> > True as far as it goes. But the missionaries did not just
>coincidentally arrive with the
>> colonial authorities.
>
>Wrong premise. They often arrived _before_ the European colonial rule
>was established, at least in East Africa.
>
>Another thing: they often tried to subvert the colonial rule of the
>other colonial power cf. European missionaries opposing Arab-run slave
>trade in East Africa or English missionaries opposing the treatment of
>Africans by the Dutch in South Africa.
I don't argue they weren't well-meaning, in their own way. But they were still all about substituting their own cultural values for those of the indigenous population.
The missionaries good intentions might have provided a smoother road to hell for the natives, but that isn't the point.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas