Chapter 6 Chapter 6
3. THE PRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPTS OF THE CHRISTIAN
3.4. The Missionaries' Theological Rationale
3.4.1. The Missionaries Sanctioned by Divine Providence
The missionaries believed it was by divine providence that they came to southern Africa. The work of the Christian God was put in their elected custody. This providential responsibility gave them excellence, superiority and supremacy of economy, religion, concepts of 'God', commerce, wealth, reputation, moral laws and intellect, and the right to exercise these over peoples of 'foreign lands'. These 'men of God' believed the Christian God guided the destinies of nations. But the result of their work in southern Africa showed their shortsightedness by the introduction of oppressive policies, the engendering of wars and the extermination of natives who might have been, in any case, profitable 'workmen', good customers and good neighbors (Majeke 1952: 50).
Instead of accommodating themselves to the manners and ideas of the people, for the purpose of profitable, humane exchanges of theological and trade goods, " ... the rulers were never in any doubt as to the particular place he (the Black man) should occupy in that civilization, and the particular education required for it" (Majeke 1952: 69).
It was going to be an industrial education, involving mechanical arts and education for servitude, as the Christian God had appointed, as Providence designed Africans to be - servants of whites (Majeke 1952: 69). This was going to be an education of teaching the Africans to work. It was an education of proving to Africans that the Christian God created them inferior to the Europeans. The Africans were predestined by Providence to dig water trenches for missionaries, to prepare their gardens, cut down wood and serve the white masters as unto the Lord their Christian God, for such was the Providential Divine will of this 'God' (Majeke 1952: 69).
From the beginning the mission station was a school where Christian dogma and moral instruction went hand in hand. Thus the individual
relationship to God set up a new authority in his mind. At the same time he learned new ideas of good and evil, reward and punishment, and sin, ideas appropriate to the White man's civilization (Majeke 1952: 69).
The form of relationship with the Christian God taught at mission schools was different to the one in which Africans were raised. It is the task of this
investigation to demonstrate these differences. The new authority that was introduced and imposed was unlike the traditional authorities the Africans were used to, as this investigation will show later. The concepts of good and evil, reward and punishment, and sin, were also different and these shall be shown, in subsequent chapters, to have been strange in terms of how Africans understood justice.
The Newtonian cosmology of an ordered physical universe governed by mechanistic laws and originating in an omnipotent God lay behind the doctrines mentioned above (providence, privilege, rules). For the missions, largely influenced by British Evangelical Christianity, this cosmology was united with biblical revelation ... A belief in
'Manifest Destiny' provided divine sanction for the dominance of European people and the British in particular, by arguing that providence reigns in the affairs of nations. Rule is therefore a providential matter, as is privilege. Rule was further legitimated by the notion that the privilege carried with it responsibility for ruling the unprivileged (Cochrane 1987: 19).
The Europeans believed that it was given by Providence for them to rule people of 'foreign lands'. A process of ruling by Providence was set up in mission schools. It became strategic, in order to minimize the level of
resistance from among those destined to be ruled, to disarm them morally. This will be our next subject of discussion.
3.4.2. The Moral Disarmament of Africans
It was engraved in the minds of missionary-colonizers that African morality, culture and religion was nothing more than the work of the devil. This work of the devil had to be rooted out using the Christian spiritual weapons of warfare, not carnal weapons but mighty through the power of the Christian God.
Whichever agent of British imperialism came first, it was as though the flag followed the cross - meaning the gospel was first introduced before the British crown took over to rule - but, as it also happened, after a military siege the gospel was preached to those who had been politically and militarily defeated.
Among the Pedi the BMS condemned tribal justice, Kosha (traditional dance), lobolo (dowry - misinterpreted as wife purchase), shrines, circumcision, rainmaking, witchcraft, divination, strengthening with medicine, cleansing of weapons, polygamy, examination for virginity, control of women, parental authority, disciplinary methods of the initiation school, services to the chief, duties of court messengers, court sessions on Sunday, traditional holidays, first fruits rites, taboos, respect to sacred places, burial in wet places, dirt removing rite, and Pedi art and clothing. The BMS further condemned prearranged marriages, inheritance of wives, cross-cousins marriages, the authority of the husband and socio-economic roles and chores (Moila 1987: 153 - 156).
