This article is part of an ongoing project to amplify other voices present in British Online Archives’ collections, particularly in archives relating to British colonial rule. Please note: some of these sources contain racist or offensive terms.
Historical documents that have been preserved were often written by those who wielded significant power and control. This is conspicuous in records produced throughout the British empire. These were created and preserved by British colonial authorities (and associated organisations) to disseminate their ideas and values. Invariably, when reading these documents, individuals can struggle to appreciate the experiences of underrepresented and marginalised groups. It is paramount that historians endeavour to amplify the voices of marginalised people within historical documents in order to decipher and to retrieve lived experiences.
This article delves into the extensive Christian missionary collections hosted by British Online Archives (BOA). It will present examples of how we can approach missionary documents from new angles so as to amplify voices that have hitherto remained obscured or underrepresented. More specifically, this article will focus on instances of resistance to Christian missionary work around the world. It will do so by utilising documents generated by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).
A Church of England missionary organisation established in 1701, the SPG aimed to disseminate Anglicanism throughout the globe. It dispatched missionaries to Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a rapid expansion of Christian missionary organisations. Alongside the SPG, the London Missionary Society, the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, and the Church Missionary Society also grew during this period. These British organisations were accompanied by Christian missionary organisations established in other European countries and the United States.
The examples of resistance to missionaries contained within BOA’s archives demonstrate how the nature of such opposition varied across time and place. Naturally, a large number of acts of resistance stemmed, understandably, from suspicion of, and hostility towards, the doctrine of Christianity. It is important to bear in mind that a fundamental aspect of missionary work is to encourage communities to abandon their indigenous beliefs.
Examples of resistance
Reverend Titus Mtembu was the first indigenous Anglican minister in Zululand, which is in modern day South Africa. Titus was the son of Samson Mtembu, a Christian, who raised his son to follow the teachings of the Bible. As a young man, Titus began volunteering in schools with a view to becoming a teacher. He later strayed into religious education and taught both secular and religious topics to students. He was ordained on 22 July 1894 at the St. Augustine Church near Rorke’s Drift, Zululand. He continued his work as a missionary until his death in 1924.
British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, image 53.
Mtembu worked for the SPG and some of his letters are included in BOA’s collection South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900. His correspondence provides insights into the attitudes towards Christian missionaries that prevailed throughout Zululand. The extract above is from an autobiographical piece penned by Mtembu. He described his students as “raw heathen” who were only interested in secular education.[1] As he went on to explain, indigenous people were, in his view, interested in schooling solely in order to learn how “to read and to write, and do arithmetic, and to speak English”. Importantly, they had no instinctive attraction to Christianity.[2] Indeed, Mtembu’s attempts to pray with his students were met with hostility. They “seemed to dislike it”, he wrote.[3]
British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, image 54.
Mtembu nevertheless persevered with his missionary ambitions. He began preaching every Sunday and became increasingly committed to the teaching of Christianity. All of this met with opposition, however. When “the heathen people found out that I was trying to do more for God,” as Mtembu wrote, “they began to despise me, and many of them tried to drive me away”.[4] Traditionally, Zulu people believe in a spirit world called unKulunkulu (“the greatest of the great”), and in the presence of ancestral spirits, known as amadlozi and abaphansi.[5] It is perhaps unsurprising that Zulu people were reluctant to abandon their belief system in favour of Christianity, hence the overt resistance they exhibited towards Mtembu’s religious instruction.
British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, image 55.
Indigenous communities utilised different tactics to prevent the teaching of Christianity. In the case of Mtembu, they tried to discourage him by reducing the fees that he was paid for teaching. “I did not expect much to get any School fees after this,” as he writes in the extract above, “because so many of the people opposed my giving any time to teaching Christianity”.[6] This is a good example of collective opposition: members of the indigenous community worked together to construct a plan to push a Christian missionary away. As much as many appreciated the secular education that they were receiving, others did not wish this education to stray into the realms of Christian doctrine. Whilst the community could perceive the benefits of learning to read and write, they viewed religious education as separate and lacking the same benefits.
