38 JEAN-FRANCOIS BAYAKT Ranger (Terence), 1975 : Dance and Society in Eastern Africa. 1890-1970, The Beni Ngoma, Londres, Heinemann, Salamone (Franck A.), 1985: « The social construc ‘yauri emirate », Cahiers d'études africaines, 98, XXV-2, pp. 139- Spencer (John), 1985 : The Kenya African Union, Londres, KPI. ‘Ter Haar (Gervie), 1992 : Spirit of Africa: the Healing Ministry of Archbishop ‘Milingo of Zambia, Londres, Hurst ‘Thompson (E.P.), 1963 : The Making of the En; Victor Gollancz. Working Class, Londres, -, 1993 : Customs in Common. Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, New York, The New Press. Tocqueville (Alexis de), 1986: De la Démocratie en Amérique, I in Tocqueville, Paris, Robert Laffont. Veyne (Paul), 1978: Comment on écrit histoire, suivi de Foucault révolutionne Unistoire, Paris,Le Seuil Patis, Le Seuil —, 191 : La société roma Warnier (Jean-Pierre), dir., 1994 : Le paradoxe de la marchandise autentique. rmaginaire et consommation de masse, Paris, L’Harmattan, (dir. 1997 ; Authentfier la marchandise, Anthropologie critique de la quéte d'authenticité, Paris, L” Marmactan, Weber (Max), 1996 : Sociologie des religions, Paris, Gallimard, Weiss (Brad), 1996; The Making and Unmaking of the Haya L Consumption, Commoditization, and Everyday Practice, Duthan University Press, MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY IN SWITZERLAND Patrick Harries (Historian, University of Cape Town) ‘As Switzerland celebrates the 150" anniversary of its constitution, the country is experiencing a crisis Confederation established in 1848, bridging deep di religion, region and class, is under threat. Part of the problem lies with the fall of the Berlin Wall, which terminated the reason for Switzerland’s long history of political neutrality. With the removal of this common bond the country has become divided over whether to submerge itself in a Europ dominated by neighbours against whom the Swiss haye long defi themselves. At the same time, neoliberal experts in profitability and efficiency call for the consolidation of communes and even cantons ; and demand in funding to social programmes and institutions upon which rests identity of the Swiss as a moral and humane people. Revelations about Nazi gold and holocaust " bank accounts have already dented this image. fall back on an identity provided by a common there are fears the couniry will experience a it is worth fg requires identities. are s very sense of sts and soldiers were propelled gable curiosity spread into the pesip by the search for prot A fear reecied in newspaper arioles and in copied works such as P. Hazan, Le mal Suisse ars, 1998)40 PATRICK HARRIES an organizing gaze. Through a wide range of lectures, sermons, sxhibitions and popular writings, stretching from the spiritual to the scientific, se men brought an exotic world into the cultural heartland of Switzerland ; and in so doing they created a mirror in which their compatriots could see mselves in new and dynamic ways. this essay I focus on one element in the construction of Swiss the nineteenth-century evangelical movement and its mission in Afnca. In part one I examine the way in which the Christian Revival and its missionary wing became a focus for identity politics in the canton of Vand. In part two 1 stress the importance of evangelical institutions to the Vaudois Cultural tradition ; and hope in this way to introduce new themes into recent studies of literature in the Suisse Romande. The missionary movement brought members of the intellectual elite of Vaud and Neuchétel into an unfamiliar but exciting world in West and Southem Africa, Part three is concerned with the ways in which this world was portrayed to readers, ers and viewers ; and simultaneously absorbed into the Vaudois culture, Africa was a central trope in the web of evangelical signs that captured the ion of many Swiss in the nineteenth-century. They found in the magery of Africa tools with which to criticize theit own society ; but they found in this imagery a means of self-definition. Evangeli views of Africa played an important role in creating the cultural conditions of imperialism’. But in the process, I want to suggest, the same views helped shape and create aspects of the imperialists’ quoti isparate Swiss saw themselves reflected as a group in opposition 10 what hey saw in Africa ; and they found a unity of purpose in the Dark Continent it would bind thern at home and abroad’, nal " For impostant works on raure romande 1830-1910 (Lausanne, 1995) Suisse Romande, vol. iL" De Tosplter a Ramaz ” (Lavsanne, tae tniverselle " (1815-1924) > Miroir de la sensible romande aw XIX€ site ten overlonked, The great age of Suny school co of Sunday schools and other ee mentioned in E. Hobsbawm's classe The Age af ‘he Format T Lagueue, '$50 (New Haven, 1976). oO ain * Ht in History Revie. MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 4 Evangelism and Identity ‘The religious revival in Vaud was from its beginning tied to the questio of identity. Initiated by German pietists, it was brought «0 Geneva in the wake of the Napoleonic wars by Scottish and English dissenters preaching a personal Christianity, In the city of Calvin, their disdain for dogma, ritual and hierarchy inevitably brought them into conflict with the Reformed Church. Under these conditions, zealous followers of the revival quickly started to undertake mission work in France and the neighbouring cantons of Vaud and Neuchatel Most churchmen and conventicles formed by those ans looked with displeasure on awakened” by the Revival. For these criti, the religious enthusiasm of the Réveil was marked by an unsavoury emotionalism ; a self-reliance that contradicted traditional forms of deference and a passionate and unbending conviction in the power of faith and biblical revelation that negated the spirit of reason. The Revival was accompanied by fan unwelcome absence of pastoral supervision; and it threatened the cohesion of both church and society. ‘The Church founded by Pierre Vi Geneva and Farel in Neuchatel, was at life in the canton. Its rituals marked an individual's passage through life with dignity and respect, entertainment and consolation. The church assisted those afflicted by indigence or ill-health : and at a time when theological science was considered the key to knowle mmportant role in all aspects of education, With a mixiure of vigilance and paternal. care, pastors and elders patrolled the material and moral well-being of parishioners from conception to the grave. For nearly 300 years clergymen had, been in anxious to guide their flocks ” through life according to the established traditions of their Church, ‘They formed 2 powerful caste of pastors with unfimited control over entry into their ranks and over the ecclesiastical policy mal religion tecognized by the Vaudois constitution of 1814 to be Evangelical and Reformed in Vaud, like that of Calvin in heart of social as well as spiritual ‘The Revival provoked a strong response from those who, after years of revolution and war, saw it as a source of continued instability. In Gefteva the establishment of an independent Church prompted street demonstrations and violent denunciations of their foreign, “ Moravian” members’, In Vaud the conventicles were conde: divisive and alien in origin; and 981), 76. pinnae protestants in JM, Baek yours" Hauteive, 199: CM, Bust, Mémoires de mes fantdmes, vol 1 At mann” L'tglise sformée et les ‘Pays de Neuchitel, Wel lk "De 1815 3 res de mes fants. 1.42 PATRICK HARRIES were prohibited in May 1824 by legislation declaring them a “ sect formed by people foreign to the family ™. n of religious difference led to the fhurches in the canton of Vaud". It also Jed supporters of the revival to found a range of evangelical institutions that paralleled and challenged the work of the Church, These \cluded Bible and Tract Societies which, modelled on and supported incially by counterparts in Britain, aimed to give readers direct access to the word of God without having to pass through # caste of pastors or s, The Revivalist message was also spread through a growing ni Sunday fous dissidents in Geneva established the first of these with their Independent years later a Sunday school was formed in Lausanne decade, several smali schools opened in various parts of All displayed the private initiative, indi ical control that were mar ‘This authoritarian suppress vely independence of ‘of the revival. They also provided a parlly because allenged patr organizations in private homes, students’ rooms, or this support, Sunday schools in the Si formal premises and, by the 1840s, succeeded in attracting severa! ‘hal practices, it was only in the ied their attention to the small gi he chateaux of local notables". With 3¢ Romande started (0 occupy more \dred revivalists sprang from their This focused ch and on the societies could bring about nventicles read and discussed mis: (Lausanne, 1945), vol I xv-xvi ines (Nyon, 1960) ‘Vaud and Nevchitel in 1814-15. 