Out of Africa Religion Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

[Denys] knew great parts of the Old Testament by heart, and carried the Bible with him on all his journeys, which gained him the high esteem of the Mohammedans. (3.8.4)

Denys is a studied man, and one of his academic feats is memorizing huge chunks of the Bible. It's kind of interesting that, if he already has it memorized, he also has to carry it around. Maybe the sacred text works as a sort of good luck charm. Charming the Muslims, for example, by showing off his religiosity, might have been one of its powers.

Quote #8

You are bewildered when you read the second article of the faith of the Christian Church: That He was crucified, dead and buried, that He went down into Hell, and also did rise again the third day, that He ascended into Heaven, and from thence shall come again.

What ups and downs, as terrible as those of the man in the story. What is to come out of all this?—The second article of the Creed of half the world. (4.1.22)

The articles of faith in the Christian church is also called the Apostle's Creed, and refers to the agreed-upon beliefs of church members. This second one, which lists all the trials of Jesus Christ (that's who "He" is) helps the Baroness when she's in dark times because, at the end, when she is wondering what the point of it all is, she believes that there is a story behind it all.

Quote #9

The old Chief had many sons, it appeared that there were various influences at work in the Kikuyu world. Two of his sons, Farah told me, were Christians, but one was a Roman Catholic, and the other a convert to the Church of Scotland, and each of the two Missions was sure to take pains to get their pretender proclaimed. The Kikuyus themselves, it seemed, wanted a third, younger, heathen son. (5.2.3)

The death of the Chief of the Kikuyus leaves a power vacuum, which forces the churches to show their hands. They're interested in souls, but also power, so they each start backing a representative among the Chief's sons as his successor. Of course, the Kikuyus, too, are conscious of religion and prefer a non-Christian successor.