Fergal Rhatigan1
Concepts of Development and Embedded Identities of Irish missionaries2
Introduction
Ireland has a long and proud history of its citizens volunteering for work in
developing countries. Religious missionaries are a unique stakeholder in the context
of development and paved the way for other groups of development workers. In 2004
there
were
2,387
Irish
Missionary
working
in
90
countries
(http://www.missionalive.net/directory/survey). This figure has over halved since
1981 when it stood at 5424 missionaries (Holmes, Rees, Whelan, 1993, p51).
Missionaries continue to have an important role and are considered by the
Government as significant players in the Irish development field.
The following remark by Torres cited by” (Levine, 1980, p27) where “Religion is not
simply ‘spiritual’, a disembodied faith brought out on Sundays. Rather it is an integral
part of life, can be applied to the work and life of Irish missionaries. And to think of
missionaries in a development role is to acknowledge that an aspect of mission “is a
calling to responsible participation in human society, including working for human
well being and Justice” (Bosch, 2003, p 403).
Robert Chambers (2005) speaking about those involved in development sees a need to
add a personal dimension. This “implies stepping back and engaging in critical self
examination. To do better we have to examine not just the normally defined agenda of
development ‘out there,’ but ourselves, how our ideas are formed, how we think, how
we change and what we do and do not do”(Chambers, 2005, p185)? How Irish
missionaries think about development and how their ideas are formed are the
questions I will address in this paper.
1
2
PhD Research Student, Department of Sociology NUI Maynooth
My PhD is funded by the IRCHSS Government of Ireland scholarship
1
This paper is drawn from my PhD research, which looks at concepts of development
and embedded identities across three groups of Irish development workers,
missionaries, development workers and medical personnel. I am looking at two
locations in the developing world Africa and Latin America.
This paper is based on in-depth interviews with 30 Irish missionaries and a trip to
Peru to see mission and development at first hand. It represents the findings from my
interviews. A small number of people interviewed have experienced missions in both
Africa and Latin America. Even though each has their own unique experiences of
working in developing countries, there are clear patterns emerging from these
interviews. They were motivated to become missionaries for a variety of different
reasons. What stands out are: a desire not to work in Ireland, to experience something
different, and to give help and succour. Contacts with returned missionaries also
played a part. Very few see their role in terms of conversion. It is quite clear that
many have undergone a change in thinking and this reflects their journey and lifetime
commitment to the mission fields. Religious sisters see their role in the church as very
different to priests and their identity as missionaries is bound up in the work they do.
Concepts of development
The development thinking of Irish missionaries is a rich amalgam of a number of
issues. Central to it is a desire to move beyond the economic to the human, cultural
and social whilst at the same time embracing the necessary political dimension of
development. What is interesting is that concepts of development for both sisters and
priests are similar. Where differences occur they tend to be around the emphasis of
certain aspects or issues in development.
Pieterse notes “we can probably define development as the organised intervention in
collective affairs according to a standard of improvement” (Pieterse, 2001:3).
Development for Parr & Shiva Kumar (2003) has to be about improving the lives of
poor people and this is a view shared by the missionaries I interviewed.
Empowerment along with capacity building and real participation are important
aspects of development. The main issues facing developing countries according to
missionaries are: work; education; health care; housing; fair trade; rights; justice;
poverty and corruption. HIV/AIDS is a huge issue for missionaries working in Africa.
2
One aspect of development which figured prominently in the discourse of those I
interviewed was personal and human development. When they speak of personal
development they are focusing on formation and emphasise the importance of the
dignity of the person. Issues around self-esteem and self-belief are also highlighted.
As one sister puts it “anything that helps people walk tall is development”. These
issues are mentioned because poverty, exploitation and discrimination have stripped
away people’s self esteem. Human development is concerned with development from
the standpoint of the poor according to (Parr & Shiva Kumar, 2003). Missionaries
agree with their view, that it is about “enriching the lives and freedoms of ordinary
people” (Parr & Shiva Kumar, 2003, p48). Empowerment is seen as key to human
development, helping people to help themselves. Education is seen as crucial to
empowerment and this is about creating a critical awareness in people, so that they
can make choices for themselves. A sister in Africa comments that ‘any development
that is not serving human development is not development’.
A Priest working in Africa believes “If people are to live and to be fully human then
we must do something to improve the conditions in which they live, that is not
making them like here, so that they have the basic necessities of life so that they can
live and that is what development is. And therefore it is the very basics of food,
shelter, clothing, infrastructure, water, education and health”. He argues that it is the
responsibility of the state, the church and civil society to work together to ensure a
“material improvement in the circumstances” of people’s lives.
A Latin American perspective is given where “we are in a situation where the ordinary
people are not having their say and we are being dominated by a government which is
not actually working for peoples’ rights. I would not reduce human development just
to the improvement of basic needs in terms of water, electricity, education; it is a
common good in a broader sense.
