Scottish Missionaries and African Healers: Perceptions and Relations in The Livingstonia Mission, 1875-1930

• Published in: Journal of religion in Africa Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 320 - 347
• Main Author: Hokkanen, Markku
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands BRILL 2004; Brill Academic Publishers; Brill; Brill Academic Publishers, Inc
• Subjects: 19th century; 19th-20th century; 20th century; African Christianity; Christian missionaries; Christianity; Colonial history; Diseases; Doctors; Elmslie, Walter; General subjects; Healers; Healing; History and sciences of religions; Linguistic anthropology; Malawi; Medical anthropology; Medical practice; Medical sociology; Medical specialists; Missionaries; Missions; Modern period; Perceptions; Quack doctors; Religion; Religious studies; Scottish peoples; Social history; Tembo, Kalengo; Traditional medicine; Writing; Malawi
• ISSN: 0022-4200; 1570-0666; 0022-4200
• DOI: 10.1163/1570066041725394

This paper examines Scottish missionary perceptions of African healers, and the relationships between the missionaries and local healers in what is now Northern Malawi during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Analysing the Livingstonia missionary writings from the missionary doctor Walter Elmslie to the popular missionary author Donald Fraser and the amateur anthropologist T. Cullen Young, it is argued that, despite major differences and changes in the missionaries' perceptions regarding African healers, there were also important continuities. The paper also examines in detail the relationships between Elmslie and the family of African healer Kalengo Tembo. It is argued that the careful study of missionary writings, even blatant missionary propaganda, can offer novel insights not only into missionary discourse, but also into the historical interaction between Africans and missionaries in the field of medicine and healing.