Glimpses of colonialism | Missionary Photographs 1900 - 1960

1. Credits & Creators

This exhibition was organised and authored by an interdisciplinary group of student assistants, under the supervision of Johan Oosterman and Chris Dols (Radboud Erfgoed). We are Dionne Faaij (Political Science), Nell Meister (Philosophy), Julia Niehaus (Molecular Biology), and Tom Ottens (History). We have met and started this project as part of a thinktank of the Radboud Honours Academy, and pursued its realisation after the conclusion of that progamme. This exhibition has been designed by Christine Alberts. Many thanks to the Katholieke Documentatie Centrum and MISSIO for their cooperation, which made this exhibition possible. We are grateful to members of the KDC for their valuable input concerning sensitive content, and to Radboud Erfgoed for their instruction and support. We would also like to thank all others who contributed to this exhibition in various ways, and will remain anonymous.

The scope of this exhibition is evidently very limited. In the following, some further contextualisation will be offered, in addition to the sources of information and quotes contained in the exhibition texts.

2. Virtual Exhibition

a. Introduction

Historical photographs may easily suggest that the viewer sees history. In a way, this is true, but it is necessary to realise that looking through someone's looking through someone's lens and that what one sees, might not be as innocent as it appears to be. A critical look might reveal cases of colonialism in which Indigenous people are ignored or degraded.This does not mean that the photographs should be rejected as misleading, but rather that one can dig deeper, examine their ‘biography’ and discover chances for new information and levels of meaning. That is exactly what this small exhibit is about. An interdisciplinary group of Radboud University students examined some of the missionary photographs stored at the Katholiek Documentatie Centrum (KDC). The students explored their original intentions, their circulation, the hidden messages and their new uses. These photos were often made for personal albums, while some were specifically made to tell a story in missionary media. Nowadays, many of these photos are stored in archives, such as that of the KDC. A selection of these pictures offers an example of how the photographers presented Catholic missionaries from Western countries and their perspectives, narratives and interests, ultimately showing that these historical sources are not at all neutral. In this exhibition, we invite you to question these photographs, their original intentions, their narratives, and to explore what alternative narratives they embody.

b. Case I: Whose Stories?

Before you read on, ask yourself: What do you see in this photograph? At first glance, what (and whose) story does it tell? 

This photograph is part of a series of three, all bearing the same caption: “Real children of nature, the Indian boys, healthy and unscathed, will be able to grow up to be mature and decent people due to the good leadership and formation given to them.” The caption tells us one story – a colonial narrative of Indigenous ‘children of nature’ in need of guidance from the ‘civilising’ church; at the same time adding a universal categorisation of all children depicted in the series as (Western-binary) ‘boys’. The children’s activity of building sand castles indicates that the photos have most likely been staged; suggesting a colonial message that the missionary school’s attendees can be ‘just like Western children’. We may never know how these children actually felt about being photographed. 

More perspectives emerge when we listen to those who attended missionary schools, such as these former attendees of Catholic ‘boarding school’ Rajpur (Abdoelrahman 2008): 

“We were taught everywhere: ‘talk Dutch, no other language’.”

“Thanks to the sisters, the pastors, we have lived a good life.”

“[When misbehaving] you were placed on top of an anthill [...]. And if you couldn’t handle it anymore and began to cry and jump, you were allowed to leave.”

The children depicted here, however, do not speak to us. Their narratives were not incorporated, as their faces served as illustrations within a missionary story. Indeed, as will become clear, missionary photographs often served such a purpose.

c. Case II: Looking Beyond Two Bishops

In October 1958, Dutch Archbishop Bernardus Alfrink and the first bishop of Paramaribo, Stephanus Kuijpers, traveled into the interior of Suriname to visit the Maroon village of Santigron. This visit was part of a larger tour across the Dutch Antilles and Suriname that celebrated the newly established bishoprics of Willemstad and Paramaribo. Their visit was memorialized in a photograph: a carefully arranged group portrait with the inhabitants of Santigron. These visits and photographic reports illustrated the spread of the Christian gospel to all corners of the world. Such evangelizing initiatives took place within a colonial context. This context is made explicit in the caption written on the back of the photograph: “Mgr. Alfrink (in white) and Mgr. S. Kuypers (in black) with a group of the forest n***** population in Santigron.”

