Dangerous Assumptions

        If we could pinpoint a single motif throughout all of history as if it were a novel, one of the more easily spotted would be racial misconceptions and their consequences; it is a recurring motif in Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible for sure. Both on the part of the white people and the Congolese people, there are consequential misunderstandings of race and culture.
        Everyone is probably well familiar with the (hopefully entirely eradicated by now) antiquated western view of nonwestern cultures. The girls note how different the Congolese people are from the nearly naked, non-inteligent barbarians with bones in their hair that they were conditioned to expect. Other than physical, another harmful misconception held by Europeans was that the Africans were incapable of living a "civilized" life, just because the African civilization was different from theirs, and that the Africans, therefore, needed their help. But what works in one part of the world can fail spectacularly in another part of the world, as Father Price quickly finds out with his farming efforts. This scene was likely included by Kingsolver to illustrate the way that Europeans have come trying to impose their way of life on a land that it is not compatible with. It could be argued that Europeans did help the Africans by bringing technology, such as the wheel, but Anatole speculates that Africa did not invent the wheel because it is not useful there, not because they are less innovative. Kingsolver dismantles the Western misconception that the African's society was lesser because it was different, and shows that the most primitive ones, the true ones with bones in their hair, were the ones who believed this.
        The Congolese people also held some misconceptions which poorly illustrated al white people based on the despicable actions of their leaders. When their only contact with white people was with the Belgians during their brutal effort to colonize their country, it appears they made a logical conclusion based on the limited information they had. Anatole shares the two beliefs the Kilangans held about white people to Leah when she is concerned that some students do not respect her: Inwardly, they believe white people are all-powerful, able to "turn the sun on and off and make the river go backward" (280), but outwardly, they disrespect those who they feel have no business being in the Congo at all. And while this attitude is understandable in the presence of the likes of Father Price, it does prevent the Kilangan schoolboys from gaining as much as they could from Leah's teachings. It is part of the reason Leah never truly feels welcome in Africa.