Religion as a Social Possession. Afrikaner Reaction to the Conversion of Bushmen to their Church / La Religion comme possession sociale. Les réactions des Afrikaanders à la conversion des Bochimans à leur Eglise - article ; n°1 ; vol.44, pg 59-73

Margo Russell.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1977 - Volume 44 - Numéro 1 - Pages 59-73
15 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1977
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Margo Russell
Religion as a Social Possession. Afrikaner Reaction to the
Conversion of Bushmen to their Church / La Religion comme
possession sociale. Les réactions des Afrikaanders à la
conversion des Bochimans à leur Eglise
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 44/1, 1977. pp. 59-73.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Russell Margo. Religion as a Social Possession. Afrikaner Reaction to the Conversion of Bushmen to their Church / La Religion
comme possession sociale. Les réactions des Afrikaanders à la conversion des Bochimans à leur Eglise. In: Archives des
sciences sociales des religions. N. 44/1, 1977. pp. 59-73.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1977.2124
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1977_num_44_1_2124Arch Sc soc des Rel. 1976 44/1 juillet-septembre) 59 73
Margo RUSSELL
RELIGION AS SOCIAL POSSESSION
Afrikaner Reaction to the Conversion of Bushmen
to their Church
Chrétienne et protestante et donc en théorie universaliste
et individualiste la religion des Afrikaanders du Kalahari pré
sente en fait nombre de traits de ce que Bellah appelle la
religion archaïque caractéristique de Afrique tribale Une
telle évolution qui se retrouve dans bien autres aspects de la
vie sociale des Afrikaanders est sans doute le résultat de la
confrontation permanente avec les religions proprement tribales
Cependant le dilemme vécu par tout colon quand il agit de
partager sa religion avec les indigènes est pas pour autant
supprimé cette étude de 1973 sur opposition un groupe
éleveurs blancs la conversion des Bochimans leur Eglise
illustre de fa on frappante universalisme théorique du
christianisme oppose au niveau de la vie locale la réalité des
pratiques discriminatoires
In 1973 small Gereformeerde Congregation of 25 members at Kar
in the Kalahari was formally dissolved Three pastors representing the
Gereformeerde Synod presided over the dissolution They had travelled
by car from Namibia to the Botswana border and there truck driven
by one of the congregation had met them to bring them the last two
hundred sandy miles to the church farm at Kar In the elementary
concrete church farmhouse they met with the men of the congregation
There had been less than 21 families when the congregation had been
established in 1948 and no anticipation then of any startling increase in
numbers The Gereformeerdes do not go by strength of numbers
but by strength of faith the Dominie said In this we are unlike our
sister church the Nederduitse Gereformeerdes.
The fieldwork upon which this article is based was made possible by the Social
Science Research Council U.K. and the British Academy 1973
Numbers did increase however Peak membership was reached in 1961 when
there were 168 members By 1965 numbers had fallen to 91 Information kindly supplied
by church officers 1973.
59 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
The cause for dissolution was more significant directive from the
Botswana government that the existence of the White Afrikaner
congregation alongside mission to the Bushmen by the self same
denomination was contrary to the government policy of non-racialism
and that the White congregation should in future amalgamate with the
Bushman mission
This is case study of the Kar settler response to
the establishment of the mission and an exploration of their attitudes to
attempts to convert Bushmen to Christianity It suggests that these
settlers exemplify the dilemmas conflicts and tensions which characterize
all confrontations between settlers and missionaries the isolation of the
Kalahari context merely serves to throw into peculiarly sharp relief
inherent problems for settlers of the universalist impulse of Christianity
The analysis finally raises anew old questions about the nature of religion
Christianity like Islam and Buddhism is universal religion in the
sense that its membership is potentially open to everybody The
proselytizing injunction was early enshrined and legitimated in its sacred
text though the impulse to act upon it has waxed and waned
superflcially it would seem in proportion to the imperialist expansionist
inclinations of its bearers though whether this is construed as cause
or consequence is debatable Clearly colonies represented an opportunity
for the religiously fervid to seize but on occasion they preceded colonial
powers and frequently acted for them in negotiation and administra
tion The impulse to proselytise and the impulse to colonise are
bedfellows the indigenous peoples had frequent difficulty in distinguishing
them Certainly in the long run the kinds of changes initiated by
missionaries went far towards creating demand for the commodities
which has irrevocably brought the post-colonial territories into permanent
inter-dependence if not dependence on the colonising powers which
originally spawned the missionaries
Proselytisation is curious phenomenon It is the deliberate and
selfconscious attempt to change the world view of people to substitute
for some existing world view new sacred cosmos and endowing that
new world view with such legitimacy that it seems uniquely realistic
The task is formidable and the conspicuous lack of success of many
This is the decisive characteristic distinguishing historic from archaic reli
gions typology See BELLAH Religious Evolution American Sociological
Review 29 1964
Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples baptise men everywhere
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all
that have commanded you The New English Bible 1961 Matthew 28 19-20
The ûfteenth and sixteenth century catholic missionary activity was Spanish and
Portuguese The next great wave of Christian missionary fervours was nineteenh century
protestant predominantly concern of colonial powers See NEILL History of
Christian Missions Penguin Books 1964
See MEHL The Sociology of Protestantism Philadelphia Westminster Press
1970 pp 163-188 for concise discussion
It is popularly said in South Africa that the missionaries taught people to pray
so that while their eyes were closed they could appropriate their land
GEERTZ Religion as Cultural System in BANTON ed. Anthropological
Approaches to the Study of Religion London Tavlstock 1966
60 RELIGION AS SOCIAL POSSESSION
missionaries in many places is hardly surprising Equally understandable
are the continuing missionary doubts as to the validity of the religious
experience of those who capitulated Intuitively the missionaries were
grappling with the problem which received explicit sociological articulation
in the sixties how much else besides theology besides what Berger so
aptly characterises as sacred cosmos must be changed if the new world
view is to receive that daily social affirmation without which it is unlikely
to be maintained The problem is one of the relative autonomy of the
parts of the social fabric Bellah in his evolutionary schema of different
religions has suggested that autonomy is central criterion of evolution
the more highly evolved religion is precisely the one which can be
transferred adopted without repercussion in or implication for other
areas of social life The socially constructed and socially constraining
permeation of medieval Christianity in the medieval European social fabric
is contrasted with the freewheeling privatised nature of many contemporary
American beliefs about their relationship with the ultimate conditions of
their existence 9)
The struggle of contemporary Christian missionary effort to free itself
of specific cultural constraints may be interpreted as evolutionary advance
in terms in so far as it reduces the scope and implication of the
religious to narrow concern with particular solutions to philosophical
problems of meaning salvation or the ultimate It might be argued that
it is the very process of universalism that pares down the religious function
and thus promotes its evolution
In these terms the Christianity of the nineteenth century protestant
missionaries must be seen as less evolved The establishment of Christian
villages in India and Christian reserves in Africa show that change of
world view was seen to carry very specific social consequences Special
arrangements had to be made to enable converts to maintain their new
ideology whose ethic frequently insisted inter alia on entry into paid wage
labour in the classic protestant mode described by Weber Tawney
Thompson and others 10 Universalism also carried very specific social
consequences for its bearers the Christians but not for all of them equally
The universalist nature of Christianity is remote consideration for
most Christians since their local organisation into congregations is usually
In accordance with local social distinctions The denominations are
Missionary records abound in agonizing doubts about the validity of the conver
sions they were effecting See for example Proceedings of South India Missionary Confe
rence held at Ootacamund April lOth-May 5th 1858 Madras 1858
BELLAH 1964 defines religion as set of symbolic forms and acts which relate