AFRICANS VIEWED IN THE MISSIONARY MIRROR Shifts in the 'Black-white' Thinking of Dutch Missionaries on Africans and Their Culture in East 1945-1965

Albert de Jong

1. Introduction .

The missionary evangelisation of Africa in modem times began in the 19th Century. Missionaries came into contact with non-Christian cultures and peoples. In so doing they were directly confronted with the question between Christian belief and African culture. In general it can be said that the average missionary, up to the , had a negative and destructive approach to African culture. He condemned and rejected non-Christian beliefs, morals and social practices. Cultural differences were viewed in terms of the opposition between Christian and heathen, an opposition, moreover, that was closely linked to that between a and an inferior culture.' The origin of this attitude to African human values and traditions must be sought in 'the spiritual captivity of the Western missionaries within their own culture.'2 They interpreted culture and civilisation ethnocentrically. The Christian norms and values lived in the European context were declared to be suited to African culture without any critical discernment. In addition, as children of their time they were completely swayed by the idea of the superiority of whites over Africans. This mistaken idea can be traced back to Hegel, who in his The Philosophy of History stated that since in his view Africans had no history of their own, they were strictly speaking not human and should be brought to civilisation by people from 3 . Although the description given above of the missionary attitude to the African and his culture is fair in general, care must be taken not to tar all missionaries with the same brush. They did not form a monolithic block. Relative differences have to be noted in their attitude to this problem. These are related to nationality, religious congregation, region, particular African peoples, the period and the temperament of the individual missionary.' In

1 A. Shorter, Theologyof Mission,Cork 1972, 19-25;V. Neckebrouck,La TierceEglise devant le probleme de la culture, Immensee 1987, 15-25. 2 J. Baur, Two Thousand Yearsof Christianityin Africa. An African History 62-1992, Nairobi 1992, 283. 3 G.W.F. The New York 1956. Hegel, Philosophyof History, ' 4 Neckebrouck, La Tierce Église, 15. 50 this article we deal only with the ideas that Dutch missionaries in the period 1945-1965 formed of the abilities of the African of East Africa and of his morals and customs. By the term 'East Africa' we intend here , , Uganda and Malawi. We limit ourselves to the period of time from the Second World War to 1965. That date forms a caesura. In the political field the colonies just mentioned had recently become independent and in the ecclesiastical sphere the Second Vatican Council had just been solemnly ended. Under the influence of those two events a new period began as far as our subject is concerned. During the period 1945 - 1965 quite a large number of Dutch missionaries were present in East Africa. From 1945 - 1966 on average 856 missionaries (clergy, Brothers, Sisters and lay people) were working there each year. In 1969 the number reached 1162 - the largest number ever to work there. Since this article deals almost exclusively with priest-missionaries, without excluding the others on principle, we turn our attention now to the former. From 1945 - 1966 the average number of priests working in East Africa each year was 433. The greatest number was attained in 1963 with 534. After that the numbers dwindled steadily. The biggest group of these priests was formed by the Missionaries of Africa, who were active in Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. Next in number were the Mill Hill Missionaries, working in Kenya and Uganda. The third largest group consisted of the Spiritans, based in Tanzania and Kenya. Finally, there was the fairly large group of Montfortians in Malawi. In addition there worked as missionaries a small number of , Capuchins, Camillians and Fidei 5 Donum priests.5

2. View of the African

Pervaded as they were with European ethnocentrism, the Dutch missionaries regarded the specific cultural development of the West as the normative criterion, while in practice they considered the European as superior to the African. All missionaries did not go along equally with that conviction and there were also those who adopted a much more positive and objective attitude towards the Africans. More and more missionaries slowly but surely came to adopt the latter attitude. We are trying as well as we can to make apparent this shift in their notion of the African, on the basis of a discussion of the terms they used to describe him, of the characteristics that they

5 A.H. de Jong, 'Missie op een keerpunt in de context van Oost-Afrika. De rol van Nederlandse missionarissen in het politieke .en kerkelijke ontvoogdingsprocesin Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda en Malawi 1945-1975(Mission at a Turning Point in the Context of East Africa. The Role of Dutch Missionaries in the Political and EcclesiasticalProcess of Emancipationin Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi 1945- 1975).' Stegon Onderzoeksproject230-117-102, Berg en Dal 1993, 6, 510-512.