description: The millennial Watchtower Movement had a revolutionary impact in colonial Malawi and Zambia, where British officials were terrified of their potential repercussions and reacted violently. Fields examines three specific historical outbreaks of this millenarian movement in fascinating detail and uses these to draw novel conclusions about mission endeavor, British governance, and millennial prophecy. In the context of indirect rule, Fields argues that missions were inherently subversive. The scholarly canon has treated millenarian movements as either archaic gestures of political protest, or as expressions of cultural disruption and confusion. The genius of Karen Field's original interpretation is that the political and the religious cannot be separated in this way; that Central Africans were subject to a colonial state that had both political and religious dimensions (official support for Christian missionaries), and that their response was quite rational. In the process she presents an innovative and important interpretation of the colonial state.
language: English
title: Revival & Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa
titlecomplete: Revival & Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa
genres: Africa
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Books on Demand