Character Analysis
Jane is married to Simon Pilkings, the District Manager in the area where the play takes place. Like her husband, she is well meaning but more than a little clueless about the culture and customs of the indigenous folks where they live. Unlike her husband, though, she actually makes an effort to learn about these topics, and she seems to end up translating quite a bit for her hubs.
Cultural Sensitivity 101
For instance, when Simon manages to offend their servant, Joseph, with a reference to holy water being "nonsense," Jane is the one who clues Simon into the fact that Joseph is really upset, and why. She says:
"It isn't my preaching you have to worry about, it's the preaching of the missionaries who preceded you here. When they make converts they really convert them. Calling holy water nonsense to our Joseph is really like insulting the Virgin Mary before a Roman Catholic. He's going to hand in his notice tomorrow you mark my word." (2.119)
Sure, she's still giving all the credit for the strength of Joseph's beliefs to the missionaries (rather than Joseph himself) and implying that his beliefs are "like" that of a real Christian (rather than being the beliefs of a real Christian), none of which exactly screams understanding of Joseph as his own human being. But she at least understands that her husband has been offensive and tries to get him to understand why he might want to apologize, so that's something, right?
Also, unlike her husband, Jane demonstrates actual curiosity about the customs of the Yoruba people. When Olunde returns, Jane draws him into a conversation to learn more about the ritual her husband is trying so desperately hard to stop.
Of course, her efforts at understanding and inclusiveness only go so far. When Olunde is super calm in announcing he believes his father dead, she is appalled, exclaiming, "How can you be so callous! So unfeeling! […] You're just a savage like all the rest" (4.127). And when she does, we see that her treatment of Yoruban people as sub-human doesn't just pertain to servants, but even to young men whose education her family has actively been involved in.
Jane is almost immediately sheepish about her reaction, and moves on to trying to understand Olunde's perspective. He tries to chalk up his blasé attitude about his father's death to his medical training, but she is dubious: "No. It has to be more than that. I feel it has to do with the many things we don't really grasp about your people. At least you can explain" (4.149). Olunde concedes that these "ungrasped" things could be part of the picture as well. Maybe now would be a good time to explain the whole keeping-the-universe-in-balance component of the rite? Just a thought…
In short, Jane seems to try a bit harder than her husband to understand Yoruban customs and religion, but she only does so much better than he does, and the results are, at best, mixed.