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Central European Missionaries in Sudan. Geopolitics and Alternative

Colonialism in Mid-Nineteenth Century Africa

Dr. Helge Wendt Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Boltzmannstr. 22

14195 Berlin

Germany

0049 (0)30 22667188

hwendt@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/staff/members/hwendt

In my talk I would like to present not a totally unknown part of mission history. The

Catholic mission enterprise in the southern Sudan region is treated by several more

or less scholarly studies dealing with the missionaries’ work among Dinka and other

people of the upper White Nile in the second half of the nineteenth century until the

very violent expulsion and massacre during the Mahdist Wars beginning with 1881.1

Furthermore, some studies gives insight into some astonishing intentions of Austrian

private men and societies, of a few officials in Africa and Vienna, to make the

southern parts of Sudan an Austrian colonial dominion, by defending trade interests

and considering the Danubian monarchy in competition with the British and French

colonial interests in this reason. I intent to merge both accounts – Austrian catholic

mission starting from 1846 that was intrinsically linked with some imperial phantasies.

My intention by reiterating this issue is to reveal the several imperial layers this story

encompasses – these layers are the Austrian imperial history in Central Europe of

mid-nineteenth century, European imperialism in Africa and missionary colonialism.

First, I would like to introduce you very shortly to the mission enterprise around 1850

to its End of the Mahdist Wars, which was the most violent rebellion against British

1 Cf. Toniolo and Hill (1974). Bayard Taylor (1864). A Journey to Central Africa. New York: G.P. Putnam; Paul Santi (1980). The Europeans in the Sudan, 1834–1878. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Benkt Sundkler and Christopher Steed (2000). A History oft he Church in Afrika. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 109. Dorothea McEwan (1987). A Catholic Sudan. Dream, Mission, Reality. Rome: Stabilimento Tip. Julia.

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imperial domination until than. The classical account of the mission enterprise is, that

in 1846 a mission enterprise, approved by Pope Gregory XVI departed from Trieste.

The Polish Jesuit and rector of the Collegio Urbano – this is the Vatican’s central

school for educating future missionaries or priests of non-European origin –

Maksymilian Stanisław Ryłło, supposed to become the first apostle Vicar of Central

Africa, headed the group. Some other missionaries were the Italo-Austrian Angelo

Vinco and the Slovenian-Austrian (Dr.) Ignacij Knoblehar. Many studies insist upon

the spiritual character of this mission enterprise – an aspect I do not want to deepen.2

Maksymillian Ryłło died at Khartoum. He was succeded by Ignacij Knoblehar, who

died in 1853. Two other important missionaries who lead the enterprise were

German-Austrian Mitterutzner and the Italian Daniele Comboni from Verona (so he

was for some time also an Austrian subject).

I use the term Austrian, whilst being misleading, because it encompasses all these

countries that stood under the reign of the Emperor in Vienna. Nevertheless, this

history, you might have noticed already, is of multi-national character, as Polish,

Italians, Slovenians, and Germans appear on the side of the missionaries, and Dinka,

Nuer and Bari (for mentioning only a few) are actors of the African side.

Rather and in order to reveal the imperial character of this enterprise by not repeating

the classical account, I will consider the broader framework of the early history of that

mission enterprise to southern Sudan:

A first imperial layer of this history is that in this mission enterprise, backed by the

Propaganda Fide at Rome, several missionaries of Slovenian and Polish origin were

involved. We know from the Jesuit mission history that a good number of

missionaries from the so-called German provinces were of Polish and Czech origin.3

The history of the Austro-Slavic-Italian mission4 in southern Sudan is part of the

internal imperial histories of the Austro Empire, as the mission did not exclusively

depend only on the organization of the Propaganda Fide but furthermore on funding 2 Den D. Akol Ruay (1994). The Politics of Two Sudans. The South and the North, 1821-1969. Upsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, p. 25. “The ideals of the missionaries, however, were […] they ‘sought for souls to bring them God and lead them to God, to offer them comfort, health, learning, self-respect and peace’ (Baroni: 8)”

Bishop Baroni (1972). Speech on the Commemoration of the Centenary of the Comboni Sisters. In: The Messenger 1, 26. 3 Bernd Hausberger (1995). Jesuiten aus Mitteleuropa im kolonialen Mexiko: eine Bio-Bibliographie. Wien: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik. 4 I consider this term more appropriate than „Austro-Italian mission“ I used in my book Die missionarische Gesellschaft. Mikrostrukturen einer kolonialen Globalisierung (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2011).

