







































AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

82                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN UNIGWE’S ON BLACK SISTERS’ STREET 

 

Nneka M. Anyakorah 

 Anambra State Civil Service Commission, Awka 

Email: anyanne2006@yahoo.co.uk  

& 

Dr. Mbanefo S. Ogene 

                                 Department of English Language and Literature,  

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

Email: sm.ogene@unizik.edu.ng   

 

Abstract 

There is hardly any shortage of studies on the problem of religious extremism. However, what most 

studies on religiously motivated terrorism and armed conflict lack is a balanced view, a perspective 

which recognizes that Islamic religion is not the only religion susceptible to extremism. This is the 

lacuna which this paper seeks to fill, the exploration of extremism in the context of Christianity, a 

religion which all too often claims to distinguish itself from the acts of extremism often pointed out in 

Islam. Using the Christian religious setting of Chika Unigwe’s second novel, On Black Sisters’ Street, 

the researcher through the lens of postcolonial theoretical framework studies the way in which the 

novel, through the family of Brother Cyril–Ama’s supposed father – represents religious extremism as 

a menace strangulating the peace and unity of families in post-colonial (post-independence) Africa. In 

detecting and discussing Brother Cyril’s extremist actions, the paper further employs Alex P. 

Schmid’s EMI-20, an instrument developed for the detection of extremism using twenty indicators for 

monitoring extremism. 

Keywords: extremism, rape, EMI-20, Christianity, fanaticism 

 

Introduction 

Christian religious extremism is assuredly evident in the writings of African literary writers whose 

works are set in the colonial African times (for example, Ferdinand Oyono’s The Old Man and the 

Medal and Mongo Beti’s ThePoor Christ of Bomba), these writers’ portrayals of this issue however 

are nothing compared to what is seen in post-colonial literature, a very typical example being that of 

Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street. Reading the text, a reader can’t help but see the colonial 

portrayal of religious extremism as a mere herald of things to come in post-colonial Africa. What is 

most worrisome about this situation is that in these post-colonial texts, the white man is no longer the 

one perpetuating these acts. Rather Africans themselves are the ones who, in the name of promoting 

Christianity, have become the extremist adherents of creeds and practices which do not actually align 

with Biblical teachings. This sordid fact can only point to one thing: that the Christian religious 

practices and doctrines instituted in Africa by the white men is nothing but a colonial tool which has 

the goal of subduing the identity of Africans while serving the interest of enriching European 

economy and identity.  

 

It is worthy of note that the representation of “family” is one of the core discursive issues in Unigwe’s 

On Black Sisters’ Street. Unigwe uses the image of the family as the building block of society to draw 

attention to the challenges facing African women, girls and children (the weakest elements of society) 

and thus the challenges facing Africans in general. In the text, the role of the father as the protector of 

the family, the source of strength and courage for the children, and the source of happiness for the 

wife, is primarily missing, if not challenged. Whereas fathers and husbands are generally perceived as 

the backbone of the family, Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street seems to show that due to the 

perversion of the Christian religion, African men – most especially the extremely religious ones – are 

increasingly failing in this role, becoming instead a source of psychological torment and anguish for 

their children and wives. Ama’s father who is known as Brother Cyril in Ungiwe’s novel is a good 

example of such men who, in their pursuit of so-called religious interests, extremely oppress their 

family. The man can fittingly be described as a religious extremist. But first of all, it is important to 

understand the meaning of this word by exploring its various contemporary semantic shades. 

