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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2007
One of the weaknesses of post-colonial theory has been a tendency to view colonialism in unitary and essentialist terms. This weakness is particularly evident in post-colonialism's treatment of missionary endeavour. This is the result of insufficient engagements with missionary texts. This article engages with one of the most remarkable missionary texts. Dan Crawford's Thinking black reveals an openness to Africa far in advance of prevailing ideas. While this enlightened attitude had its roots partially in the author's character, it was also an expression of the primitivism typical of the Brethren movement. We may therefore see Crawford as a paradigm of Brethren missions.
1 Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism's culture: anthropology, travel and government, Cambridge 1994, 3.
2 Chinua Achebe, Things fall apart, London 1965.
3 Anna Johnston, Missionary writing and empire, 1800–1860, Cambridge 2003, 30.
4 Thomas, Colonialism's culture, 105.
5 G. E. Tilsley, Dan Crawford: missionary and pioneer in central Africa, London–Edinburgh 1929; J. J. Ellis, Dan Crawford of Luanza, Kilmarnock n.d., and ‘Crawford, Daniel’, in Dictionary of Scottish church history and theology, Edinburgh 1993, 222. J. H. Brown, A missionary in the making, Bellville, SA [1984], provides helpful insights.
6 Tilsley, Crawford, 6–13.
7 In writing about the group known widely as Plymouth or Open Brethren, questions of nomenclature present some difficulties. For an examination of these and the definition used here see Neil Dickson, Brethren in Scotland, 1838–2000, Carlisle 2003, ch. ii. See also F. Roy Coad, A history of the Brethren movement, 2nd edn, Exeter 1976. David Brady (comp.), The Brethren: a bibliography of secondary studies, available on-line at http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data2/spcoll/cba/sources.html (accessed 2 June 2005), is invaluable.
8 Tilsley, Crawford, 26–40.
9 Dan Crawford, Thinking black: 22 years without a break in the long grasses of central Africa, 2nd edn, New York 1913, publisher's note at p. v.
10 Tilsley, Crawford, 529–30; Alex Marshall, ‘Thinking black’, The Witness (Jan. 1913), 10.
11 Tilsley, Crawford, 22.
12 Norman Etherington, ‘Missions and empire’, in Robin W. Winks (ed.), The Oxford history of the British empire, V: Historiography, Oxford 1999, 305.
13 Ibid.
14 Elizabeth Isichei, A history of Christianity in Africa from antiquity to the present, London 1995. 91. Isichei is misrepresenting the views of the Brethren generally – they expected the imminent return of Christ. However, Crawford did hold the view suggested here. For Darbyite eschatology see Max S. Weremchek, John Nelson Darby, Neptune, NJ 1992, esp. pp. 119–33. For Crawford's own views see Dan Crawford, ‘Touching the Coming of the Lord’, Aylesbury [1928], and Dickson, Brethren in Scotland, 157–8. On the role of premillennial eschatology more generally see Andrew Porter, Religion versus empire? British Protestant missionaries and overseas expansion, 1700–1914, Manchester 2004, 193–200.
15 Isichei, Christianity in Africa, provides a useful survey of African missions, unfortunately hamstrung by an inadequate index. On Brethren missions see pp. 90–1, and on Crawford see especially ch. vii.
16 Cecil Northcott, David Livingstone: his triumph, decline and fall, London 1973, 15. See also Roger Anstey, The Atlantic slave trade and British abolition, 1760–1810, London 1975.
17 For an overview of Brethren missionary activity see the compendious W. T. Stunt and others (eds), Turning the world upside down, Eastbourne 1972, esp. pp. 363–430. Also useful is Frederick A. Tatford's That the world might know, Bath 1982–6, esp. vol. vi, Light over the dark continent, Bath 1984. For a more recent discussion see Harold H. Rowdon (ed.), The Brethren contribution to the worldwide mission of the Church, Carlisle 1994.