1. Vuillurse, ms Vaud et son fondaienr", Revue de théologi et de ind Biography of Felx Neff, Prowsians Missionary ‘of Toere an the High Alps (Pus. 1842 ; ansited by Margaret Arne iy of Great Btan bad been established 1h * Les orig phitosophie (Lausanne, 1915): nd. the Depa Wyatt, London, 1843), 209. The Religious Tract Si Forcigh Bible Society im 1803. nay schol stared by Valérie fins and Barbeys, leading, Vausbis families in the elds of ude (Lausanne, 189 Ipesde France gu amp des travaux de Péie ‘A. Best, Letters and Biography of Félix Neff, M77, 199, MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 43 endeavers at home Geneva jel looked to material alongside the bible and abroad. through praye ‘concentrated on the evang the more exotic, pagan areas of the world In 1821 missionary societies were established in Geneva and in Yverdon wthern Vaud. But the Vaudois government immediately prohibited this form of evangelical activity because of its telescopic philanthropy. In pursuance of the widely supported conviction that charity starts at home, the government believed that’ 2 “zéle inconsidéré pour les entreprises would deflect pastors from the parish work to which they had ic." They considered mission work * hors de la petit pays” whose clergymen should be more he parish poor than with the fate of inscrutable, ‘s were supported by numerous churchmen who n and a breeding ground for an improved economic to reconsider its opposition ‘The establishment of the Lausanne Evangelical Missionary Society in 1826 elicited both widespread interest and public condemnation. st meeting of the Society attracted 300 eager participants, as well as a large crowd which, gathered in the street, exhibited its disapproval of the proceedings in a loud and disorderly manner. Despite this and later boisterous surges of opposition, local enthusiasm for missionary activity generated sufficient excitement for the Society to spread to the major towns Of the canton, From these urban centres it fed the public hunger to participate ion work through public, summertime assemblies and a number of ications. It also. established ties with a recently-formed _inter- iational Missionary Society in Paris that was busy raising funds and ing personnel in the Prench provinces and neighbouring countries. The Vaudois were fully prepared to engage in efforts that, within six years, would send missionaries from Paris to Lesotho. But unlike many other au the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PMS), they refused to abandon separate identity and, in 1829, opened their own Institute for the training of ssionaries in Lausa when the Institute attracted only “des jeunes gens peu instruits”, such as colporteurs, carpenters and elementary teachers, Having failed to recruit students from the “classes cultivées Institute was racked by religious dissension and disorganization. Onl handful of graduates and missionaries was sent to North America before the Institute closed in 1839 and its last student, Joseph Maitin, was confided to Problems arose immediate! 961). ch. 8&9, 1D, Rober, Lee Blises vefonnéer en France: 1800-1830 (Pa ' Grandjean, Afision Romande (Lausanne, 1917), 1044 PATRICK HARRIES the Paris Mission and a future career in Lesotho". A few years later the santte Missionary Society halted its work in North America and restricted ics to fund-raising for interdenominational mission societies, collapse of the missionary movement was largely the product of a widening split within the Church at home. The multitude of evangelical organizations founded in the Suisse Romande had provided followers of the Revival with a space in which to meet and exchange ideas without contravening the law, It also allowed them to develop an organizational base, anguage, and set of common practices and beliefs without having to leave the established church. But the proliferation of evangelical groups created an institutional separation that grew wider as insistent voices propagated the WU" to weparate church ‘and. sale. Alexandre. Vinet quickly. Became the champion of this cause, particularly after he became Professor of Theology in the Lausanne Academy in 1837. ‘The views of Vinet and his supp. religion coincided with those of many brought to power by street demonstrations in 1830, wantei more united Switzerland but remained distrustful of those of the Church and state, capable of curbing individu: These views conformed with the growing S tolerance practiced in many parts of Europe. Although the liberal constitution of 1831 guaranteed the position of the National Evangelical, Reformned Church, the liberals took no action against the growing number of revivalist assem oratvires, and the act prohibiting conventicles soon passed into desuetude. A creeping ‘secularization culminated in 1839 in an_ecclesiast rw that abolished the common doctrinal core of the Reformed churches of Switzerland, the Confession de foi helvétique of 1566. The law also gave 10 the legislature in Lausanne the ultimate right to determine doctrine, | and catechism and injected a degree of popular control in the “ National Church”. By replacing the old Bernese ar vague reference to revelation by Holy Scripture, the new law served to hold people of diverse religious beliefs within the Reformed Church. But it also made the Church narrowly cantonal and, by reducing it to the position of a spoke in the wheel of state, precipitated the resignation of Vinet and others”. ‘Tensions rose as government supporters saw Plymouth Brethren or Darbyites, Methodists an revival, far from renewing the church, was the s 1 growing communities of aptists, proof that the rce of its Joseph Matin (1816-1903) arrived 1912), 184 uudoice dans ls tompoee ‘ ‘fe Mason des Cedees: te MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 45 ‘They saw sectarian and foreign religious ideas undermining the cobesion, of ihe nation; and they expressed these ideas in a new language of exclusion that denigrated followers of the revival as alien “ methodists " or bigoted and hypocritical momiers. Opponents of the 1839 ecclesiastical law were Condemned as” individualists ” with little concern for wider society : they Gere a narrow and exclusive elite, undermining the egalitarian nature and Unity of a society held together by the “national” church, At times opposition to religious dissent could become violent, as in 1833 whi pledeian participants in the Féte des Vignerons in Vevey sacked numerous Fratoires and temporarily halted the monthly meetings of the Missionary in Lausanne", Religion and political identity had become irrevocably ie French’ ty-five years after the loose federal pact of 1815, speaking. section of the Swiss nation was a fissiparous, often fractions, patchwork of interests haunted by a colonial past and held together by litle Fhore than a fear of Catholic, monarchical France. Each canton had its own tiffs and tolls, laws, currency, army and historical myths, But as, the ndustrialized and grew rich, radicals called for closer ne popular access fo government and an increased canton of Vaud, where Radicals had quit the Liberal secularization Party in 1832, the government initially placated these demands through such Changes as the ecclesiastical law of 1839. But a crisis arose five years later hhanded education in the canton to the Jesuit order This provocative act Was opposed by many Protestants and free thinkers wie caw in the Jesuits the shadow of an authoritarian, reactionary papacy, But the iberals interpreted the developing crisis in Lucerne as yet another chall to the principles of religious and political freedom, and refused 10 interve the affairs of another canton. When an uprising supported by Protest Volunteers was suppressed by the Cathotics in Luceme, Vaudois Radicals Trelted Jesuits and momiiers into a broad reactionary front threatening to Givide the Confederation and overturn the forces of progress and reason largely bloodless coup d'état in February 1845 the Radicals. set legislature in Lausanne, overturned the Liberal government, and later theit weight behind the central government's armed suppression of Luc ‘and its Catholic allies in the Sonderbund” when Catholic Luc had a direct impact on the Church in the canton of Vaud where the new Radical régime reactivated the old law restricting freedom of Fon, Relations between the