarily been framed w
context of Christianity's role in Europe's colonizing project and
extent, resistance to colonialism. This phenomenon, Gikandi s
may arise out of the perception of Christianity's modern histor
as "so closely aligned with colonialism and colonization that it is
separate the two."3
Gikandi's observation rings true. Yet it speaks more to the preocc
and concerns of academics and professional critics than to th
writers. As Brian Stanley points out, while few professional his
presented the relationship between the missionary movement
expansion in terms of a "crude conspiracy," willing missionary
in the colonial project has become "one of the unquestioned o
of general historical knowledge" among "less sophisticated
tions of the relationship by journalists and by academics in oth
Recently, Dana Robert has noted that for many scholars since
the missionary was "not so much an idealist as an ideologue, so
pursued single-minded goals in collusion with such forces as c
imperialism, modernization, or globalization." Only in the 199
icy grip of the 'colonialism paradigm' over mission history beg[i]n
as scholars were confronted with the undeniable demographic
global south that marked Christianity's transformation into "a
nonwestern religion."5
In literary criticism, the orthodoxy that Stanley notes linge
Killam and Alicia Kerfoot suggest that Islam and Christianity are b
of being tools of a colonization that "focused on drawing Afr
from traditional forms of belief, offering better education, e
and cultural power in the event of conversion." This seems a
though debatable, observation. They go on to add, however, th
WILLIAM F. PURGELL 83
colonial interactions, although based on reli

both the Islamic and Christian faiths, also counted
the political and economic lives of Africans,"6 W
an extreme, it reflects still common "unque
missionary complicity in the colonial project
Much of the literature from the colonial pe
aries for what Robert describes as "consciou
colonialism" and the subsequent disruption o
of life.7 Yet the writers themselves have been
nating than the critics. Their fiction often con
the African encounter with the Gospel at the r
Obi, for instance, can be read as one Catholi
attempt to reconcile the demands of the Go
family with Igbo philoprogenative priorities. D
of the Dumb can be fruitfully approached as
tion by a Jesuit-educated Catholic on missi
Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat brings together
liberation theology, and Marxist ideology in
biblical call to social justice in a colonial set
first novel, Things Fall Apart, explores the init
message as transmitted by European mission
with an already sophisticated spirituality and
That these writers would be interested at le
should not be surprising. After all, as Kwam
peoples and their cultures are very spiritual
in mission schools or otherwise exposed to in
tian faith. Most are or have been (at least nomi
primary interests may be in colonial politics
or otherwise, most of their texts also explo
encounters between the Gospel and a culture
gelized. This, I will argue, is the case with Ac
and "Marriage is a Private Affair" in particu
"Marriage is a Private Affair": Tale of a Prod
Achebe's intellectual and artistic interest in the interaction between Eu

ropean Christianity and traditional religion is evident in his earliest stories.
Three of the four stories he published during his student days deal directly
with the subject. His second published story, "In a Village Church," which
appeared in Ibadan's University Herald in 1950, is a humorous sketch about
84 Religion if; Literature
how Western conventions of liturgical worship are comically twi

indigenous community to suit their own cultural priorities. At the s
it reflects the degree to which Christianity has become an integ
contemporary Igbo culture. The 1953 story "Dead Men's Path" i
serious critique that explores the self-defeating consequences of the
disdain for traditional culture by westernized Christian converts
between these two is "Marriage is a Private Affair," which exp
familial and social tensions resulting from the collision of West
ized, Euro-Christian notions of marriage, family, and communit
attitudes of a recently evangelized culture still in the process of incu
with the demands of the Gospel message.
The narrative opens in Lagos, with Nnaemeka fretting over how to
his father of his decision to marry Nene. The more cosmopolit
raised in Lagos, has a diluted attachment to her ethnic heritag
credulous that anyone in contemporary society could find tribal
an impediment to marriage.10 Nnaemeka's worries are further co
by recent news that his father has already initiated the process
ing a marriage for him with Ugoye Nweke, the semi-literate dau
village neighbor (21—22). While on leave at home, Nnaemeka wor
courage to inform his father that he cannot marry Ugoye. Okeke is
perplexed that his son would resist the arrangement he has prop
He is then angered to learn that his son would make a decision
without consulting him, and becomes more vehement when he l
his son's intended is a teacher, which contradicts (so he believes)
teachings about the proper place of women in society (23). Fina
shocked into silence by the fact that Nnaemeka has chosen as h
someone who "spoke a different tongue" (23—24). Unable to dis
son from what he can only see as the fruits of "Satan's work" (2
severs his relationship with Nnaemeka, refusing to have anything to
either him or Nene. The rift lasts eight years, and only begins to he
Okeke reads a letter from Nene informing him that he has gran
want to see him. Okeke initially wills himself to resist, but his r
eventually broken by "remorse—and a vague fear that he might die
making it up to them" (28). Inverting the parable of the prodigal
Luke 15, Okeke is poised for reconciliation.
Some scholars have attributed the reconciliation anticipated in the
ending simply to an overwhelming wave of grandfatherly sentim
learning about his grandsons." Such a reading is unsatisfactory
reasons. First, it fails to consider the importance of lineage, bot
and maternal, in the Igbo cosmic view. More importantly, it ig
religious nature of the conflict Achebe deliberately establishes
WILLIAM F. PURCELL 85
tribalism on the one hand and the Gospel's re