Suspicion of Christian missionary work can be observed in various countries. In BOA’s collection Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967 you can find numerous examples of opposition to missionaries, particularly in India.
British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “India Biblewomen Reports and Correspondence (1 box), 1905–1912”, image 26.
In the example above, a Bible woman from the SPG describes her experiences of teaching. “Bible women” or “Bible readers” were local indigenous women who supported foreign female missionaries. An Indian physician named Palaniayee asked this particular Bible woman to “teach his children nothing from the Bible”.[7] Whilst he eventually admitted, according to the above account, that “he was wrong and asked us to continue teaching more and more from the Bible”, we can perceive the opposition that missionaries faced.[8]
British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “India Biblewomen Reports and Correspondence (1 box), 1905–1912”, image 32.
Others were not so quick to change their minds. The above extract describes how a girl called Heemal wished to convert to Christianity. Her relatives, however, sought to “persuade her” not to.[9] Here, we can see indigenous Indian people exerting agency. They resisted conversion by preventing willing family members from adopting Christianity. This can, of course, also be viewed as a family denying a girl from exerting her own agency and pursuing her wishes. This highlights the fact that resistance to missionary work was never straightforward and disagreements erupted amongst indigenous people as to the reception given to missionaries. It also highlights the fact that sexism was not something unique to British society, but also permeated, in this example, the family hierarchy in India. Somewhat predictably, reports penned by Bible women tended to present an overly positive depiction of their work. These reports typically highlight, for example, the number of people that Bible women had converted. Yet, as seen, these sources also supply key examples of opposition to Christian missionaries.
Responses from questionnaires sent in the 1890s to the staff at Christian girls’ schools in India likewise illuminate the experiences of missionaries and the potential resistance that they faced. The responses by two schools in Roorkee provide a good example of how we can utilise sources to find examples of indigenous agency. Magdilia, an Indian Christian, taught at this school. Yet despite her position as a local, the report concludes by flagging that “the soil we have to work upon is hard indeed”.[10] Here, we can infer that parents and pupils resisted the school’s attempts to impose Christianity.
This supposition is supported by the final line of the report. The author states that “the Brahmins are a great hindrance as they always try to upset the work”.[11] Indian society exhibits a caste system (a rigid and hierarchical form of social stratification) that has existed for more than 3,000 years. The system underpins the practice of Hinduism. The Brahmin caste is made up of Hindu priests and spiritual leaders. Historically, they have maintained an influential position within Indian society, given their position as the highest caste and the fact that other castes look up to them and follow their teachings. By drawing attention to the intervention of the Brahmins, the author of the report suggests that there was a religious and caste element behind this resistance: that Brahmins used their power and influence to smother attempts to convert Hindus.
British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “Questionnaire sent to staff of overseas Girls Schools and their replies (1 file), c.1891–1896”, image 15.
It is interesting to note that all of these examples include Christian missionaries who were indigenous people, women, or both. Many European women embraced missionary work as it provided them with a chance to work and to travel abroad, opportunities which they may not have had if they had remained in Europe. There are questions to be explored, here, as to how their gender might have affected their reception in colonial territories. Whilst women held a relatively low social status at the time, potentially leading to an abrupt dismissal of their teachings, they may have received a warmer reception from indigenous women. They may well have perceived women as more trustworthy than male missionaries. Similarly, indigenous missionaries may have received a different reception than their European counterparts. That said, whilst some communities might have looked more favourably upon an indigenous missionary, they might also have regarded them as someone who had betrayed their community, leading to their teachings being rejected more readily. Whilst there is no uniform answer as to how race or gender affected the reception of Christian missionaries, these points are nevertheless worthy of consideration.
British Online Archives, South American Missionaries' Records, 1844–1919, “The journal of Edward Bernau”, image 85.