The naming of the two bishops clearly separates them from the generic (and derogatory) description of the others as ‘forest n***** population.’ These choices deny the individuality and agency of the Indigenous population. While the photographer must have known their names, they were not identified, nor were their roles in the community specified. Additional research and the help of Surinamese Cultural Anthropologist Salomon Emanuels provided answers that greatly enhanced the historical and social dimensions of this photograph. Missionary activities were initially received with skepticism by the inhabitants of Santigron. It was only after Catholic missionaries allowed the inhabitants to continue their traditional religious practices that they managed to gain a foothold. In the decades following this socio-religious encounter, a flourishing Catholic community established itself there. The location and individuals in this photograph are a testimony to this flourishing Catholic community. Most likely, this picture was taken in front of Lief Bottong’s house (which served as a notice board for local proclamations). Bottong is also present in the photograph, standing third from the right. In front of him is the basja (an important political function within Maroon communities) of Santigron, Tietie Akoete Menig. Menig was part of a group of community leaders that governed daily life in the village. To the left of Kuypers stands J.H.A. Simson, the headmaster of the local primary school. Hence, this photograph captures the meeting of important representatives from Catholic and Maroon communities. Evidently, the complex historical and social dimensions of this picture suggest that it pictures more than just a story about two Catholic bishops.

d. Case III: How a Photograph’s Meaning Changes over Time

This photograph, taken in October 1958 in Malang, East Java, depicts three nurses from the Catholic congregation ‘Zusters van het Arme Kind Jezus’ interacting with local Javanese children and adults. The congregation ran a school which primarily served impoverished Javanese children, many of whom were not baptized. The photograph documents a moment when the Sisters distributed alms to these children and their families. The caption reveals the Sisters’ emphasis on alms-giving as a key aspect of their mission:

“The little one is struggling a lot, although people are so happy with a new suit for their children.”

This highlights the Sisters’ portrayal of the local Javanese as grateful recipients of aid, reinforcing a charitable, yet hierarchical, relationship.

A photograph’s ‘biography’ traces its journey from creation to its changing uses and meanings over time. Reconstructing the life cycle of this photograph allows us to observe its changing meaning in different contexts. The back of the photograph includes handwritten captions, and a standardized classification detailing the subject, location, institution, and date, which is used to categorize and contextualize the image in the KDC’s digital database. Notably, six years after being taken, the photograph was published in a missionary magazine, but it was cropped, and the caption reduced to:

“Inhabitants of the huts on our school grounds.”

The original mention of the child eagerly anticipating a new outfit was removed. This alteration stripped the image of its individual story, instead categorizing the people generically as ‘inhabitants.’ This transformation illustrates how the meaning of an image shifts depending on its context. By understanding where this photograph has been and how it has been used, we see how its story has been reshaped and simplified over time. What story do you think this photograph tells?

e. Conclusion

We have explored the complex histories and narratives embedded in missionary photography. By critically examining the original purposes, contexts, and evolving uses of these photographs, we have uncovered how they perpetuate colonial ideologies while simultaneously preserving traces of untold stories. We hope this exhibit encourages you to approach historical photographs not as static windows to the past but as layered artifacts. By questioning their origins and meanings, you can unlock deeper insights, challenge dominant narratives, and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of history. What stories might you uncover by looking beyond the surface of other historical photographs?

3. Further Context & Sources Used

a. Introduction

on Radboud’s Archives:

Radboud University has thousands and thousands of historical photographs in its archives. Many of them belong(/ed) to Catholic institutions and ended up in Radboud’s care after those institutions closed down, or because they did not have enough space to store the images. The photographs used in this exhibition are part of those.

on Pauselijke Missiewerken:

This exhibition is the result of research into the archive of the Pauselijke Missiewerken. The mission organisation Pauselijke Missiewerken in fact consisted of four separate organisations. These organisations were founded in France, by or based on the ideas of the beatified Pauline Marie Jaricot. The raising of awareness through prayer, collection of funding and coordination of funding money were the main aims of the Pauselijke Missiewerken. Money raised by Dutch Catholics could thus be used to fund missions all over the world. Pauselijke Missiewerken did not directly send missionaries to missionary territories themselves. Instead, they provided funds to missionaries, who back then mostly belonged to a religious order, to aid in funding their mission. The archive of Pauselijke Missiewerken therefore includes photographs from Catholic missions all over the world.

on the Catholic Mission & Colonialism:

One common theme throughout the different case studies displayed here, is the connection between colonialism and Catholic mission activity. This connection is not without contestation, and therefore cannot be taken for granted. In order to understand the place of the mission in coloniality, two factors need to be considered. Firstly, Christian-religious discourse has a long history of providing justification for colonial exploitation and violence. Ideas surrounding the conversion of ‘heathens’ and saving their souls indeed played a considerable role in colonisation within and beyond Europe (see e.g. Wynter 1994). Secondly, in the later centuries of colonialism the Christian mission came to play a role in a different way, when Western discourses generally shifted towards a civilising-focus (Derksen 2021, 15-16). Now, the transformation of colonial societies following the model of Western ‘progress’ was emphasised as a goal of colonialism, positing colonial power as benevolent patrons. Christian missions, in their capacity of providing education, healthcare, and population management on the micro-scale, proved to be central in shaping (‘civilising’) colonial subjects and upholding colonial hierarchies (Derksen 2021, 17). Creating infrastructures within, and receiving funding from the colonial state, they were intricately entangled with the latter (Reichgelt 2023, 14).

