ABSTRACT
The Berlin Conference (1885) opened a new era in the African continent. The colonialist powers shared Africa amongst them. One of the slogans that justified the occupation was to save Africa from savagery, slave trade and ignorance, legitimizing as such the right of the Christian missions to develop their ‘civilizing’ activities in Africa, while using the missionaries as agents of their country’s interests. It was in such a context that the Methodist Episcopal Church established itself in Mozambique in 1890, with the objective of converting its population to Christianity. In their evangelizing campaigns, the MEC’s missionaries preached against local cultural practices, with the intentions of eradicating them. To serve such an aim, the Church founded a printing press for the purposes of liturgical services, including newspapers. This study analyses some of the publications of MEC’s contents, namely the A Tisimu ta Ivangeli, A wurimo and Zeladoras do Lar, during the period of 1890-1968. My argument is that these contents were contrary to African reality and that their aims were the ‘colonization’ of African minds, as a strategy to the successful conversion.
