Conversion, Civilisation, Development? Catholic Missionaries between Germany and East Africa 1880 to 1945

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Colonial encounters, ensuing political and religious conflicts as well as ways to bridge differences are key issues of modern history. Still, studies on Germany's entanglements with non-European societies, especially in the field of religion, are scarce. My project takes a start from here. Preliminary ideas are: (1) that transnational political history ought to bring religious actors much more into focus than an early 21th century perspective may suggest; (2) that such a history affords to examine key areas of entanglement of colonial contact zones and European spaces resonating colonial encounters; (3) that such an examination of entanglement has to be based on a new understanding of imperial communication. My project examines German and East African religious actors from 1880 to 1945 focusing on priests, lay brothers and sisters, teachers, pupils, workers, believers and philanthropists, on colonial officers, dignitaries and religious leaders in Germany and East Africa. The project has two aims: On an empirical level it will demonstrate that imperial rule was neither primarily secular, nor did it have mainly secularizing effects in colony or metropole. On the contrary, religious actors worked in key positions of colonial rule, e.g. in education and health care. They lead debates on the legitimacy of colonialism in Europe, stood their ground in religious conflict in the colonies and facilitated, often unintended and unnoticed, the emergence of new Christianities. They produced an allegedly benign and civil colonialism that explains much of the attraction of the colonial project for new colonial elites and the public support in the metropoles. The second, theoretical aim can be summed up in the formula: empire is communication. Current approaches to analyse cultural translation, circulation of knowledge, and social agency in contact zones are to be developed into a historical media anthropology. Debating colonialism in European parliaments and media (e.g. the rule of law in colonies, military suppression of resistance, or sexual violence) and in the colonies (e.g. taxation, recruiting labour, the appropriation of skills, knowledge and key positions by emerging African elites) is a multi-level, circular process of encoding and decoding information involving creative appropriation of a variety of actors. Missions are a most appropriate object of study, because they endeavoured a long-term engagement with the colonized and ventured far beyond the geographical and temporary confinements of German colonialism. The zeal of religious and cultural conversion as such afforded this. In addition, missions conducted a class transcending propaganda crusade in Europe. While raising funds, they also targeted a allegedly de-Christianized and materialistic Europe with a strong moral appeal. Finally, the history of Christian missions refers to creative appropriations of faith, knowledge and life styles and the emergence of a new non-European intellectual class.