radicals and those pastors influenced by the Hi. Meylan (éds.), ‘Egle naionale46 PATRICK HARRIES revival developed into a crisis when, in August 1845, the government required ministers to read from the pulpit a circular supporting their proposed constitution, Forty-three pastors refused to comply with this proclamation, partly because it subordinated the office of the church to a barely legitimate government and partly because the constitution made no mention of freedom Of religion, But many others, such as pastor Henri Berthoud, hesitated to enter into a confrontation that would isolate and weaken the church. The trees of liberty, triumphal arches, festivals of fraternity, ry slogans and. castigation of “refractory” ministers were prominent signs of @ local Tacobinisn y spill into anti- Clericalism ; and the refusal of the Radical government to condemn attacks on miers merely heightened these fears the government's suspension of the 43 colleagues to resign en masse. A year later, delegates from dissiden synod which, in March 1847, established the Free Evange canton of Vaud. The difference between National and Free Church was marked by freedom from pastoral discipline, dogma and state interference, as well as by a deep commitment to lay participation in the running of Church, Anxious not to be relegated to the position of a sect, the Free Church November 1847, Supported by institution 2 ing renowned theologians and an nal student body. This gave the Free Church a cerebral reputation that contrasted markedly with that of the National Church whiel By, was obliged to lower standards of entry the National Church h ministers and their ises and face popular, was reduced to | or forced to . for it was only in nofficial religious gatherings ; even then, years before the Free Church was officially recognized by government. The a separate identity and sense of iyle; and a long memory of persecution that would separate the two churches for the next 120 years {took a further wo ents. of the Free Church quickly denounced its members. as 3 ie alienated from the people by their moral superiority, refined ln), L'Blize voudoire dans lx tespéte, 118, 124, 130, 139-40, 167, MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY a7 education and monopolistic hold of the truth, The Radicals accused the Free Church clergy of being part of a vague conspiracy of professors, pastor professionals, that had maintained the old Liberal oligarchy in power Collaboration between, the patriarchate and a pastorate” possessing authority of divine right was contrasted with the democratic, sturdy S who supported the Radicals. For the Radicals the Free Church rs were at once momiers and “ aristocrats ernatively messieurs with private means or servants of the bonnes famitles responsible for their salaries”. Pastor Samson Vuilleumier, once he had reuacted his resignation, thought them " une petite coterie tres aristocratique “belles Dames et beaux Messieurs” who formed an “elite flock us meetings in smart drawingrooms, His sister was also of ion that the supporters of the Free Church constituted a fashionable beau monde casily distinguishable from the milling crowds of people supporting the Radicals". More ominously Henri Draey, the Radical leader, raised a veiled charge of treason when he accused this “ aristocracy H of dividing the ata time when "la pattie était en danger "™. The anomalous: ge of a Free Church supported by a local “ aristocracy would last well into the twei th century” Mission work was an early casualty of the schism monthly meetings of the Lausanne Mission , along ble and Evangelical Societies, were canc over four years. When y reasseinbled discretely in 1850 s remained on money for missis auherents, and these were obliged to pay the wages of their Shoulder the costs of constructing new chapels and m: rey could be spared for evangelical work in distant parts of the world was sent to Moravian, Basle or Paris missionaries" ssion work quickly gained a heightened evangelicals had been ‘a separate Mission Society. ree Church created Despite these uncert prominence. Before the scl marginalized and their energies cl Under the influence of Henri Berthou_an ie an Evangel la tempéte, 121, 241 inre Brdel es vaudois", mires (Ne jomtsftions of SF 18.000 in @ good year had dwindled c@ SF 700. Gr ide, 30:3148 PATRICK HARRIES Missionary Society®. Although the Synod blocked requests for the Evangelical Commission to develop into a Missionary Society, enthusiasm for evangelical work in foreign lands grew naturally after the Free Churc! broke its ties with the state. For in doing so it shook off the control politicians concerned to further the welfare of local parishioners rather than that of distant, voteless sinners. As the Na Church left. support for evangelical work overseas to individual conscience, mission activity became a marker of identity for the Free Church and a sign of devotion for its members ; for many it became “ un devoir primordial de 'Eglise ”™. ft was also an alternative to the expatriation of pastors and students caused by the sufficiency of parishes and the difficult conditions under which the Church ‘operate. But growing support for mission work was also the product of ‘an attitudinal sea change that, as I wil er in this essay, was not unconnected to the political changes in Switzerland. As the Free Chur to evangelical work, started to fi the Theological Faculty in ion field. In 1859 one gra FE t0 ji his compairiot Joseph Maitin he was followed three years later by Louis Duvoisin. Fou at this fi Dutch Reformed nnberger, both from Yverdon, studied at the mission schoo! aving for Lesotho in 1859-60, The influence of the Suisse Romande was also felt indircetly by the arrival in Lesotho in 1858 of Francois Coillard e decision to join the PMS aspired by the endeavours ary Ami Bost". They would all make ‘rk on the mission field ; and several would achieve reno mrespondsnce withthe C ion de Vand expligué® dans jonas. This former director also. Libel vaudowce dans ta tempéte, 266, 282; marrying Addl. cl frammnatcal and le Souther . MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AID THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 49 Most of these missionaries were the sons of clergymen or church elders whose tics to the pastorate were frequently reinforced by bonds of marriage”. They were drawn from the " classes cultivées” of evangelical society or were products of the new educational opportunities open to men of enerey and talent, Brought up during the hard years following the church schi several had an intimate experience of material privation and personal sactifice, and a firm notion of devotion ; few would ever return to Switzerland. As the Free Church grew in strength, it was supported by a range of institutions, rituals and beliefs that confirmed and asserted the urgency of evangelical work. Religious and charitable organizations proliferated as industrialization killed domestic industries ; and workshops, factories and public schools displaced the patriarchal home as a site of training, Socialization and fellowship. The enlightened elite heading the Free Churcit saw humankind’ fall from grace in the growing problems facing society ; the break-up of the family, disrespect for authority, al sexual promiscuity, social uprootedness and disbelief. And they soci Gegeneration ” by seeking 10 guide and tutor the population by encouraging individuals to experience a moral rebirth. The elite set an example through & just industrial paternalism and through the philanthropic cate extended by Organizations ‘such as the Christian Union, Young Men's Christian “Association, the Temperance movement and Sunday Observance groups” ‘These evangelical groups tended to oppose any form of collective action that would replace personal conscience and conviction with poli orders and despotic government. Children were early benefi deprived of the old pattems of so religious associations to organize their leisure time. Par ir children by anew work régime particularly fou site of religious and moral education for their offspr , five years after the schism in the Vaudois church, a Sunday School Society was Founded in the canton. Its object was to’ coord reinforce the scattered, often ephemeral, work of Sunday schools in the canton and to reinforce religious training in the face of the growing secularization of public schools. The Sunday School Society quickly produced a manual for monitors and, in 1855, a cheap collection of 50 hymns for children”. It sent out edifying pamphlets, sold religious books and maps, took subscriptions to the fourteen, El 14. printer. He wi S.A. Biography, vol I a of