Skip to content
Home/ Mission. Impossible?: Taking Christianity to the Congo
Mission. Impossible?: Taking Christianity to the Congo

Mission. Impossible?: Taking Christianity to the Congo

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9781789633498

When the author returned to the Congo for a year as a newly qualified medical doctor he was able to observe Christian missionary activity at first hand and, more importantly, to work and learn from the people amongst whom he had been born, and who he came to appreciate and admire.

The stimulus for this book sprang from a desire to learn more about the country and the people of Congo before the intrusion of Europeans, the effects of Belgian colonization, the role of missionaries in exposing the brutalities of King Leopold II's rubber industry, and the contribution of Christian missions to the development of the country that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mission. Impossible? is based on a detailed study of the archived records of the Congo Balolo Mission, personal interviews with retired missionaries and missionary children, current leaders of the Congolese church and other previously unpublished personal material. Following the "discovery" of the Congo River by Henry Morton Stanley in 1877 the Congo was presented to the wider world as "The Heart of Darkness", a concept challenged by the author in the final chapter.


A postscript by Norbert Mpu-Mbutu adds an important Congolese perspective.


About the author

Product details

Pub dateJan 10, 2023
ISBN-101789633494
ISBN-139781789633498
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-09-09 00:55
$23.36 $24.95 6% off
You save $1.59 · list price $24.95
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Africa - Central
See all
Treatise on the Rivers of Cuama' (Tratado DOS Rios de Cuama) by Antonio Da Conceicao
<p>This volume publishes one of the most important early Portuguese accounts of east central Africa.</p><p>The author, António da Conceição, was the ecclesiastical administrator of the Portuguese Zambesi settlements at the end of the seventeenth century. He set out to describe the Portuguese community in the valley and in the gold-bearing regions of the high veldt. In doing so he commented in detail on the African kingdoms of the region and their relations with the Portuguese. He witnessed the rise of a powerful new African dynasty in the area of modern Zimbabwe, that of Changamira, and he described the destruction of the Portuguese fairs and settlements during the wars which followed.</p><p>Prior to the wars of the 1690s the Portuguese had appeared to be the dominant influence throughout much of the region of modern Zimbabwe, but their position was more fragile than it looked. Conceição points to weaknesses in the commercial structure of the Portuguese settlements and to the difficult relations which existed with traditional African authorities. He also mounted a wide-ranging critique of the missionary policy of the Dominicans which had concentrated on achieving the nominal conversion of members of the ruling Monomotapa dynasty.</p><p>This account, written by a highly intelligent and well-informed cleric, is essential for understanding the history of central Africa at a period of radical change. It is now available for the first time to an English as well as a Portuguese readership.</p>
$81.15