Figure 1.--Here we see South Africa Trappist missionary nuns helping to feed hungary children at their mission during the 1890s. The Trappists follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks (Trappists) and nuns (Trappistines) allmovr the world. The movement began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé (1664), but they were only formaly constituted as a separate religious order (1892). The Trappists first arrived in South Africa (1880) and were were especially active in Natal.

Protestants reached South Africa at an early time (late-15th century). There was, however, not a major effort to convert the native effort. This was in sharp contrast to the Portuguese and Spanish Catholic conversion effort in Americas. But even the Portuguese and Spanish did not make the same effort at conversiin in Africa. This was largely in part because of racial attitides. This began to change in the late-18th century as Abolitionist Movements began to coalese, especially with Britain. This meant that attitudes toward Africans had began to change. Africans began to be seen as people whose lives matters with souls that needed to be saved. This meant that missionaries began to organize to convert Africans. European missionaries to Africa played what one author called a 'strangely ambiguous role'. They were undeniably motivated by a fervent wish not only to save souls, but by this time to serve humanity and bring about material and social changes to improve quality of life--what came to be called the 'white man's burden'. This meant that they also had a moral self-righteousness which resulted not only hasty and uninformed actions and efforts, but assessments of native mores, norms and values that prevented them from understanding the people they were attemting to help. In South Africa missionaries were involvement in local agriculture, irrigation and technology. These efforts secured a degree acceptance among the African population mostly located in rural society. The missionary effort also sought to impose alien European morality and work ethos upon the people they reached. This the native popukation largely resisted. Interestingly, this dichotomy did not manifest itself in debates between individuals, but commonly was a different within individuals. The London Missionary Society was the first to send missionaries to the Cape colony (1799). They were followed by the Glasgow Missionary Society and Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Missionaries from United States, France, Scandavia and Germany arrived during the 20th century. Only slowly did missionary activities toward Africans begin to change, mostly after World War II and the fight against Apartheid. .

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Created: 11:35 PM 10/11/20193
Last updated: 11:35 PM 10/11/2019