#96. On Europe's Civilising Mission in Africa
Is Mission Possible Otherwise?
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the twenty-first-century context. Every Thursday, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.
1. A Thought I Can’t Shake Off
This is the final of the three newsletters planned to reflect on the Berlin Conference, the European Scramble into Africa, and the ensuing connection between mission and colonialism in the continent.
There is a general critique in African literature (of the mid-20th century) of Christian mission that says many missionaries were the handmaids of European colonists. For example, last week, in #95, I mentioned Mongo Beti’s The Poor Christ of Bomba, whose poignant teardown of the collaborative relationship between mission and colonialism is beyond a doubt among the most thoughtful. The words that Beti puts in Father Drumont’s mouth are sufficiently clear; by their presence and, of course, their work to Christianise Africans, many missionaries were participating in the colonial project.
Beti can say this because the French were quite explicit about their work of civilising mission. To Christianise people was to civilise them. Humans were the civilised ones (Europeans) and they were called upon to civilise everyone else to become like them. It was the German philosopher, Georg Hegel who, in his Philosophy of Mind — in early 1800s, when European missionary work in Africa was just taking off (not long after William Carey’s Enquiry was published) — said:
[Black Africans] are to be regarded as a nation of children who remain immersed in their state of uninterested naïveté. … The Higher [God] which they feel they do not hold fast to, it is only a fugitive thought. … Good-natured and harmless when at peace, they can become suddenly enraged and then commit the most frightful cruelties. … In their native country the most shocking despotism prevails. There they do not attain to the feeling of human personality, their mentality is quite dormant, remaining sunk within itself and making no progress, and thus corresponding to the compact, differenceless mass of the African continent. (See G. W. F. Hegel and Michael J. Inwood, Hegel's Philosophy of Mind, trans. W. Wallace and A. V. Miller (Oxford: Clarendon, 2007), 41-42).
There is a lot we could talk about here. And, indeed, there are many quotes of European philosophical “influencers” of the 19th century saying racist things about Africans. Their thoughts informed both the missionaries and the colonists.
The thought I can’t shake off today is this one. I know for sure the Western mission community is still about civilising. The idea of civilising mission continues. It actually seems to me, as I hear many of my Western friends talking about mission, that without the civilising aspects of their mission, they have really nothing to do in some parts of the world. They only thrive when they can build a school, run a hospital, teach English, or something like that. Without civilising, it seems there is no mission. But Jesus did not say, “go and civilise the nations.” How did mission come to be about civilisation?
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Book: Lived Mission in Britain edited by Ben Aldous, Harvey Kwiyani, Peniel Rajkumar and Victoria
This is a new book, just recently published by SCM (and will be launched next week, on Monday, 2 December 2024). I worked with the three other editors to explore what mission, in concrete practical terms, looks like in Britain in our day and age. I found the subject of “lived mission in Britain” fascinating because, for many, mission is still something we do elsewhere, not in Britain. Yet, the essays in this book will show proof that God is at work in Britain and that we all do well to participate in what God is doing. I also think the book speaks generally to many Western countries that are wrestling with what mission looks like in the 21st century. This book will be of help to both North Americans and Western Europeans alike.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
There is the challenge of the reluctance of the church to engage with the issue of state-sponsored violence. This dates back to the relationship between the missionaries and the colonial powers. In Sacrifice of Africa, Emmanuel Katongole notes the silence of the missionaries amid the brutality of the colonialists. He provides an example of the Catholic Sisters who took care of hundreds of orphaned children in the Belgian Congo region without raising questions about the brutal raids throughout the territory through which these children were becoming orphaned. — Linda Achola-Odolwa and Harvey Kwiyani, “African Women in Mission Challenging Genderbased Violence in East Africa” in Harvey Kwiyani, Harvey Africa Bears Witness: Mission Theology and Praxis in the 21st Century. (Carlisle: Langham, 2024), 181.
It is often asked, “How can the Bible be a book for Africans since it is a foreign document, and was used by colonialists to hoodwink the Africans in order to grab their land and resources?” This question is not genuinely asked since there are many things that have come from elsewhere that have been adopted by Africans for their use and also abuse. … The biblical God is the Living God, the I AM, creator of heaven and earth who in Jesus Christ has touched African hearts and brought them into the experience of his own life of love. — Augustine Musopole, uMunthu Theology: An Introduction, excerpt in Journal of African Christian Biography, vol 8, iss. 2, p. 10.
There are two ways of understanding missio Dei. The first is creation focus, a generalized way of understanding God’s work in the world. It contends that missio Dei is the broader agency of God in relation to all creation and God’s continuing care of that creation, using any organization including secular ones, to provide shalom and humanization. The second is redemption focus, a specialized way of understanding God’s work in the world. — Fohle Lygunda li-M, Transforming Missiology: An alternative approach to missiological education with special reference to the DR Congo, PhD Diss, North-West University, 2016, p. 61.
I pray that you will be faithful to the work God has for you this week.