8 Missionary confrontations
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Ronald Hyam
Abstract
Victorian missionaries seldom stopped to enquire what structural function the practices they objected to so often performed in ensuring the cohesion of traditional societies. Mission work in Africa grew rapidly from the 1850s. From the start, the issue of polygyny was of central importance, and it remained at the heart of the battle for an African Christianity. Insistence on monogamy forms a long, difficult backdrop to the missionary penetration of Africa. Missionaries the world over, whether Catholic or Protestant, have always consistently targeted anal intercourse as one of the first traditional practices to be eliminated. For the churches, what happened in Buganda in the 1880s was a chastening experience. Systematic teaching by missionaries in Kenya against clitoridectomy began in 1906, by the controllers of the CSM hospital in Kikuyu, notably by Dr J. W. Arthur, who became head of the mission station there.
Abstract
Victorian missionaries seldom stopped to enquire what structural function the practices they objected to so often performed in ensuring the cohesion of traditional societies. Mission work in Africa grew rapidly from the 1850s. From the start, the issue of polygyny was of central importance, and it remained at the heart of the battle for an African Christianity. Insistence on monogamy forms a long, difficult backdrop to the missionary penetration of Africa. Missionaries the world over, whether Catholic or Protestant, have always consistently targeted anal intercourse as one of the first traditional practices to be eliminated. For the churches, what happened in Buganda in the 1880s was a chastening experience. Systematic teaching by missionaries in Kenya against clitoridectomy began in 1906, by the controllers of the CSM hospital in Kikuyu, notably by Dr J. W. Arthur, who became head of the mission station there.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Preface vii
- Preface to the paperback edition viii
- General Editor’s foreword ix
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Sexual imperatives 25
- 3 The British home base 56
- 4 Empire and sexual opportunity 88
- 5 The sexual life of the Raj 115
- 6 Prostitution and Purity 137
- 7 Chastity and the Colonial Service 157
- 8 Missionary confrontations 182
- 9 Conclusion 200
- Bibliography 218
- Glossary 226
- Index 228
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Preface vii
- Preface to the paperback edition viii
- General Editor’s foreword ix
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Sexual imperatives 25
- 3 The British home base 56
- 4 Empire and sexual opportunity 88
- 5 The sexual life of the Raj 115
- 6 Prostitution and Purity 137
- 7 Chastity and the Colonial Service 157
- 8 Missionary confrontations 182
- 9 Conclusion 200
- Bibliography 218
- Glossary 226
- Index 228
