A Shona assessment of evolving missionary Christianity in Zimbabwe
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Date
2004
Authors
Hale, F.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State
Abstract
English: Beginning before the wave of African decolonisation of the 1960s but accelerating
noticeably thereafter, both Christians and non-Christians across much of the continent
created retrospective literary reconstructions of the impact of missionary Christianity
on traditional societies. They thereby added important perspectives, many of
them highly critical, on the saga of the church in Africa. One of the few female indigenous
observers was the Shona novelist, Tsitsi Dangarembga (b. 1959), whose
award-winning Nervous Conditions was published in 1988. Though bitingly critical
in some respects, Dangarembga came neither to bury nor to praise, and her insights
amalgamate disparagement of European condescension and heavy-handedness with
acknowledgment of instances of missionary respect for indigenous culture. She also
emphasised that religious intolerance was not an exclusively European phenomenon.
Description
Keywords
Zimbabwe, Christianity, Mission, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous conditions
Citation
Hale, F. (2004). A Shona assessment of evolving missionary Christianity in Zimbabwe. Acta Theologica, 24(1), 91-110.