Eugène Casalis and the French mission to Basutoland (1833–1856): A case study of Lamin Sanneh’s mission-by-translation paradigm in nineteenth-century southern Africa

Abstract

In his remarkable work, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, Lamin Sanneh claims that, from its beginnings at Pentecost, Christian mission, through its practice of vernacular language transcription and Bible translation, characteristically makes “the recipient culture the true and final locus of the proclamation, so that the religion arrives without the presumption of cultural rejection” (1989: 29). In this article I evaluate the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society’s mission to Basutoland (1833–56), spearheaded by Eugène Casalis and Thomas Arbousset, in light of Lamin Sanneh’s thesis with regard to the Christian gospel and its missionary propagation. We will pay particular attention to the missionaries’ attitudes toward the Basotho people, language, and culture; their ambiguous relationship to European colonialism; and their contribution to the founding of modern Lesotho. What were the primary factors of the French mission’s success in establishing an indigenous church, a self-propagating movement and ultimately in laying the groundwork for a nation?