This thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and...Show moreThis thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and the emergence of the newly created Republic of Zimbabwe. As such, it seeks to understand missionaries as more than just a happenstance of history but rather as active and integral to developments within the Rhodesian region and its vastly different processes of decolonisation. Furthermore, this thesis presents the history of decolonisation from the bottom up, attributing agency and importance to the ordinary people whose lives were affected by the global dynamics of the Cold War. What follows, therefore, details the discovery of missionaries as actors within Rhodesia and their far-reaching impact on the decolonisation processes at play.Show less