18 Larsen, Timothy, ‘“Living by faith”: a short history of Brethren practise’, Brethren Archivists and Historians Network Review i (1998), 67–102Google Scholar; Harold H. Rowdon, ‘The concept of “living by faith”’, in Antony Billington, Tony Lane and Max Turner (eds), Mission and meaning: essays presented to Peter Cotterall, Carlisle 1995, 339–56.
19 See George Henry Lang, Anthony Norris Groves, saint and pioneer, London 1939; Memoirs of the late Anthony Norris Groves, 2nd edn, ed. [H.] Groves, London 1857; and Robert Bernard Dann, Father of faith missions, Milton Keynes 2004. See also Coad, History of the Brethren, 15–24; Stunt, From awakening to secession, 117–45; and Timothy C. F. Stunt, ‘Anthony Norris Groves (1795–1853) in a European context: a re-assessment of his early development’, in Neil T. R. Dickson and Tim Grass (eds), The growth of the Brethren movement: national and international experiences, Carlisle 2000, 223–40.
20 Crawford Gribben, ‘“The worst sect that a Christian man can meet”: opposition to the Plymouth Brethren in Ireland and Scotland, 1859–1900’, Scottish Studies Review iii/2 (2002), 34–53.
21 Larsen, ‘“Living by faith”’, 68.
22 See George Müller, Answers to prayer, Chicago n.d., and The autobiography of George Müller, London 1906.
23 Rowdon, ‘“Living by faith”’, 340–1; Norman Grubb, C. T. Studd: cricketeer & pioneer, London 1933, esp. pp. 64–9.
24 Tilsley, Crawford, 30–3.
25 Crawford, Thinking black, 374. For Arnot's endorsement of ‘living by faith’ see Tatford, Dark continent, 351–2.
26 While many saw the early Brethren's withdrawal from the mainstream Protestant denominations as sectarian, Brethren saw themselves as transcending sectarianism. Thus, terms like ‘Brethren missionaries’ are terms of convenience only, and would have been rejected by those to whom they are applied.
27 Johnston, Missionary writing, 13–14. See also Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, missionary enthusiasm and empire’, in Andrew Porter (ed.), The Oxford history of the British empire, III: The nineteenth century, Oxford 1999, 222–45.
28 Johnston, Missionary writing, 14.
29 Crawford, Thinking black, 324.
30 2 Corinthians vi. 17.
31 Dickson, Neil T. R., ‘Editorial’, Brethren Archivists and Historians Network Review i (1998), 65Google Scholar.
32 Romans xiii.1. See Wilson, Elisabeth ‘Your citizenship is in heaven: Brethren attitudes to authority and government’, Brethren Archivists and Historians Network Review xii (2003), 75–90Google Scholar.
33 See Ruth M. Slade, English-speaking missions in the Congo independent state (1878–1908), Brussels 1959, for the apolitical stance of Brethren missionaries in the Congo. Robert I. Rotberg, Christian missions and the creation of Northern Rhodesia, 1880–1924, Princeton 1965, 68–70, suggests that some of the Brethren missionaries were involved in political ‘intriguing’. See Coad, History of the Brethren, 206n. for a refutation. For the difficult context in which Crawford's apolitical stance manifested itself see Rotberg, Robert I., ‘Plymouth Brethren and the occupation of Katanga’, Journal of African History ii (1964), 285–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Arnot, R. S., ‘F. S. Arnot and Msidi’, Northern Rhodesia Journal iii (1958), 428–34Google Scholar.
34 Henry Groves and J. L. Maclean, ‘Preface’ to F. S. Arnot, Garenganze, or 7 years pioneer missionary work in Central Africa, London [1889], p. vi. Porter, Religion versus empire?, 196–7, mistakenly attributes this quotation to Arnot himself.
