“The Empire Strikes Back”: Communities, Catholic Missions, and Imperial Authority in Western Tanzania, 1934–1960

This article addresses dissent at the time of the encounter between communities and missionaries in Western Tanzania. It centers on the land question and culture as sources of contention between the people and missionaries. It shows that the people’s opposition to eviction from their land and opposition to missionaries’ interference of their culture called for dialogue between the people, missionaries, and imperial authority, and, accordingly, benefitted the parties involved. Using the perspective from below, the article contributes to the scholarship on dissent to show how ordinary peasants responded to the need of missionaries for land and control of the cultural aspects. The article also builds on the idea of ‘long conversation’ from studies on the encounter between communities and missionaries to show how dissent called for mutual discussion between communities, missionaries, and imperial authority.