cause division irrelevant on the other. When read with these considerations
in mind, Okeke's change of heart eclipses mere sentimentality.
The Old Order and the New: Three Critical Pairings
The story's original title, "The Old Order in Conflict with the New,"
alludes to a binary pairing of conflicting systems of values dominating
the story.12 In fact, the story is constructed around three such pairings that
highlight the tensions arising out of intimate contact between European
Christianity and traditional African society. First, there is the generational
pairing embodied in the father-son relationship between Okeke and Nnae
meka. Then there is the pairing of Lagos, the metropolitan site of colonial
contact where the story opens, with Okeke's (and Nnaemeka's) rural village
home, the site of traditional culture in which most of the narrative is set.
Finally, there is a gendered pairing of Nene, the educated, urban, profes
sional, detribalized, modern Nigerian woman whom Nnaemeka has chosen
to marry, with Ugoye Nweke, the traditional, semi-literate Igbo girl Okeke
has chosen for him. Each of these pairings serves to highlight different
aspects of the conflict introduced by Christianity and European culture.
The first pairing, between Okeke and Nnaemeka, symbolizes the old and
new orders suggested in the original title. However, these old and new orders
do not consist of adherents of the traditional religion against Christian
converts. Rather, the old order is the first generation of converts who have
embraced the Gospel and integrated it into the values of traditional village
culture, while the new order is their children whose more cosmopolitan
experience has made them aware of possible meanings of the Gospel that
never occurred to the parents. Okeke and his peers comprise the generation
of elders in their village while their children, Nnaemeka and Ugoye (and
their Ibibio generational peer, Nene), have been raised in and continue to
practice the faith. There is no mention of a foreign missionary presence,
suggesting that Okeke's Christian community is both self-sustaining and
self-perpetuating.13 To be sure, these Christians live side-by-side with fol
lowers of the traditional beliefs, as the reference to a "native doctor" and
traditional healing would indicate (25). Yet the general tone of the narrative
suggests the Christian element in the village community is neither minor
nor marginalized. Indeed, seemingly small details like Okeke's proposed
marriage negotiations with the family of Ugoye (21-22) suggest that by
the time of the events narrated Christianity is not merely confined to such
small and marginalized segments of the community as the osu outcasts, but
86 Religion (6 Literature
is already solidly established in the social and cultural fabric

Nigerian societies.
Okeke is the only character developed in any depth. Outwa
staunchly Christian. The text points out, for instance, that he
and night" (24). He also regularly retreats to a resting place "
sia tree" where he sits "to read his Bible." On the subject of m
places a premium on a "proper Christian upbringing" for any
bride for his son (22). He also rejects as "superstitious" and unc
neighbors' suggestions that he seek the services of a traditional
restore Nnaemeka to his right senses vis-à-vis marriage (25).14
his fundamental assumptions about society seem to have gone u
by Western values or, more importandy, by the Gospel. He m
instance, traditional beliefs about the second-class place of wom
ety: he frowns on the idea of anything more than a rudimenta
for women that would enable them to read the Bible (22), and
apoplectic at the idea of a woman presuming to teach—for wh
affirmation in New Testament writings of St. Paul (23). As an
he takes seriously his parental responsibility for arranging a prope
for his son, dismissing Nnaemeka's so-called modern notion o
necessary prerequisite for marriage and becoming perplexed to
of incredulity that his son could even contemplate contracting
without his input or prior approval (21-22). Finally, he has a n
of community that precludes the possibility of exogamous ma
mere thought of marriage with "a woman who spoke a differe
is "Satan's work" (24): it is an offense so heinous as to render the s
dead to the father (26).
Nnaemeka's unilateral decision to marry is in itself problematic,
obvious conflict with the Igbo concept of marriage as a concern to
clan.15 That, however, is a cultural issue not necessarily in dir
with the Gospel message.1" The more problematic issue is that
an Igbo. This is a concern that lies heavily on Nnaemeka's mind
the outset of the story (20-21) and which for Okeke ultimately
sort of good Christian upbringing he feels essential in a potent
his son (24). Lineage is of paramount importance in Igbo societ
relates the living to their ancestors, which obliges the one to the o
concern extends to maternal lineage as well, a point Achebe's text i
when Okeke demands to know whose daughter Nene is (23).18 Co
exogamous marriage, if not an outright taboo, has long been lo
upon as a betrayal of one's ancestors. In the late colonial perio
uncommon to the point of being scandalous, even among urb
and Igbo expatriates, as the "excessive de

