Images in mission: colonialism, visuality and missionary practice in Uganda (1870–1920)

Author(s)

Márcia Cristina Pacito Fonseca Almeida

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2023-11-24

Examining board members

Solange Ferraz de Lima; Leila Maria Gonçalves Leite Hernandez; Lia Dias Laranjeira; Iara Lis Franco Schiavinatto

• Advisor: Solange Ferraz de Lima

Abstract

This thesis\' main objective is to analyze the construction of visual documents from the social interactions established between British Anglican missionaries and the populations that inhabited the territory of Uganda, in the interior of East Africa, between the years of 1870 and 1920. We selected a diverse set of documents, such as travelers\' reports, missionary stories, picture and watercolor albums, and illustrated periodical articles related to the actions undertaken by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the African Great Lakes region. With these sources in hand – which have been little explored at the visual and image perspective, as a product and producer of social dynamics – we intend to understand the multiple roles that visual records – photographs, engravings, drawings, watercolors, and illustrations – played in shaping practices, European speeches, and projections on the African continent. Adopting these assumptions to guide our research, we also aim to discuss how the production of this visual material in the context of the implementation of British colonialism in East Africa took place from different social agencies, passed through different circuits, and was reappropriated in different fields of knowledge. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/04421-1 - Images on mission: the Church Missionary Society and the construction of visual regimes in the Kingdom of Buganda (East Africa, 1875-1922).
• Grantee: Márcia Cristina Pacito Fonseca Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate