Philippe Denis

The Dominican Friars in Southern Africa: a Social History (1577-1990) (Studies in Christian Mission) Philippe Denis

This work gathers the rather disparate stories of Dominican friars in Southern Africa between 1577 and 1990. Dominicans from Portugal and Portuguese India were present in South-East Africa from 1577 to 1835. Patrick Raymond Griffith, an Irish Dominican, became the first resident bishop in South Africa in 1837. A Dominican mission was established in 1917 with the arrival of a group of English friars. A second group arrived from the Netherlands in 1932. The aim of this work is to provide a social history of the Dominicans in Southern Africa, that is, a history that deals specifically with the social and cultural factors of historical development. The Dominicans ministered in a political, social and cultural context which impacted on their apostolic activities and, in turn, was affected by them. The book's "terminus as quem" is 1990, when the National Party opened a process of political negotiation, thus ending more than forty years of aparteheid rule.