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10. Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, Oceania

Identity and cultural change

experience of colonial rule generated new patterns of identity within Asian, African, Oceanic societies

racism

exposure to European culture

social and economic upheavals

millions of people underwent changes in what they believed and how they defined their communities

new ways echoed long after European rule

Education

acquired Western education through missionary or government schools

New opportunities

previously illiterate; learning reading and righting seemed almost magical

escape from some obligations of living under European control (e.g. forced labor)

access to better-paying positions

government bureaucracies

mission organizations

business firms

could buy imported goods with their newfound salaries

education provided social mobility and elite status; opportunity to approach equality with white people

Embracing European culture

many emulated European ways

dressed in European clothes

spoke French or English

built European-style houses

got married in long white dresses

Asian and African societies had new cultural divide

small numbers who mastered to varying degrees the ways of their rulers

vast majority who did not

Reform

Western-educated elite often saw themselves as modernizing leaders who led regeneration of societies with colonial authorities

colonial enterprise full of promise for better future

India: Western-educated men formed variety of reform societies

drew inspiration from classic texts of Hinduism

sought renewed Indian culture free from “errors”

idolatry

caste restrictions

etc.

often centered on improving status of women

argued against

sati

ban on remarriage of widows

female infanticide

child marriages

advocated

women’s education

women’s property rights

some saw themselves as working with British colonial authorities

Impacts

Europeans generally did not treat their Asian and African subjects as equal partners, even if they were Western-educated

degraded Asian and African cultures, insulting well-educated

primitive

backwards

uncivilized

savage

educated classes in colonial societies found European rule an obstacle to countries’ development rather than a means to achieve it → led struggles for independence

Religion

places where widespread conversion to Christianity took place

especially non-Muslim Africa

some 10,000 missionaries went to Africa by 1950

roughly half of non-Muslim population (50 million Africans) claimed Christian identity

Appeal of Christianity

military defeat shook confidence in old gods and local practices → openness to new sources of supernatural power

Christianity associated with modern education

mission schools were primary providers of Western education

oppressed groups found new opportunities and greater freedom in missions

young

poor

women

Christianity did not really spread through European missionaries

African teachers, catechists, pastors who brought it to remote villages

local communities that begged for teacher, supplied labor and materials to build small church/school

Oceania: local authorities (e.g. in Fiji, Tonga, Hawaii) associated with Christian missionaries to strengthen position

linked to growing influence of European/American power

mission Christianity provided measure of social cohesion for peoples devastated by disease, etc.

schools

clinics

political counsel

new social conventions

Opposition to gender roles

Marriage and women

female nudity offended Western modesty

polygyny contradicted Christian monogamy (even though Old Testament figures like Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon had multiple wives)

what should male converts do with their additional wives?

missionaries thought that bride wealth made marriage seem “a mere mercantile transaction”

marriages between Christians and non-Christians were problematic

sexual activity outside monogamous marriages often resulted in disciplinary action or expulsion from church

efforts to enforce Western gender norms in part responsible for considerable turnover in ranks of African church members

Female circumcision (Kenya)

excising pubescent girls’ clitoris and adjacent genital tissue to mark coming-of-age

to Gikuyu people: prerequisite for adult status and marriage

to missionaries: physically damaging to girls; brought “unnecessary attention...to the non-spiritual aspects of sex”

missionaries in 1929 sought to enforce a ban on it; thousands abandoned mission schools and churches

did not abandon Christianity or modern education; created independent schools and churches

could practice their new faith and pursue their educational goals without missionary intrusion

New Testament declared that “circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing”

Africanization of Christianity

within mission-based churches

some continued to use protective charms and medicines; consulted local medicine men (missionaries accused them of “backsliding”)

some continued to believe in their old gods and spirits but deemed them evil and sought their destruction

thousands of separatist movements

established wide array of independent churches

thoroughly Christian but under African control, not missionary

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