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Cross and Flag in Africa: The "White Fathers" during the Colonial Scramble (1892-1914). By Aylward Shorter, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2006. xxvi + 294 pp. $25.00 paper.
Relatively little research has been carried out in English on the history of the Catholic Church in Africa compared to the substantial scholarship on Protestant and Independent churches. The stated aim of this book is to address this lacuna by studying part of the history of the influential Society of Missionaries of Africa or "White Fathers." Aylward Shorter is himself a White Father, an anthropologist, and a historian who has lived in East Africa for many years. The book is a result of his experience and of the Society's own historical research project, which has already produced the volume by JeanClaude Ceillier, A Pilgrimagi' from Chapter to Chapter: The Firs! General Chapters of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, 1874-1900 (Rome: Missionaires of Africa, 2002). Cross nini Fing in Africa is written as the result of extensive research of the mission's archive sources and unpublished dissertations and backed up with knowledge of the historical field. It is accompanied by a helpful bibliography, glossary, and photographs of significant White Fathers mentioned in the book. There are several maps, although not all place-names appear on the maps or can be located easily by description. It intentionally limits its scope to White Fathers rather than White Sisters, who appear only occasionally on its pages.
Shorter attempts both to write a history...