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from Austrian public and private institutions. Zmago Šmitek, Aleksandra-Sanja

Lazarević and Djurdjica Petrović in 1993 did a more systematic research on

explorers considered to be of Slavic-Austrian origin. Among these they listed Ignaz

Knoblecher, who with his Slovenian name is called Ignacij Knoblehar.5 From my

perspective of a historian of non-European colonialism and a non-expert of Central

and Eastern European histories, the “Germanization” of names and claiming that

persons were Austrians6 is obviously an act of imperial conduct that should be

reconsidered.7 Of course, from a perspective of a Habsburg imperial history, the “sub

pluribus unum” might soften the colonial habitus behind such labelling, as it takes the

edge off the historical asymmetries inside the Danubian monarchy. Viewed from this

angle, the fact that one actor was of a national minority should be of less

importance.8 In contrast to these two common judgments about Austrian history, I

would like to stress, nevertheless, the national identity of people like Knoblehar and

other fellow missionaries.9 Although I do not share political national ideas at all, I

assume that these historical actors directly or indirectly carried to the African field of

missions their experience of submission to an imperial identity.10 I will come back to

this point and the hierarchical order of nations in the Danubian Empire later, when it

comes to analyse the writings of Knoblehar about African tribes and individuals in the

mission framework. We find here a strange mix of political nationalism, ultramontane 5 Šmitek, Zmago, Lazarević, Aleksandra-Sanja, Petrović, Djurdjica. Notes sur les voyageurs et explorateurs Slovènes, croates et serbes en Afrique avant 1918 et sur leurs collections (Présentation de René Pélissier). In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 80, 300 (1993), pp. 389-408. Cf. Marko Frelih. Afrika, ki odhaja in se vrača: dr. Ignacij Knoblehar – katoliški misijonar v južnem Sudanu in raziskovalec reke Nil. In: Azijske in afriške študije 9, 3 (2005), pp. 41–64. 6 Cf. Michael Zach (1985). Österreicher im Sudan 1820 bis 1914 (Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 24), Wien: Afro. Pub, pp. 54: „der Österreicher Ignaz Knoblecher“. Same formulation in: Michael Zach. Die Entwicklung Khartums bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts im Spiegel der österreichischen Reiseliteratur. In: Wiener Ethnohistorische Blätter 29 (1986), pp. 39–66.

Sundkler and Steed (2000, pp. 108–109) clearly name Ryllo a Polish and Knoblecher a Slovene. Nevertheless, both names are written in the Germanized form. 7 This holds true also for Jesuit missionaries in the eighteens and nineteenth centuries coming from different countries and communities of the Habsburg-monarchy (see Hausberger, Bio-Bibliographie) 8 Bojan Baskar (2008) Small National Ethnologies and Supranational Empires: The Case of the Habsburg Monarchy In: Máiréad Nic Craith, Ullrich Kockel, Reinhard Johler (Eds.). Everyday Culture in Europe Approaches and Methodologies. London, New York: Routledge, pp. 65–81. 9 This argument follows Solomon Wank (1983). The Growth of Nationalism in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848–1918. In: East Central Europe/L’europe du centre-est 10, 1–2, pp. 165–179. 10 Solomon Wank (Some Reflections on the Habsburg Empire and Its Legacy in the Nationalities Question. In: Austrian History Yearbook 28 (1997): 131–146.) has pointed out the changes in historiographic judgment, from dismissing the Austrian Empire as a „Völkerkerker“ to a more positive image in the 1990’s. He states: “The point here is that positive economic and social achievements are not always synonymous with political success. Indeed, one of the chief conclusions drawn from my ruminations is that the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy was, more than anything else, the result of the political failure of its imperial structure (Wank 1997: 133).”

