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  • 22 - The Papacy and the Decolonization of Africa

  • from Part IV - Theopolitics and Religious Diplomacy
  • Edited by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, University of Rhode Island, Robert A. Ventresca, King’s University College at Western University, Melodie H. Eichbauer, Florida Gulf Coast University, Miles Pattenden, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Papacy
    Published online:
    28 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025, pp 570-596

  • Summary

    This chapter examines the papacy’s positioning vis-à-vis colonization and decolonization, defined both as a political changeover from European to African governance and as a longer, subtler, and more complex process of rejecting European influence and authority in both the public and private spheres, including religion. It investigates Vatican approaches to Catholic missions in Africa during the colonial period, how successive popes navigated the political changes of decolonization, and how they sought to make Catholicism more hospitable to Africans. Finally, it underlines how Africans themselves, such as the prominent intellectual Alioune Diop, played a central role in instigating papal action to make the Church less Eurocentric and more welcoming to other peoples and cultures.