Universität zu Köln

Kaduma, Luoneko ORCID: 0009-0004-8900-4573 (2026). Healing, Evangelism, and Modern Healthcare: German Protestant Missionary Medicine in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands, 1891–1940. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This dissertation examines the development of German Protestant medical missions in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania between 1891 and 1940, with particular attention to the Moravian Church and the Berlin Lutheran missions in the Mbeya and Njombe regions. It analyzes the transformation of missionary practice from an initial emphasis on evangelization toward the strategic deployment of Western biomedicine as a central instrument for extending religious authority, consolidating institutional presence, and expanding social influence. The study argues that missionary medicine cannot be understood either as a purely humanitarian enterprise or as a simple extension of colonial domination. Rather, it constituted a contested and unstable field in which religious ideals, colonial imperatives, and African social and therapeutic systems intersected, overlapped, and frequently conflicted. In the early period, Protestant missionaries prioritized preaching and religious instruction; however, conversion outcomes remained limited. Faced with the persistence of indigenous healing systems and ongoing resistance to religious transformation, missionaries increasingly incorporated Western biomedicine to legitimize their presence and strengthen their authority. Medical work thus became closely integrated with evangelization, leading to the establishment of hospitals, dispensaries, and clinics at mission stations such as Kidugala, Ilembula, Rungwe, Itete, and Matema. These institutions not only provided medical treatment but also promoted new regimes of bodily discipline, hygiene, and domestic organization, while seeking to marginalize indigenous therapeutic practices through regulatory frameworks such as the Platzordnung. Nevertheless, African communities did not passively receive missionary medicine. Families, elders, chiefs, and healers actively evaluated biomedical interventions in relation to local moral worlds, spiritual beliefs, and social obligations. While certain treatments were selectively appropriated, indigenous healing systems remained central to everyday life. This produced plural and hybrid therapeutic landscapes that remained beyond the control of missionary and colonial authorities, thereby limiting efforts to enforce biomedical and Christian exclusivity. Drawing on archival records, missionary writings, ethnographic materials, and oral interviews, this study reinterprets colonial medical history by foregrounding African agency and negotiation. It demonstrates that medical missions in the Southern Highlands were shaped as much by African actors and local social dynamics as by missionary objectives and colonial structures.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Translated title:	Title Language German Protestant Missionary Medicine in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands, 1891–1940 UNSPECIFIED
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Kaduma, Luoneko kadumaluo2000@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8900-4573 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-806530
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 6: Geschichte > Abteilung für Neuere Geschichte und Neueste Geschichte
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language German Colonial Rule; Southern Highlands Tanzania; Missionary Medicine English Colonial Medicine; Medical Missions; African Agency; Therapeutic Pluralism; Christianity and Medicine English Colonial Healthcare; History of Medicine in Africa; Mbeya; Njombe. English
Date of oral exam:	21 May 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Lindner, Ulrike Prof.
Funders:	Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
Projects:	German Colonial Rule (GCR)
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80653