With stereotypes of imperial complicity and idealistic fantasy firmly in place, tentative assumptions as to the motives of early missionaries often prove less than satisfactory. The need for new master narratives which move beyond the old paradigms of Western expansion and African victimization are being called for by scholars of both North and South; narratives which allow room for strong archival evidence of an egalitarian joint endeavor and African cultural vitality without avoiding the investment in imperialism practiced by colonial personnel. Based on extensive archival research this study advocates an alternative proposal; missionaries caught in the grinding of contradictory opposites. Alfred Robert Tucker, as a professional artist, captured this tug-of-war on canvas but similar dichotomies are found in his approach, as a bishop and Church Missionary Society Director, to marriage contracts, slavery, mission and church organizational structure, alliance with the colonial government and African partnership. Tucker, neither a consistent imperialist nor a complete egalitarian idealist, operated in both spheres without creating a third. This thesis is a piece of revisionist historiography of the Victorian encounter with Africa – a specific micro-narrative questioning the old consensus and calling for a wider discussion and a shift in perspective.

In this contextual study I investigate why and how the traditional approach to mission, engaged by Anglican missionaries, gave rise to a dual observance of ritual among Shona Anglican Christians. I begin by establishing the significance and essence of Shona views of death and the dead, then investigate the missionaries' historical background. I highlight that Christian arrogance, in the guise of racial superiority, underlies the confrontational and condemnatory approach. Traditional views were considered evil, in their place, Shona converts were forced to adopt western Christian views as the only acceptable and valid way of coping with this eschatological reality. These views did not usually fit the Shona worldviews and religious outlook, hence the adoption of dual observance. For some, life continues to be classified as either Christian or traditional and never both. However, some present Shona Anglican practices reflect a desire to integrate the two. Unless there is this integration, the Church remains other and irrelevant to the Shona people. The ultimate aim of this thesis is to advocate for a theological synthesis of Christian and Shona traditional views. I argue that such a synthesis, patterned on the interactive dialogical model, could lead to the cessation of confrontation and condemnation and its attendant dual observance, and enhance the development of a Shona Christian theology of death and the dead which provides for relevant and sensitive pastoral care.