the Lagos villagers demonstrates (26).19
If Okeke and his peers are the convert g
for that matter) is one of their decidedly
of the second generation of Christians wh
from childhood and continue to practice
all of the same priorities as their parents
nurtured by the culture of the village and is
denced by his dread over how to inform h
engagement to Nene (20-21). While his wor
infancy by the village culture, as a young
in the cosmopolitan culture of Lagos that
other ethnic groups, many of which also
in turn, has opened up the potential for
community, which includes the possibili
the hope for his father's eventual blessing
between the generations in this story echo t
of the Aposdes and the Letter to the Galat
of Jewish Christians who saw themselves
Jews" and heirs to the covenant through
the second generation of Hellenized Jews
proselytes" to Jewish customs and practic
faith-filled fellowship with God" through J
submission to the law.20
The second pairing between Lagos and t
in the opening passages and sets the tensi
the village-raised Nnaemeka agonizes over
marriage plans, he laments that Nene is
remote parts of the country" because she
(20). For her part, Nene admits that in "
the city" she has come to view the idea th
impediment to marriage as "something o
rator does not dwell on the tensions betw
contrast is nevertheless significant. In colon
as Lagos, Calabar (Nene's ancestral home [
sites of intercultural contact. They are pla
meet, collide, mix, and inevitably transfor
in proportional ways. Inhabitants of thes
traditional life and values, having already
eties back in the villages, and thus they grav
and practices. The village, in contrast, is
88 Religion &• Literature
institutions, identified with resistance to colonial domination. By set

story in a rural community where Christianity is already well es
Achebe departs from the usual associations. This departure, thou
indication of the depth to which Christianity has already penetr
society. The tensions present in the story, therefore, are not ind
a clash between traditional and European values, as is the case o
such as Things Fall Apart, but of an internal conflict as this local com
tries to sort out the implications of its Christian identity for its rel
with other Christian communities.
The third pairing between Nene and Ugoye draws attention to issues of
gender roles in traditional versus modern societies, as well as to the issue of
ethnicity at the story's thematic center. Nene, on the one hand, is a modern,
urbanized Nigerian woman. She has lived in Lagos her entire life, now
seemingly alone (20) since her father is deceased (21). Consequently she has
been largely isolated from the Ibibio village culture in which her immediate
ancestors were nurtured and knows "very little" about its values and practices
(20). She is educated (in the Western sense) and employed as "a teacher at
a Girls' School in Lagos" (23), therefore presumably independent and self
supporting. Ugoye, on the other hand, is a traditional Igbo woman. She is
described as "an Amazon of a girl" who was more than a match for the boys
in physical strength (21). In traditional society in which a woman would be
expected to bear many children and to labor in the fields, this would make
her a desirable bride. Her formal education, too, is limited: Okeke's letter
to Nnaemeka approvingly indicates that she received sufficient schooling to
enable her to read the Bible but was then sent "to live in the house of a pastor
where she has received all the training a wife could need" (22, italics original). There
she presumably learned such domestic skills as sewing, agriculture, Western
ideas regarding hygiene, supposedly Christian ideas of gender roles in mar
riage relationships, and whatever other knowledge thought necessary for a
pastor's wife in a rural setting.21
The differences between the two characters are rooted in the area of
education. Both are products of the missionary education system in co
lonial Nigeria, and it can be assumed that the primary education of both
characters was quite similar, concentrating on literacy (for the purpose of
Bible reading), and perhaps on domestic and cultivating skills. Yet while
Ugoye's schooling is minimal and has prepared her at best for a subservient
female role in traditional society, Nene's higher education has prepared her
to be a leader in the new colonial (and postcolonial) society. If missionary
education was indeed involved in the sort of "neo-traditionalism geared to
providing wives for the rural church elite" that Deborah Gaitskell describes,
missionaries around the world were also actively involved in raising the status
of women in their societies through secon

apparently contradictory aims of mission
internal struggle among missionaries seek
local cultures through inculturation of t
sionary input, and, on the other, to beco
witnesses who seek to challenge the cultu
Gospel.23
Each of these three pairings, then, draws attention to the tensions sur
rounding issues of ethnicity, marriage, and gender among a culture in
transition. Critics like Ode Ogege rightly note that in his short stories in
particular Achebe focuses on that transition, stressing "the importance of
ancient cultural traditions and habits in the survival and organizing of indig
enous societies" and the subsequent crises that arise when these values and
practices come under pressure from contact with those of modern society.24
What is missing from such discussion, however, is acknowledgement of
the specifically religious nature of the particular values at the heart of the
tension. And this strikes me as short-sighted, since for Achebe the religious
aspect of the tensions is intensely personal.
Achebe and Christianity
Achebe has spoken often about the experience of being raised by de

