Africa Christo! The Use of Photographs in Dutch Catholic Mission Propaganda, 1946-1960

A discussion of European representations of Africa. The material
undergoes change over time: exotic images are dominant in
earlier periods, but give way during the mid-1950s to Christian
images which do not display difference in any conspicious way,
until a new image of African Christianity appears at the end of
the decade, ""in which the photograph of the negroe or negress
is no longer used to articulate difference, but to stress
(Christian) continuity instead''. The author suggests that the
representation of the exotic had in part been sustained by its
pragmatic value, as an aid to fund-raising, but argues that
""the move towards a more modern, less distracting and
hypocritical form of mission propaganda'' in fact reasserted the
older story of the 'civilizing myth', now presented as an
accomplishment rather than as a goal. (Editor's Introduction).
Amsterdam University, NL
University of Leiden, NL


Citaten:
Beidelman, T.O.: Colonial Evangelism (1982)
Clifford, J.: Person and Myth (1982)

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