African Catholic examines how French imperialists and the Africans they ruled imagined
the religious future of French sub-Saharan Africa in the years just before and after
decolonization. The story encompasses the political transition to independence, Catholic
contributions to black intellectual currents, and efforts to alter the church hierarchy to
create an authentically “African” church. Elizabeth Foster recreates a Franco-African
world forged by conquest, colonization, missions, and conversions—one that still exists
today.
Elizabeth A. Foster is the author of Faith in Empire: Religion, Politics, and Colonial
Rule in French Senegal, 1880–1940, which won the Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize
from the French Colonial Historical Society. She is Associate Professor of History at
Tufts University.
In English
