2nd Research Posts 2009                      LITR 5731 Colonial-Postcolonial Literature

Aaron Schneider

Foreign Missionaries: The Combining of the “Self” and the “Other”

When discussing literature within the context of Colonialism/Post Colonialism, it is inevitable that one comes across the relationship of the “self” and the “other”.  In most Colonialism/Post Colonialism texts, the “self” would be defined as the colonizer while the “other” is typically viewed as the colonized.  While it is fair to say that the domination of the “self” over the “other” is a prominent theme in most texts of the time period, it is not too much of a stretch to find that common beliefs exist across cultures and these beliefs can come into dialogue together as very different worlds collide; the most basic conceptual belief existing between cultures is that of religion.  The Bible commands Christians to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”  Throughout history, numerous races and cultures have sought to honor this commandment by sending Christian missionaries to foreign lands.  For some, these missionaries have been viewed colonizers, but in Don Richardson’s novel Peace Child and Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart the reader finds the mergence of the “self” into the “other” as missionaries use the various facets of previously existing cultures to introduce the native people to Christianity.

Don Richardson’s 1974 novel Peace Child details his family’s journey to Irian Jaya Indonesia (formerly Netherlands New Guinea) to serve as Christian missionaries to the over four hundred Sawi tribes living in remote parts of the jungle.  While most of the world was living in the age of television and equal rights, the Sawi people were engrossed in living a cannibalistic lifestyle that operated under the idealization of treachery. As Richardson studied at the largest Christian training institution in Canada, Prarie Bible Institute of Alberta, in 1955, the Dutch were attempting their hand at colonization as they advanced under the “fluttering red, white, and blue flag of the Netherlands” (56).  Their entry into Indonesia was viewed in awe by the native Sawis who saw them as “Tuans” or “extremely large beings” because of their massive river boats complete with twin diesel engines (a sound not known to the primitive tribes of the area).  The Dutch’s sole mission was to “seek to find a new site for a Dutch Administrative post in the area, a center from which the Dutch police hoped to put an end to the ceaseless headhunting and cannibalism known to be rife in such a wild area” (56).  While the role of the Dutch is easily identified as Colonialism, Richardson’s mission in 1962 operated under vastly different motivations as it was described to him by his fellow missionaries,

          “you may be called upon to make the first advance into the midst of entire tribes that have never known any kind of governmental control, where people are a law unto themselves and where savagery is a way of life…you will encounter customs and beliefs which will baffle you, you will try to treat tropical diseases and run the risk of being blamed for the death of your patient if you fail.  You must prepare to endure loneliness, weariness, and frustration with fortitude” (80)

            This call to arms that Richardson fully embraced holds nothing of the same intentions of early colonizers; his motivation was one of purpose: to serve his Lord.  There was nothing to gain for Richardson and his family aside from the salvation of the tens of thousands of Sawi people living in the jungles of Indonesia.  Richardson’s task proved larger than previously anticipated (if such as idea can exist) as he realized that his numerous misperceptions of the area were even worse than previously anticipated.  Operating without the consent to protection of the Netherlands government, many of Richardson’s fellow missionaries faced martyrdom at the hands of the natives; Richardson himself faced death on multiple occasions.  Because the Sawi people operated under the pretences of deception and treachery, it was imperative for Richardson to demonstrate his inability to be intimidated.  Most of the Sawi tribes would exercise a concept they referred to as “Tuwi asonai makaerin or the friendship fattening” in which they would welcome a member of an opposing tribe (an ambassador) into their community to enter into peace negotiations.  These negotiations offered a false sense of security to the visitor and, after numerous months of meetings and meals, the native people would then slaughter the unsuspecting guest in the ultimate form of treachery.  The natives would go on to say “that to see the fear in one’s eyes as they were betrayed was the ultimate form of satisfaction” (33).  The only escape from certain death as a victim of this treachery was the offering of a “peace child”.  By giving over your own child to your enemy, one’s life could be spared.  It was this primitive concept that Richardson used to explain the salvation of the world in the greatest of all “peace children”: Jesus Christ. 

