The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

“Tata Jesus is Bängala” is a phrase that embodies the cultural tensions found in the thought-provoking novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. The novel, a story of a missionary family in Africa, deals with culture clashes, missionary faux pas, and African history. And although Kingsolver herself is not a Christian, she delves into a misconception of Christianity through exploring the culture and tradition of its heritage in the western world.

The novel begins in flashback, with the mother, Orleanna Price’s foreshadowing thoughts as she tries to reconcile the past by piecing it together in the present. The family moves into a distant and small African village situated near the border between the modern day Congo and Zaire. The novel, divided into seven sections all named after books from the Bible and the Apocrypha, travels from view-point to view-point, each chapter written by a different female of the family. The father of the family, Nathan Price, and the other characters in the African village and beyond are all seen through the lens of these young Georgia girls and their mother as they grow and change in the African landscape. Kingsolver’s description of the emotional upheaval in the family is coupled with extensive insight into the flora and fauna of Africa. The physical becomes a canvas for communicating emotions suppressed by the family patriarch and their own cultural norms suppressed by their new environment.

The rise of war and the power struggle between the white man and the African is depicted on small and large scale. Nathan Price, an extremely controlling man, practically occupies his family, imposing on them his ideas about life. Eventually he becomes so overwhelmingly unreasonable and crazy that his family, forced to wake up from their nightmarish life in order to survive in Africa, must leave him. Each female finds her own way to cope with the baggage they carry. Africa, also occupied by the white man, realizes its inner turmoil will only resolve under the emergence of freedom. The end result for both family and country is a constant struggle to overcome their past while still fighting for a future.

In the middle of all the chaos, Kingsolver ties these revelations back to the Bible with her liberal use of biblical imagery. The Price family, sent as missionaries who are eventually cut off from their source, are constantly questioning a God that becomes culturally charged against the backdrop of unfamiliar territory. The encircling perspectives each girl forms travels round and round as their American mannerisms slowly fade into the reality of the surroundings in which they live. None of the family females stay in the small African village in which they began, but Africa remains inside each of them; the answers they once had are replaced now only with questions and doubts.

The title The Poisonwood Bible references Nathan Price’s constant mispronunciation of the word Bängala. His frequent use of the phrase “Tata Jesus is Bängala,” or poisonwood, is juxtaposed with its intended “Tata Jesus is Bangala”—precious or dear one. Is Kingsolver’s title revealing an underlying criticism of Christianity? One idea she does present is a new definition or view of the Bible; her novel itself becomes a sort of Bible of memoirs for the family, each person interpreting life in their own way. Kingsolver confirms reality to be the bible to which she ascribes, since real life is preferred to the twisted translations of the actual Bible.

Kingsolver’s seemingly subtle commentary on Christianity is heavily embedded in all the themes of the novel. The plot holds five females in the forefront, all naively captivated by their Christian heritage, but then twists into an all around rejection of their faiths. The white man, the guardian of this westernized religion shows himself to be overly possessive and controlling for psychological reasons of his own, which explain, but by no means excuse, his actions. When country and family eventually reclaim control over their own lives, they both reject the white man and his religion since it was the premise for the occupation from the beginning. In many ways Kingsolver’s novel seems to be a response to the famous Rudyard Kipling poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” as the work describes imperialism at its supposedly finest hour.

Are we then to conclude, due to Kingsolver’s very real and expressive critique, that Christianity is only a white man’s excuse for the power and occupation of an allegedly weaker vessel? No, I think a more annotated approach to Kingsolver’s interpretation exposes a different conclusion. Kingsolver’s presentation of Christianity as a mere cultural and heritaged idea with little substance except tradition would lead anyone to reject such tomfoolery. Her definition of Christianity discloses itself to be solely a cultural one that brings only oppression and destruction, itself becoming mere crazy-talk. This characterization of Christianity omits its true underlying message, replacing it with the failures and lies found in one human society. This Christianity holds not the redemption, truth and grace that true Christianity does. In a world where even supposed Christians are rejecting traditional westernized Christianity, calling themselves “Followers of Christ” and the like to differentiate, Kingsolver’s critique is well-timed. Her gentle reminder exhibits only the cultural icon of Jesus in his westernized get-up called tradition, someone we can call Bängala or poisonwood, not the true redemptive Jesus who is in reality Bangala, precious and dear.