Because of what the story is about. Some people to seem to think this is a male/female issue, but that never even crossed my mind. He represents an attitude. This book is an allegory, in which the small incidents of characters’ lives shed light on larger events in our world. The Prices carry into Africa a set of beliefs about religion, technology, health, politics, and agriculture, just as industrialized nations have often carried these beliefs into the developing world in a high-minded way, very certain of being right (even to the point of destroying local ideas, religion, and leadership). But sometimes — as happens in this novel — those attitudes are offensive or inapplicable.
I expected my readers would feel unsympathetic to that arrogance. We didn’t make those decisions, we didn’t call for the assassination of Lumumba; most readers, I’m guessing, didn’t even know about it. We inherited these decisions, and now have to reconcile them with our sense of who we are. We’re the captive witnesses, just like the wife and daughters of Nathan Price. Male or female, we are not like him. That is what I wanted to write about. We got pulled into this mess but we don’t identify with that arrogant voice. It’s not his story. It’s ours.