A. The origins

By Father Joseph Perrier. The Society of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) was born in Algeria, founded in 1868 by Mgr Charles Lavigerie, archbishop of Algiers. Did you say: "White Fathers?"

Lavigerie, in fact, would soon place a triple requirement before these new missionaries:   - You will speak the language of people. - You will eat their food. - You will wear what they wear.

Mgr Charles Lavigerie Archbishop of Algiers

T his New Missionary Society took therefore, at the beginning, the arab dress: the gandoura, the arab cloak and the chéchia, with as a religious sign a rosary carried around the neck like a necklace.


Noviciate 2009 Burkina

Their popular nickname of" White Fathers" comes from this arab dress that they would keep while penetrating to the heart of the African continent

Social works, clinics, schools, farming development: such would be their work, in the beginning, in Algeria . But Lavigerie saw bigs. When accepting the archidiocese of Algiers, he had written to one his friends": Algeria is an open door to the continent... "After the opening of the novitiate, in 1868, vocations arrive numerously enough so that in 1876, a first caravan of three missionaries can leave for Timbouktou. Unfortunately, they were all slaughtered by the desert nomads.

Two years after, in 1878, another caravan of several missionaries arrives to the port of Mombassa, on the East coast of Africa. After three months of walking, it reached the edges of Lake Victoria and settled in Uganda. Other caravans would follow, often in difficult conditions. The African adventure of the White Fathers was begun. At the death of the Cardinal Lavigerie, in 1892, 278 Missionaries of Africa, of 5 Nationalities were working already in 6 countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo and Zambia.

Today, they are 1 541 Missionnaires of Africa, of 37 Nationalities, that work in 42 Countries, in 269 communities. (The Missionaries of Africa in Formation -Nairobi - Kenya 2006).

One year after the foundation of the Missionaries of Africa - White Fathers -, Mgr Lavigerie founded, in 1869, the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa.

The researchers can consult our archives in Rome:
E-mail des archives : archivio@mafrome.org
E-mail: Bibliothèque: biblioteca@mafrome.org


Also in Paris 5 rue Verlomme 75003 Paris France
Fr. Pierre Féderlé Consultez notre Bibliothèque
Fr.. Jacques Delattre Archiviste
Bibliography on the Company and its founder
Other books written by "Missionaries of Africa".

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