White Fathers: Difference between revisions

The [[cholera]] epidemic of 1867 left a large number of [[Algeria]]n orphans, and the education and Christian instruction of these children was the occasion of the founding of the society in Maison-Carrée (now [[El-Harrach]]) near [[Algiers]]; but from its inception the founder had in mind the conversion of the Arabs and the peoples of Central Africa. Lavigerie instructed his missionaries to speak the language of the people, eat the same food, and wear the same clothing. They therefore adopted the North African dress for their [[vestments]]: the [[gandoura]], for the Arab[[cassock]], cloakthe and[[burnous]] for the [[Taqiyahmantle (capvesture)|chechia mantle]], withand aseven athe religious sign[[Taqiyah a rosary worn(cap)|chechia]] aroundfor the neck like necklace[[Zucchetto]].<ref name="blanc">{{Cite web|title=The White Fathers- The Missionnaries of Africa Our origin|url=http://peresblancs.org/histoi1a.htm|access-date=2021-12-12|website=peresblancs.org}}</ref> They wore their [[rosary]] with [[crucifix]] as a necklace and token of their religion, in imitation of the [[misbaha]] of the [[marabouts]].<ref name=Forbes/> The nickname "White Fathers" derives from their garb.

The White Fathers were the largest [[missionary]] society to operate in Zambia, as well as one of the earliest to settle in the country. Their first station was among the [[Mambwe people|Mambwe]], in the Tanganyika- Malawi corridor, was inauguratedestablished in 1891 (beforeprior to the inceptionestablishment of British rule). The people of Mambwe had been dominated by the politically and linguistically stronger ethnic group of Northern [[Zambia]], the [[Bemba people|Bemba]]-, whotowards whom the White Fathers directed theirsubsequent efforts towards. The establishment of the Chilubula mission by the bishop of Nayasa Vicariate, [[Joseph Dupont (bishop)|Joseph Dunpont]], in 1898, marked the beginning of the White Fathers’ colonisation of Lubemba. This allowed the missionary society to extend their work further than any other missionary society in Northern Rhodesia. By the mid-1930s, the White Fathers had around twenty missions, all of them located in present-day Northern [[Luapula Province|Luapula]] and, to a lesser extent, Eastern provinces of Zambia.<ref>Marja Hinfelaar, Giacomo Macola, ‘The White Fathers’ Archive in Zambia’, History in Africa, Vol. 30, Publisher: Cambridge University Press, (2003).</ref>