The Experience of Work in the Archives

Of Portugal and Mozambique.

Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo is the oldest and the most important of Portuguese Archives. The collection of documents on Colonial History called "Corpo Cronologico" attracted the greatest attention of the author of the article. It contains 82.902 documents, which cover the period from 1169 till 1699 (the majority of these documents concern the 16-th century). For example, the correspondence between the Governors of African colonies and the King of Portugal is of great interest.

The author of the article has also found much valuable and useful information in the vast collection of documents concerning the History of Portuguese conquest of Morocco (Documentos do Corpo Cronologico Relativos a Marrocas).

The author of the article had the possibility to work in Arquivo Historico de Mocambique) in Maputo (Mozambique). He found large quantity of unpublished documents about the resistance of the State of Vatua, which was headed by a famous chief Gungunhana, against the Portuguese expansion at the end of the 19-th century. The mentioned above documents allow to reconstruct many of unknown events concerning the history of struggle of people of Mozambique, especially concerning the history of life and struggle of their outstanding leader Gungunhana, against the Portuguese colonizers. Of the greatest interest is the document revealed by the author in this archives - "Relatorio sobre a Prisao do Regulo Gungunhana pelo Governador do Distrito de Gaza... 16.01.1896".

White Fathers Archives‘ Value to the Student of African Societies

Viera Pawlikova-Vilhanova,

Slovak Academy

 

Increased contact with the non-western world since the late eighteenth century confirmed in the European mind the idea of the Christianization of those parts of the world which had hitherto been deprived of the message of the Gospel. The modern era of the missionary expansion of the Christian Church which then started has continued until now. An impetus given to the Roman Catholic missionary movement in Africa was the foundation of new missionary congregations explicitly directed to Africa. A new missionary order called the Society of Missionaries of Africa, but better known by the nickname White Fathers, was founded in 1868 in North Africa by the Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage, Primate of Africa and Apostolic Delegate for the Sahara and the Sudan, Cardinal Lavigerie to play a vital role in the conversion of the African continent. In the late 1970 the White Fathers had 3000 missionaries, priests and brothers, from twenty-three different countries working in Africa. The White Fathers who are now working in eighty-one dioceses spread over twenty-nine African countries, of which twenty-seven have African bishops, are most densely represented in Algeria, Tunisia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeia, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zambia. One third of all African Roman-Catholic priests have been trained by the White Fathers and these included the two black African Cardinals, Rugambwa of Tanzania, and Zoungrama – a White Father from Burkina Faso.

The transfer of the White Fathers archives from the original location in Algiers to their headquarters in Rome where the archives have been kept since then, took place in 1952. The archives have a private character and preserve especially the documents and correspondence concerning Cardinal Lavigerie himself (since 1852 until 1892) and the Society of the White Fathers (since 1868 to date). The White Fathers Archives contain very rich collections of documents, manuscripts, articles and books written by White Fathers themselves and numerous publications by non-White Fathers on the Society, its apostolate and Africa. Cardinal Lavigerie‘ s own writings provide valuable material on the conceptual framework surrounding the White Fathers missionary activities in Africa and the moves and motives which inspired the Society‘s foundation.

Charles Lavigerie- Martial Allemand (1825-1892), who was ordained to the priesthood in 1849, having acquired brilliant academic honours, in 1854 started his career as Professor of Ecclesiastical history at the Sorbonne where he lectured on the Early Church History in Egypt and North Africa. As a young priest he accepted in In 1856 the direction of the Oeuvre des Ecoles d’Orient, which undertook educational and welfare work in the Middle East. In 1863 he was consecrated Bishop of Nancy, being at that time the youngest Bishop in France. In 1867 Lavigerie gave up the bishopric of Nancy to accept the episcopal see of Algiers. He explained his decision to leave the episcopal see of Nancy to become Bishop of Algiers in a letter written to his former Professor, Mgr.Maret, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne, in December 1896. The practice of the Roman Catholic Church in Algeria was to minister only to the French Catholics, but Lavigerie saw Algeria as a field of charitable works for all. „That is not all,“ he continued, „Algeria is only a door opened by Providence onto a continent of two hundred million souls. It is there especially that we must take the work of the Catholic apostolate.“

The vast African continent was always present in Lavigerie`s thoughts. From 1867 until his death in November 1892 the immense African interior remained the principal object of Cardinal Lavigerie`s zeal and from the very beginning he planned an apostolate south of the Sahara.