b. Case I: Missionary Schools in Suriname

Further context

on Missionary ‘Boarding Schools’:

Like in many colonial encounters, missionary schools were mainly used in Dutch colonial Suriname to convert the non-Dutch populations to Christianity. Other ‘boarding schools’ aimed at Indigenous peoples in different colonial contexts, like the Canadian ‘residential school’ system (1883-1996), are widely discussed and criticised, not only within Canadian politics and media, but internationally. Regarding the Dutch Catholic ‘boarding schools’ in Suriname, however, this attention seems to be lacking. Dutch archives contain sources regarding these institutions, but only tell one side of the story: the mission’s historical narratives.

on ‘Boarding Schools’ in Suriname: 

In colonial Suriname, Catholic secondary-school ‘boarding schools’ were concentrated in the capital of Paramaribo. Children from various ethnic groups were handpicked by priests and taken there from all over the country. In the Surinamese countryside, similar institutions were maintained for primary school children. Both in the capital and countryside, the attending children were kept apart according to ethnic groups. There were separate institutions for children of Indonesian descent, Indian descent, Indigenous children, and children from maroon communities. ‘Boarding schools’ were regarded as one of the most successful ways of converting not only children but also their families to Catholic Christianity. Missionary magazines emphasise the children’s excitement about learning, eating, and playing at the schools. And the attending children were indeed provided with food, shelter, and an education that promised prestigious future careers. However, they also had to convert to Catholic Christianity, which could result in friction within families, sometimes remaining to this day. Additionally, until the later years, the children were prevented from practising their own languages and cultures, with the goal of assimilating them into the Dutch-colonial culture. Finally, the boarding schools imposed strict rules and punishments on the children.

on Missionary ‘Boarding Schools’ and Colonialism: 

Missionary schools were closely tied to colonialism as a system and to colonial thought. Beliefs of racial and cultural superiority can easily be recognised in their ‘civilising’ goals. In reverse, colonialism itself is closely intertwined with Christianity and missionary rhetoric: justifications for colonial expansion have often been found in Christianity and the supposed need for its spread.

on Official Mission Narratives (further illustrations):

Missionary magazines on ‘boarding schools’ in the Surinamese countryside, 1963:
_{“Every one of these boarding schools is a light in the Surinamese jungle”.
“The children are happy to be at the boarding-school. They play all types of games. They love learning, but they love eating even more…”.}

Missionary magazines on boarding schools for Indonesian Muslim children in Surinam, 1967:
^{“One could be sorry that these people do not have a true religion; for our missionaries, this has the advantage that they are more receptive to the Happy gospel of Christ”.
“Converts without a certain intellectual level and a certain religious formation could easily fall back to their superstitious life”.}

on Additional Narratives from (Descendants of) Former Attendees of Surinamese ‘Boarding Schools’:

Former attendee of Dutch ‘boarding schools’ in Suriname (2007):
_{“The overall culture was Dutch. And the educational programmes and follow-up programmes, those were also Dutch. [...] And the biggest part of the teachers, those were Dutch […]. So all around, it was a very Dutch culture”.}

Dutch-Surinamese contributor (2024):
_{“My aunt was in a boarding school, I think to have better chances in life. [...] I think the way people see boarding schools in Suriname is as an opportunity to better yourself, to have an education. That’s from the adult point of view. I don’t know how it was for a child”.}

Descendant of attendee of Catholic ‘boarding school’ Rajpur (2024):
_{“As in almost all boarding schools, the regime in Rajpur was quite strict and discipline was demanded of the children. The children received shelter, food and generally good training and education. But there was also a downside to staying at Catholic boarding schools. The students were raised in a Catholic tradition, which later sometimes caused friction with family members who were raised in a different religion”.}

