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Idealistic and passionate, as a girl Leah worshipped her father and believed wholeheartedly in his worldview. However, unlike her father, who is stupid and selfish, Leah is intelligent and compassionate and so the realities of the Congo wear away at her beliefs. Confronted with mass injustice, racism, and an African culture she admires rather than reviles, she suffers a crisis of faith. Though Leah loses her religion, however, she does not lose her idealism. She simply transfers her devotion from one man and cause to another man and another cause: to her husband Anatole and the struggle for a real African independence. Her sister Adah claims that Leah's "religion is her suffering," but it seems more accurate to say that the religion she adopts in place of Baptism is comprised of her love for her husband and sons, and her unwavering pursuit of social justice.

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