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Catholicism as a way to evade Austrian boundaries and, third, inner-Austrian

Catholic solidarity when it comes to fund the mission project.11

A second aspect of the imperial history is international politics, which in the middle of

the 19th century always had imperial implications. For example, the Propaganda Fide

and the Jesuits supported the Austro-Slavic-Italian mission initiative against the

French Lazarists, who kept already a mission house in Khartoum. 1848, the year of

the emanation of the Polish-Belarusian Jesuit Maksymilian Stanisław Ryłło (who had

worked in Syria, among other) and some other Austrian subjects, some important

revolts shook the Habsburg Empire and the surrounding territories. There were the

different revolutionary movements that, besides in France and the German countries,

were very strong in all territories of the Habsburg countries. Several cities of the

monarchy were shattered by revolts. In the Italian territories under Austrian dominion,

the Five Days of Milan challenged Franz Joseph of Austria, a revolt the General

Radetzky eventually put an end to. In the same year, the Italian national revolutionary

republican movement (Risorgimento) furthermore shattered the pontifical power in

Rome.12

Egypt also envisaged political instability. In 1848, the power passed from Ibrahim to

Abbas I. Egypt had obtained a certain independence from the Ottoman Empire, since

Mehmet Ali Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha governed the Nile-Provinces and conquered

the Sudan in the early 1820s. For the Catholic missionaries Egypt was important as

they needed the Pasha’s permission to establish a mission station and they had to

pass through Egypt for their voyage to Sudan. When the political situation in the

Egypt-Sudan region became instable, the new Pasha refused the missionaries’

entrance into his territory. Furthermore, the French Catholic Lazarists intended to

boycott the Austro-Italian enterprise.

In terms of colonial competition, the Austrian Emperor insisted upon his status of

being the protector of Catholics in Egypt and Sudan against French interventions.13

This inter-imperial struggle that, in comparison to the French-British competition in

11 This point is still difficult to formulate and to frame with historiography, as often „Catholicism“ is understood to be a unique and homogenous entity. Christoph Weber (Papsttum und Adel im 19. lahrhundert. In: Les noblesses européennes au XIXe siècle. Actes du colloque de Rome, 21-23 novembre 1985. Rome : École Française de Rome, 1988. pp. 607-657. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 107)) has shown on a European scale how Catholicism in the fields of political and social organization was heterogeneous. This should be taken into account for studying Catholicism in the Austrian monarchy. 12 Cf. Robert Justin Goldstein (1983). Political Repression in 19th Century Europe. London: Croom Helm. 13 Bairu Tafla (1994). Ethiopia and Austria. A History of Their Relations. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

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this region of later decades, was of rather secondary importance, is nevertheless

related to some forces in the Austrian politics intending to persuade the Austrian

Emperor Franz Joseph to undertake a colonial enterprise in the southern Sudan

region (Médard 1997).14 Because officially this Austrian colonial movement was

much less offensive compared to the British or French, the diplomatic relations

between Vienna, the Sublime Porte and Cairo/Alexandria were rather benign to an

Austrian mission enterprise.15 Ryłło even obtained an audience with Ibrāhīm Pasha,

showing the good relationships between the two monarchies.

The mission project experienced a serious setback, when Ryłło passed away during

the voyage. As his successor, Knoblehar was appointed the new leader of the

mission party. His efforts could benefit from the establishment of an Austrian Vice-

Consulate at Khartoum and from some high ranked nobleman engaging into an

association called the Marienverein (Society of St. Mary) that politically intervened at

the mission’s favour and financially funded the project.16

Hans Fenske17, who like Marius Gritsch and a few more Austrian historians did some

good, even though often unpublished works on Austrian imperial-colonial politics in

eastern Africa, depicts a climate of geopolitical and geo-commercial initiatives

pleading for a serious colonial engagement of Austria at the eastern coast of Africa,

in Ethiopia, Abyssinia and Sudan.18 Gritsch (1975 unpublished)19 underlines how

commercial interests and political intentions merged together, when the installation of

14 This perspective is contested by Dorothea McEwan (1987). A Catholic Sudan. Dream, Mission, Reality. Rome: Stabilimento Tip. Julia.

There were several initiatives to urge the monarchy to engage into a colonial enterprise in East Africa, notably in Abbessinia, Ethiopia and Dafur; cf. Michael H. Zach (2002). Ignaz Pallme. Ein unbekannter Kolonialentwurf für Nordostafika aus dem Jahr 1851. In: k. u. k. kolonial. Habsburgmonarchie und europäische Herrschaft in Afrika. Wien: Böhlau, pp. 79-110.