For those Pedi converts who failed to uphold that which the BMS missionaries said was Christian, they were refused the privileges of Christian baptism and confirmation. They would be reprimanded and denounced publicly in the church. They would be subjected to forced road- making [i.e. hard labor] and forced catechism classes. The ultimate penalty was to be expelled from the mission station (Moila 1987: 153-156).
This was introduced so as to teach Africans 'true' virtue, morality and 'human' civilized behavior. The work of the gospel and the mission of the Christian God would be to instil the fear of the Christian God in the natives. This would
be done after the natives had seen the mighty, devastating machinery of the mercenaries of the Christian British soldiers. The natives would then be taught to honor the king of England, the Colony and the imperial power - in effect, this is what the Christian God would be known to be (Cochrane 1987: 37).
Issues of morality, education and organization also affected the traditional society. Christianity introduced new and unusual
disruptive definitions of social morality, while what remained of the old was modified and made to suit the new conditions and situations.
But this was no universal morality, it was that of the Victorian Evangelicals and declining gentry, but shaped by the values of the rising commercial and industrial elite (Cochrane 1987: 34).
But, in the eyes of the Africans, the new Christian morality was, as could be expected, strange, unbalanced and ignorant of traditional ways. The new morality demanded the impossible. It caused breakdown of moral order, the disruption offamilies and of society at large. For instance,
... missionary hostility to 'witchcraft', was in fact [on the other hand perceived as] an attack on witch finding: For the Xhosa [the Sotho included] , this was like denying the existence of a disease and suggesting the elimination of the medical profession (Cochrane 1987:
34, addition mine).
On some of these problems the missionary-colonizers applied what they called 'the power of the Word' to inculcate this new morality. But it was no solution to the moral and social problems the Africans had been able to control and eradicate on their own over the years. The missionaries thought that the 'savages' had a dormant intellect, whereas they had come with more religious and empirical methods offinding solutions. Unfortunately, the missionaries were unaware of the questions with which African social morality was struggling (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991: 234).
The missionaries entered into a competition with Africans over these moral issues. They imposed their methods, eroding the African methods and thus disarming the Africans of what they knew best. For example,
[in] an effort to make the church schedule yet more encompassing, and so to compete more effectively with the ubiquitous practices of Setswana, [including of Sepedi] the missionaries constantly
elaborated their own ritual circle ... with a view of seizing the high moments of the indigenous calendar .... for example ... [missionaries]
arranged an annual, three-day festival once the harvest was in. This was to be held in July, during the period of most intense Tswana ritual activity... of go loma thotse [harvest thanksgiving] (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991: 234, addition mine).
This the missionaries did so that African Christians should not attend the traditional ceremony of harvest thanksgiving. In so doing, the African
Christians were seen to be disobedient to the chief who was the main presider over the ceremony. Dissenting African Christians were seen to be inviting disdain from the 'tribal' Badimo [Ancestors] and generally dissociating
themselves from the entire community, taking on themselves an image of being majakane (strangers) to the traditions of their Fathers and Mothers and
pouring shame on their own families. This was what the missionaries wanted, so that they could boast about the depth of the repentance of African
Christians from the 'darkness' of their former traditional ritualistic and ceremonial participation. Ultimately" ... the role of the missionary at the end of the plunder would be to disarm the people morally and intellectually in order to ensure the continuance of White domination" (Majeke 1952: 76).
3.4.3. The Christian Mission as Pacification
The way the missionaries went about the introduction of the Christian God and the interpretation of the scriptures to indigenous people was disempowering
and Africans would not have understood that they could draw strength from the scriptures and from the Christian God to wage a struggle against
colonialism. The scriptures were interpreted in such a pacifying manner, in favor of the colonial power and, in many cases, against the African people. In the case of the BMS among the Pedi:
The missionaries read and understood theology or theological statements only in terms of West em culture. For them the task of theology was to defend both Western Christianity and civilization.
The task of theology according to this view is to show that God is contained within one specific culture rather than within culture in general. Thus conflict between Western culture and Pedi culture is equal to conflict between Christianity andPedi culture (Moila 1987:
156).