voutly Christian parents in an extended family and village divided between
Christians and followers of traditional beliefs. For example, he has described
the arrogance of some of his fellow Christians who looked down on ev
erything in traditional society as "bad or evil or [thought that it] should be
suppressed," while elsewhere he has talked about his own childhood attrac
tion to traditional festivals and celebrations, an attraction shared many of
the other adult Christians.25 He has said his parents were "strong and even
sometimes uncompromising in their Christian beliefs," yet also noted that
his father "retained a respect for the tradition he had left" at his conversion,
particularly for the masquerades, which deepened with age.26
As he grew into maturity Achebe became critical of the patronizing
attitude of the church towards African cultures. Such latent attitudes, he
said, tainted even the best-intentioned, such as the saintly Albert Schweitzer,
who regarded Africans as the "junior brother" in the Christian family.27
Yet elsewhere he also praised Christianity and its missionaries for standing
"firmly on the side of humane behavior" against the worst of the brutal
atrocities that traditional society was capable of, teaching, for example, that
"twins were not evil and must no longer be abandoned in the forest to die."28
90 Religion d; Literature
On one occasion he said that he no longer believed in

religion though he maintained cordial ties with the
elsewhere said that the truths of the Gospel messag
him.29 Finally, he has accused European culture of
"arrogance," and "stupid[ity]," for presuming that
history, civilization, culture, and religion prior to E
Yet he also credited university teachers such as Geo
James Welch, both renowned missionaries and religio
ally leading him to understand that Christianity an
were not necessarily mutually exclusive, that it is possi
and yet be able to worship your ancestors."31 This p
towards the church emerges in Achebe's fiction as w
stories through such novels as Things Fall Apart, No Lo
of God, the Nigerian encounter with Christianity f
Achebe's thematic concerns: it also reveals a similar a
missionary arrogance, ignorance, and disdain for tra
also acknowledging the positive changes effected by the
The Gospel and Culture
My reading of the present story is based on thre

tions. First, the Gospel is universal: it has relevance to e
place and time. Second, the Gospel is a radical call to
since culture is the medium through which humans per
call to change includes cultural change. Third, in ans
of the Gospel, it is ultimately the responsibility of
society, not the foreign missionary, to determine for t
the Gospel demands. In other words, the only true a
evangelization is what Louis Luzbetak calls self-evang
Christians believe that the truths of the Gospel messa
and eternal. Jesus entered the world at a particular
tory; that is, a particular cultural context. In order to a
listeners meaningfully he had to address them in their
speaking to and through their particular cultural fo
Peter DomNwachukwu puts it, "[p]ure Christianity d
appears as a synthesis between the revelation of Je
text," whether that be the Aramaic Jewish context in w
thousand years ago or the twentieth-century Igbo co
was raised.33 That is, the core of Jesus's message wou
same no matter what the circumstance in which it w
WILLIAM F. P URCELL 91
the manner in which it is expressed, the specific

the nuances it would stress, and the demands it
would differ depending on the situation in w
the message Paul preaches in his letter to the
the first recipients of the message were not j
received (and perceived) the Gospel through the
tures. It is also the message of the Council of
Acts of the Aposfies and reaffirmed in the le
there is but one Gospel, cultural differences plac
lives of the faithful specific to their cultures.34
If the Gospel is encountered and expressed th
to cultures is a radical call to change, to conve
1:15 both tell us that Jesus began his preachi
Greek word for repent in both of these texts
verb form of metanoia, which is more than sim
forgiveness for one's transgressions. Rather, it i
a radical turning around of one's mind. It is a
assumptions we have about the world and hum
new paradigm of the human condition based
come to proclaim: good news to the poor, libe
blind, and freedom to the downtrodden.35 Th
challenge, a challenge to perfect one's self.
Because the challenge is to all peoples, time
sponsibility of the converted to determine what
particular cultural situation. This is the crux
Gentile submission to the Mosaic law in the letter to the Galatians. Paul
argues that the Law is appropriate for the Jews to whom it was given, but for
those who were born into other traditions it makes no sense. Rather, it is their
faith in Jesus that justifies them, and the gift of the Spirit that should guide
them in determining what the Gospel demands of them.36 This is also one
of the points of Paul's letter to Philemon. Acceptance of the Gospel does
not automatically abrogate the master-slave relationship between Philemon
and Onesimus. Rather, Paul suggests, it is up to Philemon to determine for
himself how the light of the Gospel has transformed that relationship: to
determine how it has put the relationship into a new perspective and to act
toward Onesimus accordingly. This is the challenge Jesus gives when he
asks who is his mother, brothers, and sisters.37 It is, as well, the challenge to
Okeke and to Igbo culture. Paul seems to have his own answer regarding
the institution of slavery, but stops short of articulating it. Instead, he leaves
it to Philemon to recognize for himself the inconsistency with the Gospel of
this particular social institution and the cultural values behind it and then to
92 Religion & Literature
take the first small step towards Donal Dorr's "transformation of

