Religion and Wisdom - The Book of Night Women

In Marlon James' The Book of Night Women, near the time of the ball, a preacher is paid to come and speak to Humphrey's slaves. The narrator claims this happens ten times a year, introducing the native Jamaican peoples about the English God. The narrator is confused by their idea of a God: "But then he say God is father and he is son and he is spirit. That sound like he breed himself to get himself, then kill himself. White man God perplexing like the white man. Then when it be Easter, they say that people kill him and then he rise up from the dead and he in heaven now" (James 146). If this sentiment is mirrored by the slaves being presented to, this draws an interesting picture of logic and education. The white men are looked upon as the educated, as the logical beings ready to set forth on all the world their right and true beliefs. However, their religion is included. What's interesting about this is that the slaves are able to use logic to determine, with their experience, that such a description of God doesn't make sense in the world we live in. This ability shows the slaves are fairly educated in the ways of the world, despite the common idea that a native slave needs to know the white man's way of school. That the slaves look up to the white men for wisdom is also presented in Adichie's "The Headstrong Historian" in which the natives of Nigeria laugh at the same concept of three Gods, and the natives dismiss the idea. The narrator of "Historian" comments that the natives decided that this wasn't wisdom after all. In Night Women: "Preacher say there be only one God right after he explain that there be three God and look up in the sky when he say so" (146). I find the idea that the white man has the intention to bring education and wisdom to the peoples of foreign countries without such education fascinating, as part of that education is something unprovable. Not being able to prove something is the antithesis of education. So perhaps these natives with their curious nature and doubt of such claims of God are the wiser party after all.