Quote 1
"This is your penance for sixteen years of pulling up your nose at my cooking." (3.7.18)
Orleanna plays the blame card on Rachel, although the emotion of guilt never seems to register in her. (Hey, that's moms for you.)
Quote 2
You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next. (4.Prologue.24)
Orleanna implores us to live for the living, not for the dead. They're only watching, and they can't react to our actions. (OR CAN THEY?)
Quote 3
"You make it sound like she's an accessory he needs to go with his outfit." (3.9.31)
Orleanna cannot comprehend that this is almost the exact motive for Tata Ndu wanting to marry Rachel, but it shouldn't be so surprising. The whole accessorizing-with-people thing isn't exclusive to the Congo, either. Ever heard the term "trophy wife"?
Quote 4
To resist occupation, whether you're a nation or merely a woman, you must understand the language of your enemy. Conquest and liberation and democracy and divorce are words that mean squat, basically, when you have hungry children and clothes to get out on the line. (5.Prologue.8)
Once again the conquest vs. marriage idea raises its head. At this point, Orleanna is so soured on marriage that she considers a husband an "occupier" and an "enemy." Is there any truth to this sentiment?
Quote 5
Every few years, even now, I catch the scent of Africa. [...] Ripe fruits, acrid sweat, urine, flowers, dark spices. (2.Prologue.1, 2.Prologue.3)
The scent of Africa is a piquant blend, much likes its jungles, of the beauty of nature and the less-than-glamorous realities of human life. (We all sweat and pee. Even Bradley Cooper.)
Quote 6
"Your King Baudouin is living off the fat of this land [...] and leaving it up to penniless mission doctors and selfless men like my husband to take care of their every simple need. Is that how a father rules?" (2.7.44)
Try capitalizing "Father" and then asking the same question. Nathan Price's Father (a.k.a. God) is an absent ruler who takes all of the credit and none of the blame for events in the human world. Is that how God rules?
Quote 7
"You know how to speak English and they don't." (2.1.11)
If the situation were reversed, and the villagers of Kilanga were in America, this might actually matter. As it is, with the Prices being the only English speakers in the village, this "advantage" amounts to nothing more than a pile of fufu.
Quote 8
"Where you'd be wearing out the knees of your trousers, sir, they just have to go ahead and wear out their knees!" (1.7.16)
In the Congo, bodies are like tools. They're used and abused, and some damage is irreparable. It's not a bad thing; it's just the way life is.