c. Case II: Santigron

Further Context

Santigron is a small town in the countryside of Surinam, some 30 kilometers below Paramaribo. It was therefore quite a surprise that Archbishop Bernardus Alfrink and the first bishop of Paramaribo, Stephanus Kuijpers travelled there. The photograph shown in the exhibition was not the only one taken of the two bishops. In the Catholic magazine St. Clemensbode we find another picture of the two bishops en route to Santigron.^[1] Members of the Santigron community are also mentioned and shown in Catholic magazine articles. For example, the headmaster of the local school, J.H.A. Simson appears in another article from the St. Clemensbode.^[2] However, all these articles view Santigron solely from a Catholic perspective. Santigron is portrayed as a place full of ‘heathens’ that must be converted.^[3] To understand the perspective of the inhabitants of Santigron, and thereby counteract the Catholic narrative, we were greatly helped by the Cultural Anthropologist Salomon Emanuels. Emanuels was able to identify a substantial number of people that were portrayed in the photograph and tell us more about the role they fulfilled in the community. He was also instrumental in helping us understand the complex dynamic between the inhabitants of Santigron and the Catholic missionaries. Especially interesting was the compromise that was established between the missionaries and the inhabitants. The fact that inhabitants continued their traditional religious practices next to the new Catholic rites, shows their agency and illustrates that the narrative told in Catholic magazines only covers half of the story.
 

d. Case III: Malang

Further Context

One out of three: the other photographs

The photograph showcased in the exhibition is one of three taken by the ‘Zusters van het Arme Kind Jezus’ on the same day in Malang. The other photographs depict the same group of locals alongside the sisters.

This image is captioned, “The poor women are thankful for a bag of rice they receive occasionally.” The featured photograph, which shows the sisters distributing rice, also appears in mission newsletters alongside a 1961 article discussing homelessness and begging in Malang. The article highlights the growing number of people seeking assistance at the mission house for basic necessities, such as clothing. The image, depicting the sisters handing out rice to residents of huts located on the school premises, gives the impression that the sisters were actively helping during this difficult time for the locals. However, the photograph’s date—1958—is not mentioned in the article and suggests that such events may not have been as frequent as implied.

The relationship of the local Javanese and the missionaries

In 1958, the school of the ‘Zusters van het Arme Kind Jezus’ in Malang is experiencing significant growth, with an increasing number of students enrolling each year. To support this expansion, the sisters have planned to enlarge the school facilities. However, this decision comes at a troubling cost: the removal of 22 huts located on the school grounds, displacing 81 residents who are amongst the poorest population and have nowhere else to go. Despite the clear impact on the lives of these individuals, the missionaries have not created a plan for alternative housing for these residents. 

From 1958 to 1964, the huts and their impending removal are repeatedly mentioned in updates from the Malang mission in the magazine of the Zusters van het Arme Kind Jezus. Yet these updates show little regard for the well-being of the residents, focusing instead on logistical challenges. By 1960, the sisters speculate, “The huts will soon have to be removed from the property. Whether the military will pull it off?” This situation reveals a stark contradiction between the sisters’ professed mission of charity and their actions, which effectively displace some of the most vulnerable members of the local community. While the school’s growth may symbolize success for the missionaries, it raises critical questions about the ethics of prioritizing education for some at the expense of shelter and dignity for others.

4. Texts in showcases: samples of missionary photographs in albums and promotional sources from the KDC collection

Top shelf:  Institutional albums 

Left: Pictures of the German Benedictine Mission in Wonsan, North-Korea, in 1937. The area surrounding St. Benedikt’s Abbey numbered various Catholic schools for boys and girls. Pictures were made of Korean boys  sledding (rodelen) – most likely not a familiar sport. ALFO-606.

Right: From the Collection Redemptorist ‘Surinaamse Missiën’ 1911-1939. Pictures of boarding school Raipur in Paramaribo for Hindo children in Suriname. ALFO-759.

Middle shelf: Personal collections 

Left: School children on Flores, Indonesia, 1950s. From the album ‘Activities of missionary Lambert T. Quaaden S.V.D.’ ALFO-1063.

Right: Items taken from a published bilingual picture album about Java in the mid-1930s. Part of a private collection of a religious sister from the Dutch province of Limburg. She kept  material from missions in Indonesia, Japan, Africa, India and China, for personal reasons and to inform her mother superior. ALFO-276.

Picture album of brother Ladislaus Oostermeijer who served for the Brothers of Amsterdam in China and Papua New Guinea. ALFO-1322.

Bottom shelf: Circulating missionary pictures

Left: Displays of the stands of four large missionary orders at the Mission Exhibition in Delft, 1950. Scrapbook with newspaper reports, programmes, brochures and posters meant for promoting missions and raising funds. ALFO-507.

Right: Pictures showing the heroism of missionary workers were published in popular magazines, such as the Katholieke Illustratie. The issue of October 10, 1959 trails the adventures of American missionary Leo Arkfeld, S.V.D. (1912-1999) who held a record of flying hours. In the late 1950s the missionary order commissioned a PR person to circulate news stories and raise funds for maintenance of his aircraft and airfields. 

5. Contact information for feedback & remarks

To share your thoughts and feelings about this exhibition, please contact info [at] kdc.nl (info[at]kdc[dot]ru[dot]nl). Please put ‘Exhibition: Glimpses of Colonialism’ in the subject heading.