The importance of difference in the making of transnationality: biographies and networks of the Benedictine mission in Tanganyika (1922–65)

The Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien were the first Roman Catholic mission house in imperial Germany. During the heyday of European imperialisms, colonialisms and Christian missions the monastic community began its engagement in ‘German East Africa’. To enable and promote its proselytization efforts in the imperial colony until the end of the Great War, the Missionary Benedictines had to respond to shifting political conditions and to rearrange their networks as and when required. This orientation became even more pronounced during the renewal of the Benedictine Mission in the British mandated territory of Tanganyika up until the Second Vatican Council and the political independence of Tanzania. From 1922 to 1965 at least 379 members of the Congregation lived and worked in Tanganyika. Their biographies were closely linked to the complex transboundary system of their religious community. This article will portray them as a highly institutionalized group of transnational actors. It argues that to maintain its activities and organizational structures, the leaders of the Benedictine Mission established a dynamic multi-level network connecting a variety of scales, spaces and actors. To ensure its continued existence under constantly changing conditions they constituted a hierarchic system of difference and diversity.     

'n Radikale Siening van ons Verlede

Abstract

In the early 1920s the British colonial mandate authorities argued that the Iringa Highlands of south-western Tanzania were being underutilised, and thus recommended that the area be settled by Europeans. This article indicates that there are specific historical reasons why the highlands were underpopulated and appeared to be underutilised when British mandate authorities first surveyed the area. In particular the article draws attention to the impact of a consecutive series of wars that ravaged the area between 1890 and 1918. In so doing, an implicit argument is made for a re-evaluation of the centrality of the Maji Maji war of 1905–07 in Tanzanian historiography, and seeks to draw attention to the importance of a number of regional wars that characterised the years of German colonial rule prior to Maji Maji. Furthermore the article highlights the significance of the First World War in coming to an understanding of events in southwestern Tanzania.     

The Neo-colonialism of Decolonisation: Katangan Secession and the Bringing of the Cold War to the Congo

The link between the Cold War and decolonisation is tackled by using the uniqueness of the complex Congo crisis and its neo-colonial elements, with a focus on agents and specific policies rather than theories and general themes. The ‘real’ Cold War is essentially defined as that followed by Kennedy, with its priority in the early 1960s, among the Cold War’s many different constituent elements, taken to be the winning of newly independent African nations to the socio-economic values and hoped-for developmental benefits of Western capitalism. The importance of using soft power to defeat the ideology of communism, as opposed to containing the allegedly expansionist Soviet aims in Africa, is highlighted. Clear distinctions are made between the Kennedy administration and those of Eisenhower and Johnson. Interpretations of decolonisation using the Congo’s particular neo-colonial circumstances have been rare, and interpretations of decolonisation in the Congo also require some qualification. In particular the role of the colonial state and its ‘partnership’ with private European enterprises, established under King Leopold, had economic consequences for the Belgian decolonisation process. The importance of the role of financial capital, as opposed to business interests simply represented through trade and industry, is emphasised. The role of the UN and its secretary general is also highlighted but not by using inaccurate perceptions of Hammarskjöld’s neutral Cold War stance. The different positions taken by the Belgians, the British and the Americans, embodying conflict and cooperation in different forms, are analysed at different times with the important consequences of the Belgian refusal to comply with UN Security Council Resolutions highlighted. The need to limit the damage from that and from the neo-colonialism of secession is analysed. Exaggerating the causal consequences of Soviet actions and accusing Lumumba, despite evidence to the contrary, of being a communist or vehicle for Soviet influence was what brought the Cold War to the Congo. The British refusal to do more than decline to support openly the neo-colonialism in Katanga, particularly by supporting action likely to end secession, threatened to damage relations with the US. Such action, which could have led to more military action, would have contributed to the success of US policy in the ‘real’ Cold War but at the expense of those British investors who were the main financial backers of the Conservative party.