Main, The Germ lassie History of Duvoisins and, more distant Oratoire in Goheva and recruited for the DRC In Scauand, Livre d'or de la Mission Dictionary of S A. Biograph50 PATRICK HARRIES Paris Mission's Petit messager des missions évangeliques, established a circulating library and, by encouraging the exchange ‘of ideas and experiences, laid the foundations of 2 Sunday school culture. In 1860 its activities were further strengthened by the appointment of a full-time agent- missionnaire. Enrolments soared. Between 1852 and 1858 the number of Sunday schools doubled ; and almost doubled again over the next four years when 10,000 Vaudois pupils attended 250 Sunday schools, The 440 monitors and 60 pastors who served these schools were motivated by proselytizing ideals and supported financially by evangelical movements in Britain and ‘America’. Although ostensibly interdenominational, the schools tended to be dominated by non-conformists. Indeed, in some National Church quarters they were associated with momiers bringing into the canton “la marchandise jportée... fleurant trop les parfums d’outre-Manche, ou méme d'au-del2 de P’Adantique Cant the evange! wd refuted crities s Reverra-til cette terre chérie ”, he wrote of the departing missi ssager que nous voyons partir? The démissionnaires of quick to Jaim their pai politicians and their “ government church, ” rather Free Chureh’s claims to represent cantonal patriots of Radical pol and “ modernize sovereign states cal Confederation into. a common space by dismantling punitive tariffs and tolls ened by the construction of roads, railways. postal ‘ations and 2 common currency. But each canton continued to circulate its own coins and bank-notes and retain its own army. Little atten had been made to standardize the legal system or the soci needed to control the exploitative aspects of an uneven, spasmodic industrialization. Despite the introduction of universal male suffrage in 1848 some of the humbler sectors of the population were still unable to vote or alter this situation by sending their children to school. But it was the economic and military threat posed by t that prompted the centralists in the Radical party t was opposed by liberals who saw a threat to the political sovereignty of the individual cantons and a danger to their vibrant, traditional cultures. For many, the destructive nature of large was self-cvident as thousands of wounded, sick and dying refugees Caren. 4 ry 51 MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDI ‘cultural crisis rather than progress in the materialism of an industrial age. And ey looked on disapprovingly as economic growth destroyed cultural id the unrelenting search for profit dehumanized society and idual's powers of creativity. In the canton of Vaud, the s was accompanied by the introduction of as cheaply printed books, huge nu mmigrant workers flooded across the tourists borders. The old issue of religious freedom, responsible for the war of the Sonderbund, flared up again as Bismarck's Kulturkampy made its way Switzerland, Various Radical cantons had vigorously suppressed Cathol attempts to implement the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and the doctrine of papal need campaigns aimed at bringing the values tee Christ ther evidence of the danger posed to cantonal freedoms by centr: politicians. By the late 1860s the Free Church was able to combat the threat of state \ecference by stressing its role as the protector of focal liberties. Missionary fctivity under the direct aegis of the Church could now seem a national duty that, at a time of general stress, would strengthen the al base of the Church, in May 1869 Emest Creux and Paul Berthou of the Free Church faculty addressed the and “serious obligation ” of the Church to establis overseas. They were careful to distinguish, themselves as, s Church *, “sons of the faith” or simply “ your sons”. This biological metaphor of kinship developed further as they couched their appeal palriotic terms distinguishing “we Vaudois from foreign “ other icluding even the interdenominational PMS." Pourq G autres dont les principes ne sont pas les notres, dont les sont étrangéres” they asked rhetorically. Others, they “auxquelles nous ne sommes pas attachés par les liens de sang ?" He clear expression, coming from two scions of the evangelical establ of the ties between blood and religion, nation and church®. They were also careful to stress that Christians at home would find the mission field a testing ground for their faith and a source of strength for their churcl Paul was the snd a strong advocate oPATRICK HARRIES ‘The Church was divided between those in favour of establishing a Vaudois. mission and a minority who felt the Church had an historic responsiblity towards interdenominational and international allies in Paris ‘and Basle. It was also feared that an expensive missionary programme in foreign lands might draw the disapproval of government at a time of resurgent state interference in religious matters. A Missionary Commission was hesitantly created in September 1869 and, three years later, Creux and appr “Tent” to the PMS in Lesotho”. This policy of caution and compromise was dropped however when the new Swiss constitution of 1874 recognized freedom of religion and protected local rights throug! ‘on of a popular referendum. Ten days after th; ‘age of the new constitution the Synod voted to establish @ mission i pagan lands. Meanwhile, Berthoud and Mabille had embarked on an exped ‘Transvaal where they located a group of refugees Tiving without a missi he Spelonken foothills of the Zoutpansberg. Berthoud returned with Creux 1875 and, in the name of the Mission Vaudoise, bought @ fan promptly renamed the Latin name for Vaud. The missionaries Soon realized that the homeland of their congregant lay on the coast plain of Mozambique. To fund the expansion of their activities imo these areas the Mission looked to the other Free Churches in Neuchatel and Geneva whi in 1883, combined to form the Free Church Swiss Romande Mission, E the following year, nine Swiss made their way to the Transvaal". * jaient fondé |’ Eglise ”, Arthur Grandjean would write, "les fils fonderont la Mission ™ Africa comes to Switzerland ‘The surge of support for the expansion of the Mission was particular remarkable because jeved at a time of economic hardship in Switzerland, ic depression and unemployment had caused emigration to quadruple, support for n pagan lands ” ew unabated. Between 1880 and 1890 the ¥y collected in French-speaking cantons for the Swiss Romande Mission doubled from 15% to 30% revenue of SF 230,000. When the Swiss economy the economic depression for mission in 1901, of which of was directed © On dhe painful withdrawal of Vaudois support for the PM see HB, Zoom Le Grand siécle, MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 33 to the Swiss Romande Mission”, This effort rested on a capillary of energetic, popular organisations devoted to raising funds and generating propaganda for missionary activity. Fund-raising was considered an important means of spreading and developing interest in evangelical activity, particularly as it implicated donors directly in the development of the Mission”. ‘The large sums of money raised indicate that the popularity of, the missionary cause extended far beyond evangelical militants or even the 5000 paid-up members of the Free Church. ‘The widespread popular support for missionary activity was also manifested when members of the church left for Africa. These were ‘occasions for celebrating and reinforcing the new, all-embracing evangelical community and cut across divisions of gender, age, denomination and class to even claim the support of those of little faith, In’ 1884 the Temple Neuf i Neuchatel was filled to capacity when Ruth Junod and her husband, Paul Berthoud, left with Jeanne Jacot for the Transvaal and Edouard Jacottet departed for Lesotho. After these “grandes et imposantes réunions des adieux,” the Berthouds proceeded to Lausanne, where they joined other missionaries preparing to leave for Africa. In the Vaudois capital the inerey chapel was too small to accommodate the well-wishers crowding jes and a second ig had to be held at the Tonhalle we leading evangelical families in the Suisse Romande Five years later, when Henri-Alexandre Junod and his wife Emily Biolley left for Lourengo Marques, they were feted at a number of churches in the French-speaking cantons. This long farewell culminated ina colourful ceremony in the Grande salle des conférences in Neuchétel, The audience packed the hall and overflowed into the lobby and corridors, At this Eeremony, prayers were led