Views on race and gender in roman catholic girls’ education: a case study of Embakwe 'coloured' school experiment, 1922-1965

A ZJER case study (1922-1965) on race and gender at a Catholic Girls School during the colonial era in Zimbabwe.Colonial education created a racially segregated education system with each race accorded education that would fit it in the socially stratified society. The colonial settlers had a European type of education while the black majority received education that demoted them to menial and clerical jobs. The colonial system, however, had to find another educational category within the system for a new ethnic group, the mixed race or 'coloureds', who were the progeny of sexual liaisons between 'white masters’ and their African women servants. This paper demonstrates how this specially designed education system, which fell within a broader framework of a racially segregated education system, was crafted in such a way as to make the coloured people take specific roles in a racially segregated colonial society. At Embakwe, gender as a social category was constructed side-by-side with that of race, both categories being indispensable to the colonial order. The extent to which 'coloured' girls at Embakwe were agents in shaping female 'coloured' identity within the colonial context, as well as their agency in resisting the colonial and missionary design to 'emancipate' the 'coloured' children by separating them from their mothers permanently is discussed. The colonial mastery failed to undo the effects of racial separation as evidenced in Coloureds reconnecting with their African mothers

Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 7, no. 1

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: Focus: Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa) and Msgr. Tharcisse Tshibangu (DRC); Deji Isaac Ayegboyin (Nigeria); Women’s stories (Kenya and Zimbabwe) 1. Introduction: Activism, Theology, and Witness with an African Color. 2. Tribute Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) & South African Black Theology By Francis Anekwe Oborji. 3. Appendix: A Brief Biography of Desmond Tutu’s Life. 4. Tribute Msgr. Tharcisse Tshibangu (1933 – 2021): Promoter of Theology with an “African Color” By Francis Anekwe Oborji. 5. Interview with Deji Isaac Ayegboyin, DACB Pioneer and Facilitator in Nigeria. 6. Book Review The Power of the Word, *A History of the Seventh-day Adventism in Central Kenya*: Highlighting the Role of Mama Eunice Njoki Wangai By Mary Getui. 7. “Why Can’t We Ordain Nellie?”: Leadership, Faith, and Hagiography in the Life of Nellie Maduma Mlotshwa, Zimbabwe By Wendy Urban-Mead. 8. “A Character Worth Writing About”: Sikhawulaphi Khumalo’s Education and Christian Experiences at Empandeni Mission, Southwestern Zimbabwe, 1900–1940s By Barbara Mahamba. 9. Recent Print and Digital Resources Related to Christianity in Africa Compiled by Beth Restrick, Head, BU African Studies Library

‘Pushing the boundaries of interpretation’: The link between the nature and purpose of missionary records and the underutilisation of the Roman Catholic missionary archives on south-western Zimbabwe

This article explains the possible reasons behind, and offers possible solutions for, the underutilization of Roman Catholic missionary archives in constructing the history of South-western Zimbabwe. In this article, the underutilization of missionary archives is explained on the basis of the nature of the archives themselves, and the nature of the material found in these archives. The article links the purpose for which the material in missionary archives was gathered, the nature of the knowledge about Africans which was gathered and documented by missionaries to the underutilization of missionary archives. The article uses the author’s experience with Roman Catholic missionary archives in South-western as a window through which to project into the general problem of underutilization of missionary archives in Zimbabwe. It recommends the visibility and accessibility of missionary archives in order to enhance access to this rich archival resource