Abstract
The book surveyed Church–state relations in Kongolo from the turn of the century to decolonisation. It argued that the Church set out to found a theocracy in eastern Congo and, while it ultimately failed to do so, it carved out a formidable network of out-stations with more fidelity to Rome than Brussels. Missionaries exerted a good deal of influence over the colonial construction of chieftainship and often in direct contradiction to the wishes of the state. In the post-war period, Church-state relations improved yet this proved the Church’s undoing when decolonization came and European missionaries were identified more with the out-going colonial administration than the new Congolese one. The Church-state relationship broke down entirely by 1962, when nationalists killed twenty Holy Ghost Fathers and forced many White Fathers to flee.
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Loffman, R.A. (2019). Conclusion. In: Church, State and Colonialism in Southeastern Congo, 1890–1962. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17380-7_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17380-7_8
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