of the world"; that is, toward conversion.38 Okeke likewise m
for himself how the Gospel has redefined his community and
step along his own process of conversion.
Bernard Lonergan on Conversion
Bernard Lonergan offers a convenient framework within which

the process of conversion, which in turn provides a relevant
which to analyze Achebe's story.39 He speaks of conversion
process that occurs at three levels: intellectual, moral, and r
Lonergan, intellectual conversion is a change of mind as one co
the truth of the Gospel, moral conversion is the accompanyin
values and lifestyle as one comes to understand the demands o
more clearly, and religious conversion is a change of heart and
as one falls in love with God and gives oneself totally to God's
stressing the life-long nature of conversion, Lonergan also says th
levels, while closely interrelated, may occur simultaneously or ind
Further, conversion is not simply a linear process moving u
toward one end. Rather, it is a fragile process filled with "br
fits and starts, plateaus and ravines, reversals and setbacks—fo
values are in constant competition with materialism, power, an
Lonergan also notes that while conversion is intensely perso
the same time communal. Being communal, conversion is a c
cultures, because it is through cultures that humans organize t
and interpret the world and God. He takes an empirical view
recognizing that there are multiple equally valid cultural tradition
all are potential vehicles through which the Gospel may be e
The Christian message, he says, must not be disruptive of culture
must seek to become "a line of development within" it.41 That is,
Magesa puts it, when the Gospel enters a new culture it must adap
"the elements that reveal the face of God already present" in that
This is not to say, however, that cultures and their institutio
sanct. Rather, like every other human production, cultures are fr
flawed—"contradictory and internally fissured wholes," in Kathry
words.43 Lonergan, too, recognizes this. He says that cultures "are
and immutable entities. They adapt to changing circumstanc
be reconceived in the light of new ideas; they can be subject t
ary change." The Gospel message, in turn, is that sum of "new
invites, and even demands, "revolutionary change." So, even
itself to the elements of culture that reveal Go

Magesa says, the Gospel must also reject tho
limit or otherwise deny God's presence. In
of the encounter culture, too, must change:
the culture does not change, the Gospel has
Missionaries and Culture
Missionaries have long understood that cul

which the Gospel message is expressed, enc
evangelization ultimately effects cultural ch
as did later missionaries like Matteo Ricc
Nobili (1577—1656) in China and India respec
a classicist view of culture that gained the u
through much of the age of empire.45 That
to be lived up to rather than as a set of mea
way of life, and the European cultures in wh
bated for more than sixteen centuries constitu
"converting" cultures has too often meant s
with European practices and values.
However, since the Second Vatican Council
a renewed recognition of the centrality of c
in human experience and, consequendy, an em
diversity. For instance, in Gaudium et Spes, th
Church in the Modern World, the council f
human person "can come to an authentic an
culture." The council further acknowledged
cultures," each with its own validity, and th
its own traditions rooted in particular cultu
communion with various cultural modes, to
too."46 In his apostolic exhortation EvangeliiNu
asserting that the Gospel is "certainly not iden
"independent in regard to all cultures." He w
all cultures need to be evangelized—and re-
added—not in any "decorative way," with a
Christian (i.e. European) practices, but "in
to their very roots." John Paul II reaffirme
cultures—"incarnation" or "inculturation" o
ogy—is "not a matter of purely external ad
all-embracing one" through which "the Chur
in different cultures ... transmit [ting] to them her own values

time taking the good elements that already exist in them
them from within."47 That is, evangelization ultimately must b
interior change, a conversion that leads to a "transformation,"
in the culture with which it is interacting. As the truths, value
of the Gospel permeate the culture and the consciousness of
evangelized people, they should become aware of "the chal
the gospel to certain aspects of their existing society."48
The Conversions of St. Paul and Okeke
If the Gospel is a call to metanoia, then the apostle Paul is the