After touching the Sawi hearts using their own ritualistic customs, Richardson was able to convert thousands of Sawi to Christianity.  Richardson referred to the application to local custom of spiritual truth as the “principle of redemptive analogy”.  In addition to the “peace child” ritual, he used the village concepts of baptism through dancing and the re-incarnation of the spirit after death to introduce the concepts of baptismal cleansing through water and the rising of Jesus from the dead.  In his scientific study of missions, David R. Heise would refer to missionaries submitting their innovations within the framework of native institutions and practices as the concept of “cultural adaptation” (53-54).  By using previously existing ritualistic customs, Richardson was able to open up a dialogue of friendship and understanding and was able to be seen by the natives as something more than simply the “self”.  In learning to understand these native customs and myths, the Sawi people slowly lost their “otherness” and became human in Richardson’s eyes.  While this relationship takes place in Indonesia and involves the Sawi Indians, we also find this mergence of the “self” and “other” exemplified in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.     

            It cannot be denied that the character of Reverend James Smith was created by Chinua Achebe in his 1959 fictional novel Things Fall Apart to symbolize missionaries as colonizers; it also cannot be denied that, in many cases, Christianity was the “foot in the door” that colonizing countries needed to invade the “dark continents”.  Achebe stresses that Smith “saw things as black and white and black was evil; he saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness” (184).  In every situation the “bad” will inevitably find its way in.  Through the character of James Smith the District Commissioner finds a foothold to exercise his dominance over the Ibo clan.  This dominance serves only his personal needs as he looks to exploit the Ibo people in his book The Pacificaton of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.  Before this exploitation by Smith and the District Commissioner however, we are introduced to the character of Mr. Brown.  Achebe admits that Mr. Brown “came to be respected by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith” (178).  Mr. Brown bought into Richardson’s principle of “redemptive analogy” as well as Heise’s “cultural adaptation” and used the Ibo people’s faith and customs to lay the foundation of Christianity in Africa.  Mr. Brown has numerous conversations with the Ibo people in which parallels can be drawn between the Ibo’s polytheistic religion and monotheistic Christianity.  It is through these conversations that Mr. Brown “learned a good deal about the religious practices of the clan” (181).  He used this knowledge to create a school to educate the people and, in turn, converted many of them to Christianity.  Because Mr. Brown chose not to exercise dominance over the “other” through his identity as the “self”, he was able to establish a dialogue of communication between the two races.  By integrating himself into and becoming familiar with the Ibo culture, he came to be seen as being beneficial, rather than detrimental to the clan.

            In the end, it would appear that God has implanted just enough religious similarity across cultures to provide a common bond that allows dialogue to begin between them.  Through this dialogue and the breaking down of the lines of “self and other” one can find that various cultures can co-exist without the need for one to dominate the other.  In order to find out just how successful the integration of Christianity has been across the globe, we can apply the concept of Post-Colonialism’s third wave of migration: leaving the native country and going back into the country that originally sought to colonize.  In this particular case, the missionaries are not going to colonize, but rather to bring Christianity back to places like America and England.  In a 1997 article published by Christian Century, it is discovered that churches in Africa are “sending thousands of missionaries back to the U.S. because the church in Africa is on fire, while the church in America is, for the most part, losing its zeal” (718).  It was believed that in 1960, 10.7 percent of the world’s evangelical Christians were Africans; by 1993, the figure had climbed to 20.9 percent; by 2000, 338 million of Africa’s 700 million people were believers of the Christian faith” (718).  Religious congregations in America have now grown to include white Americans, Africans of different nations, and Caribbean Islanders.  Through the concept of cultural adaptation and the principle of redemptive anthology, the dehumanizing relationship of “self and other” continues to be modified as cultures discover that through dialogue and diplomacy the world can be unified under the banner of religion.  Instead of gravitating to the differences that divide the “self and other”, religion gives an opportunity to focus on the similarities that exist across race and culture.   

Works Cited

Chinua., Achebe,. Things Fall Apart. 1958. NY: Anchor, 1994. Print.

Concordia self-study Bible. St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1986. Print.

Heise, David R. "Prefactory Findings in the Sociology of Missions." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1967): 49-58. Print.

Richardson, Don. Peace Child. Ventura: Regal Books, 1974. Print.

R.N.S. "African Missionaries to U.S." Christian Century 114.23 (1997): 718. Print.