ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the link between late colonial church-state relations and the relatively smooth decolonisation of the education sector suggests a different political analysis of the period than these conventions lead us to expect. It presents the development of collaborative relations between church and state in education before 1939, and the serious differences that surfaced after World War II over which kinds of schools to promote in the colony. The chapter examines a number of such conflicts in the 1950s. It outlines the implications of the ensuing unprecedented scrutiny of the educational services provided by the church. The ensuing crisis drew local leaders into political activities which hastened the death of the Congo, and deeply divided colonists among themselves. The acrimonious exchanges through which the Catholic bishops in the Congo forced Buisseret to change course introduced real antagonisms into church-state negotiations over many dimensions of colonial education policy.
