Throughout the book there was a culture clash occurring between the British and the Africans, but before you can understand this occurrence you must first realize that in his book Achebe was specifically writing to the British to show them that his culture may have been viewed as primitive but it was authentic and was without need of ³salvation² from a foreign nation.

When the British had come into Umofia there were many differences in customs and ideas between the Africans and the British. One majo

The British also pushed their religion upon the Africans in hopes of taking over the nation. They thought that if the majority of the native people were members of the Christian church that they would be easily influenced in becoming a part of the British empire. Often times the British missionaries would openly state that the native gods were not real and they were only pieces of wood and stone. After hearing this the villagers believed the gods would take vengeance for such blaspheme but when nothing happened to the missionaries many people joined the Christian church. This is one the main reasons how the British were gaining power in Africa; they would convert the natives and gain influential power over the nation¹s affairs.

Another meaning that could be taken from this book is that the main theme was to stress the progress of imperialism. Imperialism is the process in which a larger nation moves in and takes control of smaller nations. In this book the British are moving into these African countries and are trying to take over their governments by, in a sense, assimilating the native people into members of the British culture. They are slowly introducing their own religion and government to the natives and more and more people are begging to essentially ³sell out² into this new culture. Throughout the book many people were thrown into jail or killed for breaking British laws. Once when a member of the Christians demasked and killed and egwugwu the punishment was set by the village that the Christian church would be burned. This was not against the village rules but when the district commissioner had found out about these actions he put six of the village leaders in jail. He stated, ³We have a court of law where we judge cases and administer justice just as it is done in my own country under a great queen (Achebe, pg.167).² In this quote the commissioner was stating that his government had power now and not the native one. He threatened to kill these men if a large fine was not p

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