The greater cause

Hoe Zweedse missiedocumenten bijdragen aan een vollediger beeld van de ontwikkelingen in Frans Moyen Congo

Samenvatting

The postwar anti-colonial resistance that paved the way to the independence of many African colonies did not appear out of nowhere. Resistance groups could build upon the work of action groups that emerged in the early twentieth century out of discontent with the European colonial governments. André Matswa organized such an action group in French Moyen Congo during the interwar period, dubbed the Société Amicale. Postmortem, Matswa became a Messiah for the people of Moyen Congo, but he was already an important and influential figure in the 1920’s and 1930’s. In 1929 Matswa, who operated from Paris, sent two delegates from the Société to Moyen Congo to collect money to further the aims of his organization. Surprisingly, large sums of money were collected, but the French colonial authorities never cared to discover why. To understand how Matswa’s Société could convince the people of Moyen Congo, the documentation of Swedish missionaries has, perhaps unexpectedly, proven to be extraordinarily useful.