by church leaders from throughout the Suisse Romande. \@ raised the emotion of the occasion and united those present ious communion fastened by the cords of a shared patriotism”, Together with the mission fetes and bazaars held every year Gifferent parts of the canton, these assemblies helped spread. revivalist ideas and raised awateness of evangelical issues. ‘They also brought small rural communities into contact with areas of the world such as Afric The immense popularity of mission work stretched beyond physical communities to reach people linked only by their access to a common Donations Romande Mision only surpassed the oer major recipients (he Paris W2. Grandjean, fission Romande, 3M)S1. fsgnne, 1899), 813, hr Berthoud, 118. Bulletin deta Mission romance, 7,83, April 188 issiary fetes were held forthe fist time in Neuhdel in 1852 and in Vaudin 1881. BE. Hot, ul Ramseyer missionnaire 1870-1929 (Pans and Geneva, 1930), 7 J. Favee, Notice sur bt Vaadoise chee [es Magwonba (Lausanne, 1883), 10"; Grandjean, Mision Romande, 27854 PATRICK HARRIES religious literature. This wide community of readers was kept abreast of the noble task of the missionary in pagan lands through the newssheets produced by local Evangelical Societies and the large number of sturdy, illustrated bulletins issued by the missionary societies. In Vaud the Feuille religieuse (established 1826) contained articles on missionary activity, as did the National Church's L’Ami de l'Evangile (1854) and the Free Church's Chrétien évangélique (1858). ‘The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society's Journal des Missions évangéliques and the Moravians’ L’Ami des Missions and Journal de I'unité des freres were dispatched to subscribers. The Basle’ Missionary Society “directed the Magazine évangélique (1819) at Geneva and, from 1843, published La Voix des Missions adressée @ tous les chrétiens and later La Messagere du Monde paien, This Society attempted to reach a more popular readership by selling Pe dissionnaire in bookshops, In 1862 pastor Nagel in Neuchatel started 10 publish Les Missions évangéliques au XIXe sidcle for the Basle Missionary Society. The work of the Neuchatel Missionery Society, undertaken on the Gold Coast of West, Africa in conjunction with the Basle Mission, was publicised in the Bulletin de la mission Achantie. As the scope of Neuchitelois. a in the mission field grew, this journal was replaced in 1878 by the bi-monthly Les Nouvelles de nos missionnaires™. The bulletin of the Missionary Commission of the Free Church of Vaud started in 1872 as a quarterly review with a ran of $500 copies. Within a decade it had risen to pics published every two months ; and by 1894 it was published iy as the Bulletin de la Mission Romande. In 1917 distribution reached 15000 copies. By the turn of the century the Mission also oversaw the publication of both the private letters of missionaries, and pamphlets on various topical subjects, Between [870 and 1885, ‘the Religious Tract Society of Lausanne managed to distribute some 120-130,000 copies of its publications every year, several of which related to Africa or what a later generation would call “race relations” Adults supported missionary activity through their prayers and reading cr, and by joining various religious organizations, Parishioners were cular constientised by the lectures given by missionaries at home on furlough, Lecture tours were established in the 1830s by Neuchatelois 5S. Cendivies et Fleury, De UEglise d'Btar a I Eplise nationale, 91, 175n.5+ A. Grandjean, nt L'Upion chrétionne "Grandjean, La § ‘hea Tee Mogwamber au sud-est de V Afrique = {Laysanne, 1883), 278 Anonyme, Notice sur la Mission vaudoise onir de Texposition nationale suisse de Zarich and Du Transvaal & ‘See also the sires me = Georges Victor Bridel (1818-1889), b anne, ote 1992, 121 MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 55 issionaries working in India and Ethiopia". The lectures were generally iven in winter and provided a source of entertainment for auditors Kept from ir fields by the harsh weather”. The popularity of these meetings grew as lecturers added to their talks on the achievements of the Mission, information ‘on African ethnography, geography and various branches of natural histor ‘The songs and folklore of pagan peoples spiced many lectures and brought 1¢ missionary cause to the attention of an audience well beyond that of the j ledge of Aftica was also spread through church nons and magic lante id through a series of photographs sold ngly as cards or in commemorative albums” se Probably the most influent medium for the propagation of evangelical Christianity in Africa was aimed at children, For a large part of the appeal of the highly-suecessful Sunday school movement in the canton of Vaud twrned around the image of the heroic missionary. The Sunday school movement had begun as an evangelical mission aimed at assisting parents in providing their children with a knowledge of Christian teaching ; and it had grown with the secularization of developed asa phil ar education and continuously with a respect for such virtues as punctu: benevolence, charity and hard work. Perhaps partly as a response to critics who emphasized the foreign origins of the movement, the Sunday schools developed a popular, cantonal patriotism. When asked to sing Les Capitales de l'Europe, Vaudois children thundered the lines “Lausanne surpasse Bruxelles et Paris”! And they listened respectfully to stories of * notre glorieux faisceau helvétique” and of ible martyr” Davel who fell in the struggle against Bernese oppression”. This philosophy was spread by the her (more frequently than his) care, The broad appeal of the schools, run largely by monitors who served as social and spiritual guides, grew sufficiently to attract children attached 10 the National Church, By the end of the century Sunday schools had become such an established local institution as to host even the children of inregular hurchgoers. Ei ts grew from 10,000 pupils in 1862 to 18,000 in 1883 wt ©The ca ds sald des Elise bres de ach as ee 1903, 57-5856 PATRICK HARRIES and 30,000 at the turn of the century. By this stage, there school for every 600 Protestants in the canton and one monitor for every 13 children ; and nearly five-sixths of all Vaudois children were exposed to some degree of formal Sunday school teaching" fas one Sunday The influence of the Sunday schools spread beyond the formal instruction extended to children. A growing range of publications spread the Sunday school message to children’s parents and cyen into the homes of icals. In 1862 the small monthly Lecture pour les enfants, y by the Religious Tract Society, was replaced Wy the Sunday School Socicty's Lectures illustrées, a magazine attracting up to 14,000 subscribers. Two years later a weekly magazine, the Messager de VEcole du ies with edifying stories and Bible readings. From 1865 illustrated religious cards (vignettes bibliques) attempt to draw those unable to read into the ambit of npted to move in a new ly journal for 1872, it estal parents, L’Education chrétienne. quick-rea also a source of information on and particularly ‘on ways to spread support for y cause in parishes and Sunday schools. About 25,000 Messagers and vignettes were ed every year and L'Education chrétienne reached some 1,500 subscribers‘, Sui s" knowledge of Africa developed further when they entere times paid the f, young men attend at Rikatla in mbique. “There was also a long history, going back to 1870, of rts of Vaud pport the work of monitors a African images and Swiss Identities In the first part of this essay I outlined some of the ways in which ‘evangelical Christianity influenced the Swiss perception of self, In the second section I traced how the growth of various institutions and practices brought a knowledge of missionary activity, and with it an image of Africa, into most Vaudois homes. In this final section I want to examine the content of this Inche, 14, 25-26; Bridel, Résumé de (histoire des fcoles dh the Zamtexi mission, ths Basel Miss Lesotho the Bamangwato, the Missions at Sunday schos fv 19 snftest 2 parish is mmission work "CE Le Messager de V'école du dimanche 8, Tewrier 1883 ; L’Education Chretien W586, 1908, ‘Joseph, Ecoles dic 7 ecoles MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 37 knowledge and follow its entry into the main stream of local culture, My object is to show how the missionary experience in Aftica influenced the perception of self held by the Vaudois and, by extension, other French: speaking Swiss. The Swiss public was informed about Africa by a multitude of religious iblications. L’Educarion