Development for missionaries is not about rushing in and doing things, it is about
listening to people and figuring out their needs and where they want to go. A sister
working in Africa believes the only way to develop is to work from the ground up and
work at their pace, because they wont say no to a bore hole, but if they can’t maintain
3
it, they will go back to doing what they were doing before. Listening and helping
people to help themselves was repeated time and time again. Another sister puts it
very well when she says, “to have the mind that I am going to develop someone else
is false”.
Latin American missionaries also raise the issue of rights and talk about politics and
democracy in the broad sense. Here the talk is about active citizenship and leadership
formation. Some people mentioned the failures of the political system and the
democratic structures to provide a voice for the poor. This is summed up by a
missionary working in Latin America where development for him “has to do with real
formation of people, it has to do with formation of leaders, it has to do with leadership
formation in relation to the situation in which they are living in and the possibilities
available to them to get involved in decision making in the life of the community, the
barrio. It has to do with leadership formation, getting involved in local leadership at
local Government level and ultimately at big Government level. So that is the way I
understand development from a missionary point of view”.
Some missionaries are critical of development projects. One sister believes that
putting something there that the local people cannot manage is not development.
Another also working in Africa believes “development is an ongoing process that
really is insulted by projects, receipts and reports”.
Some missionaries and especially those who have had dealings with international
donors are critical of the conditions attached to aid. They see a “desire to spend
money”. They also reject the idea that solutions can be imposed from outside.
A number of missionaries mentioned that the development world has its own technical
language and some referred to it as jargon. One priest described it as their jargon it is
not my jargon. It is however a language that many missionaries have had to learn,
especially those who have had dealings with donors and multilateral agencies.
Embedded identities
From my research it is possible to identify a number of factors, which I am calling
embedded identities that play an important role in shaping the development thinking
4
of Irish missionaries. These embedded identities are occupation and the location of
the development experience, a subset are education and the length of the development
experience. These identities not only have a formative role, they also help to explain
any similarities or differences between groups and regions.
Occupation
Occupation has a significant bearing on development thinking. The type of work
exposes them to various aspects of development, such as dealings with donors, seeing
development projects in action with their associated successes and failures. Work also
helps to define who they are. Sisters for example define themselves as missionaries on
the basis of the work they do, be it doctor, nurse or teacher.
I asked missionaries whether they would classify their work as development work and
the majority said yes. A priest working in Latin America illustrates this point when he
replied ‘Oh very much so. If we understand that the church really is at the service of
the development or the transformation of the world according to kingdom values, then
you see it in the lines of development of individuals and communities and these
develop according to the way they tackle their everyday situations and therefore the
human problems that they are faced with so that has to be development work’.
Mission
What is interesting from my research is that for many missionaries their definition of
development is related to their understanding of mission. It must be admitted that
some found it difficult to articulate their understanding of mission. What is observable
is that their thinking in relation to mission has changed over the years. There are many
facets to mission but a common theme amongst them is that mission is relational and
bringing good out in people. Mission is not simply about evangelism in terms of cult
and ritual. There are what Bosch refers to as the two different mandates, one Spiritual
and the other social responsibility (See Bosch, 2003, p403). These two mandates are
very much in evidence in the approach of those to whom I spoke. Missionary sisters
saw the pastoral / spiritual role integrated in their social role. The mission themes
highlighted by missionaries are: personal formation, dignity of the person and justice.
5
A good overview of what mission is about is given by a priest who works in Latin
America where his mission is:
“To proclaim a message that directly has to do with people’s dignity. That the
love of God is available to all people and that love means something that is
incarnate, is part of the life of any particular situation and has to be expressed
in basic rights. Dignity expressed in people not being hungry, people being
fed, people having a right to education to develop their minds to be critical.
Mission also has to do with decent housing. It has to do with accessibility to
all the great values of modernity. And it also has to do with the building of a
society based not just on modern values that have to do with individuality but
bringing native values like solidarity into the political arena. Mission has to
do with development. Mission has to do with an enjoyment of the human
experience and that this is directly related to something that is God given”.
Liberation theology has had a huge influence on the thinking of Latin American
missionaries. One missionary who was in Latin America at a time when Liberation
theology was in its infancy thinks they “were very lucky. There was great buzz about,
a lot of talk about theology; there was a lot of writing, huge effervescence of writing
and studies’. For (Boff & Boff, 1985, p 13), Liberation theology, “seeks to articulate a
reading of reality from the perspective of the poor, in the concern for their liberation.
Motivated by this basic stance, this theology then utilises the human and social
sciences, projects theological meditations, and calls for pastoral activities calculated
to foster the progress of the oppressed, aiding them on their journey”. Engaging in a
social analysis of the experiences of the poor and the causes of poverty is key to
Liberation theology and this is evident in the approach of missionaries and
particularly of those in Latin America. Social analysis for (Henriot and Holland, 1986,
p7) “is not simply an exercise in scholarship. Rather, it is analysis in the service of
action for justice. It is an integral part of the faith that does justice”.
