The invasion of personal religious experiences: London Missionary Society missionaries, imperialism, and the written word in early 19th-century southern Africa

Abstract

An examinat ion of the wri t ten word within the colonial relat ionship proves especially rich. There existed many incarnat ions and implications of the word (and the Word) among missionaries in ear ly 19thcentury southern Africa. Li terary theor is t Henry Louis Gates, Jr , claims that post -Enl ightenment Western Europeans viewed wri t ing as the 'visible sign of reason ' 1. Missionary efforts to elevate southern Africans according to Enlightenment principles of civilisation included helping them to become li terate, especially for the purpose of reading the Scriptures. Li teracy occupied a rung upon the ladder of civilisation and therefore held place of honour among miss ionary goals for their converts . Yet teaching Africans to read gave them the tools with which to in terpre t and negotiate power, while drawing them into reliance upon a sys tem of communicat ion opera ted on European terms. To the minds of the Europeans at least, wri t ing represen ted an effective form of domination. There appears, therefore , a schism be tween establ ished miss ionary aims to 'e levate ' South Africans and a goal, more often associated wi th the actions of less evangelically-minded colonisers such as administrat ive, merchant , and mil i tary agents, to dominate them. Of par t icular interest here is tha t the evangelical missionaries of