 

mailto:anyanne2006@yahoo.co.uk
mailto:sm.ogene@unizik.edu.ng


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83                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

Understanding Religious Extremism: A Review of the Term 

One of the definitive elements of African society is religion. From the Sub-Saharan regions of West, 

East and Southern Africa to the desert countries of North Africa, the African man – whether of black 

ascendency or of fair-skinned Arabian descent – is typically a religious man, holding firmly to his 

belief in, and respect for, God (or, in some cases, a multitude of gods and goddesses). John Mbiti puts 

it this way: “Africans are notoriously religious so much so that religion permeates all departments of 

life so fully that it is not easy or possible always to isolate it” (1). “The individual’s immersion in 

religious participation”, Obaji M. Agbiji and Ignatius Swart assert, “starts before birth and continues 

after death” (3), such that for the typical African man, “to live is to be caught up in a religious drama” 

(Mbiti 1). This religious drama extends to all facets of African traditional life; both the universe and 

practically all human activities in it are not only seen but also experienced from a religious 

perspective (Agbiji and Swart 3). Similarly, Nokuzola Mndende argues in the context of ritual, saying 

that in Africa, “religion is part of the fibre of society; it is deeply ingrained in social life, and it is 

impossible to isolate and study it as a distinct phenomenon; therefore, when members of a family clan 

gather together in a sacrificial ritual for the ancestors, that too is a religious activity”(161). For Mbiti, 

as the religious worldview informs the philosophical understanding of African myths, customs, 

traditions, beliefs, morals, actions and social relationships, it is almost unthinkable for an African to 

live without religion (15).In fact, the religious consciousness is so deeply ingrained in the typical 

African person to such an extent that the resort to religion comes automatically in an unconscious 

process whether they are in danger, in pain, in the moment of ecstasy, joy, or sorrowing at home or in 

the diaspora (Ezra Chitando, AfeAdogame and Bolaji Bateye 5-7). However, as with every other 

cultural commodity which is easily abused when in abundance, the preponderance of religious 

practices in Africa has resulted in various forms of abuse, otherwise seen as religious extremism.  

 

However, even though Islamic religious extremism has been so loud in recent years following the 

9/11 New York bombing, it's extremely violent nature does not becloud the extreme tendencies 

perceivable in most Christian religious groups. In the second to sixth chapters of his book When 

Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs, Charles Kimball points out five warning signs of 

religious extremism as: absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the “ideal” time, the end 

justifies any means, and declaring holy war. Although these do not all apply to every form of 

extremism seen in Christian religious bodies, there is no gainsaying the fact that today’s Christianity 

is itself a religion built on the dogma of absolute truth and blind obedience, with many contemporary 

pastors and self-ordained bishops always declaring holy spiritual wars against perceived enemies 

(neighbours and competitors) and expecting their followers to follow without questioning their moves.  

 

Christian religious extremism, which constitutes the focus of this research, can be clearly detected 

using EMI-20, that is, the twenty indicators for monitoring extremism, which is an instrument which 

Schmid developed from – most importantly – the works of Manus I. Midlarsky, Origins of Political 

Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, and Astrid Bötticher & Miroslav 

Mares and others. According to Schmid’s EMI-20, extremists tend to do most of these twenty things: 

(i) “situate themselves outside the mainstream and reject the existing social, political or world order.” 

They even (ii) “seek to overthrow, with the help of a revolutionary vanguard, the political system in 

order to (re-) establish what they consider the natural order in society – whether this envisaged order 

be based on race, class, faith, ethnic superiority, or alleged tradition.” Similarly, they usually (iii) “are 

in possession of an ideological programme or action plan aimed at taking and holding communal or 

state power.” Hence they generally (iv) “reject or, when in power, subvert the liberal-democratic 

conception of the rule of law; use the political space provided by it to advance their cause in efforts to 

take state power.” Also, they not only (v) “reject universal human rights and show a lack of empathy 

and disregard for the rights of others” but also (vi) “reject democratic principles based on popular 

sovereignty.” Extremists as well (vii) “reject equal rights for all, especially those of women and 

minorities;” just as they (viii) “reject diversity and pluralism in favour of their preferred mono-

cultural society, [for example] a worldwide Islamic state,” or a colonially Christianized Africa which 

is subject to the British empire.  