For instance, a portion of the story of Israel wandering in the desert would be told and interpreted to mean that the Africans were like Israelites, wandering in the desert, without a place of their own. The political implications of such an interpretation would be that the Africans were found to be a nomadic people and, therefore, did not have a legitimate claim to the land they were found occupying (Majeke 1952: 36).
It was the task of the missionaries to placate African people. African converts were the first prey of this strategy of missionary-colonial conquest through religious placation. The missionaries did not fail to make the African Christian converts allies of the colony, who conveniently continued to spy for the
governor. The missionaries had the duty of improving the image of the colony and discouraging hostility towards the colonists. :rhe missionaries had to see to it that they restored confidence and trust in the colony and conducted themselves as peacemakers and, ultimately, that they made the Africans dependent on the colony (Cochrane 1987: 36 - 7).
Education offered by missionaries was an additional lure to conversion, because it allowed easier access to the market and a place in the new industrial society. Certainly missionary education made its contribution in enabling many Africans to cope with and master the totally new conditions now irrevocably upon them (Cochrane 1987: 34).
3.4.4. The Judgement and Condemnation
Missionaries preached a judgmental and a condemnatory message from the Christian God. The doctrines of the missionaries were preoccupied with teachings about sin in the human heart. Such doctrines made no sense to the Africans. The response of the Africans was that they had never sinned in the manner in which the missionaries explained 'sin'. Specifically, the Sotho believed that sin was an anti-social characteristic. In fact, according to the Sotho understanding of sin, the missionaries and the colonizers with their anti-social behavior had been sinning all along, ever since they had arrived among them. As for the Sotho people, they never committed sin towards the missionaries, nor towards MOD/MO for that matter. However, the Sotho were always inclined to welcome the missionaries as 'men of God', humanely and with trust (Setiloane 1976: 115).
The missionaries' condemnation of sin in the heart of a person and the 'sin' of polygamy they preached about, were false, unheard of and laughable to
Africans. Among the Tswana sin is a wrong of social significance. When the Tswana heard about the dread and the pain of the 'day of judgement' they could not understand such a cruel God or such a cruel manner of dealing with people regarded as His own creatures and subjects, condemning them for such unheard of transgressions (Setiloane 1976: 116).
It was not only the people that the missionaries condemned as sinners. They condemned their customs as well, including polygamy, and this is the issue that Cochrane (1987: 34) commented on. He wrote:
Among the customs that fell prey to missionary assault was
polygamy, with its attendant bride-price (lobola) system. The latter was regarded by Whites as a form of slave purchase. Yet, whatever its drawbacks, lobola in fact played an important part in a manner of social relations as well as the redistribution of wealth (1987: 34).
The newly introduced Christian marriage was different to the traditional African marriage system. Christian marriage did not promote family relations.
It was too individualistic and focused on the bride and the bridegroom. For Africans, Christian marriages marginalized families, as well as Ancestors.
Christian marriage was one weapon with which human and social bonding was dismantled. It undermined African social solidarity. According to Comaroff and Comaroff(1991: 238), concerning the condemnation of African
institutions: "Royals were directly threatened by such moral tirades, seeing the onslaught on rain-making, initiation and polygamy as a serious challenge to their sovereignty" (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991: 238).
In addition, the missionary-colonizers' talk of ultimate salvation as 'the hereafter experience' was meant to placate the Africans into not resisting the evil of the presence of colonial forces among them. Africans were encouraged to learn to live with the Christian capitalist presence, hoping for a good life in the hereafter - i.e. Christian Heaven. The missionary-colonizers prided themselves by reporting that: "Once the divine light of truth had fallen on it, savage innocence became original sin, its ways to be loudly condemned as the path to death and damnation" (Comaroffand Comaroff 1991: 238).
As events unfolded " ... the Southern Tswana took the mission at its word so , to speak, treating literally the implications of their tropes [figures of speech].
Eager to domesticate the new force in their minds, they identified the Bible as a major repository of the word of the whites (sic)" (Comaroff and Comaroff
1991: 228 - 229, addition mine).
