This article sheds light on the scholarly ideal of mutuality in the work of the missiologist, Frans J. Verstraelen, and the historian, Gerdien Verstraelen-Gilhuis. The couple were active in Zambia in the 1970s and devoutly Christian. Stemming from the theology of mission, mutuality refers to mutual assistance between ‘localized’ churches relating to personnel, material resources and, importantly, ideas. The ideal was posited during mission conferences and the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) in an effort to alter the relationship between former colonial metropoles and churches in newly independent countries. By highlighting different types of sources from the Verstraelen Collection, an image emerges of how the ideal of mutuality manifested itself in scholarly practices of fieldwork and knowledge dissemination. This study was inspired by Larissa Schulte Nordholt’s recent doctoral research on the drafting process of UNESCO’s General History of Africa (1964–1998). In scholarly personae and ideals she identified a useful lens through which to explore how processes of knowledge production on the African continent changed along with political decolonization.