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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Freed slaves, missionaries, and respectability: the expansion of the Christian frontier from Angola to Belgian Congo
Author:Maxwell, DavidISNI
Year:2013
Periodical:The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537)
Volume:54
Issue:1
Pages:79-102
Language:English
Geographic terms:Angola
Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:freedmen
Christianity
missions
African Independent Churches
External link:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853713000030
Abstract:This article extends the history of freed slaves from the well-studied areas of West Africa to the frontier between Angola and Belgian Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo). Originally enslaved by Ovimbundu traders in what became south-eastern Belgian Congo, these enslaved people became Christians through contact with Euro-American missions while labouring in Angola. Following the abolition of slavery in the Portuguese Empire in the 1910s, they returned to their home areas as Christian evangelists. In Belgian Congo, they helped to spread Christianity but clashed with missionaries over authority and respectability. Some struggled with the trauma of enslavement while others sought alternative routes to status and authority through participating in Independent Christian movements or assuming positions of traditional leadership. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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