 



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84                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

Furthermore, in order to achieve their goals, extremists (ix) adhere to an ends-justify-the-means 

philosophy. Thus they (x) either actively or inactively “endorse and glorify the use of violence to fight 

what they consider “evil” and to reach their political objectives (e.g. in the form of jihad)”. 

Corresponding with their endorsement of violent approaches, they (xi) “show a propensity to engage 

in mass violence against actual and potential enemies when in power or when enjoying impunity.” 

This propensity speaks of their being (xii) “single-minded (black-or-white) thinkers who want to 

purify the world and demonise, debase and dehumanise their enemies in hate speech, characterising 

them as ‘inferior’ and earmarking them, implicitly or explicitly, as expendable.” Therefore, as 

extremists tend to (xiii) “subordinate individual freedoms to collective goals,” they (xiv) “refuse to 

engage in genuine (as opposed to tactical and temporal) compromises with the other side and 

ultimately seek to subdue or eliminate the enemy.” They are, as such, (xv) “intolerant to all views 

other than their own dogma which is expressed in anger, aggressive behaviour and hate speech.” Their 

dogma leads them to (xvi) “exhibit fanaticism, portray themselves as threatened and embrace 

conspiracy theories without necessarily being irrational in their strategic choices.” More so, they not 

only (xvii) “exhibit authoritarian, dictatorial or totalitarian traits,” but are equally (xviii) “unwilling to 

accept criticism, and intimidate and threaten dissenters, heretics and critics with death.” This set of 

people (xix) “expect obedience to their demands and commands rather than subject[ing] their views 

and policies to discussion even within their own group.” This is simply because they have (xx) “fixed 

ideas and closed minds and believe there is only one truth – theirs. In its pursuit, they are often willing 

to face punishment or even death and sometimes actively seek martyrdom” (Schmid 21-22).  

In Africa, for example, religious extremism has rapidly been on the increase over the past few years. 

There are said to be many factors that are responsible for the present crisis in Africa (Somali, Nigeria, 

Cameroon, etc.), such as: “poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, discrimination and political/economic 

marginalization”(Muhsin Hassan 18). Consequently, the adverse effects of colonialism, poverty, 

unemployment, illiteracy and marginalization have forced many people to join violent and non-violent 

extremist groups. This is so typically portrayed in Chika Unigwe’s novel, On Black Sisters’ Street, 

where we see religious extremism thrive within the family of an assistant pastor whose extremist and 

unjust positions the wife cannot resist because of her poverty and other socioeconomic circumstances. 

 

Brother Cyril as an Embodiment of Religious Extremism in On Black Sisters’ Street 

In On Black Sisters’ Street, Ama’s father is the main embodiment and perpetrator of religious 

extremism. Ama’s father—“whom everybody called Brother Cyril because he was a Christian and 

belonged to a church where everyone was Sister and Brother” (Unigwe 265) —is not just a member of 

a church but a member of the echelon, particularly an assistant pastor, in the church. Describing him, 

the omniscient narrator says: “He was an assistant pastor of the Church of the Twelve Apostles of the 

Almighty Yahweh, Jehovah El Shaddai, and Jehovah Jireh, one of the biggest churches in the city. 

The devil did not belong anywhere near the house of which he was the head” (OBSS 266). To 

safeguard this house from what he calls the influence of the devil, he keeps his daughter Ama isolated 

from her friends: 

Her father did not encourage her friends to visit because he said friends sometimes led 

one astray. When they did come, he told them Ama had to study. From the window of 

her room, Ama would watch young girls from the neighbourhood shouting out to one 

another as they played oga, their feet raising dust as they stamped on the ground. 

(OBSS255-6) 

 

For this, Ama resents her father. In her heart, she truly “wished she could crumple up her father and 

hurl him off the balcony. Fling him so far that his face would smash into the hills” (OBSS256). Not 

only does her father prevent Ama from the normal process of socialization (with friends and peers) 

which a girl needs at her young age, he also prevents her from having an enjoyable life and from 

experiencing the zest of living by stopping her from listening to the kind of music she enjoys.  