example of the consequences of that call. Whatever happen
Tarsus on the road to Damascus, it was Lonergan's religiou
a life-altering event that brought about "a radical change
definition, and commitments," ultimately transforming t
Pharisees into the unapologetic, unashamed, and untiring
Gentiles.49 And if the encounter with Christ on Damascus Road
religious conversion, his letters, particularly when studied c
are witnesses to his subsequent and ongoing intellectual and
sion as he gradually comes to grasp the full implications of
Paul was the consummate man of his times. He lived in a culture that
was ethnocentric, hierarchical, and misogynistic. He believed, even after
his religious conversion, that Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and fe
male, were fundamentally different; that these differences were, in Pamela
Eisenbaum's words, "a God-given part of creation"; that people like him
self—free Jewish males—were the preferred state; and that the point of the
Gospel was not to make these differences disappear.50 However, over time
he came to realize that these recognizable and (for Paul) natural differences
were irrelevant before God, that in baptism "there are no more distinctions
between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are
one in Christ Jesus."51 That is, as Eisenbaum puts it, the challenge of the
Gospel as Paul came to understand it is for people who are fundamentally
different to construct "new human social relations based on the model of
family," recognizing that "people who are different can, if they so choose,
come to understand themselves as meaningfully related to each other, com
mitted to their well being, and part of a shared world"; that they are all
descendents of Abraham, whom God promised to make the father of many
nations—plural, not singular.52 And this points to the first steps towards a
cultural conversion, the Gospel callingjudaic and Hellenistic cultures—in
deed, every culture—to a praxis rooted in a

Achebe's story in Okeke's conversion in man
Okeke's religious conversion, his change of c
side the text. By the time of the events narrat
an old man and a committed Christian. Still
can be seen as incomplete, the superficial o
VI cautions against. That is, his conversion has
of his culture. For like St. Paul, Okeke rema
culture: he is patriarchal, misogynistic, and lat
is over the son's unilateral decision to marry, h
hearing Nene's decidedly non-Igbo name. W
condemns such a marriage as "Satan's work,"
with his son when Nnaemeka insists on going t
also bluntly point out to him that such a ma
among their people (24) and attribute the i
Even Nnaemeka's countrymen in Lagos, at le
their excessively deferential treatment of N
of them" (26).
The eight-year rift between father and son only begins to resolve itself
when Okeke learns about his grandsons—ironically, through a letter from
Nene. The fact that Okeke would read the letter is itself something of a
minor miracle, since for eight years he has steadfastly kept his vow to have
nothing to do with her, to the point of cutting her out of a wedding pho
tograph Nmaemeka had sent him (26). When he does read the letter his
resolution begins to break down. During this eight-year period Okeke had
willed himself to push Nnaemeka out of his mind, the strain of which, he
says "had nearly killed him" (27). This new knowledge, however, forces him
to come face-to-face with his prejudice and to reevaluate his commitments as
a Christian. Not even conscious efforts to deflect his thoughts with a favorite
hymn can prevent his mind from turning to these children (28). In a scene
that neatly evokes Christ knocking at the door in the book of Revelation and
the Gospel of Matthew's Last Judgment, Okeke envisions them as standing
wet and cold at the door waiting for him to let them in (28).53 His internal
struggle, in turn, is mirrored in the weather outside his window: the black
clouds, the winds, the thunder and lightning bringing with it the first rains
of the year which, the narrator says, "mark a change of season" (27-28).
That night, the narrator reports, Okeke "hardly slept, from remorse" (28).
In this one swift instant of conversion the difference, the presumed ethnic
impurity, begins to fade into irrelevance. With it Achebe dramatizes the first
fragile step towards a new concept of family and tribe.
96 Religion de Literature
Achebe returns to the theme of marriage in "Chika's School

No Longer at Ease ( 1960). In these later treatments the problematic
not across ethnic divisions, but across those of caste, as Christian ch
violate ancient taboos by proposing to marry members of the o
against the bitter objection of their family members. If this first t
of problematic marriages is cautiously optimistic, the later examina
more realistic in their estimation of the resentment and resistance which
such challenges to tradition will face. They are, as such, recognition that
the transformation of a culture through the Gospel, as Donal Dorr put is,
"is an on-going process which is never complete."54
Conclusion
Achebe is among the leading members of the so-called first generation of

modern Nigerian (and African) novelists. Like Nnaemeka, however, he is a
second-generation Christian. And, as is true of so many of his generational
peers, Achebe no longer shares the same convictions, fervor, or commitment
to the faith as the convert generation. Although he has slipped away from
the practice of Christianity as a religious faith, Christianity has neverthe
less been an integral part of environment in which he was nurtured, and its
values have remained with him. Those Christian-inspired values, in turn,
have informed his fictional examinations of pre-colonial, colonial, and con
temporary Nigerian societies. Likewise they have shaped the worldview of
so many of his literary peers throughout Africa, from John Munonye, Buchi
Emecheta, and Flora Nwapa in Nigeria, to Kenjo Jumbam and Mongo Beti
in Cameroon, to Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Grace Ogot in Kenya, to Dominic
Mulaisho in Zambia, to Es'kie Mphahlele and Bessie Head in South Africa.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century the third generation of Afri
can writers—who are already third- and fourth-generation Christians—are
emerging. If, as Achebe's story indicates, Christianity by the 1950s was
already part of the social and cultural fabric of Africa, this would be even
more so true of these subsequent generations of writers. For writers of this
newest generation, such as Uwem Akpan and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Christian identity is a given. Akpan, for one, is a Jesuit priest. Adichie, in
turn, has said that her Catholic identity is something she cannot deny: it
is something she was born with, "has taken ownership of" and "can never
get rid of."55 At times Christianity overtly makes its way to the forefront of
their fiction; at others it is present in the backgrounds of their characters;
always it informs the social and moral issues they explore.
The African peoples and their cultures, both Kwame Bediako and Ag
bonkhianmeghe Orobator remind us, are spir

