Conversion to Catholicism in Zambia: 1891-1924

Abstract

Following Robin Horton's theory of religious change in Africa, the author argues that major social change facilitated initial Catholic conversion in Zambia. Prior to Catholic evangelization, local cosmologies began to center on the High God and a more universal worldview. However, the emergence ofa deep conversion demanded by Catholic missionaries depended on a catechetical and school system that often entailed impersonal memorization of catechism answers and strict observance of Catholic rubrics. Missionaries devoted little attention to indigenization ofthe Catholic message, even though they frequently became fluent in the local languages and familiar with indigenous traditions. Converts thus received a new and essentially foreign religious message. Such conversion formed a separate layer of consciousness that rarely touched the deeper levels of the Zambian psyche.