The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

Introduction

Introduction The Awakening Coast Karl Offen In 1849 two Moravian missionaries disembarked at Bluefields, the capital of a British protectorate along the Mosquito Coast and today part of eastern Nicaragua, to establish a new mission among the sparsely settled black, Creole (Afro-descendant Mosquitians), and indigenous inhabitants. Baptizing heathens into the death of Jesus, as the Moravians put it, proceeded slowly until the so-called Great Awakening of 1881–82: “the most wonderful revival in the history of the Moravian Missions.”1 In his first notice of the Awakening, in May 1881, mission superintendent Christian Martin described how “the Spirit [has] poured forth on all the people.”2 By August, Martin wrote that the movement had swept across the entire Mosquito Reserve (fig. i.1). During evening meetings at Bluefields, Martin reported, “the throng [was] so great that prayer on the knees [was] impossible .” At nearby Pearl Lagoon, wrote Brother Peper, a “peculiar time has dawned . . . [and] I have never seen the like before.” At “almost every hour,” Peper recounted, “people come to us who are concerned about their souls, asking for advice and to be admitted to the church.” The people trembled “in every limb [and] cry aloud for mercy. For the most part they are on their knees, sometimes they lie prostrate, unable to rise until they confess their sins . . . , and this sometimes lasts for days.”3 During such times the people “neither eat nor sleep. . . . When they have found peace, they seem to be indescribably happy, and sometimes make ecstatic addresses in which a very considerable Scriptural knowledge is perceptible.” Since many of those affected had not received formal instruction, the missionaries assumed that the Divine Spirit had at last reached the mission. Fig. i.1. Map of the Mosquito Reserve and eastern Nicaragua, showing major towns and villages in the late nineteenth century, and the dates of mission foundings and their Moravian-given names in parenthesis. Map designed by Karl Offen and drawn by Lynn Carlson. Introduction | 3 Whatever may have caused the Awakening, its effects were real and lasting. The mission’s membership totaled only 1,030 on the eve of the Awakening in 1880; this number more than doubled to 2,564 over the next two years.4 The majority of the early members were urban Creoles. By 1890 the membership was predominantly rural and Miskito Indian and had grown to 3,294, approximately one-half of the entire adult indigenous and Creole population of the Mosquito Reserve.5 A hundred years later, eastern Nicaragua had 118 Moravian congregations, more than any other country in the world except Tanzania, and Miskito Indian communities constituted the majority.6By the mid-twentieth century the Moravian Church had become, in the words of Susan Hawley, “the medium through which a new identity for the Miskitu was constructed, and a heightened and politicised consciousness of what it meant to ‘be Miskitu’ was produced and maintained.”7 For Reynaldo Reyes, a late-twentieth-century Miskito military leader, it was even more simple: “all Miskitos are born into the Moravian faith.”8 This phenomenal change begs the question of how the indigenous and Afro-descendants of the Mosquitia came to identify with the teachings of a relatively obscure Protestant church within a few generations. By taking up this question, The Awakening Coast reveals a key moment of transformation in Central American history, one that resulted from the intersection of religious, political, and economic forces coming from a wide range of geographical and cultural origins, including indigenous and Afro-Caribbean, European and North American, and from budding Central American nation-states. For specialists, the book challenges conventional wisdom about the timing and context surrounding the Awakening. It also contributes new information about Miskito responses to Nicaraguan governance , the cultural dimensions of indigenous religious realignment, and the role of Moravian missionaries in materially transforming village life. For the generalist, the book helps readers understand the important cultural diversity of Central America as well as the lead-up to significant involvement in the region by the United States. It highlights how international economic forces, regional political processes, and Protestant evangelism came together in a particular place to manifest dramatic social changes. The anthology also tells a compelling human story about devout foreigners and individuals who sought to make a difference. In short, the book illustrates 4 | Introduction and explains how in fifty years a onetime beleaguered Moravian mission became the most...