But, as a potential rebuttal and a form of re-appropriation of Christian symbols, with the intention both to work in favor of the Tswana and at the same time to reject what did not work for them, it was impressed on the mind of the Tswana that the 'Word of the Christian God' was medicine (sethlare;
pheko; moleko)[ medicine; charm; that which can heal or harm; or could be a means of bewitching]. This 'Word' led to complaints and was responsible for the new order of things, where the Africans found themselves under the domination, aggression and commandeering of a white Christian God.
It was impressed by African chiefs upon the Tswana (the Pedi included) that the doctrines of the Bible - the Word of the Christian God - must be opposed and the Tswana must be strongly warned to distance themselves from the clutches of Christianity. The Tswana were concerned that the 'Word' would contaminate the waters of their rivers. This was not absurd, in that the Christian God, as were the missionaries, was capable of doing this (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991: 228).
Many years later, Wookey, who worked among the Tlhaping [one Tswana 'tribe'] in the second half of the century (19th), confirmed that once local people began to know something of his work, they opposed [him] tooth and nail. This was hardly remarkable. The doctrine borne by the Word was explicit in its attack on the entire edifice of customary practice (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991: 238).
The work of the missionaries was based on the 'Word of God'. The handling of that 'Word of God' was made inimical to everything African. Yet, the Africans were lured to believe in it. The 'Word' demanded absolute obedience from the African converts. In many ways the 'Word' sought to uproot the
African and to change him/her into a 'European', and yet not to be
accommodated in the company of white 'masters'. The Christian God was presented as a discriminatory deity, even among Christians themselves. There was a clear division between the African Christians and the Christian colonial white missionaries.
By the 1930s, however, the [African] ceremonies had virtually disappeared, primarily because Christian missionaries regarded them as immoral and convinced 'progressive chiefs' to abandon and prohibit them (Magubane 1998: 123).
3.5. The Missionaries' Methods of SUbjugation
3.5.1. The Encroachment of Missionaries as 'Men of God'
In this section I want to illustrate the methods used by missionary-colonizers to infiltrate and subjugate African communities. The missionaries, supposedly as 'people of the cloth' would go in first to face the 'tribal' chief to ask for permission to work among the people and ask to be given a small piece of land from which they would operate - to preach the Word of God.
As soon as the land was granted the trader -capitalists would move in alongside the plot allocated to the missionaries and ask permission to trade with the people. Soon thereafter the colonial magistrate would be introduced and, when the Africans began to resist this influx of whites, the colonial government would bring in troops to conquer the area and, in some instances, even detain the chief. From then onwards the area would be totally colonized and put under colonial rule.
As a first step, with the greatest pretense, false humility and extreme
hypocrisy, the missionaries would stoop low and put on a pretense of humility to ask the chiefs for a place to preach the gospel of the Christian God. These
missionaries would visit chiefs, assuring them of friendship and protection, either from rival tribal groups or encroaching white colonialists. The missionaries knew, however, that this was just the first step towards the conquest and the subjugation of the chiefs and their people (Majeke 1952: 14).
The missionaries looked upon African people as useful to the Colony and as potential wage laborers in the capitalist economy. The introduction of a capitalist economy was done simultaneously with the introduction of the Christian God. The Africans were also desired for conscription into the colonial forces, since they knew the hinterland intimately and were useful in battle in terms of following tracks and knowing hideouts.
At times the colonial missionary-government would send Africans to make war on other Africans on behalf of the Colony. The most vulnerable potential African conscripts were the African Christian converts. Thus one learns that chiefs were concerned about the missionary impact upon traditional discipline, resenting the removal of converts from their jurisdiction and the loss of their services in time of war" (Cochrane 1987: 33).
A typical example of the use of African Christian converts in conflict situations is that ofthe defiance of Sekhukhuni by his half brother Mampuru. Mampuru was a rival for the Pedi throne. When there was conflict between Mampuru and the reigning Chief Sekhukhuni, Merensky and other missionaries sided with Mampuru. The Christian converts joined and sided with the defiant Mampuru. Mampuru was given shelter in the neighborhood ofKgatlatlou Mission Station of the BMS (Moila 1987: 131).
Angered by the double standard of the missionaries, their interference in the internal politics of his society, their domination of and
subversive actions within the whole Christian community, chief Sekhukhuni forced Christians to renounce their faith by imposing restrictions on them. He accused the missionaries of stealing his