The history of Christian missions in the context of slavery and racism is worth exploring in depth. Mission 21 is launching a new series of webinars entitled "Mission - Slavery - Colonialism Revisited". In these webinars, experts shed light on meaningful aspects of the topic of mission, slavery and colonialism in fascinating presentations. Afterwards, they will be available for discussion with the participants. The central question of this series is: What can we learn from a differentiated view of the historical interconnections and conflicts of mission with colonialism and slavery for our present-day dealings with racism and discrimination?
Mission and Slavery - on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, from 6-7:30 p.m.
In the first webinar on "Mission and Slavery," two speakers will offer contributions. The historian Jan Hüsgen shows that slavery and mission were closely intertwined in the Caribbean when the Moravian Church of the Brethren began their missionary work there in the 18th century. Under the title "Islands of Humanity?" Hüsgen approaches the life of enslaved people in the mission of the Brüdergemeine and examines how the relationship between slavery and mission developed until about 1850.
The view of the Basel Mission steers the historian Andrea Rhyn with the paper "Against the Christian Moral Law". It deals with the attitude of the Basel mission in the 1860s towards slavery on the Gold Coast (today Ghana). While the mission leadership in Basel clearly demanded that it be abolished, the unfree social dependency relationships were tolerated by some missionaries on the ground. From this contradiction, Rhyn draws a differentiated picture of various attitudes.
Mission and Colonialism - on Thursday, May 27, 2021, from 6-7:30 p.m.
U.S. historian Emily Conroy-Krutz conducts research on 19th-century American history. In the lecture "Christian Imperialism in the American Colonization of Liberia" she talks about the early years of the Liberian colony. She examines the work of white and black missionaries as well as conflicts between missionaries and the colonial government (lecture in English with German translation).
Participation in Zoom webinars is free of charge.
â–º "Mission and Slavery": Wednesday, April 28, 18-19.30 - Details and registration
â–º "Mission and Colonialism": Thursday, May 27, 18-19.30 - Details and registration
