Mission stations are a widely dispersed, more or less permanent cultural feature of rural Africa. With their chapels, residences, dormitories, schools, dispensaries, gardens, utility buildings, water-supply systems, and good access roads they stand in great contrast with their immediate surroundings. In the confrontation of Europeans with African ways of life these stations have been for the missionaries a refuge, a symbol of achievement, and a home; for the Africans they have been strongholds of alien ways from religion to agriculture, an intrusion but also a promise of help, of learning, and of a better life.