 

Practically locked up in her father’s house, Ama will get so bored that the only friend she can talk to 

is the pink wall. In the height of her boredom, she has learnt to keep herself entertained by listening to 

the loud music which, from the record store across the street, blares into the house, “loud, happy 

voices that trembled the house, making her want to tap and dance” (OBSS266). Sadly for her though,  



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85                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

Her father would have none of those. ‘They are the devil’s music,’ he said. ‘They do not 

edify the things of our Lord. They are the devil’s music [he insists]. The devil shakes his 

waist and sways his horns when he hears music like that. He claps his hands and stokes 

his fire for the many souls that he’s winning. . .  So instead of the kind of music she 

heard from across the street, Ama’s house was infused with music from Voices of the 

Cross, the Calvary Sisters, Jesus Is Savior Band, Ndi Umuazi Jesu. Voices that grated on 

her nerves. She never thought of telling her father that the voices irritated her. She knew 

what would happen if she did. (OBSS266) 

 

But while her father, as the narrator reveals, seems – at least on the surface level –like a man who 

believes in the maintenance of holiness in their house, seeing everything religious as something to be 

treasured above human feelings and emotions, it is worthy of note that he is not really an honest, 

sincere, caring and loving husband and father.  

 

Bro Cyril’s religious strictness and austerity are, in actuality, mere masks that shield what he truly is: 

an extremist who uses his position as a pastor to commit and cover up his acts of paedophilia, worse 

still, the rape of his own daughter. Although he preaches that “the things of the Lord were not to be 

abused, nor slighted, nor ridiculed,” a man who believes dictates the laws of his house in firm accord 

with his religious teachings, he is equally a man who is debased, a rapist who continues to have carnal 

knowledge of his daughter for many years (from the age of 8 to 11), and who uses harsh and angry 

words to shut up and control his daughter and wife. Describing some of the indicators of extremism, 

and thus the features of religious extremism, Schmid clearly points out that extremists tend to 

“subordinate individual freedoms to collective goals” (No. 14 of Schmid’s EMI-20), they “refuse to 

engage in genuine (as opposed to tactical and temporal) compromises with the other side and 

ultimately seek to subdue or eliminate the enemy” (No. 14 of Schmid’s EMI-20). They are, as such, 

“intolerant to all views other than their own dogma which is expressed in anger, aggressive behaviour 

and hate speech” (No. 15 of Schmid’s EMI-20). 

 

These are seen clearly in the life of Brother Cyril who uses aggressive speech and actions against his 

family in order to perpetually keep Ama silent about his raping her. Right from Ama’s girlhood, his 

father has devised a means of harshly punishing her in the name of “disciplining” her when she 

contradicts even his little directives that do not go against moral principles: “her father would put her 

across his knees and, with her mother watching in a corner, tear into her with a treated koboko, the 

cow-hide cane that he nicknamed Discipline” (OBSS 267). With his cowhide, he is able to keep Ama 

in constant fear and reverence of her, so that – being in acute fear of him – she easily gives in 

whenever he comes to her room at night. Speaking about the strategies used by terrorists, in other 

words, extremists, in the pursuit of their goal, Andrew H. Kydd and Barbara F. Walter observe that 

“terrorism works not simply because it instils fear in target populations, but because it causes 

governments and individuals to respond in ways that aid the terrorists’ cause” (50). They further make 

the core argument that since extremists are too weak to impose their will directly by force of arms, 

“they are sometimes strong enough to persuade audiences to do as they wish by altering the 

audience’s beliefs about such matters as the terrorist’s ability to impose costs (punishments) and their 

degree of commitment to their cause” (50). Similar to the violent extremists, al-Qaida and the Irish 

