‘Splendidly Leading the Way’? Archbishop Fisher and Decolonisation in British Colonial Africa

Abstract

As Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961, Geoffrey Fisher devoted considerable time to colonial and imperial affairs, including in British Africa. This involvement took a variety of forms, but included overseeing the devolution of Church authority to local structures through the creation of new African provinces in what could be described as the Church's own ‘decolonisation’ project. At the same time, Fisher engaged closely with political issues in colonies including Kenya and Uganda, in ways that were naturally informed by the interests and priorities of Anglican missionary societies, but which also reflected the particular domestic constitutional position of the Anglican church. His actions also bore the mark of Fisher's own conception of state authority and preference for discretion: somewhat contradictory impulses that underlay the essentially ambiguous nature of Fisher's response to colonial questions. While personally inclined to trust the state to put its own affairs in order, Fisher's confidence in its capacity to police its own management of colonial policy had been eroded by the mid-1950s. As a result, Fisher found more of a voice as the ‘nation's conscience’. By focusing on Fisher, this article seeks to bring into sharper focus the place of the church in Britain in debates around British decolonisation.