ABSTRACT
To the knowledge of all, during the course of colonial presence in Africa, there had been a close relationship between Christian missionaries and European colonists. This chapter concentrates on the missionary-colonist relationships and their reflections into the fiction of Achebe and Beti, pursuing to offer the rationale behind negative and positive images of the missionaries as to be discussed in the following chapters. It has been ascertained that part of the grief towards missionaries divulged in the select works results from missionary-colonist cooperation, but a more significant part is dealt with the methods of Christianization and attitudes of the missionaries towards native Africans. More manifestly putting, representing the authorial voices, some of the native African characters in the select fiction of Achebe and Beti are immensely disturbed by the contemptuous, oppressive and exploitative ways and manners of the European colonists and missionaries and thus embark on a resistance to missionaries and colonists.