chrétienne advised teachers to introduce the story of mission to their pupils by starting with * Une description topographique de Vendroit, puis des plantes gui y croissen vent, des peuples qui ui offrent un certain intérét, es animaux qui y abitent, de leur earactére, de Auguste Glardon advised Sunday schos iarges into the exotic world of the missi month as purveyed Har forn transport ” their unday of every eris. Information tended 10 take a Missionaries writing hom: their readers; and they were & S10 the funds demands resulted in a contradictory imagery in which Africans were al om obdurate obstacles to the spread of civi and innocent victims. of foreign greed. In articles illustrated with pictures of human sacrifice, emaciated captives and brave abolitionists who denounced these unholy sans as victims of the slave trade aries exposed 2 new and vicious pro Europe's search for wealth: the alcoholism accompanying the trade in dubious whiskeys, gins and brandys and, particularly in Mozambique, vinho para os pretos (wine for blacks). In this way Africans were portrayed as home, had to be protected from the imnocent vietims who, like the poor pernicious aspects of the pursuit of profit. trade was a popular rs were encouraged 10 ef s, sold into slavery and driven mn of the slave trade focused minds of Swiss children’ on immorality and sin; and implicitly offered a sie de Delagos38 PATRICK HARRIES solution that at once blended earthly liberation with spiritual salvation. These messages were accentuated by the experiences of individual missionaries Readers shuddered in horror as they followed the adventures of Fritz Ramseyer and his wife at the hands of the Asante. From 1869-74 these Neuchitelois missionaries were held ransom in Kumasi. Their station had been burned and they watched helplessly as well-organized armies left the Asante capital to return with long caravans of slaves. The missionary couple recorded the large-scale practice of human sacrifice and recounted with dread how, following the death of an Asante prince, six hundred slaves and prisoners had their throats cut and three of his wives were strangled, The Ramseyers waited daily for the drum of death to call them before hideous executioners who “en guise de musique, entrechoguaient des cranes, et menagaient de leur passer au travers des joues le poignard qui ensuite ferait rouler leur tte sur Je ‘champ de vautours’ ””. The terror aroused by these ish characters with their accoutrement of human tibia and skulls was the vivid engravings and photographs that adorned both the Pages of Fritz Ramseyer's memoirs of captivity and a wide range of evangelical publications”. This picture of evil, against which the missionary couple pitted their heroism and faith, became an enduring evangelical ic that, over the years, inspired a long string of popular commemorative works" ssionaries came across _othet_ shocking In a way that confirmed the Ramseyers’ pi ‘many missionaries presented an mpassioned picture of the despotism, political murder, slavery, infanticide, ism practised by the natives. And they recoiled with ce before sexual customs that encouraged incest, adultery and yy". Dark forces and kept the natives in a state of missionary intervention, and the funds Young Vaudois readers were captivated by tales of heroic self-sacrifice and stirred by the prospect of exotic adventures in Africa’. When in 1883 the young Paul Ramseyer decided at the age of thirteen to enter his uncle's ge Bride published an abrovisted version ‘under the Ue Quatre ans de captive chez wed seven years later by H. Peregaux (ed “Privonniers des Achan Gouri (Neve des temps héeoigues te la Mf 1962. a school annual Clary (Lausanne), 1956, Soe also note 73 above. MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 59 profession, he felt called upon to add me mangent ". The following yes Neuchatel chapter Alexandre Junod, Nyam-Nyam, a supposedly the “heart of ‘Africa’ was a tragedy set in anthropophagous. ta separated from their fathe important new role models in the picture of the courageous, mascul jionary”. And they found in Africa a vivid picture of the immorality ft which they were protected by their Church and its clergy. Here was a gra stration of unambiguous Sin, the need for repentance and the role of moral eneration in the search for portrayed ious works also i Vandois ed to sh compassion, and to protect the “weak and oppressed", Child fundraising efforts contributed to the salvation of Africans and, per importantly, brought the missionary effor But fundraising was also a pedagogical practice that, through small everyday savings, taught Vaudois children to be frugal and responsible, the virtues of benevolence, charity and community service" he Swiss thought ved * for to be ly an By coni hie was often able 10 compare the level of development of stone-age people 0 had black in present-day a of African society Le grand A nous » semble que quand nous nous penchons ver conception te monde ede Ta ie que noe hou anetsnne, 3 nose, SUBS 6. TESS. By the 18005 anmibaise nasre of of to rogion seigncer der60 PATRICK HARRIES devant nos yeux, Certains problémes de nos dines civilisées, filles agrandies de ces limes primitives, 'expliquent. Nous prenons mieux conscience de nous-mémes et des mystires de notre évolution “™. According to this vision of things, Europe's past could be found in Africa's present: and in a way that had multiple ramifications for their self |, Europeans placed themselves at the summit of an ineluctable line of progress and perfectibility ! u ‘The image of a primitive Africa provided the Swiss with an important means of self-criticism and improvement. For in a social context strongly fluenced by Religious Revival, Romanticism and even a return to Gothic ftecture, primitivism was associated with the energy and excitement ashed by the exotic. For many Swiss, European civilization was stale, moribund and weighed down by custom and tradition. If readers were unaware of this, L'Education chrétienne brought it to thei attention in its first issue. “Note vieille Europe”, they were informed, was marked by “Ia routine, les habitudes, les préjugés ". In Africa, a continent unburdened by the dissension and doubt caused by Europe's wars of religion, dry rationality, cold logic and sterile materialism, the Church could almost start again. In ‘Aftica the Mission would bring the Church back to the “temps apostoliques a [tite] de son égoisme et de sa torpeur. Loin de l'épuiser, comme beaucoup Ie ‘cet exercise spirityel Ia fortifie et Ia reveille This picture of the Mission rejuvenating the mother Chu Europe became a popular Free Church “Le récit des. viel remportées par ’Evangile dans le monde ps wrote Grandjean, wor ‘éconfort spiritucl ” to the home Church and * suscite et ent ‘The mission experience in Aftica impressed on the Church the clergy and a defined dogmatic base; zeal and marks of the Revival, were no longer sufficient” ‘The European belief in Africa's youth and naiveté allowed intellectuals to reflect critically on their own civilization. A nostalgi jore secure, harmonious world governed by simple values and everyday faditions pervaded much of the missionary writing on Africa, Just as the remodern society of the Alps was disappearing, or being reformulated in jealized exhibitions and nostalgic literature, Africa offered the Swiss an le of a living society uncontaminated by the conflicts of an industrial a to be critical of aspects of imperialism. Europeans not only brought colonial wars and biting liquor to Africa: they also arrived with * des coutumes d'une immoralité que le paganisme lu Snvier 1872, 24 ur les Eglises Berhoud, bes [MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 61 méme ne connaissait pas, un luxe effet presque partout un égoisme impitoyable refused t0 see the devil's hand behind the had 2 good deal to teach Europe. "A plu: 1898, , parfois des injustices criantes et ®, For those missionaries who ives’ cultural practices, Afticans jeurs égards”, wrote Junod in leur est plus facile de pr re certains portions du Christianisme, les préceptes du Sermon sur la Montagne, par exemple, qu’ nous, Européens du XIXe sidcle, dont existence est si compliquée. Ne pas . ne jamais refuser de préter aqui veut . vivre comme fes oiseaux du ‘Thirty years later, Junod would reassert and develop when he contrasted "our cities where everything 1s for sale, everything is valued in money ”, with Africans who displayed * the respect for elders, the ‘of mutual help, the readiness to share food norality was continued in the folklore collections assembled by Junod and a remarkable generation of Neuchatclois missionaries working in