The Society of Missionaries of Africa was founded by Cardinal Lavigerie in Algeria in 1868 to maintain a non-proselytising presence among the Muslims. The first novitiate of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa or White Fathers opened in 1868 in Algiers under Jesuit direction, and the first vows were taken in 1872. The activity of the first missionaries was almost entirely taken up by the caring for and educating of children orphaned by famine and epidemics in this part of Africa in the years 1867-1868 and self-supporting orphanages became the basis of operations. The Society of White Fathers started in Northern Algeria (1869), Algerian Sahara (1872) and Tunisia (1875) but its mission was soon enlarged to comprise the evangelization of the far interior of West and East Africa.[72]

As Primate of Africa embracing the whole of continent he dreamed of „resurrecting“ the early Church of Africa by the „Establishment of a Christian Kingdom“ in the heart of Equatorial Africa. He renewed the primatial see of St.Cyprian at Carthage and had a magnificent basilica built there. From his episcopal residence in Algiers Lavigerie started to send his first teams of missionaries to the interiors of the African continent to convert the peoples by converting their kings. This became his strategy for winning the peoples living in the East African Interlacustrine area to the Christian faith.[73]

In 1876 the first caravan of Missionaries of Africa or White Fathers was massacred on their way to the Sudan, the second caravan of White Fathers was massacred on their way to Timbuktu on 21 December 1881. Cardinal Lavigerie entered upon an anti-slavery campaign and secured a federation of the various European anti-slavery societies in L' Oeuvre antiesclavagiste.[74] L’Association Internationale Africaine (A.I.A.| was formed in September 1876 in Brussels with King Léopold of Belgium as its President. Lavigerie’s Central African mission was conceived as a religious counterpart of the International African Association, working within the same geographical boundaries, from ten degrees north to twenty degrees south of the Equator. Its stations were supposed to be placed within easy reach of the outposts of the lay organizations, so that mutual assistance could be rendered. See Lavigerie In: Missions Catholiques, 81,104.

When Pope Pius IX at the end of his long pontificate turned to the heads of the principal missions for Africa and asked their advice on how to carry out the apostolic mission of the Church in the heart of Africa, Lavigerie responded with a Mémoire secret sur l’ Association Internationale Africaine de Bruxelles et l’Ėvangélisation de l’Afrique Equatoriale adressé à son Eminance le Cardinal Franchi, Préfet de la S.C.de la Propaganda, par Mgr l’archevêque d’Alger. Alger 1878.56pp.,1map. In: White Fathers Archives, Rome, Actes et Publications de Lavigerie. The fifty-six pages are devoted to the description of the material advantages which L’Association Internationale Africaine could offer for Africa and the means adopted for the evangelization of Equatorial Africa.

The anti-slavery issue and the humanitarian conscience played a vital role in stimulating European interest in East and Central Africa and gave an impetus to mission work. Intrigued by the schemes of King Leopold of Belgium and his International African Association for the exploration and civilization of Central Africa, Lavigerie worked out his own detailed plans for a Central African mission.25 In his Secret Memorandum on the evangelization of Equatorial Africa, dated 2 January 1878, he explained to Pope Pius IX his ideas on how to organize Catholic missions in Central Africa: by creating four new missions, transforming Africa by the Africans, training a plentiful number of auxiliaries, particularly of doctor-catechists and fighting against slavery and slave trade. When on 24 February 1878, the decree of Propaganda entrusting the organization of missions in sub-Saharan Africa to Archbishop Lavigerie was ratified by the new Pope Leo XIII, Lavigerie promptly organized the first caravan of ten missionaries to Equatorial Africa.

It was a fundamental rule of the White Fathers Society to start their mission with the establishment of a school and a dispensary. The educational system introduced by the White Fathers always connected the religious instruction with the education in basic literacy. The principle was preserved that education should be given in the vernacular and missionaries devoted much time to the study of African languages. At missions adherents learned to read and write their own languages,

