Christianity and African Culture
Subtitle: Conservative German Protestant Missionaries in Tanzania, 1900-1940 (Studies of Religion in Africa)
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Published: August 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 239
ISBN-13: 9789004104976
Subjects: Christian mission & evangelism; Cultural studies; Protestantism & Protestant Churches; First World War, 1914-1918; Inter-war period, 1918-1939; Second World War, 1939-1945; c 1900 - c 1914; Missions; Social Science; Religion - Church Life; Sociology; Tanzania; Missions & Missionary Work; Christian Ministry - Missions; Christianity - General; Interior Design - General; Christianity and culture; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General; 20th century; History; Missions, English
Description: The common charge laid against missionaries that they are destroyers of African culture is shown to be untrue of the missionaries treated in this book, who worked with considerable success to integrate Christianity and African culture.

The author examines the endeavours of the missionaries from the perspective of the local Christians, who where not themselves interested in Africanization as such. One can thus find some missionaries defending - against the elected African Church leadership - the right of the Chagga Christians to circumcise their daughters, and Nyakyusa Christians refusing to use African tunes because the missionaries - influenced by National Socialism - professed both love for African culture and White superiority.