How we cite our quotes: Act.Line
Quote #1
I think you've shocked his big pagan heart bless him. (2.12)
Jane is telling Simon that they've shocked Amusa with their egungun costumes. Of course, as Simon reminds her, Amusa is not "pagan," since he's converted to Islam. But neither Jane nor Simon seems overly concerned with the details when thinking about the emotions or reactions of non-British people. Ugh.
Quote #2
Olunde. Haven't replied to his last letter come to think of it. The old pagan wanted him to stay and carry on some family tradition or the other. Honestly I couldn't understand the fuss he made. I literally had to help the boy escape from close confinement and load him onto the next boat. A most intelligent boy, really bright. (2.77)
It seems Simon worked pretty hard to get Olunde away from Elesin so the young man could get a medical education in England. And while his intentions may be good, they're also super ill informed. Yanking a guy away from his family with only the vaguest understanding of the "some family tradition or the other" that Elesin wanted Olunde to participate in = no cultural sensitivity awards for Simon.
Quote #3
Oh no, master is white man. And good christian. Black man juju can't touch master. (2.88)
Joseph is basically agreeing with Simon that their costumes (confiscated from some egungun men) are harmless. It is interesting, though, that he doesn't really reject the power or reality of "Black man juju"—he just says that Simon is immune to it as a white man.
Quote #4
What do you mean you don't know? It's only two years since your conversion. Don't tell me all that holy water nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory. (2.109)
Simon is frustrated that Joseph doesn't know what the drumming in the distance is. He manages to offend Joseph big time with his blasphemy here.
Quote #5
Madam, this is what I'm trying to say: I am not sure. It sounds like the death of a great chief and then, it sounds like the wedding of a great chief. It really mix me up. (2.114)
Once Simon is done blustering, Joseph explains that the drumming is consistent with both a wedding and a death, which is why he said he didn't know.
Quote #6
Er… forget what I said just now. The holy water is not nonsense. I was talking nonsense. (2.138)
After Jane explains to him how offensive his blasphemy is to Joseph, Simon manages to apologize to him.
Quote #7
JANE: But surely, in a war of this nature, for the morale of the nation you must expect . . .
OLUNDE: That a disaster beyond human reckoning be spoken of as a triumph? No. I mean, is there no mourning in the home of the bereaved that such blasphemy is permitted?
JANE [after a moment's pause]: Perhaps I can understand you now. The time we picked for you was not really one for seeing us at our best. (4.111-113)
Although it's not quite the same thing as calling holy water nonsense, Olunde thinks that calling a catastrophic war a triumph is blasphemous as well. Extreme, perhaps… but what do you think?
Quote #8
Your calm acceptance for instance, can you explain that? It was so unnatural. I don't understand that at all. I feel a need to understand all I can. (4.147)
Jane is trying to understand the customs and thought processes that led Olunde greet the news that his father is dead so calmly. Olunde chalks it up to his medical training, but Jane is sure there's something she's not understanding about Yoruba custom here. And you know what? We think she might be right. For once.
Quote #9
I no longer blame you. You stole from me my first-born, sent him to your country so you could turn him into something in your own image. Did you plan it all beforehand? There are moments when it seems part of a larger plan. He who must follow my footsteps is taken from me, sent across the ocean. Then, in my turn, I am stopped from fulfilling my destiny. Did you think it all out before, this plan to push our world from its course and sever the cord that links us to the great origin? (5.18)
Elesin is suggesting that perhaps Simon was part of some larger plan to ensure not just Elesin's downfall, but that of his entire community as well. Of course, even though Elesin is explaining how devastating this whole arrest thing has been for him, Simon really never gets why Elesin is this upset.
Quote #10
PILKINGS: Your son does not take so gloomy a view.
ELESIN: Are you dreaming now, white man? Were you not present at the reunion of shame? Did you not see when the world reversed itself and the father fell before his son, asking forgiveness? (5.22)
See? We told you Simon never really got it. Case in point: He and Elesin have wildly different perspectives on Elesin's reunion with his son after the suicide ritual didn't go off; Olunde was clearly unhappy with his father, but Simon doesn't seem to want to admit that.