Origin and Growth of the White Fathers’ Press at Bukalasa, Uganda

Abstract

Missionaries of whatever persuasion seek to share their ideas with others and so enlarge, what we might effectively call, an ‘imagined community’ of believers, transcending origin and place. European missionaries arriving in Africa in the nineteenth century were endeavouring to bring people of other tribes, languages, and races into the international community of the Christian Church. Within their own society, Africans who adhered to Christianity formed a new community, which was not necessarily appreciated by the authorities.¹ Furthermore, Christian missionaries, announcing a revelation which has been written down, invariably engage in teaching others to read: that is to say, they also expand the community of the literate.