Them Who Kill the Body: Christian Ideals and Political Realities in the Interior of Sou... - 3 views
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considers the changing political significance of Christianity in the interior of southern Africa during the 1850s, focusing primarily on the views of Tswana rulers,
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Introduction
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1850s
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southern Africa
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With the expansion of European power, however, Africans were soon struck by a contradiction between the preaching and practice of Europeans, and they questioned how universal and
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European missionaries
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Impressed by the effectiveness of European skills, and respectful of the gospel’s humanitarian ideals, prominent Sotho-Tswana sought to appropriate Christianity as a supplemental source of politico-religious authority.
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The 1850s also saw a significant change in how Africans perceived Christianity and its association with Europeans
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Contrary to mission Christianity’s alleged role as a vehicle for imperialism, early British missionaries and Tswana converts operated under the conviction that Christianity could belong simultaneously to both Europeans and Africans, superseding their worldly divisions and selfish interests
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altruistic Christianity might be
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This article examines how the meaning and influence of Christianity changed in the southern African interior during the 1850s, focusing in particular on the views of Tswana rulers, converts and others within their communities.
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The goal is to illustrate the debate and doubt that accompanied Christianity’s loss of its initial universalistic ideals as it became politicised by African-European competition.
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European colonisation and the establishment of the apartheid state, with their attendant subjugation of Africans, gave rise to an understandable impression that European involvement in the region, including the introduction of Christianity,
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Africans were usually more concerned with affairs within their own families and communities over which they felt some measure of control and responsibility.
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The appropriation of Christianity by Tswana rulers in the far interior during the late nineteenth century, for example, was shaped by circumstances very different from those informing the efforts of Khoisan converts to assert their legal rights within the Cape Colony earlier in the century.
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Christianity eventually became more instrumental in colonisation,
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Escalating tensions in much of southern Africa during the mid-nineteenth century were accompanied by competing understandings of the relationship between religion and politics.
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By the mid-nineteenth century, Christianity had already acquired a presence in many Sotho-Tswana communities,
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The appropriation of Christianity by Batswana was evident at the very outset in their reception of the thuto (teaching) primarily as spoken text.
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The integrity and authority of Christians were severely challenged, and African converts as well as European missionaries confronted the apparent limits of God’s power and benevolence in a violent and politically divided world.
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One major aspect of Christianity that appeared to resonate with Tswana views was its promise of molemo (medicine, goodness) for curing communal afflictions, such as drought and war, as well as more personal illnesses, making Christianity a form of bongaka (medical practice).
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Some have sickness in the head, some in the feet, some in the heart, some in the liver, and some have the falling sickness. Jesus Christ tells us that all these sicknesses come out of the heart. Does your head ache? Here is medicine to heal it, and mend it, too, if it be cracked. [ ... ] This Book is the book of books: it has medicine for all the world and for every disease. 18
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Christianity offered access to a more comprehensible and tractable modimo, and the value of Christian beliefs and practices appeared, to some, to be demonstrated by the success of badumedi (believers).
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Rulers took an interest in Christianity when it appeared to offer an additional source of politico-religious
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support for their government, and they usually only allowed the establishment of a congregation after Christians and their prayers proved to be of some assistance to their communities.
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As trade, warfare and migration across the interior intensified during the mid-nineteenth century, the macrocosmic reach of Christianity became particularly valuable
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missionaries frequently recounted the deathbed testimonies of believers who found great comfort in the
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Christian promise of eternal life and preservation of their souls.
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Conversion could not take place without adaptation of Christianity into Tswana terms, and the efficacy of its ‘medicinal words’ was tied to the peace and prosperity of a congregation and its community.
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The Christian ideal of a humane, peaceful society under the guidance and protection of a benevolent God, difficult to achieve even under the most favourable circumstances, was especially unworkable amidst the rivalry of different groups during the mid-nineteenth century.
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the moral authority of Christian precepts and the power of God to sustain their governments.
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Tswana evangelists were able to present the thuto of Christianity in ways that gained the attention and interest of their fellow Batswana, beyond the reach of missionaries’ voices.
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As Christianity was gradually appropriated by small numbers of Africans beyond the frontier of the Cape Colony, the threat that it initially posed to the stability of Tswana communities was not as an invasive book, tool or god of the ‘white man’, but as an internal threat, encouraging factionalism as it was embraced by some people and not others.
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Tswana rulers ignored missionary calls for a separation of church and state, instead regarding religion and politics as an inseparable,
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In virtually every Tswana community, leading Christians were connected in some way to the ruling family, and the kgosi expected any medicine that Christians wielded to be used in service to his reign
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Most rulers managed to govern Christians within their communities through a careful mix of intimidation and negotiation, but they resisted becoming converts themselves.
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People in the community were forced to convert to Christianity. Christianity was basically used to push propaganda.
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Moshoeshoe disarmed the threat by allowing his close relatives to become leading Christians while securing their continued allegiance through a combination of patronage and coercion.
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As Tswana rulers employed Christian bongaka for the benefit of their communities, they did so not only in occasionally following its precepts but, more evidently, in promoting the long-distance trade and interstate connections that accompanied the spread of Christianity.