Imaging the ‘Exotic Other’: John Wesley and the People of Africa

Abstract

This article examines how John Wesley described the people of Africa, with particular reference to the people of West Africa and the ‘inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope’. While Wesley has been rightly praised for his opposition to the enslavement of Africans, his descriptions of African people involved editing material from various sources in order to serve theological and rhetorical purposes directed toward his British readers. This produced distorted depictions that did not justly describe the people of Africa. These depictions exhibited ‘invincible prejudice’ and failed to meet Wesley’s own standards of honouring others as children of God.