Miscelánea Comillas (Sep 2019)
Slavery, evangelism, imperialism and identity construction: Malawi (Nyasaland) during the era of the partition of Africa (1875-1900)
Abstract
Slavery became a moral and conceptual problem during the 19th century. The idea of a workforce tied to only one owner contradicts the basic needs of capitalism. The abolitionist discourse focuses on Africa during that stage. The presence of slavery in that continent during the late 19th century motivated some missionary campaigns that not only planned to eradicate that old institution but also planned to transform the life and the economy of African peoples according to the principles of industrial capitalism. Malawi or Nyasaland is a good example of those territories where those evangelical campaigns were carried out. Scottish missionaries converted many Malawians to Christianity and, at the same time, created several identities in terms of slavers and slaves. Missionaries, on the other hand, became immersed in African political conflicts to the point in which they had to take up arms to protect their converts from slave hunters. A British military intervention took place in Malawi in the middle of that struggle and, as a consequence, that territory was annexed to the British Empire. Therefore, evangelism, abolitionism, industrial capitalism, British imperialism, and the creation of colonial identities converged on the problem of slavery in late 19th Century Malawi.