The early mission schools grew out of the desire to spread the gospel, to win converts and to train African catechists. The Livingstonian principle that Africa could only be converted by Africans was firmly established in the minds of the early missionaries. Missionary theory has reiterated this perspective, whether Protestant or Catholic.The schools for native catechists formed the core of every single missionary community. African catechists instructed in the word of God were expected by both Catholic and Protestant missionaries to spread out into the country and preach to the crowds whom the missionaries themselves could never hope to reach. "Transforming Africa by the Africans", was the formula advocated by Cardinal Lavigerie in his instructions to the White Fathers. "The missionaries must therefore be mainly initiators, but the lasting work must be accomplished by the Africans themselves, once they have become Christians and apostles. And it must be clearly noted here that we say: become Christians and not become French or Europeans." 39 Missionaries were therefore asked to adapt themselves to the Africans, to strip themselves, as much as possible, of the cultural elements peculiar to them, of their language in the first place. It was believed that without effective and active communication it was impossible to pursue the conversion of the Africans. Missionaries were requested to overcome language difficulties by devoting their spare time to the study of local African languages and by approaching the Africans in their own language minimize cultural misunderstandings and distinctions between themselves and their potential converts. To master the local African language, the White Fathers were actually forbidden to speak to each other in anything else after living six months in the country. Many White Fathers, Livinhac, Le Veux, Gorju, became excellent linguists and outstanding Luganda scholars and by preparing grammars, dictionaries, catechisms, textbooks and New Testament translation in Luganda laid a solid foundation for all missionaries who came after. They became excellent teachers in the Luganda language, still it is doubtful if they adhered strictly to the command of their founder. According to Lavigerie, the sharing of the exterior life of the natives as regards language, food and clothing was to be the distinguishing feature of the White Fathers who, as had been mentioned earlier, adopted a Muslim attire in Algeria, gandourah, burnous, chechia and tashbi, and kept it when they established in Central Africa. The linguistic work and an intimate knowledge of the language were crucial, since through language it is possible to get to know and appreciate its cultural context and experience the relevant culture.

The idea behind Lavigerie’s instructions was far from new. Theorists of the missionary cause usually advocated the same or similar attitude to Africans. “The argument that the missionary should mingle with the Africans, became intimate with them as individuals, understand their modes of thoughts and customs, and minimize irrelevant external distinctions was a recurrent strain in missionary thought.” Mgr.Comboni of the Verona Fathers advocated it in 1864.

An analysis of the missionary thinking reveals that “from the very start of the modern missionary enterprise in 18th century there was – at least conceptually – a clear opportunity for mission to avoid falling victim to western ethnocentrism “. The foundation documents of many new missionary societies pointed towards an adaptive missiology and a pluralistic understanding of Christianity advocated by the present day African theology. The missionary theory suggested that the Christian Church in Africa would develop its own particular forms of expression. In the nineteenth century civilization meant different things to different people. Lavigerie almost never spoke of civilization and instead insisted in his Instructions: “From the material aspect we must leave Africans as they are, that is to say truly Africans. We must shut our eyes and hearts to a false pity…and resign ourselves to see young Negroes close to us maintain the customs of their land, their wattle huts instead of houses, their bare earth in place of beds, sorghum and manioc instead of bread, grass waist bands in place of shirt and trousers.”

There were many, Lavigerie, Venn, and others who “were guiding the central core of the missionary movement emphatically from preoccupation with civilization towards the acceptance of cultural diversity and non-European ways as crucial to a missionary’s central purpose”.

The praxis of the missionary enterprise in general turned out to be different. Such teachings were not effectively implemented. Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries failed to realize the ideal and vision of the missionary founders. The civilization school and the adaptationist model were extreme forms. As Adrian Hastings put it, the latter “remained a minority position just as heavy civilizing remained a minority position. In between were the large majority. Europeanizing in some ways (and no book-learning could be done without a measure of Europeanizing), endeavouring to adapt to African ways in others”. The history of the White Fathers and other missions took a direction which was very different or almost contrary to that which their founders and other mission thinkers advocated and anticipated.

The primary goal of all mission societies in Africa was the winning of converts. From the very start the teaching of literacy was a particular concern of both the C.M.S. and White Fathers missions. They established schools because education was deemed indispensable to their aim, but always placed religion at the forefront of the school curriculum. Missionary education has generated a great deal of debate. Most missions provided only basic education to ensure the inculcation of proper Christian principles and enable Africans attending the mission schools to become good Christians. The White Fathers developed plantations and estates in order to support their catechumens whom they had to house, feed, clothe, nurse and educate. Mission stations established by the White Fathers were actively developed as self-supporting economic communities, where missionaries exercised a strong superintendence over the moral lives of their converts and where the virtues of hard work might be learnt alongside protection from the temptations, such as polygamy and many customs associated with traditional life and religion. The White Fathers hoped that in providing education they would also be able to form Christian character. Missionaries, who were themselves products of the Western Christian civilization, carried with them their cultural values and these determined the form of education provided. They took from their culture its conventional features, building churches and schools in the European style and imposing the habits and ethos of the Western Christian civilization on their converts. The forms of religious service they used, though translated into an African language, were reproductions of the liturgy of their home church, replete with hymns. The school system promoted Western values and desires, in mission schools, often boarding schools, catechumens and Christian converts were educated into the externals of European culture. Missionary schoolmasters provided a total culture pattern, including church attendance, Christian morality, table manners, etc.53

