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Full-Text Articles in African History
European Missionaries And Tswana Identity In The 19th Century, Stephen Volz
European Missionaries And Tswana Identity In The 19th Century, Stephen Volz
Stephen Volz
During the nineteenth century, 'Batswana' became used as label for a large number of people inhabiting the interior of southern Africa, and European missionaries played an important role in the evolution of the term's meaning and the adoption of that meaning by both Europeans and Batswana. Through their long years of residence among Batswana and development ofwrillenforms of Sets wan a, missionaries became acknowledged by other Europeans as experts on Tswana culture, and their notions of Tswana ethnicity became incorporated into European understandings of Africans and, eventually, into Batswana understandings of themselves. The development of Tswana identity passed through several …
Them Who Kill The Body: Christian Ideals And Political Realities In The Interior Of Southern Africa During The 1850s, Stephen Volz
Them Who Kill The Body: Christian Ideals And Political Realities In The Interior Of Southern Africa During The 1850s, Stephen Volz
Stephen Volz
This article considers the changing political significance of Christianity in the interior of southern Africa during the 1850s, focusing primarily on the views of Tswana rulers, converts and others within their communities, and secondarily on attempts by European missionaries to reconcile their service both to African communities and to European expansion, which compelled them to articulate a rationale for their civilising mission. The article historicises the process whereby Christianity lost its initial universalistic ideals and became politicised by African-European competition, with divine sanction being claimed by one side or another. That process was accompanied by considerable debate and doubt: the …