Republican Army (IRA), discussed by Kydd and Walter, in Ama’s case, her father Brother Cyril uses 

his constant acts of terror that come in the form of moral discipline to instil fear in his daughter, to 

make her remain in constant dread of him. As the narrator points out, sometimes when Ama thinks of 

going against her father’s wish, she remembers what the punishment will be, the cow-hide which he 

will use to flog her to his satisfaction. Says the narrator:  

 

There was nothing Ama feared more than Discipline cutting a rawness into her skin that 

hurt for many days after. Discipline also always showed its face when Ama disobeyed 

her parents, because her father was a great believer in “Sparing the rod spoils the child.” 

He even had a wooden tablet with the Bible passages alluding to that inscribed in a 

flourish on it and hung up on the door of Ama’s room. “So that you’ll never forget.” 

(OBSS 268) 



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86                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

While there’s nothing wrong with instilling discipline in a child who errs, Brother Cyril does not use 

his so-called disciplinary measures to correct Ama’s delinquency (Ama is actually not a delinquent 

child) but to subdue her spirit into submission to rape. Just as Kydd and Walter have pointed out 

earlier, the extremists often combine violence with persuasiveness in order to push the government 

and individuals to give in to their demands. The same is true with Ama’s father, during Ama’s 

girlhood, he has devised the means of keeping her subdued using force as well as the citing of Biblical 

passages. Whenever he sneaks into Ama’s room at night to have sex with her, Ama tries to put up a 

resistance: 

She would hold her body stiff, muscles tense, as if that would make her wish come true. 

When she did this, her father would demand, ‘What’s the Fifth Commandment?’ ‘Honor 

thy father and thy mother,’ she would reply, her voice muffled by the collar of her 

nightgown in her mouth. And then she would relax her muscles, let him in, and imagine 

that she was flying high above the room. Sometimes she saw herself on the ceiling, 

looking down at a man who looked like her father and a girl who looked like her. When 

the pain made this difficult, she bit on her lower lip until it became numb. (OBSS 275) 

 

Thus Brother Cyril is not just a religious extremist who uses several antics to maintain a positive 

public image but also a core hypocrite who uses the deceitful application of scriptural passages to 

guilt-trap, and thus force, his daughter Ama to allow him rape her.  

 

Ama remembers that this history of raping and defying her has lasted for several years, starting from 

her eight birthday up until her first experience of menstrual flow at the age of eleven (OBSS 301). 

Relating the first occurrence of this filthy incident, the narrator explains that it has started the night 

after a big birthday party has been held for the little girl:  

For Ama’s big party, her father, predictably, wore one of his white safari suits... After the 

guests had gone and Ama had been sent to bed certain that this was the happiest day of 

her entire life, her father floated into her dark room in his white safari suit. Ama thought 

he was a ghost and would have screamed if he had not pre-empted her by covering her 

mouth with one broad palm and smothering the scream in her throat. With the other 

hand, he fumbled under her nightdress, a cotton lavender gown with the print of a huge 

grinning bear. That was the first time it happened. (OBSS 273-4) 

 

It is not just ironical but also symbolical that Brother Cyril wears white as a symbol of his holiness, 

and yet wearing this same colour he goes to rape his daughter. His unleashing sexual violence against 

Ama while wearing his white safari suit not only suggests that he does not really have regard for the 

holiness he claims to represent but also that this seeming holiness is but a garb meant to conceal the 

fact that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  

 

This indeed is a typical feature of extremists: they pretend to be what they are not and using their 

persuasiveness, they confuse others in order to gain their sympathy (Schmid 12). What makes Ama’s 

situation worse is the fact that she is all alone in her woes and only has the walls of their house to 

confide in. Desperately in need of someone to cry to, Ama narrates to the walls how her father has 

held her nipple between his fingers and squeezed; she tells the walls of the pain of the squeezing and 

the coldness of her father’s hands. As the rape continues night after night, the wall not only heard of 

how he ignored her when she said that he was hurting her inside, but also of “how she tried to push 

him away when he lay on top of her, but he was a mountain and she did not have the strength in her to 

move a mountain. She told of the grunting and the sticky whiteness like pap that gushed out of him. 