Walter Sauer (2002) Schwarz-Gelb in Afrika. In: k. u. k. kolonial, pp. 17–78; here p. 37) shows that the entanglement of Catholic patronism and increasing commercial interests played a role in Metternich’s planst o make the Levante an Austrian protectorate ( 15 Günther Ramhardter (1989). Propaganda und Außenpolitik. In: Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918. Vol. 6,1: Die Habsburgermonarchie im System der internationalen Beziehungen. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 496–536, esp. 511–512. 16 Cf. Bairu Tafla (1994), p. 267. 17 Hans Fenske (1977). Imperialistische Ansätze in Österreich im 19. Jahrhundert, In: historia integra. Festschrift für Erich Hassinger zum 70. Geburtstag. Ed. by Hans Fenske et al. Berlin, pp. 245–263. 18 Cf. for a more global perspective: Hans-Otto Kleinmann. Die österreichisch-ungarische handelspoltische Expedition nach Südamerika im Jahre 1870, In: Jahrbuch für Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas 9 (1972), pp. 319–378. 19 Cf. Tafla (1994, p. 410.

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a Consul in Khartoum was agreed in 1846.20 In this very same context, Médard21

points to the connections between the Austrian-Sudanese trade relations and the

Austro-Catholic missionaries who in a first period engaged in commerce in order to

gain the support of Europeans living in that region and of Bari chiefs and headmen.

Ships navigated on the Nile under the flag of the Danubian monarchy because the

Sultan had granted them free circulation. Most of commercial enterprises of different

European countrymen changed colours in order to achieve Austrian protection in this

period, and to reach towns and posts of trade farther south. This situation was helpful

to the missionaries from the Austrian monarchy. As a part of the imperial competition

with other imperial forces, when the intermingling of very different branches – as

commerce, territorial access and mission – was rather frequent in order to expand

positions, also the acting of the missionaries shows the straight entanglement of the

political, the commercial and the spiritual processes.

Only, in the second half of the 1850s the mission politics radically changed and the

priests detached themselves from the trade with ivory and other goods. In this time,

they obtained the support of the chief Basilio Ladu Lutweri, one of the first baptized in

the mission of Gondokoro (Médard 1997, p. 46).

The imperial character, I emphasize in this talk, is depicted furthermore by a report

redacted for the Austrian Geological Society, written in 1857 by Freiherr von Reden.

We find in this report several aspects of imperialism. The well-known German-

Prussian Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden reported that thanks to the missionaries the

Austrian flag could be placed only 3 degrees north of the Equator. Another

imperialistic part of his account is the metallic ship, equipped with two canons,

bought by Knoblehar in order to gain the White Nile from Cairo. This is colonial

attitude at its best – at least in the eyes of von Reden – to use modern devices of a

coal driven steamboat to master the voyage. Otherwise, this voyage of some 4.000

km had to rely either on local sailing boat shipping or on caravanning. Von Reden,

who was a Protestant from Hannover, praised the Catholic mission enterprise for

starting with Christianization a civilizing process among the Sudanese population:

20 Elias Toniolo and Richard Hill (The Opening of the Nile Basin. Wrtings by Members of the Catholic Mission to Central Africa on the Geography and Ethnography of the Sudan 1842–1881. London: C. Hurst, p. 5) write the vice-consulate was established only in 1851. 21 Henri Médard. Les protecteurs d'une mission au XIXe siècle. Pères autrichiens et pouvoirs politiques au Soudan égyptien. In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 84, 317 (1997), pp. 31-56.

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“The Austrian flag has gained influence there; under this umbrella

Christendom and civilization will slowly but certainly develop, if the mother

country supports powerfully her sons in the distant Orient.”

Furthermore, von Reden in his report to the Geographical Society of Vienna,

underlined the importance of this mission for the Society he wrote for: He suggested

to offer the Marienverein, who mainly funded the mission, to carry out some scientific

works that would support the efforts of the missionaries. Also as part of the scientific

mission, he suggested to found a Nubian Museum as a part of the ethnographical

collections of the Imperial Geographical Society. 22

The researcher of the Slovenian Museum of Ethnography, Marko Frelih points out

that Knoblehar, who at this time became an honorary member of the Austrian

Geographical Society23 himself collected ethnographica and sent them to Europe.

