Social and Cultural Conditions of Religious Conversion in Colonial Southwest Tanzania, 1891-1939

Abstract

Starting from a discussion of theoretical approaches to conversion to Christianity, this article discusses the mission of the Protestant Moravian Church among the Nyakyusa of southwestern Tanzania. It shows that the missionaries' success did not depend on the alleged greater rationality of a world religion, nor was it simply a result of colonial domination. It depended on the ability of the to address existing inequalities and tensions within Nyakyusa society. Beyond this, the response to Christianity differed widely according to age and gender. (Colonialism, Christian missions, conversion, Nyakyusa, Tanzania) ********** Christian enclaves were established in certain parts of northern Africa (Ethiopia, Egypt) in the first millennium A.D., with further Christian congregations emerging on the coasts and in southern Africa after the Portuguese voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century. But it was not until the 1840s that Christian missionaries advanced into the interior of the continent, while the late nineteenth century was marked by the phenomenal success of Christian missions (Opoku 1985:525; cf. also Horton 1993:178). According to recent estimates, the African membership of Christian congregations rose from four or five million in 1900 to between 97 and 126 million in 1970 (Gray 1986:141, n. 2). Some of the conditions and processes that made this widespread conversion to Christianity possible will be analyzed here using data on the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum or Unity of the Brethren), one of the oldest and most active Protestant missionary societies, and their work with the Nyakyusa in southwest Tanzania. The period discussed extends from the beginnings of the mission in the late nineteenth century to the 1930s, when independent African churches began to challenge the missionary monopoly on Christianity. Christianization in Africa was extremely complex. Missionary societies differed in their social and cultural background, in their interpretation of Christianity, in strategies and methods, and in their attitude toward colonial administrations, Western civilization, Africans, and African customs. Potential converts also differed widely in culture, status, gender, and social identity (e.g., Beidelman 1982:8-22; Comaroff and Comaroff 1986:1-2; Spear 1999:4-6). However, some general conclusions can be drawn. First, the success of the Christian was intimately related to the conflicts between the sexes, generations, social strata, and political factions that prevailed in the societies they were active in. Second, the role played by Africans in Christianization cannot be reduced to the dichotomy of resistance or adaptation. CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY: THEORETICAL APPROACHES Social-science discussions have frequently considered systematic reorganization of individual beliefs and meaning systems and radical personal change to be characteristics of conversion processes (Nock 1933; Horton 1975:394; James 1982; Snow and Machalek 1984:169-70, 172; Wiesberger 1990:3; Rambo 1999; Wohlrab-Sahr 1999:19). However, this conceptualization is based too strongly on the Christian idea of conversion, limiting its usefulness for cross-cultural comparison. The change from one religious community to another does not necessarily imply a change in fundamental convictions, Heirich's (1977:673-74) ultimate grounding or root reality. (2) Thus, numerous continuities with precolonial religious ideas and practices can be detected in African Christianity (cf., e.g., Bond 1987; Ranger 1987:182-83; Pels 1993:205; Giblin 1999:316, 322; Gausset 1999:260-61; Hodgson 1999:774-75). The typical missionary perception of Christianity and indigenous religions as discrete systems of belief was not always shared by indigenous people (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991:249-51; Landau 1999). Moreover, there are several perspectives present in any one conversion situation: those of the convert, the adherents of the new religion, and the group from which the convert has come. …