Africa and Africans in Late Nineteenth-Century Missionary Thought. Theory and Practice

The colonial conquest of Africa and the development of colonial empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries went hand in hand with a missionary revival during which Christian missionaries were sent to every corner of the African continent. As those missionaries were generally in closer contact with the local population than colonial officials, studying their space and survival practices, as well as the strategies and patterns of missionary thought, has considerable potential to reveal the dynamics of intercultural interaction in the imperial encounter. The present study seeks to analyze theories of the missionary cause, trace and study missionary activities in Africa, and explore some aspects of the subtle interplay of missionary encounters with African peoples, as well as missionary perceptions of Africa and Africans.