Today some 200 objects of this collection are preserved in Bratislava and some 60

more in Vienna. To collect and to furnish European collections with exotic material

was a typical imperial conduct.24

22 Freiher von Reden, Ueberblick der bisherigen Thätigkeit und Erfolge österreichischer geistlicher und weltlicher sendboten in Central-Afrika. In. Mittheilungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Geographischen Gesellschaft, 1. Jahrgang (1857), pp. 151–160. (translation by HW)

“Den vereinten Bemühungen dieser beiden Organe, — welche vom Mutter-lande aus durch die kaiserliche Regierung , den (besonders dafür gebildeten) Marien-Verein und viele Privatpersonen kräftige Unterstützung erhielten, — ist es gelungen, trotz unbeschreiblicher Hindernisse und Mühen mit der österreichischen Flagge binnen 5 Jahren bis 3° nördlich vom Aequator vorzurücken. //157//Am 12. September 1851 Abfahrt von Alexandrien nach Cairo; am 18. October von Cairo Nilaufwärts auf der „Stella Matutina", einem, für die Mission gekauften eiser- nen, mit zwei Kanonen bewalTiieten, mit 16 Berberiner-Matrosen und dem sonst erforderliehen Personal bemannten Schilfe. Dieses kampfbereite aber die Bot- schafter des Friedens führende Fahrzeug hat, nebst seinen kleineren Begleitern, Oesterreich bis zum Aequator bekannt und (was noch weit wichtiger ist) im östlichen Inner-Afrika den österreichischen Namen zugleich beliebt und gefürchtet gemacht. Die Flagge Oesterreichs hat dort einen Einfluss erlangt, unter dessen Schutz das Christenthum und die Civilisation langsam, aber sicher sich entwickeln werden, wenn — das Mutterland seine Söhne im fernen Morgenlande kräftig unterstützt. //160 // Zum Schluss noch einige Worte an die geehrten Mitglieder der k.k. geo- graphischen Gesellschaft. Auch wir können an den diessfallsigen Arbeiten Theil haben und zum Gelingen beitragend eine höchst nützliche Thätigkeit entwickeln. Unser Antheil muss — neben der fortgesetzten Anregung zur Theilnahme und Unterstützung der Mission — die wissenschaftliche Bearbeitung der Ausbeute der Missionsforschungen sein; als Vorbereitung zugleich für das Fortscheiten des Verkehrs zwischen Oesterreich und dem nordöstlichen Inner-Afrika. Desshalb stelle ich (mit bereits erfolgter Genehmigung des Ausschusses) die folgenden antrüge; 1. „Dem Marien-Vereine eine Uebereinkunft anzubieten, wonach die k.k. geo- graphische Gesellschaft die wissenschaftliche Bearbeitung der Ergebnisse der österreichischen Mission in Inner-Afrika übernimmt und die dazu erforderlichen Instructionen und Fragen aufstellt. 2. Ein nubisches Museum, als abgesonderten Theil der Sammlungen der k. k. geographischen Gesellschaft zu begründen."

Cf. Frelih 2005, pp. 41–64. 23 See the notice of Knoblehar’s dead in Mittheilung 1858. 24 These collections are not mentioned in Barbara Plankensteiner (2002). Endstation Museum. Österreichische Afrikareisende sammeln Ethnographica. In: k .u. k. kolonial, pp. 257–288.

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The entanglement of this mission enterprise and collecting of scientific knowledge

was more intensive. In the first voyage of Knoblehar, two famous scientists were part

of the travel-party from Cairo to Khartoum: Johann Wilhelm Baron von Müller (1824–

1866) and Alfred Brehm (you might know from his later publications entitled Brehm’s

Tierleben). Both did ornithological and zoological studies along the Nile.25 Brehm met

the missionaries and mission workers in Cairo and especially Ryllo and Knoblehar

made a very good impression on him, despite the fact that Ryllo was a Jesuit:

“The mission’s soul was Ignaz Knoblecher from Laibach. Later I had the

opportunity to admire this individual. He was as loveable as he was erudite;

[…]. He knew very good some rare languages and was well-versed in some

other sciences […] he kept as well a very excellent scientific and very

accurate diary.”26

In 1850, the Baron von Müller became Austria’s General-Consul at Khartoum, an

appointment that conflicted with the mission opposing slave trade. Müller, who

published his African experience with the Journal of the Royale Geographical Society

of London (1850), as well with the Austrian Academy of Science, endorsed the slave

trade from the southern Sudan territories to the Egyptian north. He was replaced

from his offical post only one year later, after he had suggested to the Austrian

government to found a penal colony in southern Sudan.27 Müller returned to

Austria.28 Another ornithologist and friend of Müller, Theodor von Heuglin became

