Missionaries and their conflictive involvement in Imperial politics
Foreign Missionaries played a detrimental role when it came to colonial conquest in the 19th century. Sent out by the European governments to expand its empires, missionaries influenced the lives of Africans by directly or indirectly facilitating the “Colonization of Consciousness:” the idea of transforming Africans into colonial subjects by introducing the western, civilized way of life. This was seen through language, religion, respectability, family life, etc. However, as the British cause penetrated the lives of the indigenous African peoples, and as the missionaries interacted more with their African natives, the individual perspectives of the missionaries began to contradict how the British went about in colonizing the Africans. Many foreign …show more content…
He became involved in a political conflict with Bishop Gray of Cape town, who argued that Colenso was revealing their secrets to the natives, and that these secrets were to be known only by them. Fuze discussed that Colenso was despised by Natal’s colonial whites for not discriminating against the blacks, and if anything, Colenso rather found the white man to be in the wrong and exonerated the black man. In doing so, Fuze alluded to the kind of political dilemma and conflicts that Colenso faced in his missionary career. In addition, Colenso challenged Imperial politics by defending the Hlubi chief Langalibalele, and by disagreeing with the 1879 invasion of the Zululand. Fuze rationalized Colenso’s sacrificing of his missionary career through involvement of Colonial and Zulu politics, and throwing himself into the blazing fire, knowing that his own would reject him, as a comparison to the nature of Christ. As seen through Fuze’s account of John W. Colenso, an understanding of Colenso’s role in challenging British Imperial politics is
Foreign Missionaries played a detrimental role when it came to colonial conquest in the 19th century. Sent out by the European governments to expand its empires, missionaries influenced the lives of Africans by directly or indirectly facilitating the “Colonization of Consciousness:” the idea of transforming Africans into colonial subjects by introducing the western, civilized way of life. This was seen through language, religion, respectability, family life, etc. However, as the British cause penetrated the lives of the indigenous African peoples, and as the missionaries interacted more with their African natives, the individual perspectives of the missionaries began to contradict how the British went about in colonizing the Africans. Many foreign …show more content…
He became involved in a political conflict with Bishop Gray of Cape town, who argued that Colenso was revealing their secrets to the natives, and that these secrets were to be known only by them. Fuze discussed that Colenso was despised by Natal’s colonial whites for not discriminating against the blacks, and if anything, Colenso rather found the white man to be in the wrong and exonerated the black man. In doing so, Fuze alluded to the kind of political dilemma and conflicts that Colenso faced in his missionary career. In addition, Colenso challenged Imperial politics by defending the Hlubi chief Langalibalele, and by disagreeing with the 1879 invasion of the Zululand. Fuze rationalized Colenso’s sacrificing of his missionary career through involvement of Colonial and Zulu politics, and throwing himself into the blazing fire, knowing that his own would reject him, as a comparison to the nature of Christ. As seen through Fuze’s account of John W. Colenso, an understanding of Colenso’s role in challenging British Imperial politics is