It was firmly established in the minds of the early missionaries that Africa could only be converted by Africans. "Transforming Africa by the Africans", was the formula advocated by Cardinal Lavigerie in his instructions to the White Fathers. "The missionaries must therefore be mainly initiators, but the lasting work must be accomplished by the Africans themselves, once they have become Christians and apostles. And it must be clearly noted here that we say: become Christians and not become French or Europeans."  Missionaries were therefore asked to adapt themselves to the Africans, to strip themselves, as much as posible, of the cultural elements peculiar to them, of their language in the first place. An effort to overcome language difficulties and approach the Africans in their own language was to minimize cultural misunderstandings and distinctions between missionaries and their potential converts. Without effective and active communication it was impossible to pursue the conversion of the Africans. The sharing of the exterior life of the natives as regards language, food and clothing was to be the distinguishing feature of the White Fathers who, as had been mentioned earlier, adopted an Arab attire in Algeria and kept it when they established in Central Africa.39 The idea behind Lavigerie s instructions was far from new. Theorists of the missionary cause usually advocated the same or similar attitude to Africans.

 The compilation of traditional information was a task entrusted to all White Fathers as part of their training. The missionary was not only asked to respect the culture and the language of each peple, but also to devote "all his moments of leisure to the study of the culture of the people to whom he is sent." This recommendation must have certainly encouraged the composing of grammars and dictionaries and the study of the history, historical traditions, legends, customs. Early White Fathers added important contributions in the scientific sphere.

 The first generation of Catholic misionaries in different parts of the African continent met the expectations of their founder. Scientifically very important was the Roman Catholic missionaries pioneer work in African languages. Unwritten local languages had to be learned and written before the difficult but vital task of Bible translation could be undertaken. Many of them were outstanding linguists. Some White Fathers became great scholars and their linguistic work laid a solid foundation for all missionaries who came after.

 Livinhac, Le Veux, Gorju, all fine scholars, spent precious hours preparing grammars, dictionaries and New Testament translation in Luganda.42 The first catechism in Luganda which is at the same time the very first publication in an African language kept in the Department of publications in African languages of the W.F. Archives, was printed in 1881. It was prepared by Father Livinhac and numbered 44 pages. The essential Christian truths were condensed in 19 pages, followed by 7 pages of prayers, then a syllabary and some pages of reading which were intended to enable the Baganda to learn to read and write. Father Livinhac was the author of many other books in Luganda, of a Luganda grammar, a vocabulary, etc.  Father Le Veux who arrived from Europe in 1903 was the author of an over one thousand pages long Luganda-French dictionary which has since its publication remained the basic work on Luganda vocabulary.Though a printing press was set up at Mengo by the C.M.S. missionaries right upon their arrival, the White Fathers had their books published at their headquarters at Algiers where they strived to keep pace with the literary needs of the White Fathers mission in Uganda and elsewhere.

 It is a well-known fact that the first impulses to African literary activities in many parts sub-Saharan Africa outside the reach of Islam, were given by Christian missions. The teaching of literacy was also a particular concern of the White Fathers mission. By producing alphabet sheets, word lists and grammars, later full-scale dictionaries, textbooks and manuals, translations of portions of the Gospels and later of the whole New Testament, Catholic missionaries created the pre-conditions for the building up of the literary tradition and the written literary language.

 White Fathers were very prolific writers and keen observers of the local customs, religions, historical traditions and of the day-to-day events as testified by numerous works from their pen kept in the archives. The material in the manuscripts written by White Fathers and covering "Tribal Histories" is of necessity of very varied quality and needs to be used with discrimination, contains nevertheless occasional information of great importance. As eyewitnesses they also recorded many invaluable facts on key events in the pre-colonial and early colonial history of different African peoples and despite certain inaccuracies and distortions their descriptions are indispensable for any student of African history. It is quite natural that in all the records the stress is being laid on the progress of religious instruction and education. However, scattered among a great mass of ephemeral material is often vital evidence on many different aspects of the history of those parts of the African continent where the White Fathers established their mission stations in the last two-three decades of the last century, such as slavery, slave trade, inter-ethnic wars, the social position of slaves (mostly women and children) in the African society, trade, including trade in arms etc.

