About this ebook
This book offers a historical-anthropological study of Swedish Protestant missionaries in the Congo Free State during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines how a Swedish mission society, working in the Congo Free State during the brutal regime of King Leopold II, attempted to reshape Congolese society by transplanting Western Christian ideals into the local Kikongo-speaking context. The author analyzes the relationship between missionaries, the violent colonial state, and the Bakongo people among whom they worked, showing how mission stations became contested sites where Christian ideals were translated into institutional practices and repeatedly destabilized by colonial violence and existing social arrangements. The chapters document the missionaries’ activities and experiences using rich archival sources, drawing on Swedish-language mission archives and their personal writings such as letters, diaries, and reports. They tell a story of missionary efforts to improve the lives of Congolese converts, as well as failures, misunderstandings, and abuses of power. The author combines detailed empirical narrative with critical examination of topics including family and kinship, labor and economy, and state formation in a colonial context. By approaching Protestant mission in colonial contexts as a project of institutional reorganization, the book reframes familiar debates about domination, translation, hybridity, and local agency in mission studies and colonial history. It also offers a broader framework for understanding how transformative projects depend on the alignment of institutions, practices, and modes of governance, and why they tend to falter when such alignment cannot be secured.
This book offers a historical-anthropological study of Swedish Protestant missionaries in the Congo Free State during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines how a Swedish mission society, working in the Congo Free State during the brutal regime of King Leopold II, attempte...
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About the author
Simon Larsson is a researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CRS) at Uppsala University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on religion, technology, governance, institutions, and social transformation.
Simon Larsson is a researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CRS) at Uppsala University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on religion, technology, governance, institutions, and social trans...
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