LA CONGRÉGATION DU SAINT-ESPRIT ET L’AFRIQUE
137
Within this vast apostolic territory, a gigantic
melting pot of peoples and civilizations, the Spiritan
missionaries and African peoples would co-exist for
more than one and a half centuries, as a long and
complex process of acculturation unfolded that
would forever mark all of those involved.
II. MISSIONARIES AND ETHNOLOGISTS?
When François Libermann, co-founder of the Congregation,
sent his fi rst emissaries to Africa, he
knew that the cultural divide that separated them
from those they would be among was immense. In
order to bring the Word to these people, it became
the missionaries’ duty to establish good relations
with them. Libermann was aware that his Spiritans
knew nothing of African culture, and he believed
that as they did their work they needed to avoid
condescension. They would have to get to know
the people and learn to respect their beliefs, because
that would be the only way to come to love them
and to act as good Christians.4
This quest for understanding of the other was also
justifi ed by other more concrete considerations. As
Monsignor Alexandre Le Roy would remind, “The
Catholic missionary’s fi rst duty is to accomplish his
objective: to teach the Gospel, to promote the Bible,
and to bring the truths that can provide salvation
to the maximum possible number of souls.”5 To do
this, he must establish a profound intimacy with the
people he wishes to convert and must gain their confi
dence and trust. Mastering their language is thus
a missionary’s fi rst duty to the people he is working
with, since it will be the only way he can have the
kind of meaningful contact with them that will allow
him to teach them. The large number of grammar
books, lexicons, and dictionaries published by
the Spiritans starting in the 1840s testify to the zeal
with which they approached this task. Knowledge
of local populations had to go even deeper, and the
missionary was expected to study social structures,
mores, customs, knowledge, systems, etc. A good
understanding of the cultural canvas before him
would serve the missionary well, helping him both
to be accepted and appreciated by those he was
among and to serve as a base that could assist him
in providing solid Christian religious instruction.
The Birth of a Religious Catholic Ethnology
Through the patient collecting of information
FIG. 8 (above): Reliquary
guardian head, byeri. Fang,
Gabon. 18th century.
Wood, glass. H: 48 cm.
Purchased by Father Trilles in 1902.
Neuchâtel, Musée d’Ethnographie,
inv. III.C.7400.
© Musée d’Ethnographie de
Neuchâtel.
FIG. 9 (left):
Monsignor Alexandre Le Roy,
1854–1938.
© CSSp.