Is language a barrier between people?

Language acts as a barrier between two groups of people. Without proper communication, it is nearly impossible to fully learn every detail about a culture or religion. Like when the Missionaries came to spread Christianity, the Ibo people had converted only because they wanted to be more powerful. Not having a full understanding of the religion because the missionaries only spoke English. Later, when Mr. Brown goes to the neighboring clan to teach about Christianity, and interpreter was used to make communication easier. Even then there were still misunderstandings about the clan’s cultures and Christianity. The use of an interpreter gets rid of the true communication between the two men, because the conversation wasn’t directly between them, it was altered through translation.

“How can he when he doesn’t even speak our tongue? But he says our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion say that our customs are bad.”  This quote leads me to believe that there is major separation within the two groups, because different languages are spoken between them. With the missionaries not being able to speak the native tongue of the Ibo clan, they don’t even bother to learn some aspects of their culture. As seen with the land dispute that had included Nnama’s family, which lead Okonkwo to say “does the white man understand our custom about land?” Therefore, different languages that are spoken by two groups of people, separates them rather than bringing them together because of miscommunications and misunderstanding of the others culture and religion.-Jaya Jugmohan