One Man One Wife Analysis

I will start my article with a quotation from a renowned French literary man and philosopher Voltaire which goes as follows: “L’univers m’embarasse et je ne peux songer - Que cette horloge existe et qu’il n’ait pas d’horloger ” (http://www.dico-citations.com/l-univers-m-embarrasse-et-je-ne-puis-songer-que-cette-horloge-existe-et-n-ait-pas-d-horloger-voltaire-fran-ois-marie-arouet-dit/ Accessed 14thAugust 2017).In front of the perfection of the universe, traditional Africans feel the same uneasiness as the French intellectual, François Marie Arouet also known as Voltaire. Consequently, they had guessed long before they encounteredwhite colonisers that an entity should be behind the coming and going of seasons; the perfect succession of nights
The author of the novel under studyis a Yoruba-born man and he might have simply drawn the ingredients of this novel from experiences he witnesses,orhears about around him. The novel is all about the settling of an alien monotheisticreligion in the indigenous environment of a multi-divinity
Mr. David carries out this sacrilegious act in front of some villagers who are members of his congregation and gets away with it. Thus, he demonstrates the falsehood behind the sacredness of the ‘Odan’ tree. “The spirit of the god of the village” fails to retaliate to sheer provocation on the part of a stranger to the village. Consequently, this Missionary ridicules, despises and pours shame on African gods for the sake of “the Lord Jesus [who according to the Christians’ gospel] is the way and the life.” (Aluko 5). It is here the problem of the encounter between self and others; the propagandists of the new religion stand as “self” and auto proclaim their faith as the true faith and the others as false ones. Since Christianity is introduced side by side with colonialism, for some villagers to adhere to the new faith is to be near the new masters. This promiscuity with colonisers allows some of them to become monthly wage earners. They no longer work on village farms they earn their living by working in “the Lord’s Vineyard” (Aluko