In East Africa in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, missionaries demanded a range of skilled and unskilled workers, including builders, cooks, waterfetchers, porters and servants, in order to establish an ideal setting for their core aims: the conversion of souls and eventual establishment of an African ministry. As a result, Christian missionaries, who often arrived in Africa ahead of European colonisation, were some of the first Europeans to try and control African workers. The scarcely studied work of building churches, cleaning dishes and cooking meals is the basis of this labour history of Christian mission. By following the livelihood struggles of the African workers at the mission, many of whom had recently emerged from a background of slavery, this study explores the ways Africans made a living within the mission, as well as how they drew upon and adapted knowledge and networks from the mission to make a living elsewhere.

This study shows how joining the mission community meant gaining a patron, which could be a valuable asset for socially marginal people, such as slaves or former slaves. However, being in the mission community could feel oppressive, and did not necessarily secure an improved social or economic position. In fact, some found themselves re-marginalised as social hierarchies in the mission were challenging to negotiate. Moreover, becoming a mission employee, particularly a teacher, could mean a reduction in options as missionaries monopolised the recruitment of this occupation, especially in Tanganyika and Zanzibar, where government schools were rare until the 1930s. Missionaries offered very little in material terms and so the question is how African Christians and ex-slaves chose to negotiate their position, rather than if the mission was capable of transforming their wealth and status. Ultimately, it was up to the African convert or ex-slave to attempt to do this within the bounds of their available choices. In some cases, with the pursuit of status and that of wages at odds, conversion and the adoption of a missioncentred career was a high-risk life strategy.

The book investigates the variety of labour arrangements in the Anglican Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) in Tanzania and Zanzibar and reveals the interwoven strategies of missionary and African workers.