much of the continent traditional spiritualit
transformed by Christianity. As critical readers
of this. Otherwise, we pay these writers serious
grave disservice.
NOTES
1. Innés, Chinua Achebe, 11; Carroll, Chinua Achebe, 155.

2. During the twentieth century the Christian presence on the continent has
from a mere 9.2% of the population in 1900 to an estimated 45.9% in 2000. If the
are limited to the regions south of the Sahara, then the number is nearly 60%. I
during this period the Christian population grew from 1.1% to 45.9%. Barrett et
Christian Encyclopedia, 13; Pocock et al., Changing Face, 134; Barrett et al., 13.
3. Gikandi, "Christianity," 112, 108.
4. Stanley, Bible and the Flag, 12.
5. Robert, Introduction, 1, 2.
6. Killam and Kerfoot, Student Encyclopedia, 256 (emphasis added).
7. Robert, Introduction, 3.
8. While literary critics have not taken much notice of the religious nature of Th
Apart, Nigerian theologian Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator found in the novel "such a
source of wisdom, narratives, and events that enrich, structure, and enlighten t
reflection from an African perspective" that he used it as the touchstone around
construct a model for African Christian theology. Theology, 10.
9. Bediako, Christianity in Africa, 176-77.
10. Achebe, "Marriage is a Private Affair," 21. Hereafter cited parenthetically
number.
11. Blaisdell, "Teaching Notes"; Carroll, Chinua Achebe, 155; Innes, Chinua Achebe, 11.
12. Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Chinua Achebe, 47.
13. The lack of a foreign missionary presence in this story can only be inferred. Nev
ertheless, such an inference is justifiable since such a wholly indigenous community would
be consistent with the sort of Anglican congregations with which Achebe would have been
familiar in his childhood. Historically, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) under Henry
Venn made a priority of rapidly developing a corps of indigenous catechists, such as Achebe's
own father, and an indigenous clergy in order to give a more indigenous appearance to the
faith. See Ayandelt, Missionary Impact, 181-86; also Williams, "Church Missionary Society."
14. For modern Western readers the continued belief in the efficacy of traditional medi
cine tends to call into question the nature of the faith of Okeke's fellow Christians, though
Philip Jenkins would suggest such belief is not necessarily inconsistent with Christianity. Jenkins
discusses at length the similarities between Christianity in the New Testament era and global
South Christianity in Africa today in terms of their shared "strong belief in the objective
existence of evil, and... a willingness to accept the reality of demons and the diabolical." He
98 Religion d: Literature
suggests that while Western post-Enlightenment Christians tend

related to demonic possession and exorcism as "marginal, symbo
nature," for African believers today these passages in particular
anity "a healing religion par excellence" New Faces, 98. For the
15. Uchendu, The Igbo, 50; Hilary, Inculturation Theology, 344—4
16. In his monumental study of marriage Edward Schillebeeckx
beginning the Church has considered marriage a civil institutio
itself to the customs of the society in which it found itself. Wh
church has always taught that only the consent of the couple c
he further notes that in the first centuries of the church marriag
affair" in which most decisions were made by the parents. Marr
17. Uchendu, The Igbo, 12.
18. Nzegwu, Family Matters, 25-26.
19. Uchendu, The Igbo, 51.
20. Sanneh, Disciples, 7-8. See Acts 15:1-29, Gal. 2:1-14.
21. Gaitskell, "Ploughs & Needles," 98. See also Ballard, White Men
"Education and Medicine," 267.
22. Robert, Christian Mission, 135-38.
23. See Bevans, Models, 117-18.
24. Ogege, Achebe and the Politics of Representation, 108.
25. Achebe, "Interview" by Rowell, 184; "Named for Victor
26. Achebe, Home, 10; Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Chinua Achebe, 6.
27. Quoted in Achebe, "An Image," 11.
28. Achebe, "Named for Victoria," 31.
29. Achebe, "Magical Years," 107; "Interview" by Rowell, 18
30. Achebe, "Interview" by Lindfors et. al. 29.
31. Achebe, "Magical Years," 104.
32. For the first assumption, see Shorter, Toward a Theology, 39
VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, par. 20; Schreiter, New Catholicity, 71.
Church and Cultures, 70-71.
33. DomNwachukwu, Authentic African Christianity, 3. See also
and Schreiter, New Catholicity, 11.
34. Rom. 1:16; Acts 15.7-11; Gal. 2:1-10.
35. Luke 4:18; citing Isa. 61:1-2.
36. Gal. 3:1-9; 2:16; 5:16-24.
37. Matt. 12:46-50.
38. Dorr, Mission, 92.
39. Some readers may question applying the ideas of a Roman Catholic theologian such
as Lonergan to a writer who was raised in the Anglican tradition. I feel there is sufficient
congruence between the two traditions to justify such an application. Writing in the early
part of the twentieth century, James Strahan has said of the Anglican tradition that "there
is a strong tendency to regard regeneration and conversion as independent experiences,
separable in time and different in important aspects" (108). More specifically, Strahan sees
conversion as a gradual "process" that culminates in a "deliberate turning of the will to God"
accompanied by "the personal acceptance of Christ by faith" (108). Strahan's description
echoes the sort of experience described by the famous Anglican convert, C. S. Lewis, in his
autobiographical Surprised by Joy. Its emphasis on the process, as well, also seems to anticipate
Lonergan. Strahan, "Conversion," 108.
40. Lonergan, Method in Theology, 118; 238^44; 267-69.
41. Ibid., 130; 362.