various parts of Africa, Theit respect for cultural alterity made an important contribution to the developing hropology ; and it gave the Swiss a critical yardstick with which to measure their civilization”. Blaise Cendrars regarded Africans as ng close to nature, and in their folklore he discemed the carly beginnings of the human spirit. His Anthologie négre ssionaries like Junod and Jacottet and we Suisse Romande Junod also drew inspiration from the primitive art of the Baronga, of which he and his colleagues sent many examples to the ethnograi Tuseum in Neuchatel, Ten years before Picasso transformed “curiosities” in the ‘Trocadero museum into * artworks Junod ay work an the Asam. On to Anthologie negre (Paris pour tos enjaris des Blanes (Paris, 193). A. B ‘eee (Lausanne,1966), 85162 PATRICK HARRIES commented that “The Ronge are still in the childhood of art ”, but that this childhood also has its charms [...] For primitives art is always the product of individual genius. It never becomes a mechanical exploitation as in the factories of the civilized world. That is why it conserves a character of sincerity, simplicity and beauty that we do not always find in the products of nineteenth-century European industry’, ‘Through this biological metaphor, Junod situated African sculpture in a single family of art dominated by the aesthetic values of parental Europe. It iplied that the value of primitive art lay in its ability to present Europeans with an image of ancestral instincts and feelings that had long been suppressed by the weight of civilization. As Sally Price has recalled, the appreciation of primitive art in Europe was about self-discovery rather than the discovery of the Other" Africa's _primitiveness led Europeans to discover many other aspects of themselves, for a wide commonalty of purpose and dedication joined the network of fundraisers and supporters at home 1o the missionary in the field. For many, the missionary was a heroic figure engaged in liberating Africans erstition, backwardness, sspotism, and slavery. Sunday school children caught the essence of ission when they sang, De l'Afrique mystérieuse ot végéte un peuple i la voix des peuples nous appelle ales délivrer de leurs fers”. Their elder siblings and parents joined in this celestial chorus at Sunday services, prayer groups, and mectings of a range of evangelical societies stretching from the Christian Union to the Temperance Association Gloire au Dieu trois fois saint, le souverain du monde Que sa parfaite loi soumette I"univers, Et que son nom, porté sur la terre et sur l'onde Des caplifs du péché fasse tomber leurs fers" Te Messager de Ise hymn number 96, in 3 MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 63 For Junod, evangelical Chri that would free the Native f 1d the autocracy of chiefs and at ntroduced an individual consciousness ‘ranglehold of custom and. community. missionaries believed in the Henri Berthoud saw mission work in Africa as a“ travail réparateur” for the evils of the slave trade. He dedi is life to the evangelical cause in ‘Africa because of "Ia dette immense que les nations civilisées et surtoat les tations chrétiennes ont contractée envers ce malheureux continent dont tous les fleuves ont, pour ainsi dire, porté & tous les oceans le sang des Tn the same breath as the Swiss construed it their duty to bring fits population, they celebrated their wrote Grandjean, “ éprouve tout res qu'elle a Fegues A ceux qui ability to do so. “L'ime revel naturellement le besoin de art des I sont encore dans les téndbres ‘The Swiss fo their achievement ‘The Mission’s collec in the Theological Exhibition in Zurich years later at the National E> exhibition in Vevey in 190 further proof of their superiority when they measured jose of Africa at national and cantonal exhibitions. 1 artefacts, housed in a makeshift musew st displayed at the Swiss National was again on display thirteen in Geneva and at the Vaui ‘The organizers of these exhibit concerned to present a viv ike picture of various aspect Africa, But the verisimilitude of the displays, and their juxtap artefacts of modern European industry, served to reinforce local perceptions of Africans as simple and backward. The self-respect and pride of the Swiss sand ‘nation gre sy admired their armaments, machines an Saveyanoes fad" contrasted them. withthe simple industnes and manufactures of a visibly “ prebi people". The Mission celebrated its role in this hymn to progress tion by displaying its singular achievements in the transcr the tone of celebration became proof that its rate of conversion was higher occluded other cultures when it anguages!”. But when it provided statistical that of other missions ; and it BacRongo, 246 ; Jor ‘1 p Benhoud, Ne tempsiton Boe Henn Peepae's 1991), esp. 16, 5 ve? Save, Ne64 PATRICK HARRIES de téndbres... avec 3,000 fimes arrachées la corruption du pa ‘Swept up in the mood of these exhibitions, the Mission asserted that développem: ions en pays paiens marche de pair avec de la colonisat des cas il le précéde méme et lui ouvre la unequivocal support for imperialism contradicted the onary approach of individual missionories, But it both reflected and constructed the tenor of exhibitions demonstrating the forward march of humankind, And at the same time it reinforced the confidence of the industrial and intellectual elite of Switzer: lity (0 guide and shape evolution of society ftom savagery to ci sense of confide! is frame of "e and achievement produced by dis also manifest in the missionaries’ discoveries in the domain. of Natural History. For Henti-Alexandre Junod, the African environment held out the "mysterious charm of the unknown", ‘The discovery and lassification of species gave the ambitious missionary a sentiment of conquest and domestication. It also provided the Swiss with a sense of ional achievement as missionaries published their findings in national id international scientific journals and, out of patr ethnogra ies to museum collecti Swiss participated in the intellectual redrawing of the world sts ordered the rare entomological and botanical specimens sent home, and arranged their findings in maps and charts. Scientific articles, collections, botanical gardens and herbariums, as well as cantonal and national exhibitions provided a constant reminder of the between individual enterprize and the material achievements of the Swiss people. As Darwin had once written, “seeing, when amongst foreigners, the of one’s own nation, gives a feeling of exultation that is A product of this exultation, I want to suggest, was the energy and enterprize which, by the turn of the century, had produced a per capita gross n onal product in Switzerland second only to that of England energy had gendered overtones, Although women played part in building an evangelical culture in Switzerland, they were excluded from leadership positions within the Church and its Mission. As ir achievements were confined to here, sewing and singing lessons, or mundane duties such as ick. AS women rarely wrote reports and were inevitably 1 (Vevey, 901). sand customs of the various South Aan The Advancement af Sctence, 1907, tie, Neuchitel: Soeigts 895; CBG. HB. Bartey Charles Darvin ral World (Manchest ted in JM, MacKenaie ed, Jmperalism and MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 65 relegated to the margins of Mission biographies and histories, men seemed to dominate the mission field. Nor was there much place for romantic love in an evangelical task considered both a duty and a * travail réparateur” When Adolphe Mabille courted his wife “il parlit moins d'amour que de missions... il tat autant le pasteur de sa fiancée qu'autre chose", Althoug! most missionaries married only weeks before leaving for Affica, their wives were crucial help-mates in the field. Yet thei ole was hidden by masculine language describing the missionary’s task as a“ holy undertaken. by the“ soldiers of Christ” equiped with “ spiritual arms” in a batile against the enemy of the soul *™. This martial imagery was particularly prominent hymns calling out “ Lave-toi, vaillante armée !” and * Soldats de Christ, 10 combat !""". Even the discovery, conquest and domestication of the environment was desribed by missionaries in starkly masculine terms Race was also a component of the reflected identity found by the Swiss in their image of Africa. Most missionaries rejected biological explana for Europe’ material snore and AMicns backwardness; andthe} Opp acist theories of the period, including those of lea Wi Such as Johan von ‘Tschudi, Louis Agassiz and Carl Voge". But the missionaries’ vision of mankind's common humanity was interwoven with