35 Crawford, Thinking black, 26, 188, 432.
36 Ibid.
37 See John W. Griffith, Joseph Conrad and the anthropological dilemma, ‘Bewildered Traveller’, Oxford 1995, 100–24. On comparative anthropology see E. B. Tylor, Primitive cultures: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion art and customs, London 1871, and George W. Stocking, Jr, Race, culture and evolution: essays in the history of anthropology, New York 1968.
38 Griffith, Joseph Conrad, 108.
39 Ibid. 113.
40 Crawford, Thinking black, 1, 26, 228.
41 Ibid. 77 n. 1.
42 Tilsley, Crawford, 529.
43 Dr Robert Laws quoted ibid. 455.
44 See Daniel Pick, Faces of degeneration: a European disorder c. 1848–c. 1918, Cambridge 1989, and Rod Edmond, ‘Home and away: degeneration in imperialist and modernist discourse’, in Howard J. Booth and Nigel Rigby (eds), Modernism and empire, Manchester–New York 2000, 39–63.
45 There is little agreement on a term for this decivilisation of the European. Griffith uses ‘going native’, or ‘going fantee’. ‘Sociointegrational degeneration’ is useful for the way it links with wider theories of degeneration. Edmond uses the term ‘involution’, which has similar value in connecting these concerns to a larger scientific epistemology.
46 Edmond, ‘Home and away’, 43. See also D. C. R. A. Goonetilleke, ‘Ironies of progress: Joseph Conrad and imperialism in Africa’, in Robert Gidding (ed.), Literature and imperialism, London 1991, 75–111.
47 Griffith, Joseph Conrad, 125, esp. ch v, 125–52.
48 Crawford, Thinking black, pp. xiv–xv, 130.
49 Ibid. 5.
50 Ibid. 27–8.
51 Andrew Ross, David Livingstone: mission and empire, London 2000, 243. On Belgian atrocities in the Congo see E. D. Morel, Red rubber, London 1907, and The black man's burden, London 1920, 105–26. See also Roger Anstey, King Leopold's legacy: the Congo under Belgian rule, 1908–1960, Oxford 1960.
52 Crawford, Thinking black, pp. xiii–xiv.
53 Ibid. 54.
54 Ibid. 60–1.
55 Ibid. 61.
56 Jesse N. K. Mugambi, ‘Introduction’, to John V. Taylor, The primal vision: Christian presence among African religion, London, 2001, p. xii
57 Crawford, Thinking black, 52–3.
58 Ibid. 53.
59 Clark Logan, ‘Thoughts on rereading “Thinking black”’ (personal correspondence dated Jan. 2004).
60 Neill, Christian missions, 380.
61 Ephesians ii. 3.
62 ‘A mind at enmity with God’, no. 630, in The gospel hymn book (1897), Belfast 1986.
63 Crawford, Thinking black, 79.
64 This is quoted in Tilsley, Crawford, 431.
65 Morel, Black man's burden, frontispiece.
66 Crawford, Thinking black, 70–4.
67 Ibid. 70.
68 Ibid. 72.
69 John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Of revelation and revolution, ii, Chicago 1997, 7.
70 Ibid. For a helpful discussion of the implications of this issue for the wider missionary endeavour see C. Peter Williams, ‘“Too peculiarly Anglican”: the role of the Established Church in Ireland as a negative model in the development of the Church Missionary Society's commitment to independent native churches, 1856–1872’, in W. J. Sheils and Diana Woods (eds), The Churches, Ireland and the Irish (Studies in Church History xxv, 1989), 299–310.
71 See, amongst others, Taylor, Primal vision; Isichei, Christianity in Africa; Richard Gray, Black Christians and white missionaries, New Haven–London 1990; and Adrian Hastings, African Christianity, London–Dublin 1976.
72 Pauline Summerton, Fishers of men, Kilmarnock 2003, 82, agrees with this analysis, suggesting that ‘Brethren ecclesiology and missiology … was perhaps more likely to facilitate cultural transformation than some other [sic] denominational versions.’ However, she contends that ‘their Anglo-Saxon Biblicism’ was prone to ‘act as a brake on the process’.
