ENTANGLEMENTS - MISSION AND COLONIALISM
Colonial systems used Catholic religious orders and Protestant missionary societies as stabilizing factors to educate and "pacify" the indigenous population. Although they were not directly beholden to the government of the Empire, they found themselves part of the system due to local conditions.
Missionaries were important links to the indigenous population for the local colonial government; they often lived locally for decades and had acquired profound knowledge of the language, culture and way of thinking.
Ethnologists like Felix von Luschan recognized the missionaries' potential in collecting objects and in ethnography. In addition, the missionaries' journalistic activity helped not only to provide the colonial administrations with useful information, but also to bring the population of Germany closer to life "in the colonies".
Missionaries documented disappearing cultures, languages and traditions and collected objects from disappearing cultures. Even if the colonial systems can be seen as the trigger for this decline in the original culture and the ethnological missionaries are assumed to be motivated by the rescue paradigm, material and immaterial cultural assets were nevertheless preserved in this way.
An example are the museum's objects from the cultures of the Joseon Empire (1392-1897) and the Korean Empire (1897-1910), which were preserved during the period of Japanese colonization of Korea through purchases by the missionary Benedictines; photos and films documented the use of the objects in everyday life
The education system conveyed the culture and lifestyle of the Europeans to the students. The mission schools in Africa developed into centers for the recruitment of local administrative personnel; the European work ethic taught there made a supportive contribution to the more effective economic exploitation of the colonies.
Missionaries sometimes worked explicitly towards this goal, as the essay by Alexander Merensky (Berlin Mission) shows: "How best to educate the Negro for plantation work?" (Journal of the German National Colonial Association, 1912).
The imperial government's efforts to stop the slave trade were supported by the missionary Benedictines and other religious communities by purchasing (child) slaves.
The imperial government's efforts to stop the slave trade were supported by the Missionary Benedictines and other religious communities by purchasing (child) slaves.
Last but not least, the German government repeatedly used attacks on missionaries as a reason for political action. The murder of two Catholic missionaries in Shandong in 1897 was a pretext for the occupation of a port on the northern Chinese coast, the later German protectorate of Kiautschou.
In 1889, the Pugu station of the Missionary Benedictines was destroyed in the Buschiri uprising, which convinced the Reichstag to intervene in the conflict on behalf of the German-East African Society (DOAG).
The Colonial System from the Perspective of the Missionaries
The mission was not automatically an accomplice of the imperialist system, but mostly benefited from the circumstances, for example in the Congo by expropriating the locals and allocating land that is still owned by the Dutch missions today.
In the first field of activity, German East Africa, the missionary Benedictines were integrated into the colonial system. As in other missionary societies, this fact was not questioned and was only met with rejection where the interests of the colonial government ran counter to the mission's goals.
However, the relationship between the colonial system and the mission was not free of tensions. Missionaries who sought to mitigate or avert harsh decisions or punishments against the local population were summarily "transferred" to outposts at the instigation of the colonial administration, as several examples of the Benedictine missions show.
The work of the missionaries could be limited by practical constraints. Christian values such as Sunday rest were often not enforceable if the indigenous people were called upon to work on that day by the white settlers. The discussion about a forced divorce (which was also enforced in some colonies) of the previously accepted mixed marriages between local women and Europeans had to be tolerated in some places despite the violation of the sacrament. The apartheid government in South Africa opposed the entry of locals into the Missionary Benedictine monasteries.
Long-term Effects
Postcolonial theories emphasize that even decades after the end of the colonial period, colonial structures continue to have an impact on economic and trade relations; they influence as well the self-perception as the perception of the others on both sides.
North-South church partnerships are also strained because of these long-term effects; the power imbalance that arose in the colonial context is still visible today. Tanzanian priest E. Kileo describes the churches as "colonial agents" and points out that missions to colonized countries have replaced traditional social values with European culture. Even after the states became independent, the values spread by the churches in the colonial context continue to live on and support their structures.
However, a change in direction has long been noticeable - no longer from Europe to the "outside", but from Asia and Africa to the whole world. In the international Congregation of the Missionary Benedictines with a presence in 20 countries, there has been no "white" superior in non-European monasteries for many years; the convents are made up almost exclusively of indigenous members. Missionary Benedictines from the Waegwan Monastery (South Korea), which belongs to the Congregation of St. Ottilien, live in the USA, monks from Ottilian convents in Africa support branches in Germany, etc.
Decolonization in the Museum
The mission museum - like other European museums and missionary collections with cultural assets from a colonial context - faces a justification problem:
Although provenance research did not identify any explicit contexts of injustice such as theft, (morally) forced surrender or selling below value, at least a power imbalance must be assumed when acquiring the East and South African objects.
Because the dialogue with the African communities of origin is only in its infancy, their knowledge of the objects has hardly been included so far.
For the Korean objects, the historical circumstances (cultural change due to Japanese colonization) raise the question of whether the rescue paradigm approach was justified.
The mission museum has already taken steps towards decolonization. These include, among other things, the provenance research completed in 2018, returns to the Korean society of origin, collaborations and membership in public committees.
Internal sensitization on the topics surrounding mission and colonialism has been a matter in our house for several years, as has the conveyance of this content in guided tours.
Even though our depots are not open to the public, we have hidden sensitive objects from view. In dialogue with our partners, we carry out selective redesigns of the museum presentation.
Eurocentric View?
The museum was created as a teaching collection to present all cultural and natural history aspects of the areas in which the Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien initially worked. The collection still serves as a space for the young monks of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien to get to know the history of the congregation in all its facets.
The concrete connection to a religious community that is still active in 20 countries results in different educational focuses than in an ethnological and natural history collection.
During the renovation (2011-2015), we therefore consciously decided to retain the region-specific presentation - even at the risk that this could be interpreted as an extension of historical violence into the present.
Perspectives
Decolonization should be understood as a process. We take time to question structures, gain expertise, develop approaches for dealing with objects from a colonial context and allow new topics to be included in the collections.
We also want to give the communities of origin in East and South Africa the time to approach us, formulate their demands and establish cooperation. In our collaborations, we strive for transcultural networking, which forms the basis of well-founded global cooperation.
This includes sharing sovereignty over the interpretation of the presentation with our cooperation partners. The Korean collection was designed in equal dialogue with our Korean partners.
Long-term collaborations are a valuable source of information for us, which we lack due to the incomplete sources for our properties.
We cannot free ourselves from the entanglements that arose from the activities of the Missionary Benedictines in regions with colonial structures. These are inscribed in the scientific discipline of ethnology, museum history and collections.
We can only approach history openly and self-reflectively and develop new approaches in dialogue with the communities of origin - in keeping with the "Sankofa principle": looking back in order to learn from it for the future.