Things Fall Apart Chapter 22

Mr. Smith came to Umuofia to replace Mr. Brown and he encouraged the zealots of the church to act out against the pagan tribe. It was this encouragement that brought about a great conflict between the church and the tribe. Enoch, a fanatic Christian and the son of a tribal spiritual leader, unmasked an egwugwu in public, which was a great crime and insult against the ancestral spirits. Because of this insurrection, the tribe determined that Enoch had to die, and when they went to kill him, they found that Mr. Smith was protecting him in the name of the Christian church. Rather than hunt Enoch down and kill him, the egwugwu who had come to the church in the night to exact their vengeance settled for burning the church, the shrine that had bred all this trouble. Mr. Smith was powerless to stop them.

Topic Tracking: Religion 11