Panel 77: European Religious Engagements in Africa. Doing Euro-African Mission History in the 21st century

Catholic missionaries were among the first Europeans who established cultural, economic and communicative networks between Europe and Africa. The Euro-African relations and interdependences within the context of Christian missions passed through enormous changes in the past two centuries and were shaped by radical and contradictory political, socio-economic and ideological transformations. As the historian Andreas Eckert points it out: “During the times both of them have changed: the European missionaries themselves as well as the Africans that should be proselytised” (Eckert 1999).

The proposed panel concentrates on Catholic religious engagements in Africa in historical and present contexts and focuses on recent methodological approaches and theoretical concepts of mission historiography from a critical point of view. Particular consideration is given to the issue of African voices in the creation, transformation and representation of the Christian mission enterprise and the communication of its shifting religious and cultural goals. Against this background, the four panellists give an overview on diverse European mission encounters in different African regions and diverse time periods from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century.