Missionary Imperialism—The Case of Bechuanaland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8979554 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anthony J Dachs (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1972 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 647-658 |
| Publication date | 1972-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853700011981 |
| OpenAlex | W2128844198 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 34 |
| References cited | 5 |
This article, based on private papers as well as missionary and government records, examines the development of missionary contact with the Tswana peoples from the first settlement at Dithakong in 1816 to the establishment of a formal British Protectorate. The author seeks to analyse the nature of ‘missionary imperialism’ as a consequence not only of missionary motives and methods—still less as the accidental interest of individual missionaries—but also as the product of practical missionary experience and frustration in African circumstances. The absence of European administration from Bechuanaland for much of the nineteenth century gives a rare opportunity to study the effects of missionary activity on African life and polity, less complicated than usual by secular pressures and influences. And the lack of economic attraction in Bechuanaland allows a close examination of the incentives to empire. But it is likely that the trend apparent in missionary attitudes and work in Bechuanaland will be repeated in other areas, as for example in Ndebeleland and Malawi. The missionary role in Bechuanaland was largely determined by the organization and attitudes of Tswana society; missionary methods had to be adjusted accordingly, and eventually included an appeal to the British government to intervene and reduce resistant Tswana authority. This was in the logic of the missionaries' experience. In this light of missionary history, a new importance is found for the agitation on the British government from 1882 and the definition of the Convention of London in 1884
Ancient history · Appeal · British Empire · Colonialism · Empire · Ethnology · Government (linguistics · Indirect rule · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Polity · Protectorate · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Tswana · African history and culture analysis · Christian Theology and Mission · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law
Christopher Bethell and the securing of the Bechuanaland frontier, 1878-1884
Angola and Mozambique, 1870–1905
East Africa 1870–1905
French Congo and Gabon 1886–1905
Africa on the Eve of Partition
Western Africa, 1870–1886
Western Africa, 1886–1905
White and Black
North Africa
Madagascar and France, 1870–1905
The European Partition of Africa
The European Scramble and Conquest in African History
King Leopold's Congo, 1886–1908
Christianity, Resistance and Conflict Resolution in Zimbabwe
The Cambridge History of Africa
Notes on the History of Seventeenth-Century Missionization in Colonial America
The Effects of a Religious Mission on Rural Development
Die Langeberg-rebellie en die totstandkoming van Olifantshoek
On Personhood
Verdades que revelan verdades
The Challenges of Financial Responsibility in the Tribal Administration of Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1919–1966
The imperial factor in South Africa in the nineteenth century
Missionaries, Masculinities and War
Healing and cultural transformation
British Involvement in the Administration of Education in Bechuanaland, 1850‐1966
Traditional ecological knowledge and community-based natural resource management
Explaining Surgical Evangelism in Colonial Southern Africa
The Flowing Eye
A Survey of Women in Botswana History
The colonization of consciousness in South Africa
The King Is King by the Grace of the People
Social Theory and the Study of Christian Missions in Africa
Christianity and colonialism in South Africa
Struggles over water, Struggles over meaning
| Unique citing works | 34 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,65 |
| Citation span | 1974 - 2026 (53) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 33 |