Bibles and Beads

Trade across the Cape frontier in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, and government attempts to regulate that trade, cannot be understood without first considering the role of Protestant missionaries as traders and bearers of European manufactured goods in the South African interior. From their arrival in 1799, missionaries of the London Missionary Society carried on a daily trade beyond the northern and eastern boundaries of the Cape Colony that was forbidden by law to the colonists. When missionaries of the Methodist Missionary Society arrived in the mid-1810s they too carried beads as well as Bibles to their mission stations outside the colony. Most missionaries were initially troubled by having to mix commercial activities with their religious duties. They were forced, however, to rely on trade in order to support themselves and their families because of the meagre material and monetary assistance they received from their societies. They introduced European goods among African societies beyond the Cape frontiers earlier and in greater quantities than any other enterprise until the commencement of the Fort Willshire fairs in 1824. Most importantly, they helped to bring about a transition from trade in beads, buttons and other traditional exchange items to a desire among many of the peoples with whom they came into contact for blankets, European clothing and metal tools and utensils, thus creating a growing dependency on European material goods that would eventually bring about a total transformation of these African societies

Ancient history · Archaeology · Cape · Clothing · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Government (linguistics · Order (exchange · Political science · Protestantism · African history and culture studies · History · Law · South African History and Culture

• The South African Nguni Female Body and Traditional Dress as a National Identity 'Exploit

  Open Access•Thenjiwe Meyiwe•Journal of Human Ecology•2013

  Incluir item

• White and Black

  Open Access•T R H Davenport, Christopher Saunders•South Africa•2000

  Incluir item

• Fortuitous circumstances?” John Owen Smith and the art of nineteenth-century colonial wealth accumulation

  Open Access•Hendrik Snyders•New Contree•2022

  Incluir item

• Glass Trade Beads from Rock Shelters in the Upper Karoo

  Sharma J Saitowitz, C Garth Sampson•The South African Archaeological…•1992

  Incluir item

• Reverend James Macdonald Auld and the disintegration of traditional leadership in Xhosaland

  Jongikhaya Mvenene•African Historical Review•2016

  Incluir item

• Black and White Beads in the African Diaspora

  Open Access•J M Davidson•Historical Archaeology•2020

  Incluir item

• A Religion of the Rupee

  Open Access•Brad Wei, BRAD WEISS•Africa•2002

  Incluir item

• Clara como céu, escura como água do Luembe

  Open Access•Márcia Cristina Pacito Fonseca Almeida•Anais do Museu Paulista História…•2017

  Incluir item

• Bétail, perles et pièces de monnaie

  Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff et al.•Anthropologie et Sociétés•2011

  Incluir item

• A history of Christian missions in South Africa

  Johannes Du Plessis•A history of Christian missions…•1965

  Incluir item

• The Frontier in History

  Howard R Lamar, Leonard Thompson•The Frontier in History•1981

  Incluir item

• An Autobiographical Memoir

  James V Schall•Perspectives on Political Science•2016

  Incluir item

• Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1875–1940

  Richard Gray•African Affairs•1978

  Incluir item

• Ancient Glass Beads with Special Reference to the Beads of East and Central Africa and the Indian Ocean

  W G N Van Der Sleen•The Journal of the Royal…•1958

  Incluir item