Nelly Mwale

Missionary Support for Colonial Rule in Zambia Revisited: the Story of the Roman Catholic Missionaries Nelly Mwale

The book revisits the old, generalised and "acceptable" theory that emphasises missionary support for colonialism in Africa. The argument is that, contrary to what earlier scholars have written about the missionaries and the colonial state, the Catholic missionaries were not always supporting the colonial administrators. They opposed the colonial state and helped the colonized and oppressed Africans. It tussles with old and current debates on missionary societies, by interrogating both negative and positive aspects of missionary work and activities in colonial Zambia. Old and current scholarly debates on the missionary enterprise in colonial Africa inform this book. The author has departed from the same old blame story of conspiracy of the missionaries and the colonial state in Africa. She has told a new story which will make scholars and students appreciate better the work of the Roman Catholic missionaries in colonial Africa. The case studies of activities of the Catholic missionaries in colonial Zambia have lucidly and vividly helped in debunking the old theory of missionary- colonail state collaboration.