‘It’s warm and yucky,’ she complained to her walls. ‘I’ll never eat pap again!’” (OBSS 276). 

 

One can't help but wonder why Ama cries to the walls instead of to her mother. Why has her mother 

not noticed her daughter’s dejection or try to find out what ails the little girl? As the narrator reveals, 

Ama’s mother is a totally subdued woman who is living in fear in her husband’s house and who will 

do everything to prevent being sacked by the husband, Brother Cyril. Ama even suspects that she is 

not unaware of the fact that her father has been raping her. 



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87                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

When Ama got older and wiser, she would think that her mother walked around in a 

deliberate state of blindness. Otherwise she would have seen into her heart and asked her, 

“Nwa m, my daughter, what is the matter?” She wished her mother would ask her so that 

she could tell her, but she never asked, choosing instead to complain about Ama’s hair 

being as tough as sisal. (OBSS 277-8) 

 

Ama’s mother is, pure and simple, a subjugated woman who has totally resigned her life to whatever 

fate her husband dictates. Ama sometimes feels sorry for her “the way she had to boilthe clothes the 

assistant pastor on his way to becoming pastor had to wear so that his purity glowed, the way she 

walked with her back hunched when the clothes did not come out clean enough and Brother Cyril, 

who did not tolerate shortcomings and wanted them all ‘to make it to heaven,’ expiated her sin with a 

beating” (OBSS 300).  

 

Even when, in her adulthood, Ama eventually finds the words to tell her mother what her father has 

done to her for over three years, she has hushed her up and pretended not to believe it. In fact, she has 

“lifted a hand and slapped [Ama] on her mouth,” asking her, “how dare you talk about your father like 

that? What has taken possession of you? Have you gone mad?” (OBSS 305). It is not that Ama’s 

mother needs any convincing to believe what Ama is saying. While she already knows what has been 

going on behind her back, she wants to be kept in the dark about it so as to maintain her plausible 

deniability. In fact, Ama herself wishes there was a way she could free her mother and herself from 

the house in Enugu with the thirty-two steps leading up to heaven (OBSS 300). Following Ama’s 

revelation of Brother Cyril’s history of incestuous sexual relation with her, not only does her mother 

slap her but she also immediately and resolutely takes her husband’s side and does nothing to verify 

what her daughter has just said. This oppressive tendency and sexual abuse in Odinye’s view are “acts 

of violence which culminate into psychological, physical and health consequences” (63). 

 

The father Brother Cyril himself waves the allegation away as false and unfounded, the rant of a liar. 

Furthermore, he uses the opportunity to announce his disowning of Ama as his daughter, and to 

inform the young girl that he is not his biological father:  

‘I am not your father. You hear that? I took in your mother, and this is all the thanks I 

get. All the thanks I get for saving you from being a bastard. All the years I raised you, 

fed you, this is all the thanks I get. You know what happens to children without fathers? 

Children who are born at home? Father unknown. Ime mkpuke. I want you out of my 

house. I want you out. Tata. Today! As God is my witness, you shall leave my house 

today!’ (OBSS 306-7). 

 

In the wake of this revelation, Ama feels happy that this extremist she has called father all through her 

life isn’t really her father. She is delighted at the thought that she has another father who must be a 

better man than Brother Cyril—“he had to be. She willed it” (OBSS 308).  