1852 his succesor as Austrian consul at Khartoum.29

25 Cf. Tafla 1994. 26 Alfred Edmund Brehm (1981). Reisen im Sudan (1847–1852). München, Zürich: Droemer Knaur, p. 56. (translation by HW) „Die Seele der Mission aber war der in Deutschland rühmlichst bekannte Pater Ignaz Knoblecher aus Laibach. Ich habe später Gelegenheit gefunden, diesen Mann bewundern zu lernen. Er war ebenso liebenswürdig als gelehrt; er war unermüdet in seinen Arbeiten, heiter im Umgange mit seinen Reisegefährten, bescheiden und streng sittlich. Im besitze von seltenen und tiefen Sprachkenntnissen, war er gleichwohl auch in anderen Wissenschaften bewandert und hatte neben dem ihm von seinen Oberen gesteckten Ziele nur die wissenschaftliche Ausbeutung seiner großen Reisen, ohne Rücksicht auf jeden Gewinn, im Auge. Während seine Reisegefährten ihre Zeit mit nutzlosem oder herzlosem Gebetlesen verschwendeten, besorgte er nicht nur alle nötigen Tagesarbeiten, sondern führte noch nebenbei ein wirklich ausgezeichnetes wissenschaftliches und sehr mühsames Tagebuch.“ 27 Sauer, Schwarz-Gelb in Afrika, 2002, p. 37–38. 28 Tarcisio Agostoni MCCJ (1996). Outline of the History of the Institute of the COmboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. Rome: Comboni Missionaries, p. 20. (http://data.over-blog-kiwi.com/0/26/01/77/201212/ob_f61c3f_agostoni-history-of-the-institute.pdf) 29 Gerald Colloseus (2008). Ein österreichisches Schicksal? Analyse von Kolonialprojekten am Beispiel der Mission Tegetthoffs und Heuglins ins Rote Meer 1857/58. Master Thesis. University of Vienna (Austria). http://othes.univie.ac.at/1458/1/2008-09-24_9306013.pdf#

On the person of v. Heuglin, cf.: Robert Joos Willink (2011), The Fateful Journey: The Expedition of Alexine Tinne and Theodor Von Heuglin in Sudan (1863–1864). Amsterdam. Amsterdam University Press.

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Another imperial character of this mission enterprise appears in nearly every account

about Knoblehar. Knoblehar is said to have ascended a mountain called Logvek30

(next to the White Nile and some 25 km south of the main mission station at

Gondokoro, south of the only 1922 founded town of Juba), from which he could

consider the whole landscape. In the words of Deng Akol Ruay Knoblehar’s

impressions were:

“They reached Gondokoro on January 9th, 1850. Knoblecher made a brief

visit to Rejaf where he climbed a small mountain to obtain a better view of the

surrounding country. From the summit he saw the undulating plain occupied

by isolated homes and villages. Knoblecher was greatly impressed by so

much natural beauty and by the good-nature Negroes’ and consequently he

decided to build a church there.”31

This imperial panorama, reminding the scene Mary-Louise Pratt in her book Imperial

Eyes has called “the monarch-of-all-I-survey scene”,32 when British adventurers as

Richard Burton or David Livingstone climbed mountains in order to gain an all-

encompassing overview, is a core-motive of any account of this imperial explorative

genre and a key-scene of taking into possession of territories that now laid down to

the explorer’s feet.

“Analysing Victorian discovery rhetoric, I have found it useful to identify three

conventional means which create qualitative and quantitative value for the

explorer’s achievement. […] First, and most obvious the landscape is

estheticized. […] Second, density of meaning in the passage is sought. The

landscape is represented as extremely rich in material and semantic

substance. […] The third strategy at work [is] the relation of mastery

predicated between the seer and the seen.”

Although the missionary enterprise was not of territorial domination (besides the

ownership of a plot of land where to build a mission station on), it nevertheless was

inclined considering the accessible terrains a sphere of influence, to be ordered in a

the missionary aims serving way. Regarding from this mountain, Knoblehar observed

– by no means innocently – a lovely landscape, with nice villages and houses. This

impression might be translated from this colonial-mission language as a peaceable

30 Frelih 2005, p. 46; Akol Ruay 1994, p. 26. 31 Akol Ruay 1994, p. 26. 32 Marie-Louise Pratt (1992). Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation, pp. 205.

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situation but with still rather dispersed settlings troubling the formation of a more

concentrated mission settlement.

