ironically rises from their rigid belief in their own religion and its powers. The Christian religion was allowed to take root among them until it had gained such strength that they could no longer resist it. When the missionaries requested a plot of land to construct their church, the Mbantans happily offered an area of the evil forest, believing that the whites would quickly be destroyed by the sinister forces and powers of darkness there: "The inhabitants of Mbanta expected them all to be dead within four days. The first day passed and the second and the third and fourth, and none of them died. Everyone was puzzled. And then it became known that the white man's fetish had unbelievable power" (Achebe 139).
Once the church has been established and has obtained converts, the Ibos are virtually powerless to do anything, held within the constraints of their own religion and traditions. As retaliation for the slaughter of the sacred python, they decide to ostracize the Christians. Yet when Okoli, the convert accused of the deed, falls ill and soon dies, they quickly stop their actions. They take his death as a sign that the "gods were still able to fight their own battles. The clan saw no reason then for molesting the Christians." The initiative to repel the Christians quickly falls to the wayside as soon as there is a sign that the gods are still protecting them. Their strong traditions provide too high an obstacle to surmount; it is much easier for them to entrust their community to their gods.
Okonkwo, rigidly upholding many of his people's traditional warrior values leads the cries to expel the whites from villages but it is too late. For after the church arrives, then comes the white man's government and stronger connections to the outside white world, greatly increasing the invaders' power organizationally and militarily. The settlers and their customs begin to pervade every aspect of Ibo life. Okonkwo declares...