







































AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         68 
 

EXPLORING THE PORTRAYAL OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN 

UNIGWE’S ON BLACK SISTERS’ STREET 

 

Nneka Miriam Anyakorah 

Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Onitsha,  

Anambra Civil Service Commission, Anambra State 

Email: anyanne2006@yahoo.co.uk 

 

 

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 theory 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 TwentyIndicators for Monitoring Extremism. 

 

Keywords: Extremism, Rape, EMI-20, Christianity, Fanaticism 

 

Introduction 

Whereas Christian religious extremism is assuredly evident in the writings of 

African literary writers whose works are set in the colonial African times (for 

example, FerdinandOyono’s Old Man and the Medal and Mongo Beti’s Poor 

Christ of Bomba), these writers’ portrayals of this issue are nothing compared 

to what is seen in post-colonial literature, a very typical example being that of 

ChikaUnigwe’sOn 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 could be nothing but a 

mailto:anyanne2006@yahoo.co.uk


AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         69 
 

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. 

 

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 Swartassert, “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 are 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 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         70 
 

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, Afe Adogame 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-



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         71 
 

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

Christianized Africa which is subject to the British empire.  

 

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. 

 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         72 
 

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, JehovahJireh, 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. (OBSS, 255-6) 

 

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,  

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, NdiUmuaziJesu. Voices that grated on her 

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



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         73 
 

irritated her. She knew what would happen if she did. (OBSS, 

266). 

 

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 continuous 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 thatextremists 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’sEMI-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” (OBSS267). 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 whenever she 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 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         74 
 

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) 

 

While there’s nothing wrong with instilling discipline in a child who errs, 

Brother Cyril does not usehis 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 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         75 
 

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. 

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 neither noticed her daughter’s dejection nor 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. 

When Ama got older and wiser, she would think that her mother 

walked around in a deliberate state of blindness. Otherwise she 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         76 
 

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.  

 

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. Imemkpuke. 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 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         77 
 

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:  

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 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         78 
 

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 found out 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 yearsis 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, ChimamandaNgozi. 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. 

Bötticher, Astrid and Miroslav Mares.Extremismus.Walter de Gruyter, 2012. 

Chitando, Ezra, AfeAdogame, and BolajiBateye. “Introduction: African 

Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa: Contending with Gender, 

the Vitality of Indigenous Religions, and Diaspora.” African Traditions 

in the Study of Religion, Diaspora and Gendered Societies, edited by 

Afe Adogame, Ezra Chitando and Bolaji Bateye, pp. 1-12, Ashgate, 

2013. 

Coleman, Peter T. and Andrea Bartoli.“Addressing Extremism.”White 

Paper.The International Center for Cooperation and Conflict 

Resolution.ColombiaUniversity, 2015.http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a 

/document/9386_WhitePaper_2_Extremism_030809.pdf 

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a%20/document/9386_WhitePaper_2_Extremism_030809.pdf
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a%20/document/9386_WhitePaper_2_Extremism_030809.pdf


AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 

 

Anyakorah         79 
 

Hassan, Muhsin. “Understanding Drivers of Violent Extremism: The Case of 

al-Shabab and Somali Youth.” CTC Sentinel, vol. 5, no. 8, August 2012, 

pp. 18-20. https://ctc.usma.edu/understanding-drivers-of-violent-

extremism-the-case-of-al-shabab-and-somali-youth/ 

Kazarian, Nicolas. “Religious Extremism in Africa: A Conversation between 

RehmahKasule and NurudeenLemu.” Observatory on Geopolitics and 

Religions by Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. April 2017. 

https://www.iris-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Obs-religieux-

Extremism-Africa-April-2017.pdf.  

Kimball, Charles. When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs.Harper, 

2002. 

Liebman, Charles S. “Extremism as a Norm”. Journal for the Scientific Study 

of Religion, vol. 83, no. 22, 1988, pp. 75-86. 

Mbiti, John. African Religions and Philosophy, 2nd ed. Heinemann, 1999.    

Midlarsky, Manus I. Origins of Political Extremism: Mass Violence in the 

Twentieth Century and Beyond. Cambridge UP, 2011. 

Mignolo, Walter. “Decoloniality and Phenomenology: The Geopolitics of 

Knowing and Epistemic/Ontological Colonial Differences.” The Journal 

of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 32, no. 3, 2018, pp. 360-387. 

Mndende, Nokuzola. “Spiritual Reality in South Africa.”Secular Spirituality 

as a Contextual Critique of Religion, edited by C. du Toit and C. 

Mayson, 2006, pp. 153-173. 

Mudimbe, V. Y.The Invention of Africa.Indiana University Press, 1988. 

Oyono, Ferdinand. The Old Man and the Medal.Heinemann, 1975. 

Schmid, Alex P. “Violent and Non-Violent Extremism: Two Sides of the 

Same Coin?” ICCT Research Paper. May 2014. www.icct.nl 

Wibisono, Susilo, Winnifred R. Louis and JolandaJetten.“A Multidimensional 

Analysis of Religious Extremism.”Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, 

Nov 2019, pp. 1-12. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://ctc.usma.edu/understanding-drivers-of-violent-extremism-the-case-of-al-shabab-and-somali-youth/
https://ctc.usma.edu/understanding-drivers-of-violent-extremism-the-case-of-al-shabab-and-somali-youth/
https://www.iris-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Obs-religieux-Extremism-Africa-April-2017.pdf
https://www.iris-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Obs-religieux-Extremism-Africa-April-2017.pdf
http://www.icct.nl/