 Sources can be divided into several categories:

 1. Mission diaries, about 250 diaries of the various mission posts. The most interesting are those from before 1925-1930. Most of the diaries from the first two periods are kept in the archives. A typed copy has been kept there along with the original, restored as far as was necessary and possible. For Uganda it is the Diary of Rubaga, a collective diary kept by the White Fathers who took turns in recording the daily events in Buganda and the rest of the present-day Uganda (in the diaries of other misssion posts). These contain remarkable new materal on various aspects of the history of the country.

 2. quarterly and annual reports of the mission posts

 3. correspondence - letters written by individual missionaries to Algiers. The arrangement is by period, each period corresponding to the mandate of a Superior General.

 I. The Lavigerie period. It runs from 1868 to 1892, the year of his death.

 II. The Livinhac period. From 1892 to 1922.

 III. Voillard Period. From 1922 till 1936.

 IV. Birraux Period. From 1936 till 1947.

 V. Durrieu Period. From 1947 till 1957.

 VI. Volker Period. From 1957 till 1967.

 Each period is further subdivided by vicariate and then by individual correspondent. The Lavigerie Period has been analysed and classified in a great detail, so have been the other periods but in a less detail.

 As it happened, only a small part of the White Fathers correspondence, i.e. letters sent to Algiers, is in the collection. Correspondence from the headquarters to the missions and between posts had, for the most part, remained at the local missions.

 4. However, many of the letters of the White Fathers as well as entries from the Rubaga Diary (and other mission diaries) were reproduced in the publications of the White Fathers, published at the Headquarters. Of these some were reserved principally to the members of the society. Periodicals printed for limited circulation among missionaries were Les Chroniques trimestrielles (1879-1909, Quarterly Chronicles, the title changed during these years) - 17,000 pages printed pro manuscripto, (the latter contains a printed selection of the most significant extracts from White Fathers diaries and correspondence, fairly full in respect of certain periods and episodes, and reports of the Society s houses). Les Rapports Annuels (Annual Reports 1905-1960), also printed pro manuscripto, reproduce the reports of each diocese and also often extracts from reports of the posts, with useful statistics and lists of personnel. The last publication to be mentioned is Petit Echo (since 1912).

 On the other hand, Missions d Afrique des P res Blancs (Missions d Afrique from 1871 to January 1879, Missions d Alger from April 1879 to 1894 and Missions d Afrique des P res Blancs from 1895 to 1936) were intended for the wider public. Extracts of some letters containing many interesting details can be also found in Les Missions Catholiques, a journal which began publication in Paris in 1860.

 5. Historical, ethnological, missiological and linguistic studies and surveys done by the White Fathers, often manuscripts, hand written or typed, some published, more than a thousand of them,49 including history books which record, with varying degrees of accompanying interpretation the teachings of traditional history.

 All these are kept in the Documents and correspondence section.

 6. a wide range of printed material, both primary and secondary, kept in the Printed Books section. Books and articles written by White Fathers and a smaller number of books and articles written about the White Fathers, their work, about Africa, then dictionaries, grammars, gospels, catechisms, secular books in African languages.

 7. Attached to the Archives there is also Photographic records section, a collection of photos and negatives on glass (1860-1930), consisting of more than 10,000 plates, which are very useful from the point of view of the history of the Church in Africa and not only that - showing early missionaries, first native priests, first Christians, chiefs, different types of people, buildings in the past, recording important events in the history of a country etc. The archives also contain a historical map collection (1860- today).

 It is quite clear that eyewitness information contained in various categories of sources kept in the White Fathers aechives throw valuable light on the contemporary African political scene, domestic and foreign policy as well as many other aspects. A proper assessment of White Fathers writings cannot be made without an understanding of the men themselves, their academic and scholarly background, their character and the period they described. Treated with care and a thorough understanding of historical context, valuable information about African societies, cultures, traditional African religions etc.on the eve of the colonial conquest can be shifted from a vast amount of ephemeral material. Also despite the abundant literature on the slave trade, the possibilities of investigation on its unfoprtunate historz and consequences remain wide. The impact of the slave trade on intercultural and interethnic relationships is an exciting research topic and a judicious use of White Fathers archives can throw some light on it. Cardinal Lavigerie’s own vast correspondence and numerous writings is indispensable for missiological studies and the study of the Christian missionary enterprise in Africa.