Missionaries as Cannibals

Like the way you notice the other person’s accent without getting that you have one too...  as long as we live in our own culture, we’re pretty much unaware of it. When we do encounter new cultures, however, it quickly becomes clear that other people live differently. First up we see the differences in how they dress, what they eat, how they talk and behave. Later we start to get that there are deep differences in beliefs, feelings and values. Finally, we begin to realise that there are fundamental differences in worldviews.

Some missionaries in Congo we’re having trouble building relationships with the people.  Finally, one old man explained why the people were reluctant to become friends with the missionaries.  “When you came, you brought your strange ways,” he said. “You brought tins of food. On the outside of one was a picture of corn.  When you opened it, inside was corn and you ate it. Outside another was a picture of meat, and inside was meat, and you ate it.  And then when you had your baby, you brought in small tins. On the outside was a picture of babies, and you opened it and fed the inside to your child!” The people’s confusion might sound crazy from our standpoint, but it is all too logical from theirs.

Without any other information, the people must figure out their own conclusions about our actions. We do the same about theirs. We think they have no sense of time when, by our culture, they show up late.  We accuse them of lying, when they tell us things to please us rather than as they really are (although we have no trouble saying “Just fine!” when someone asks “How are you?”).  We end up with cultural misunderstanding and then poor communication and poor relationships. 

Misunderstandings build on ignorance of the beliefs, feelings and values of another culture. The answer is to learn how the other culture works. The first thing we must do upon encountering a new culture is to be a student of its ways. Whenever a culture ‘makes no sense’ to us, we must assume that the problem is ours, because the people’s behaviour makes sense to them.


Adapted from Paul G. Hiebert’s article Cultural Differences and the Communication of the Gospel from the 1999 edition of the Perspectives reader.