The Environmental Gaze of Mission: Nigerian Landscapes Through the Lens of Dutch Missionary Photography (1960–1968)

Abstract

This article investigates the phenomenon of missionary landscape photography with an eye to contributing to the field of environmental history. It uses photos made by Dutch missionaries in newly independent Nigeria between about 1960 and 1968. The missionaries were focused on economic development, agricultural innovation, medical aid, and strengthening local churches. Most photos reflect these preoccupations. Even so, many of the photos also portray trees, animals, agricultural fields, and especially landscapes. We argue that missionaries, through their landscape photography, were instrumental in developing a Western gaze of tropical nature, even if their photography cannot be defined as environmental. By comparing the photos to journals of the missionaries, we can distinguish distinct visual and textual narratives that are obviously connected but also have different accents. Whereas both portray tropical wilderness as exotic or as a challenge for missionary efforts, the photos are less optimistic about opportunities for mission by emphasizing desolate, uncultivated landscape. Overall, we argue that missionary photography offers a rich resource for the study of environmental history.

Keywords

• mission
• The Netherlands
• Nigeria
• landscape
• photography
• environmental history