42. Magesa, Anatomy, 144.
43. Theories of Culture, 57. Lonergan's ideas are const
view of cultures that had dominated anthropological di
pologists today would accept such a view. Nevertheless, Lo
since it is concerned more with the process of cultural
holistic models. Indeed, his recognition of what he calls t
the plateaus and ravines of change, the relapses and se
seems almost to anticipate the postmodern critique of t
in Theology, 243-44.
44. Ibid., 78; Magesa, Anatomy, 144; Schreiter, New Cath
45. Bevans and Schroeder, Constants, 386.
46. Documents, 259; 264.
47. Paul VI, EvangeliiNuntiandi, Par. 20; John Paul II Re
49. Bosch, Transforming Mission, 126. For Saul's con
26:9-19; Gal. 1:11-17; Phil. 3:2-11. For his role as apos
50. Eisenbaum, "Is Paul the Father," 515. See, for exa
Gentile sinner, by birth); 1 Cor. 11:14 (long hair for wo
of nature); Rom. 3:1-2 (the advantage of being circumc
when you were called).
51. Gal. 3:28.
52. Eisenbaum, "Is Paul the Father," 522; Gen. 17:4-5.
53. Rev. 3:20; Matt. 25:34-36.
55. Adichie "Nigerian Identity"; "Conversation," 91.
56. Bediako, Christianity in Africa, 176-77 Orobator, Theology Brewed, 140-41.
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CONVERTING CULTURE: READING CHINUA ACHEBE'S "MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR"

"Marriage is a private affair." So declares the ironic title of Chinua

Christianity, African Literatures, and the Critics

Christianity and Christian missionary activity are recurring subjects in

R&L 45.1 (Spring 2013)

there has been relatively little academic discussion about them

colonial interactions, although based on reli

"Marriage is a Private Affair": Tale of a Prod

Achebe's intellectual and artistic interest in the interaction between Eu

how Western conventions of liturgical worship are comically twi

tribalism on the one hand and the Gospel's re

The Old Order and the New: Three Critical Pairings

is already solidly established in the social and cultural fabric

and Igbo expatriates, as the "excessive de

institutions, identified with resistance to colonial domination. By set

of women in their societies through secon

Achebe and Christianity

Achebe has spoken often about the experience of being raised by de

On one occasion he said that he no longer believed in

The Gospel and Culture

My reading of the present story is based on thre

the manner in which it is expressed, the specific

take the first small step towards Donal Dorr's "transformation of

Bernard Lonergan on Conversion

Bernard Lonergan offers a convenient framework within which

itself to the elements of culture that reveal Go

Missionaries and Culture

Missionaries have long understood that cul

in different cultures ... transmit [ting] to them her own values

The Conversions of St. Paul and Okeke

If the Gospel is a call to metanoia, then the apostle Paul is the

deed, every culture—to a praxis rooted in a

Achebe returns to the theme of marriage in "Chika's School

Achebe is among the leading members of the so-called first generation of

bonkhianmeghe Orobator remind us, are spir

1. Innés, Chinua Achebe, 11; Carroll, Chinua Achebe, 155.

suggests that while Western post-Enlightenment Christians tend

41. Ibid., 130; 362.

Achebe, Chinua. "The Education of a British-Protected Child." 1993. In The Edu

Lonergan, Bernard. Method in Theology. 1971. Toronto: U

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