How we cite our quotes: Act.Line
Quote #4
… I have a rather faithful ox called Amusa. (3.52)
When the girls in the market are making fun of Amusa, they imply that the British think of him simply as an ox rather than a person—which is probably accurate, given their attitude about the "natives" in general.
Quote #5
Not so fast Olunde. You have learnt to argue I can tell that, but I never said you made sense. However clearly you try to put it, it is still a barbaric custom. It is even worse—it's feudal! The king dies and a chieftain must be buried with him. How feudalistic can you get! (4.103)
Like her husband, Jane Pilkings doesn't make any real effort to understand the Yoruban customs that call for the death of the king's horseman, and instead simply writes the whole thing off as primitive or "barbaric."
Quote #6
Others would call it decadence. However, it doesn't really interest me. You white races know how to survive; I've seen proof of that. By all logical and natural laws this war should end with all the white races wiping out one another, wiping out their so-called civilisation for all time and reverting to a state of primitivism the like of which has so far only existed in your imagination when you thought of us. (4.106)
In his conversation with Jane Pilkings, Olunde kind of turns the tables on her and suggests that perhaps the British aren't so far from being "primitive" or barbaric themselves. In his view, World War II has brought the civilization of the "white races" close to the same kind of barbarism that these same "white races" have perceived in others.