73 Dann, Father of faith missions, 450–9, discusses A. N. Groves's enlightened attitude towards indigenous Christianity, and traces his influence on the wider missionary movement. Summerton, Fishers of men, 71–83, provides a helpful discussion of some of these issues in relation to Crawford's contemporaries. T. Ernest Wilson, Angola beloved, Neptune, NJ 1967, 16–17, opens with an enthusiastic celebration of indigenous Christianity in Africa.
74 For European views of Crawford see Brown, Missionary in the making, 129; Tatford, Light over the dark continent, 352, 365; and Summerton, Fishers of men, 80.
75 Crawford, Thinking black, 480–1.
76 Roland Allen, Missionary methods: St Paul's or ours?, London 1912, 189–90.
77 John Buchan, The African colony: studies in reconstruction, Edinburgh 1903.
78 Juanita Kruse, John Buchan (1875–1940) and the idea of empire, Lewiston, NY 1989, 55–6.
79 ‘The white man's burden’ (1899), in Rudyard Kipling: the complete verse, London 1990, 261–2. On infantilisation in missionary representations see Thomas, Colonialism's culture, 129–33.
80 Dann, Father of faith missions, 459–65, provides a valuable discussion of Groves's pioneering approach to an indigenous ministry, and traces his influence beyond the Brethren. See Brown, Missionary in the making, and R. C. Allison, Leaves from the African jungle, Kilmarnock 1999, for an enthusiastic endorsement of indigenous workers by missionaries profoundly influenced by Crawford. Summerton, Fishers of men, 71–83, provides a helpful discussion of some of these issues in relation to Crawford's contemporaries.
81 Allen, Missionary methods, 191. Anstey, King Leopold's legacy, 36, 58–9, deals with the use of native ‘teacher-evangelists’, but describes a supervisor–subordinate pattern very different to that endorsed by Crawford.
82 Slade, English-speaking missions, 184–5.
83 Crawford, Thinking black, 483–4.
84 Ibid. 438–9.
85 Ibid. 324.
86 Ibid. 355.
87 For ‘Truth’ see William Michael Rossetti (ed.), The poetical works of William Cowper, Glasgow n.d., 28–39.
88 Crawford, Thinking black, 57.
89 Ibid. 58.
90 Ibid. 55.
91 Comaroff and Comaroff, Revelation and revolution, 7.
92 Ibid. 71.
93 Coad, History of the Brethren, 271. For Brethren responses see Stunt, Timothy C. F., ‘Irvingite Pentecostalism and the Early Brethren’, Christian Brethren Research Fellowship Journal x (1965), 40–8Google Scholar, and ‘The young believer's question box’, The Believer's Magazine (Dec. 1921), 128–9.
94 Crawford, Thinking black, 55–6.
95 Dickson, Brethren in Scotland, 370 n. 26.
96 Dann, Father of faith missions, 509–20, provides a detailed discussion of the influence of dependence on God alone, as taught by Groves, and practised by the Brethren, on the wider faith mission movement.
97 Coad, History of the Brethren, 204.
98 Porter, Religion versus empire?, 196.
99 Coad, History of the Brethren, 204.
100 Summerton, Fishers of men, esp. pp. 77–83.
101 Brown, Missionary in the making, 277–98.
102 Wilson, Angola beloved, 53.
103 Ibid. 220.
104 Robin I. McKeown, e-mail correspondence, 5 Jan 2004.
105 Allison, Leaves, 25.
106 Ibid. 26.
107 Tilsley, Crawford, 531.
108 W. E. Vine, The divine plan of missions (1927), in The collected writings of W. E. Vine, Nashville, Tn 1996, v. 27.
109 Ibid. v. 52.
110 Ibid. v. 14–19.
111 Klaus Fiedler, The story of faith missions, Oxford 1994, 177; Dann, Father of faith missions, 499–526; Porter, Religion versus empire?, 191–224.
