Reposted from: @the.kraal Churches sent missionaries to every villages to ensure that Africans were not only westernized but also mentally prepared to be colonized by negating their own indigenous beliefs. Missionaries were the only Europeans who lived permanently among Africans. As a result, they were able to scrutinize every aspect of African culture, while negating it in the process. By encouraging obedience, meekness, and passivity among Africans, these missionaries acted as the intellectual arm of the colonial government. To missionaries, indigenous institutions epitomized “witchcraft,” an evil that only conversion to Christianity would remove. African Christians were encouraged to abandon indigenous religious practices. These Africans believed that “only an educated man will survive and make progress in the future because the white man has created a new world. To survive in that world one needs education and civilization, not Zulu history. Missionaries also encouraged their converts to buy foreign goods, especially textiles and clothing, as they preached against the evils of nakedness. A cleavage soon developed within society between the small African educated elite, whose interests were closely tied to those of the colonial power, and the majority of Africans, who sought to free themselves of foreign domination. (also called “Kraal Africans” or “Kraal Kaafirs” in South Africa - more on that soon) Among the Xhosa of South Africa, the elite was called Amaqoboka (people having a hole) because they opened a hole in the Xhosa community, thus allowing the Europeans to convert them to Christianity. Among the Zulu, this class was called Kholwa (literally, “believers”). Although the elite viewed itself as the natural leader of the masses, the majority of the people did not respect them. The people believed that Africans who converted to Christianity were not “normal.” 🌍 . On the work of missionaries as explained by Prof Mueni Wa Muiu of Salem State University 🎙 #AFRICANISM #TheKraalQuotes #TheKraalPHOTO https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz7I7UzDgZA/?igshid=1pk0hw9zu81om