Further variations on a theme: The games ethic further adapted - Scottish moral missionaries and muscular Christians in Malawi

• Published in: International journal of the history of sport Vol. 23; no. 8; pp. 1257 - 1274
• Main Authors: Hokkanen, Markku, Mangan, J. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.12.2006
• Subjects: Africa; Body; Colonial history; Cultural values; Education; Missionaries; Scots; Sports; Students; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0952-3367; 1743-9035
• DOI: 10.1080/09523360600922188

This article examines theories and practices of moral and physical education among the Scottish missionaries in the Malawi region of south-central Africa during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within the wider history of British imperial education and the English public school games ethic, the Scottish missionaries of the Livingstonia and Blantyre missions offer an interesting and important counterpoint to their middle-class English counterparts. Although the Scots had their own distinct educational traditions which shaped their pedagogical programmes in Africa, they were not unaffected by the games ethic. Drill and team games gradually became an important part of missionary education in Blantyre and Livingstonia, with the holistic aim of developing the body, mind and moral character of the mission pupils. In Malawi, the games ethic, first introduced by middle-class Edinburgh missionaries, developed alongside an 'industrial ethic', and a distinctly 'Scottish blend' of missionary education that combined Scottish industrial and English non-industrial traditions emerged.