The arrival of English Christian missionaries in Umuofia had major impacts on traditional lifeways- both good and bad. For example, the missionaries built a trading store in the village, where staples such as palm oil and kola nut could be sold for a high price. In Chapter Twenty One, it is narrated that the trading store brought a lot of money into Umuofia. This would have been a benefit for some of the villagers, who could profit off of goods they already had or could easily acquire. In addition, the trading store was likely importing goods from Europe which would have otherwise been difficult to acquire in rural Nigeria. Things like tea, cane sugar, and bicycles would all have been desired by the missionaries as items they were accustomed to using at home. Whether this was of a benefit to the people of Umuofia, we do not know.
In the very same phrase from Chapter Twenty One, which I have mentioned above, the narrator states that the missionaries have brought with them a "lunatic religion." Christianity was in many ways at odds with traditional Umuofia religion, and this many many people unhappy. Even the people who did not mind or were amused by the Christians and their teachings might be angry to find that a family member had joined the Church. An important plot arc of the book is that the Christians are tolerated in Umuofia for some time, but tensions grow to the point that their house of worship is destroyed. The Christian missionaries intended to convert, "save," and "pacify" the people of Umuofia, and though they succeeded in converting a few, they disrupted many lives. The arrival of the missionaries could even be called divisive because their presence quickly marked those who were willing to be changed and appeal to European dominance and those who would resist.
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