Missionary Spaces

Bram Cleys studied history at KU Leuven and is education officer at the University Centre for Development Cooperation (UCOS), a Belgian NGO. Jan De Maeyer is professor emeritus with formal duties at KU Leuven, honorary director of KADOC-KU Leuven, chairman of the Advisory Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Flemish Community (2017-2022), and president of the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome (2009-2018). Bruno De Meulder studied architecture at KU Leuven where he now teaches colonial and postcolonial urbanism in the Department of Architecture. Allen M. Howard is professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin. He taught and does research in African and Atlantic history. He has written extensively on the application of spatial analysis to African history. Along with Michael Adas, he has taken a major role in developing and supervising the field of World and Comparative History.

• INTRODUCTIONImagining, Building, Contesting Missionary Spaces Thomas CoomansPART ONE – IMAGINED WORLD / ADAPTED STRATEGIES1 Spatial Trajectories and Missionary and Colonial Movements into Northwest Ghana since 1929: Dagara Reception of Catholic Missionary ActivitiesAlexis B. Tengan2 Redeeming Ukamba: Word and World, 1893-1905Maarten Onneweer3 Islands on the Mainland: Catholic Missions and Spatial Strategies in China, 1840s-1940sThomas Coomans4 Co-authoring the City: Missionaries and the Colonial City of Luluaburg (Belgian Congo), 1930-1960Bram Cleys5 The Catholic Territorialization of Taiwan: Vatican Global Strategy and Franciscan Local Parishes, 1949-1960sLeon Bouwmeester and Thomas CoomansPART TWO – UNIVERSAL PROJECTS / LOCALIZED ARCHITECTURES6 Gendered Spaces in Catholic Compounds of Late Qing ChinaThomas Coomans7 Gender-Designed Catholic Churches in North China, 1830s-1920sThomas Coomans8 The Missionaries in the Cosmopolitan Towns of the Suez Isthmus, Egypt: Their Role in the Formation of Identity in Architecture and Urban Planning, 1860-1937Céline Frémaux9 Civilizing Space in West China: Re-examining the Place of the Christian University in Chengdu, 1909-1933Lawrence Braschi10 A Highly ‘Mediated Monument’ of Tropical Modernism in Central Africa: Unpacking the Complex Agendas behind the Design and Construction of the Collège du Saint-Esprit in Bujumbura, BurundiJohan LagaeAbbreviations Index of Persons Index of Places Authors Colophon

En définitive, cet ouvrage est à la fois une contribution à l’architecture, à l’histoire, et à la réflexion sur les échanges entre l’Occident, l’Afrique et l’Asie. Il met en lumière les interactions qui ont accompagné l’entreprise missionnaire (et coloniale), faites souvent de petites négociations quotidiennes, lesquelles transforment profondément les acteurs engagés dans ces processus et par suite leur vision du monde. Quiconque s’intéresse aux questions de rencontres d’autres cultures et à la question missionnaire tirera profit de cet ouvrage. L’introduction est à recommander aux doctorants et jeunes chercheurs travaillant sur ces questions. - Yves VENDÉ, Mélanges de science religieuse, n° 82/1, 2025