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Undermining or Civilizing?What made Mariannhill Mission different from other Missions was that " Pfanner did not ask for grants of land from the government." The government had a policy of granting lands to Mission stations so that it could interfere and insist that the policy of institution be used in the Missions. In other words we can say Pfanner wanted to be more free from the state. The natives poured in huge numbers to the Mission they were employed, "workers were paid out but some left because of his insistence on standard of hygiene and morality."5 Unlike other Missions who insisted on voluntary helping around their Missions, Mariannhill Mission paid their workers. But from an interview conducted with Mrs. Ngcongo who once worked as a domestic worker in the Mission she said: " We received food instead of money." 6 The Trappists in 1885 seemed like Saints who were only devoted in helping to convert people. But underneath their characters I can see that they also had that theory of Darwin, which said that blacks were on the last scale of human races. To contradict my point according to Schimlek the Trappist " undermined the Zulu ways of living especially crawling when entering the hut."7 Here they concluded and say the Zulus resemble that racial stereotype because they still had some elements of animal life. What comes into my mind is this question was the Christianity imposed or was it gently educated to the Natives? I think that it was imposed. They were unconsciously furthering the interest of the State by 1890s. The state or the government insisted that the Natives must be "forced" to learn and to be converted because without force the barbarians could not be civilized. Polygamy was another aspect which the Missionaries criticized. " Order by Monastery in 1885: remain with your wife do not add or quit the farm."8 On the issue of polygamy I think they were fare because they gave people the choice and did not want Zulu ways to come to a sudden disturbance but wanted gently do away with what they think was bad. " this page was prepared by Hyacintha Magubane(961080662)"
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