 

Back to the question raised earlier: why has Ama’s mother done nothing to question her husband or to 

even complain about the beatings, harsh words and unfair treatment she and Ama get from her 

husband? The reason is that she is a woman who has become a slave to her misguided sense of loyalty 

and gratefulness for what Brother Cyril has done for her in the past. Being a woman who, in her early 

adulthood, has been laden with an unwanted pregnancy, with nowhere to live and no one to help her, 

she has been surprised that Brother Cyril has then not only taken pity on her but has equally asked to 

marry her despite the fact that she has been pregnant for another man, an unknown man. For this 

seemingly benevolent act of Brother Cyril, she has become heavily indebted to him and, in the course 

of their marriage, resigned to live with whatever form of brutality, emotional exploitation and 

inhumane treatment she might get from him.  

 

As such, she has sold all her right to Brother Cyril and is ready to take his own perspective in every 

matter, even if he says that yellow is green and that red is white. “I made a mistake. One mistake that 

could have destroyed me completely,” She opens up to Ama:  

 



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88                     Anyakorah & Mbanefo 

Yet Brother Cyril took me in and married me. He saved me from a terrible life. How 

many men would marry a woman who was carrying a child for another man? Tell me, 

Ama, tell me. And you throw all that in his face. What have I done to deserve this? Tell 

me, Ama, what have I ever done to deserve this? He could have sent both of us out 

tonight. Many men would. You know that. Yet, out of the goodness of his heart, he 

didn’t. (OBSS 310) 

 

Notice in her statement above that her concern is not about whatever Brother Cyril has done to Ama, 

but about his not throwing her out of the house for her past mistake of underage, unwanted, out-of-

wedlock, pregnancy.  

 

Despite knowing deep in her heart that her husband is an extremist, she still sees him – this religious 

extremist and rapist – as a man who abounds in the “goodness of [the] heart” (310). What she does 

not know is that the reason why Brother Cyril has not asked her out of the house is not because he is a 

kind man who has a good heart but because he simply cannot afford to lose her. He cannot afford to 

lose this wife of his, who he has craftily been able to tame and subjugate into becoming an ever-

working washing machine, a machine ready to do his bidding at all times, ready to boil, soak and 

bleach the white clothes he wears every day without as much as a grumble let alone a complaint. He, 

moreover, cannot afford to lose her and risk having his secrets in the public. Unfortunately, Ama’s 

mother does not know her worth, her rights as a wife and mother, and thus lives as a slave under the 

roof of a man who treats her as the lowliest of servants rather than as a wife and companion. Her 

husband’s religious extremism has totally subdued her through and through such that she no longer 

has any identity or knowledge of herself left apart from the one he confers on her. 

 

Conclusion 

The foregoing underscores non-violent religious extremism to be immanent in fanatical Christianity, 

the kind of Christianity championed by Brother Cyril in Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street. 

Studying the novel using the twenty different indicators for monitoring extremism (EMI-20), which 

was developed by Schmid, this research work finds that acts of extremism could be seen in different 

religions, not just in Islam. It is also found that extremism does not constitute in armed violence alone, 

but involves any form of aggressive, inhumane and cruel action taken either against fellow adherents 

of the religion or against non-adherents with the claim or pretence of fostering the will of God. As 

such, Cyril’s continual rape of Ama for about three years is an act of religious extremism, for not only 

does Cyril claim to be defiling her with moral authority, but he also wants her to believe that God has 

sanctioned this abhorrent act. Similarly, his continual beating and verbal assault of his wife both 

constitute acts of religious extremism. Hence, since religious extremism—both violent and non-

violent—permeates all kinds of religion, it is imperative that the popular view of extremism, mostly 

portrayed in Western media, as having an Islamic-only colouration be changed and replaced with a 

balanced view which accepts and seeks to condemn the existence of religious and secular extremism 

in all its forms. 

 

Works Cited 

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Purple Hibiscus.Farafina, 2006. 

Agbiji, Obaji M. and Ignatius Swart. “Religion and Social Transformation in Africa: A Critical and 

Appreciative Perspective.” Scriptura, vol. 114, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-20.  

Beti, Mongo. The Poor Christ of Bomba.Heinemann, 1971. 

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