Journal of the History of Ideas

Abstract:

By the 1880s, the Universities' Mission to Central Africa had stations scattered all over East Africa. African adherents came to the mission's Zanzibar headquarters for school and returned to the mainland as clergy and teachers. Despite their wide dispersal, the members of the mission maintained strong connections; in this piece, I trace these connections through the idea of the Upelekwa, a Swahili term meaning 'mission field' and connoting a community both defined and inclusive. Using the concept, mission adherents knit together the scattered stations, all the while looking ahead to the future expansion of the community.