An Amalgam of Africas

    Kingsolver's portrayal of Africa in The Poisonwood Bible seems to combine aspects of things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness while adding a little something of its own. While Kingsolver's portrayal isn't anywhere near as negative and foreboding as Conrad's, she does portray the jungle as something powerful and independent. Achebe's Africa is largely the Africa that humanity inhabits. There is some description of flora and fauna, but not much in detail. Kingsolver takes the accuracy of Achebe in regards to describing the village, Kilanga, and Conrad's portrayal of the jungle as autonomous and powerful, and meshes them to together, along with her own knowledge of ecology and and some animal symbolism to create and amalgam that attempts to portray both the village and the natural environment accurately.
    Conrad Paints Africa as a blank canvas, the land of the unknown. This is incredibly harmful, and ignores the complex cultures that have existed there for millennia. Kingsolver (thankfully) abandons these ideas, but she and Conrad do have some similarities. Conrad portrays the jungle as something personified, something with a will and a goal. While there's a stark lack of accurate natural description in Conrad's writing, Kingsolver challenges this with her knowledge of the flora and fauna of the area. In a village where everything has a name and names are powerful, this is very important. Kingsolver accurately portrays the natural landscape while still acknowledging its power dangers in an artful manner.
    Achebe's description of the African landscape is often confined to those areas that humans have shaped. While he does escape from this occasionally, like when Ekwefi and he journey to the oracle's cave, the landscape is mostly the villages of Umuofia and Mbanta or the yam fields. Kingsolver attempts to present an honest portrayal, like Achebe, of the village she is writing about. Obviously there are many differences, as the villages are in two different places, and the narrators are not native to Kilanga like Okonkwo is to Umuofia, but there are some similarities. One thing that stuck out to me was the superstition that a snake must be called a string at night so as to not alert it to one's location. This is mentioned by Okonkwo as well as taught to Ruth May by Nelson. This one superstition must exist between The Congo and Nigeria, and other aspects of culture might as well.
    Kingsolver, with her extensive knowledge of biology and ecology, discusses plants and animals quite frequently in the novel. They aren't just ornamental or a part of the setting though. Animals are very much symbolic in the book and play an important role in the development of the characters. The green mamba, for example, is highly symbolic in regards to Ruth May. Eeben Axelroot at one point mentions that there's no way you could see one in a tree because it blends in so well, the ultimate predator. Something inescapable, invisible, and undetectable sounds an awful lot like death, and it means death for Ruth May. Other animals show strong cultural differences and facilitate intercultural interaction. The owl that Leah keeps in the house is thought to be an evil spirit by the people of Kilanga. This is seen by Nathan as idolatry, however, and portrays cultural differences.
    Kingsolver merges aspects of Conrad's and Achebe's writing along with much of her own unique style to create the image of Africa in The Poisonwood Bible. While portraying the jungle as powerful and often very dangerous, she accurately describes the flora and fauna. She attempts, too, to create an honest image of the village and people of Kilanga. With some clever usage of animals as symbols and mediums for the portrayal of intercultural relationships, her image of Africa is created.