Ugandan Christian devotional images at the crossroads: A case history of dedications for parish churches in the Roman catholic archdiocese of Kampala, 1879 - 1997

Abstract

When the imported Christian devotional images took on the characteristics of dogma they subjugated the meaning and vitality of rival images in traditional African visual piety. There emerged a need to underscore the emancipation of African believers from conservatively convenient values of imported Christian devotional images to their redeeming social importance in Ugandan visual piety in aspects that are contemporaneously relevant in the inculturation of the Roman Catholic faith in the country through assimilations, innovations, and adaptations in particular evidence from dedications for parish churches. The real evidence of assimilation lies in those images themselves. They are the silent witnesses to inventions, innovations and borrowings. The images speak of parallels and symmetry. Parallels, therefore, speak of syncretism. Their witness is of proselytism and assimilation. It is also of power and resistance to power. Inasmuch, is this power justified? There was and is resistance which might have been a good thing or not so good thing. In that vein of power relational to the politics of identity and acceptability, this study demythologizes the legacy of missionary evangelism in Uganda in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala