The White Fathers (), officially the Missionaries of Africa () abbreviated MAfr), are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right (for Men) founded in 1868 by then Archbishop of Algiers Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie. The society focuses on evangelism and education, mostly in Africa. In 2021, there were 1428 members of the Missionaries of Africa of 36 nationalities, working in 42 countries, in 217 communities.
History
The cholera epidemic of 1867 left a large number of Algerian orphans, and the education and Christian instruction of these children was the occasion of the founding of the society in Maison-Carrée (now El-Harrach) near Algiers; but from its inception the founder had in mind the conversion of the Arabs and the peoples of Central Africa. Lavigerie instructed his missionaries to speak the language of the people, eat the same food, and wear the same clothing. They therefore adopted North African dress for their vestments: the gandoura for the cassock, the burnous for the mantle, and even the chechia for the Zucchetto. They wore their rosary with crucifix as a necklace and token of their religion, in imitation of the misbaha of the marabouts. The nickname "White Fathers" derives from their garb.
A novitiate was established in 1868. Missionary posts were established in Kabylie and in the Sahara. In 1876 three missionaries on their way to Timbuktu were killed by desert nomads. In 1878 ten missionaries left Algiers to establish posts at Lakes Victoria, Nyassa and Tanganyika. In 1878, a caravan of several missionaries arrived at the port of Mombasa, and after a three-month trek reached Lake Victoria.
The White Fathers were the largest missionary society to operate in Zambia, as well as one of the earliest to settle in the country. Their first station was among the Mambwe, in the Tanganyika- Malawi corridor, established in 1891 (prior to the establishment of British rule). The Mambwe had been harassed by the politically and linguistically stronger ethnic group of Northern Zambia, the Bemba, towards whom the White Fathers directed subsequent efforts. The establishment of the Chilubula mission by the bishop of Nayasa Vicariate, Joseph Dunpont, in 1898, marked the beginning of the White Fathers’ colonisation of Lubemba. This allowed the missionary society to extend their work further than any other missionary society in Northern Rhodesia. By the mid-1930s, the White Fathers had around twenty missions, all of them located in present-day Northern Luapula and, to a lesser extent, Eastern provinces of Zambia.
In addition, many of the documentations of the language of Luganda, spoken in Uganda, such as grammars, dictionaries and individual articles are in English or French. This can all be traced back to the French Catholic Missionary Congregation of the White Fathers and their impact on colonial history, between 1885 and 1921. The White Fathers who arrived at Lake Victoria region in 1879, published six Luganda grammars and dictionaries in French.
White Father missionaries in Algeria ransomed a young slave, Adrien Atiman, and arranged for his education. Atiman subsequently became a medical catechist with the White Fathers at Karema, and was responsible for a significant autobiographical account of his enslavement, subsequent freedom and integration into the White Fathers' mission.
In 1882, at the request of the Holy See, the White Fathers established St. Anne's Seminary at Jerusalem to train Greek Melchite clergy of that rite. The seminary would operate until 1967.
In 1894 a mission in French Sudan (now Mali) was founded.
Present day
These now form the present Lakes Archdioceses of Kampala, Gitega, Tabora, and the dioceses of Kigoma, Lilongwe, and Kalemie-Kirungu.
The society is composed of missionary priests and brothers. The members are bound by an oath engaging them to labour for the conversion of Africa according to the constitutions of their society. The missionaries are not, strictly speaking, a religious institute, whether "order" or "congregation". Instead, they are a society of apostolic life. They may retain their own property; but they may expend it in the society only at the direction of the superiors.
The White Fathers, meaning the members of the international Missionary Society of priest and brothers, were:
2,098 in 1998
1,712 in 2007.
At present, in 2021, the Society is reparted as follows:
-1,144 Missionaries of Africa – fully professed priests, deacons and brothers: