The Organization and Maintenance of Caravans By the Church Missionary Society in Tanzania in the Nineteenth Century

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Periodical article

Title:	The Organization and Maintenance of Caravans By the Church Missionary Society in Tanzania in the Nineteenth Century
Author:	Beidelman, Thomas O.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:	15
Issue:	4
Pages:	601-623
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Tanzania
Subjects:	missions road transport History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/217847
Abstract:	This paper is the outcome of a much broader historical study of the activities of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Ukaguru (Tanzania). The most dramatic and demanding secular task that confronted each newly arrived missionary was the organization and running of a caravan into the interior. This challenge could be considered the 'rite de passage' which transformed a green missionary Into a seasoned colonialist or at times, disturbed him by confrontation with the bitter realities of African life. This paper describes the caravans of one group of Europeans, the CMS missionaries, travelling In central Tanzania In the latter part of the nineteenth century. This fills In a modest but useful area of information In the scholarly account of East African history; it also provides essential information for supporting the point that the running of caravans and similar secular work presented crucial yet contradictory challenges to missionaries, especially those such as the CMS who were Evangelical. Notes.