Poisonwood is a type of tree which causes puss-filled boils when touched. Reverend Price first encounters it when planting his demonstration garden. He fails to heed Mama Tataba’s warning that it “bites,” resulting in the characteristic painful swelling and boils. Reverend Price later mistakenly uses the phrase “Tata Jesus is bängala!”, which says “Jesus is poisonwood” rather than his intended statement of “Jesus is precious.” This statement becomes an emblem for Reverend Price’s ignorance as Jesus is unintentionally associated with the dangerous tree.

Orleanna and Adah, as well as other characters, repeatedly personify the Congo. Orleanna frequently draws parallels between herself and the Congo, on the basis of their respective histories of abuse and loss. By personifying the Congo, Orleanna makes her understanding of its state clear. She considers it to be the “barefoot bride,” taken in by false promises, robbed by her husband, and left with boot marks on her back. Similarly, Adah’s personification of the Congo highlights the reinvention its conceptualization has undergone through revisionism. The chained, female Congo becomes the young man Zaire, seemingly free from the history of exploitation after his transformation.