"Unless you shave off the mark of your heathen belief I will not admit you into the church, said Mr. Kiaga. You fear that you will die. Why should that be? How are you different from other men who shave their hair? The same God created you and them. But they have cast you out like lepers. It is against the will of God, who has promised everlasting life to all who believe in His holy name. The heathen say you will die if you do this or that, and you are afraid. They also said I would die if I built my church on this ground. Am I dead? They said I would die if I took care of twins. I am still alive. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. Only the word of out God is true. The two outcasts shaved off their hair, and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith" (Achebe 157).
In this part of the book Mr. Kiaga who is in charge of the congregation is sick and tired of Mbanta's superstitions of how if you have twins they must be left in the Evil Forest to die and that outcasts must never cut their hair and cannot go to any of the tribe's assemblies or live in house. Traditional culture is challenged by imperialism because when Mr. Kiaga tells the two outcasts that they will not be punished by their "heathen gods" if they shaved off their hair because he was also told that he would die if he built the church in the Evil Forest and yet he is still alive after many months. The two outcasts grow courage from Mr. Kiaga's words because if God did not punish Mr. Kiaga for having the church in the Evil Forest and taking in abandoned twins then he would have died long ago instead of staying alive so the two outcasts shave off their long hair and become some of the most devoted people of this new faith. Imperialism through the new religion disproves the traditional culture the Mbanta tribe knows because if their gods were truly real than Mr. Kiaga would have been punished which makes some people convert to Christianity and believe in only one God.
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