The other’s humanity with or without the other’s religiosity? Reflections on the affirmation and limitation of human dignity in early Afrikaner missionary discourse in Central Africa

Retief Müller

doi:10.4102/ve.v42i2.2324

Abstract

Taking Wentzel van Huyssteen’s work on early human uniqueness in relation to symbolic or religious awareness as a starting point, this article raises a question whether an implicit connection between humanity and the capacity for religiosity had anything to say about how one could evaluate the so-called other’s religion and their humanity. Does the recognition of the other’s full humanity demand an equal recognition of their religiosity, or are these separable? Rather than attempting to answer this hypothetically, the question is approached historically. The article touches on how the capacity to evaluate religion from the outside emerged in modernity and discusses some of the ways this capacity played out in Christian theology. In reference to the colonial era Afrikaner missionaries in Central Africa, the article argues that even partial recognition of the other’s religiosity might have detrimental consequences particularly where this is tied to a partial recognition of their humanity as had happened during the apartheid and proto-apartheid periods.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges both critical and affirmative scholarly views of religiosity by positing an essential link between humanity and religiosity whilst simultaneously suggesting that a scientific approach to religiosity, which has uncovered important relationships between religiosity and humanity, might be the appropriate approach for full recognition of the other’s humanity.

Highlights

Wentzel van Huyssteen made profound contributions to the theological affirmation of human dignity through his research on the uniqueness of human origins (e.g. Van Huyssteen 2005, 2012)
Van Huyssteen is well known for his anti-apartheid stance from early on, and it might be interesting to wonder about the extent to which his own research in terms of relating religiosity and humanity might http://www.ve.org.za have been partly driven by the compromised positionality regarding this theme as found in the religious culture in which he was first nurtured
Eybers’ (1942) book on ‘superstitions and folk customs’ in Nyasaland likely represented the more typical ways in which Nyasa religions were evaluated from the side of Afrikaner missionaries

Summary

Introduction

Wentzel van Huyssteen made profound contributions to the theological affirmation of human dignity through his research on the uniqueness of human origins (e.g. Van Huyssteen 2005, 2012). I wish to relate to Van Huyssteen’s later work in an analogical way via my own interests, in this case in reference to early Afrikaner missionaries in Central Africa.

Results

Conclusion