a discourse of inequality. The African population was at an “ immature ” stage of evolution from which it could only be released by a mixture of Christianity Teason and religion. But the process of intellectual had to be carefully supervised. Because fell prey to many of the vices of industrial, European society’. The Afiican was accepted as pare ofthe family of man, but only as a junior member; a “child a “younger, brother" ‘or an’ "unhappy sister” in need "of guidance. “ The Black”, wrote Henri Junod, required “ a sympathetic voice to instruct him and to put him on guard against the dangers of a civilization najean dist : ion” Aucorbat ‘Consisting Mandseape ard Society late pre-co srselle, VIN, 1897, 547 Foural of Science, XVIL, Nov, ‘These wore comma Berboud, Les Negres66 PATRICK HARRIES of which he attempts, all too often, to assimilate only the faults and vices The missionaries carefully depicied the degeneration brought to areas of African society through contamination with the dark forces of industrialization". In a wide range of ultimately didactic publications, Swiss readers were shown the social ravages brought to Africa by alcoholism, avarice and alienation ; nefarious forces that confronted the weak races of the dark continent with the threat of extinction” This starkly materialist view of the Calvinist insistence on man’ s fall from grace gave an added urgency to the role of the Mission in Africa as social guide and tutor”. The Mission had to teach Blacks to work and to accept the for the Black's “ unshakeable nd_benevolenc ‘The success 0 isforming paga various ways to generations of Sunday school is. Colourful stories told of the tragic fate of Africa iren born into or slavery ; and recounted their delivery from dage by Christi Other popular stories told of the loyalty and respect with which black servants viewed their employers, and related pre peoples was recounted is and their pa which good intentions were mixed wit : a world in which courageous missi trade, unveiled the mysteries and Gothic gloom of the dark continent and, assistants, brought a redeeming morality 10 its imagery of the African population, before and after conversion, had an obvious propagandistic appeal”. But it had the ‘ous effect of portraying Africans as either barbarians or what Arthur the négre idéal des enfants de Ecole du rr 18], BSNG VIL, 1992-03, 529 at de la bsic do Delagoa, 77; Junod, yas popular topic, in medial of physical ust as in South Alice where the governor A the Cape called for enlightened government as ig he racial extinction practised inthe United States and Australia See Barte Free "in Fransactions of the South African Philasophical Soctet (Société e alts religieux, Lav 1a (Lansare, approx. | ite Lausanne Rel Le siil gvangile 3 ‘aysterious Alcs, el MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 67 dimanche", While the idealistic picture impressed on readers the benefits brought to the natives by Christian tutelage, the “ before-conversion " image provided an illustration of what European society would be without the guiding hand of the Church, In Afri sence of a Christian clergy had Ted to the degeneration of ». It had also encouraged a collective mor ity and emerprise. Africa's darkness emphasized the obvious superiority Of the Christian religion, But at te same time it also supported the demands of the clergy for the church to play a leading role in the development of European society; a role that had only recently been undermined by the forces of secularization For Henri-Alexandre Junod, the Mission's lea Church's task in Africa was. to” contin historic role in Europe. He ie culture of reason and religion propagated by “les classes had yet to conquer the final redoubts of popular culture !”. He saw the incomplete nature of this struggle in the botanical Knowledge of European peasants, which he considered less thorough tha that of Thonga tribesmen, Animistic beliefs, he demonstrated, were the Suisse Ror Even in La Chaux-de-Fonds, one of the new centres o 10 be found. In aking capital heart of a goat or sheep pierced by a woman with at least fifty big pins in an attempt to cause pain to her enesny!” man, the Junod found a common humanity when he compared “les idées populaires, les superstitions des classes les moins instruites de nos propres pays avee celles des Noirs africains”. But there was little equality vision of the struggle between @ popular culture, based on superstition mindless custom, and an elite culture built on the enlightened knowledge associated jon and science. These conceptions” were the product of temps préhistoriques”. “ Elles for ts of Europe, he wrote, “1a 08 est moins rép: Srawing frequent comparisons between the culture of * tribesme: and “the peasantry or less cultivated portion of the town population” in Switzerland, Junod and others emphasized two important aspects of Church's role as tutor and guide. Firstly they underlined th incomplete 18-19 ; Janod68 PATRICK HARRIES nature of the civilizing mission undertaken by the Church in Europe ; and yy comparing the popular classes in Switzerland with the younger Africa, they gave notice of both their jon at the summit of progress™. paternal obligations and their pos Education, scientific trai ng, higher moral and religious conceptions ve delivered most of the nagic ”, wrote Junod, and superstition was disappear ttle by little”. For Junod, the same would Africa where, if the natives. submitied themselves to the teachings, a local intellectual elite would “ sooner or later, take This was the ‘The Swiss at home saw in the image of Aftica's manifest backwardness the outline of their own development ; a visible material progress that could bbe ascribed to the accomplishments of a vigorous nation, an industrious class, amanly race and a true Moreover, through their actions in Africa the Swiss could claim a transcendent morality that distinguished them from other ‘or through their prayers, financial contributions and personal devotion, they were able to contribute to the civilizing mission ‘without implicating themselves in its violent, repressive aspects. As I have attempted to show, this positive self-image was reinforced by an absol language ranging Switzerland on the side of religion, emancipation and enlightenment in-a war with paganism, slavery and superstition Out of this unambiguous, Manichean view of the world grew a moral strengthened by ight of hundreds of converts gathered i@ many colourful flags of the Swiss confederation and its cantons. At these rituals of welcome and departure for missionaries in Africa, converts sang tunes drawn from Swiss hymnals while their children waved the red and white flag of the Confederation. Readers saw themselves reflected in gatherings in Africa where missionaries shared “le bon accent vaudois, les Souliers d’empeigne et les vetterlis"” ; and they swelled with pride as far-off : MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY 69 ‘Ah ! toi, Suisse, petit pays, Quoigue petit, tu es grande Parmi les nations Les plus nombreuses, par ton amour”. These words were carried to a wide audience by Sunday s evangelical associations, churches and the flood of broadsheets, pamipiilets, magazines and journals with which they were associated ; and they were transmitted by images captured in exhibitions, engravings and photographs. Identity in a multi-lingual nation like Switzerland had to rest on an imagery, mythology and history acceptable to people separated by sharp divisions of religion, wealth, language and experience. The Alps provided the Swiss with a powerful imagery of themselves as a sturdy peasant, people living in a rustic democracy. In the Suisse ty. was recognized and reinforced in contradistinction to French the nineteenth-cent ithered betwer ‘autocracy, the Swiss defined themselves cha ‘opposition to working-class immigrants, generally Catholic and Malian, they carved a political neutrality and humanitarian impulse out of their _invidiow geographical situation. In this essay 1 have tried to extend the mirror in which the Swiss saw themselves to Alrica. Enormous popular enthusiasm for mission work united a diverse cross-section of people and brought Attica into their homes. And it was in these homes that they recognized their qualities, their capabilities, and their identities, de Vespoir et autres socités, 7Le Fait Missionnaire Cahier n°6 Septembre 1998 Sommaire Avant-propos 7 5 Fait missionnaire et politique du ventre : une lecture foucaldienne Jean-Francois Bayar sosr0nsn tro] Missionary endeavor and the politics of identity in Switzerland Patrick Harries .coo.nu i er 39 Le fa ’issionnaire : formes et Klauspeter Blaser. eer