Christianity, conversion and local culture

Résumé du document

The work on participation shows how western NGOs need to ‘convert' locals to the project's agenda, in such a way that the project's ideas become their ideas. This analogy with religious conversion prompts us to look at the historical and ongoing waves of religious missioning that precede contemporary ‘development'. We look at the process of conversion, why it happens on a social scale, and at who is converting whom. We also look at the analogies and parallels between what missionaries did historically and what development projects do in contemporary world.

Horton Oon African religion and conversion
-Horton saw traditional societies as operating in ‘microcosms', localities with a local plurality of deities
-When supra-local relations develop (long-distance exchange, war, colonization, etc.), ‘supreme beings' emerge
-African religions were not static and timeless, even though their adherents may claim this
-‘supreme beings' emerged in many African contexts, usually coexisting with local pantheons
-Outsider monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity) only took air were such changes were already ‘in the air'

Extraits

[...] Charitable organizations helped to suppress anti-colonial struggles ( e.g. in Kenya, the Women's association Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO) + the Christian Council of Kenya (CCK) were involved in governmental schemes designed to subvert black resistance during the Mau-Mau uprising. Anti-colonial revolution ( missionary and voluntary organizations faced a crisis: the nationalist movements based their accession to power on a social contract with the popular movements that they led and that had been repressed by such organization ( lack of legitimacy after independence. [...]

[...] The missionary position or an agenda for emancipation? “African states have increasingly lost the authority to determine both the direction of social development or the content of social policies” ( constraints externally imposed have contributed to the widening of internal inequalities Development NGOs have carried out their trade in the arena of continued impoverishment, growing conflicts, the state reneging on social responsibilities. Gains of independence all reversed by this liberalization. Today, the NGOs are preferred channel for service provision in deliberate substitution for the state” ( NGOs are a necessary part of this system (substitution for state welfare programmes). [...]

[...] Christianity, conversion and local culture The work on participation shows how western NGOs need to ‘convert' locals to the project's agenda, in such a way that the project's ideas become their ideas. This analogy with religious conversion prompts us to look at the historical and ongoing waves of religious missioning that precede contemporary ‘development'. We look at the process of conversion, why it happens on a social scale, and at who is converting whom. We also look at the analogies and parallels between what missionaries did historically and what development projects do in contemporary world. [...]

[...] MYWO + CCK in Kenya - New organizations not previously involved ( e.g. Save the Children, Oxfam, Plan International With the rise of the colonial movement, colonial missionary societies and charitable organizations were associated with racial oppression ( but the new discourse (about development) offered an alternative language and set of practices that (at least on the surface) were free of racial signifiers. Charitable organizations had a popular base in Europe supportive of their goals of internationalist humanitarian relief. With mass suffering and starvation were no longer a threat in Europe after WWII (Marshall Plan 1948), some of these organizations decided to extend their activities beyond Europe's boundaries ( choice driven by organization survival + ideological goals (liberal internationalism ( to promote world peace through international cooperation). [...]

[...] Sacred spaces were not cultivated. Division of the space ( distinction between the ancestors and the living, and division among the living (gender and rank) The area of settlement was bounded by a fence. Space is gender differentiated ( different relations to the ceremonial ground (masara): - Women have a way about walking across it (sometimes prohibited) - Men can cross it directly There were also separate latrines for instance. Different kinds of huts: huts for household and communal men's houses ( the entire village takes part in the construction of the houses, except for men's houses because women cannot enter them. [...]