Mission enterprises meant to merge into native societies, to detect its weak points

and groups of people and to attract them by some sorts of privileges. One of these

privileges was to permit sons visiting the newly established schools, giving young

men and women some paid occupation in a country where money in this increasingly

colonizing situation became a matter of high rank status. Another privilege was to

resemble all people interested in the new Christian faith in one settlement and to end

the situation of dispersion. Knoblehar on the top of the Logvek-mountain, thus,

rendered understandable in the eyes of his readership the imperial mission’s task

that was part of the enterprise he was leading.

Finally, there is of course the imperial character of the mission work itself, the

treatment of the Africans, I would like to illustrate with some examples of how

Knoblehar, who is said the natives named him Abuna Suleiman33 in Arab, depicted

the children who were staying with him. In a report written in 1855 to the Cardinal

Giacomo Filippo Franzoni, who was the head of the Propaganda Fide in Rome,

Knoblehar gives not only insights in daily live and tasks. He also reveals his vision of

how the mission enterprise should evolve:

“These poor boys and girls of between five to fifteen years of age are now

instructed in the principia of the Holy Faith. Furthermore, they are occupied in

how maintaining a house, how to garden and to take care of the small

livestock of the station with some other works according to their young age.

They stay in their present residence until the right moment will be found to

reconduct them in their native land, where they won’t fail to bring the precious

seed of faith to their families, who will not hesitate to receive them.”34

The imperial character is firstly a very paternalistic one. It were the European

missionaries teaching young Africans from different regions some Catholic doctrines

33 Cf. Toniolo and Hill (1974, p.13) citing Bayard Taylor (Life and Landscapes 1854). Actually, Taylor writes: Aboona Suleyman (p. 380). 34 Ignaz Knoblecher, an Giacomo Filippo Franzoni, Kharthoum, 15.10.1855. Archivio della Propaganda Fide (Vatican State, Rome) (abbreviation APF) SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 984v. (translated by HW)

Questi poveretti ragazzi e ragazze nell’età da cinque fin a quindici anni si istruiscono ora nei principj della S. fede, e si occupano inoltre in quanto à possibile col maneggio di casa, al pascolare ed attendere al piccolo gregge della stazione con altri lavori adatti alla loro tenera età. Essi rimaranno nel loro attuale asilo fin tanto che si troverà il momento propizio per ricondurli nel loro paese nativo, ove non manclieranno di portare la preziose semenza della fede ai loro parenti i quali non tarderanno a riceverla anch’essi.

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and some working ethics. More than the working alone, the missionaries considered

this teaching of being healthy to the children’s moral conduct. And, besides the seed

of faith, these could bring to their families, another grain was planted, which maybe

could be related to the personalities of Slavic-Austrian missionaries: that is the

embryonic national identity that Knoblehar and his colleagues intended to develop

within the group of pupils they lived with in Gondoroko.

We find this subtle and subversive strategy that took a long time to germ and bear

some fruits in different fields of mission activities around the world. But seldom, the

missionaries themselves were of a national minority struggling for more autonomy in

their home-countries. Thus, the missionaries aimed to foster the pupils’ qualification

and their development of talent in order to become independent members of an

autonomous Catholic church organization in Africa. Nevertheless, Knoblehar knew

that this would be a long way to go. First, he had to convince his superiors at the

Propaganda Fide that the spreading of the Catholic faith required cultural brokers,

translators and assistants. These assistants had the task to communicate the

Christian faith to the Africans, to translate the gospel, songs and liturgical texts into

the vernacular languages. With a loyal conduct they were promised a privileged

position within the so called society of mission and a greater independence from the

white hierarchies of Church organization. Knoblehar wrote in his “Relazione della

missione dell’Africa Centrale” that he expected that the cultural boundaries between

the different ethnic and lingual groups of southern Sudan and with the whites would

advance the formation of national societies.35

In order to pursue this goal, it was important that the candidates for bearing this

responsibility were recruited at a quite early age. This missionary politics

encompassed therefore also a very controversial part that was the buying of young

African slaves from Arabic slaveholders, who than were sent to Italy and Austria in

order to live for some years in monasteries. Once they had learned Catholic doctrine

and ways of living, this was the plan that Daniele Comboni described after

Knoblehar’s dead, they should return to Africa and disseminate Catholicism among

their ethnic fellows. On this behalf, the missionaries received money collected in

35 Daniele Comboni MCCI, Piano per la Rigenerazione dell’Africa coll’Africa, Roma, 18.9.1864. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 7, S. 680–680v.

