ABSTRACT
The position of modern missions in Central Africa resembles that of the missions of the monastic orders of the Church in Central Europe from the seventh to the tenth centuries. The monks found backward, illiterate peoples, living in squalor, with agriculture, industries and craftsmanship of the crudest kind. Christianity in Europe and America is an expression of the social and economic order with which it has grown. Markets for produce, roads for transport and the organisation of credit arrangements for financing enterprises are also problems for the rural community which adjusts itself to the new economic order. The work of the Galangue Mission in Angola illustrates the possibilities of the agricultural approach in dealing with a backward community. A study might prove useful of the role of the mission station as a market centre and the possibility of linking it with a system of markets for the district along with other stations, administrative posts and chiefs’ villages.
