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The White Fathers' Archive in Zambia1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Marja Hinfelaar
Marja Hinfelaar*
Affiliation:
Giacomo Macola
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Extract

The archive of the Generalate of the White Fathers (WF) in Rome is a well-known “treasure trove for Africanists of all disciplines.” Owing partly to the availability of a series of published catalogues and guides, it attracts a steady flow of external researchers and features prominently in the bibliographies of numerous recent works on sub-Saharan African history. What many Africanists might not be aware of, however, is the existence of regional WF's archives, the holdings of which do not necessarily replicate—and in fact often complement—those of the central Roman deposit. It is to this latter, by and large neglected, category that the archive of the WF's headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia (WFA-Z), belongs. In the summer of 2001 Fr. Hugo Hinfelaar, longstanding missionary in Zambia, renowned scholar and part-time keeper of the WFA-Z, entrusted the authors with the task of updating the in-house catalog of the archive under his charge, in light of fresh acquisitions. This enriching experience provided the initial incentive for the preparation of this paper.

Until not long ago, the WF were the largest missionary society to operate in Zambia. They were also one of the earliest to settle in the country, their first station among the Mambwe, in the Tanganyika-Malawi corridor, having been inaugurated in 1891, before the effective inception of British rule. The Mambwe themselves had long been harassed by the politically and linguistically dominant ethnic group in northern Zambia, the Bemba, towards whom the WF directed their subsequent efforts. The establishment of Chilubula mission by the bishop of the newly constituted Nyasa Vicariate, Joseph Dupont, in 1898 marked the beginning of the WF's colonization of Lubemba.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 30 , 2003 , pp. 439 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2003

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Footnotes

1

Marja Hinfelaar is indebted to CMC/AMA in the Netherlands for supporting her research on the history of the Catholic church in Zambia. Giacomo Macola wishes to thank the Leverhulme Trust for awarding him a Study Abroad Studentship which enabled him to carry out fieldwork in Zambia in 2001-02.

References

2 Dickerman, Carol W., “On Using the White Fathers' Archives,” HA 8(1981), 319Google Scholar.

3 Lamey, R., Catalogue 1. Documents in the Annexe of the Archives of the Generalate of the White Fathers (Rome, 1970)Google Scholar; idem, “Les Archives de la Société des Pères Blancs (Missionnaires d'Afrique),” HA 1(1974), 161-65; idem, “Archives de la Société des Missionnaires d'Afrique (Pères Blancs)” in L. Pàsztor, ed., Guida delle Fonti per la Storia dell'Africa a Sud del Sahara negli Archivi della Santa Sede e negli Archivi Ecclesiastici d'Italia (Zug, 1983), 388-413; Dickerman, “White Fathersi Archives'” Schoenbrun, D.L., “Using the White Fathers' Archive: an Update,” HA 20(1993), 421–22Google Scholar.

4 Fr. Hinfelaar worked in Mulilansolo and Mulanga missions between 1958 and 1964. After being employed as the secretary of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo in the 1970s, he directed the Ilondola Language Study Centre. He obtained his doctorate from the University of London in 1989. His publications include: “Women's Revolt: the Lunipa Church of Lenshina Mulenga in the 1950s,” Journal of Religion in Africa 21(1991), 99–129CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bemba-Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change, 1892-1992 (Leiden, 1994)Google Scholar.

5 Snelson, P.D., Educational Development in Northern Rhodesia, 1883-1945 (Lusaka, 1974), 66Google Scholar. See also Garvey, B., Bembaland Church. Religious and Social Change in South Central Africa, 1891-1964 (Leiden, 1994)Google Scholar.

6 For further comments on this see Macola, G., “The Development of Historical and Ethnographical Writings in the Vernaculars of Colonial Zambia: Missionary Contribution to the ‘Creation of Tribalism’,” paper presented at the History of the Catholic Church in Zambia Workshop, University of Zambia, Lusaka, January 2002Google Scholar.

7 This reconstruction is based on Oger, L., “The Archives at the llondola Language Study Centre,” History in Zambia 13 (1983), 47–58Google Scholar, and idem, “Where a Scattered Flock Gathered:” Ilondola 1934-1984. A Catholic Mission in a Protestant Area (Free Church of Scotland), Chinsali District (Zambia) (Ndola, 1991). For Oger's linguistic work see his Bemba course Icibemba cakwa Chitimukulu (Ilondola, 1982)Google Scholar.

8 L. Guillerme, “Milumbe ya kwa Bwana Jesu,” manuscript, 1909-10, WFA-Z, 2D-Bi 07.

9 J. van Sambeek, “Imyendele ya Babemba,” typescript, 1922, WFA-Z, 1M-C 39 (this has been published in Oger, L., ed., Bemba Cultural Data. Bemba Texts. Volume I [Ilondola, 1982], 1–52)Google Scholar; E. Welfele, untitled, manuscript, n.d. (but not later than 1920s), WFA-Z, 1M-C 79.

10 Labrecque, E., “The Story of the Shila People, Aborigenes of the Luapula-Mweru Along with Their Fishing, Hunting, Customs, Foklores and Praisewords,” typescript, 1946, WFA-Z, 1M-H, 6, 7Google Scholar.