Daniele Comboni MCCI, Programa della Pia Opera del Buon Pastore per la rigenerazione dell’Africa, 11.6.1867 [Druck]. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 7, S. 1119.

Ignaz Knoblecher, Relazione della missione dell’Africa Centrale, Wien, November 1850. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 392v.

12

Europe (mostly in Vienna by the Marienverein and another Catholic association in

Cologne).36

The young man or boy the missionary had elected to become a responsible person in

an “African” church organization had to pass a long curriculum, in particular if he was

expected to occupy one of the higher ranks possible to an African as catechist or

even a priest. 37 The status of an elected person committed the young man to live

within a heavily regulated structure. The missionary’s ordered and controlled the

apprentice’s behaviour, clothes and living. More than any other member of the

society of mission, he had to suspend personal contacts to his former non-Christian

environment or had to reduce these relations to exclusively professional reasons. 38

The assistant-apprentice had numerous duties and tasks: he reduced the deficits the

missionaries had regarding linguistic capacities and local customs. The young men

could help in establishing social relations and took care of the missionary’s

household. In the house-community the missionary had the possibility of controlling

the assistant and to teach him at any hour what he was expected to learn. Over

years, a mutual fruitful relation could arise that experienced serious backsets, in case

a missionary died or was moved to another mission station. In these situations the

boy’s attachment to the mission was put to a risk and either his career as a catechist

or even his living as a Christian came to an abrupt end.39

The aim was to establish a native clergy in Africa who shared equally the morality

and severity and worked with the same zeal as the European priests were supposed

to labor. One strategy to teach young Africans this conduct was to send them to

Europe. Missionaries, priests and laymen in Europe believed that only in Europe,

where the spirit of a centuries-old Christianity reigned, the young converts were free

from all perils of a heathen environment. Only in Europe, they thought, these could

learn and experience a Christian living and its doctrines. 40

36 Cf. Sauer 2002, p. 42. 37 Ignaz Knoblecher, Relazione della missione dell’Africa Centrale, Wien, November 1850. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 392v–393v. 38 Ignaz Knoblecher, Relazione della missione dell’Africa Centrale, Wien, November 1850. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 392v–393v. 39 Ignaz Knoblecher, an Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Karthoum, 23.11.1852. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 538v–539.

51: Ignaz Knoblecher, an Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Karthoum, 23.11.1852. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 538v–539. 40 Ignaz Knoblecher, an Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Karthoum, 15.10.1855. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 980.

13

In the mission field these candidates had a twofold position. On the one hand, they

were pupils and subordinated to the missionary. On the other hand, they often were

in charge of a certain task, taught younger pupils or organized communal works. 41

Missionaries, as Ignacij Knoblehar included accounts about these assistant-

apprentices in their official reports that were sent to Europe. Knoblehar often wrote to

the associations that supported the Sudan mission financially. He included these

accounts in order to show the advancement he and his colleagues had made in the

mission field. He could assure the benefactors that the investments had brought first

fruits and further funding was founded on good hopes of a successful future of the

enterprise. 42

With this last imperial layer I will conclude my paper. The relationship between

mission station, individuals in the mission field – be it missionaries or converts – and

benefactors in Europe is a still under-studied field of imperial history. The Catholic

mission in southern Sudan among the Bari and Dinka, shouldered by Austrian

subjects of Slovenian, Polish or Italian nationality, was – despite its peacefulness –

an imperial enterprise. It is this an example of how to bring closer to each other

imperial histories in- and outside Europe. By defining imperial layers of the history of

the Austrian-Slavic-Italian mission in southern Sudan we can bridge the gap that we

find in most new global history – that is between the European expanding powers on

the one side and the conquered non-European territories on the other side. In

common historiographic accounts, colonial and imperial history mostly plays in non-

European parts of the world, and does reflect Europe only when it comes to identify

“imperial culture” in the imperial states in Europe. What we should have in mind is

that most of the European states, which were more or less active in the colonial-

imperial expansion in Africa and Asia, were also internally and externally expanding

states in Europe, controlling colonized subjects. I argue for considering these

imperial layers very closely related to the non-European colonial history.

41 Ignaz Knoblecher, an Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Karthoum, 23.11.1852. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 538v–539. 42 Ignaz Knoblecher, Relazione della missione dell’Africa Centrale, Wien, November 1850. APF SC Africa Centrale Etiopia Arabia 5, S. 392v–393v.