British Online Archives, South American Missionaries' Records, 1844–1919, “The journal of Edward Bernau”, image 86.
In some circumstances, Christian missionaries were not merely shunned or boycotted, but met with violent resistance or the threat of violence. Take the above document, for example. It is an extract from Edward Bernau’s journal, included in BOA’s collection, South American Missionaries' Records, 1844–1919. Bernau chronicled his time as a missionary working for the SPG, having set sail for South America from Liverpool on 8 September 1898. His journal illustrates the dynamics at play between missionary societies and the local communities in which they worked. For instance, Bernau’s diary references a man named Antonio. Antonio seems to have held a dominant position within the local community—Bernau describes him as a "rich old man with many sheep in a large garden”.[12] Bernau goes on to state that Antonio’s “heart is fast closed against the Gospel”, and that upon receiving visits from the SPG, Antonio “endeavoured to stop Mr Mark from conversing with his people, by intimidating them, having taken down his gun as if he wished or intended to use it against them.”[13] Antonio was thus prepared to use force on behalf of his community in order to protect their way of life. Evidently, missionary societies were not always met with open arms.
Conclusion
This article has explored several forms of resistance to Christian missionaries by indigenous communities. Whilst many missionaries were well received and went on to become valued members of local communities, many others experienced resistance from indigenous people who were—understandably—either reluctant or unwilling to pay heed to Christianity. These examples have largely focused on more subtle acts of resistance that did not rely on physical violence. There are, however, countless examples of resistance to missionaries taking a violent turn. Indeed, some missionaries lost their lives on their expeditions.
Individual stories such as those showcased in this article merely scratch the surface of what is included within missionary records, particualrly those hosted by BOA. Historians must reexamine missionary papers carefully so as to retrieve and to amplify the voices of those who have hitherto remained underrepresented within historical discourses. Such work is imperative in order to construct a clearer picture of people’s lived experiences and to understand how their lives were affected by contact with European Christian missionaries.
If you enjoyed reading this article and are interested in learning more about the experiences of marginalised groups throughout history, take a look at our other Amplifying Voices articles and One More Voice, which focuses on missionary records.
BOA's Amplfying Voices project would not have been possible without the work of our interns throughout the summer of 2023, namely Izzy Arevalo, Niamh Franklin, and Abbie Fray.
[1] British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/5067/zululand-d-1894, image 53.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/5067/zululand-d-1894, image 54.
[5] “Zulu”, Siyabona Africa, n.d., available at https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_zulu.html.
[6] British Online Archives, South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819–1900, “Zululand, D. 1894”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/5067/zululand-d-1894, image 55.
[7] British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “India Biblewomen Reports and Correspondence (1 box), 1905–1912”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/4676/india-biblewomen-reports-and-correspondence-1-box-1905-1912, image 26.
[8] British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “India Biblewomen Reports and Correspondence (1 box), 1905–1912”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/4676/india-biblewomen-reports-and-correspondence-1-box-1905-1912, image 26.
[9] British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “India Biblewomen Reports and Correspondence (1 box), 1905–1912”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/4676/india-biblewomen-reports-and-correspondence-1-box-1905-1912, image 32.
[10] British Online Archives, Colonial Women Missionaries of the Committee for Women's Work, 1861–1967, “Questionnaire sent to staff of overseas Girls Schools and their replies (1 file), c.1891–1896”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/4692/questionnaire-sent-to-staff-of-overseas-girls-schools-and-their-replies-1-file-c1891-1896, image 15.
[11] Ibid.
[12] British Online Archives, South American Missionaries' Records, 1844–1919, “The journal of Edward Bernau”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/863/the-journal-of-edward-bernau, image 85.
[13] British Online Archives, South American Missionaries' Records, 1844–1919, “The journal of Edward Bernau”, available at https://microform.digital/boa/documents/863/the-journal-of-edward-bernau, images 85–86.