Alice Walker, The Color Purple. Students' contributions

On her way to Africa Nettie was the first time confronted with white people in her life. They ignored her on the ship to England and she felt as a stranger. For Nettie it was her first trip abroad and she made a lot of experiences there. She even found out that the black people in New York wear other clothes and speak another English than she does. Nettie went to Africa as a missionary and helped the people there. The people in Africa were afraid of Nettie, Samuel and the others because even if they all were black they looked different than the "real" African people. They were a lot darker than the U.S. American Africans. The African people expected Nettie and the others to be like the white missionaries who wanted to bring Christianity to the African people even by putting a lot of pressure on them. But Nettie did not want to bring Christianity and modern culture to the people in the Olinka tribe. She enjoyed her time there and learned a lot too. She slept in the same round houses where the Olinkas sleep and she really liked them because in America they do not have round buildings. She respected the culture of the Olinkas.

Nettie went to Africa with Olivia and Adam, the two children of Celie. Their step-parents did not know that Nettie was Adam's and Olivia's aunt but they had a very close relationship to her. Olivia was the only girl in the Olinka tribe who went to school because in the Olinka tribe girls are regarded as inferior to men. The family members did not want their girls to go to school because school is none of their business when growing up and getting children later. Olivia went to school but was ignored by all the boys except for her brother there. You can see that there is still inferiority inside a tribe, the whole tribe being inferior to the European people. But it changed when Tashi's father died and she was alone with her mother then, because her mother allowed her to go to school with Olivia and after her a few other families followed this example of Tashi's mother and let their girls go to school.

Adam fell in love with Tashi and respected the Olinka tradition of scarring the face and he even did the same to his face as a proof of his love for Tashi. But just after that another example of inferiority toward others took part in Nettie's life. British workmen built a road through Africa for a white business company and its route went straight through the Olinka tribe's village. The people had to give up their normal life and had to start helping other black people planting. The British people did not respect anything of the Olinka culture, they just exploited the country to modernise it and to build their road across it. The British people just destroyed the village and did not feel ashamed of it. This was the first time for Nettie in her life when she really felt the inferiority of black people towards white ones. So she left Africa and headed to London. I think this part of the book is a really emotional one and I liked it best.

First published in the Yearbook 2000 of the Gymnasium Hamm, p.79; written in the third term of a Leistungskurs.