ABSTRACT
The question of polygamy was a matter of dispute amongst Christian canonists and moralists even in the undivided Western Church. From the first the conflict between Christian monogamy and African polygamy was a practical issue. The Christian opposition to polygamy was much resented, and the chief’s son Mpanza headed a reactionary party. The initial failure of Roman Catholic missions in Africa was partly the result of inadequate religious training of converts and the pronounced antipathy of the missionaries to African custom. There is no doubt that the system of polygamy was part of the African’s ‘natural element’, but, as the missionaries taught, it was contrary to the Christian religion. The Reformed Brethren of the same church in sixteenth-century Europe had favoured a partial admittance of polygamists to baptism. Missionaries regarded themselves as agents of European civilization. It is doubtful, in some cases, whether they made any distinction at all between regularized polygamy and promiscuity.