Work
It is clear that mission and its associated attitudes and beliefs have a bearing on
development thinking, but that is not the full story. Day to day work activities bring
missionaries into contact not only with development in practice but also the reality of
life for the poor in developing countries. Working conditions present a challenge to
missionaries. For those that worked in the medical field, it was the practice of
medicine where they worked with very limited equipment but maximised their usage.
6
In day to day practice missionaries talked of using local knowledge and traditional
medicines.
A number of missionaries worked directly in community and rural development and
others were involved with or exposed to development projects on the ground. These
missionaries gained first hand experience of development. They were involved in
working with communities addressing their needs in areas such as water and income
generation. They learned about the importance of working with local people and the
benefits of using local knowledge and seeing what can be lost through the
development project. Some respondents remarked that development is slow and takes
patience. They stress the importance of listening to the local community and going at
the speed of the local community. The goals in development projects should be set
locally and not imposed from outside.
The missionaries also had a lot of contact with donor agencies and working with them
required a lot of dialogue. Donors would have a lot of money to spend and would
want things done in a certain way and would want to spend it quickly. This presented
a challenge for the missionaries and they would argue with them and say it can’t be
done this way. Some of the missionaries recalled that sometimes they would tell the
donors that they didn’t want their money if they were going to force them to do things
in a certain way. After a while some of the donor agencies would get used to way the
missionary worked. One missionary gave the example of working with a multilateral
agency and recalls “they wanted us to train so many community health workers in
three years, we said no we aren’t going to that you couldn’t. You have to go at the rate
the people are going. They were making boreholes at the same time; they were going
to do so many boreholes in three years. We said we are not doing that, it will take at
least five years if not more to get that number of people trained”.
The missionaries I spoke to aren’t static just following the same cycle year in year
out. Change takes many forms for some it comes early in their missionary life for
others it comes later. In some cases change has had a profound influence on their
thinking. Retraining is a feature of change. A number of missionary sisters who had
previously worked in hospitals retrained and went into public health or community
development. These missionaries felt that by moving away from hospitals brought
7
them into closer contact with people. It also gave them greater insights into peoples’
needs and to see the importance of improving health status.
For others it can be specific life events that bring about a change in thinking and
practice. One priest recalls standing over a mass grave in Africa and remembers,
“trying to say what Am I about? What is mission about? What is Church
about? Where are we failing? What are we really at and what vision do the
people have the members of our church of what it’s all about? So what I felt at
that time was that I must change my own approach and to try to, and what I
really felt was that it must be something about an inner transformation a
conviction, to facilitate that in the hearts of people. Since then I stopped sort of
material development because as a priest there was confusion, the more I got
involved in building schools and taking food into X and the more confused the
people were about who I was as a priest and what the church was about”.
Another missionary who worked in Latin America spoke of the challenges he
encountered where ‘as a missionary you are faced with a question of what you are
there to do? Go down the traditional route, build a church and do the sacramental bit.
Or sit and listen to the people and see what their needs are. Allow the reality of the
people to affect you. This implies a need to look at and have a rethinking of your
theology’.
Education
For a number of missionaries, formal education and training during their time
overseas has been liberating and has given them the tools to be more critically aware
and has also enhanced the work they do. Education has in some cases had a profound
impact on their thinking. A missionary in Latin America recalls how a course he took
on social development raised a consciousness within him about the problems facing
the people and prompted him to try and do something more about them.
One sister who worked in Africa took a course in Public health medicine and the
focus of her work shifted from the hospital to outreach work. She describes how she
really “got interested in health and development, health development, I got interested
in Health. The public health course gave her “Sociology, anthropology, learning and
all that kind of thing and my little medical world blew apart”.
8
Location
Location is another important variable that contributes to the thinking of development
workers. There are two aspects to location, one is the life experience of living in a
place and the second is the particular issues pertaining to a region. Learning about
development comes from being exposed to the realities of everyday life in developing
countries. Denis Goulet as cited by Storey, gives a powerful description of the world
in which these workers are embedded, where “underdevelopment is “shocking: the
squalor, disease, unnecessary deaths and the hopelessness of it all: no man
understands if underdevelopment remains for him a mere statistic reflecting low
income, poor housing, premature mortality or underemployment. The most
empathetic observer can speak objectively about underdevelopment only after
undergoing personally or vicariously, the shock of underdevelopment” (Storey, 2003,
p 25).
One Latin American missionary recalls his early days of being in a vast parish and
asking “what do you do, you see all these things around you, you see poverty, very
poor housing no water no lights no sewerage, very poor buses, very insipient schools.
For me it was different to see it really, than to have read it in magazines or heard it in
talks”. He also remembers the first five years “as a learning experience and that is
certainly true, trying to learn the language, trying to understand culture and what
makes people tick and what is important to them”.
Missionaries are embedded in the issues of a particular country or region. In Peru for
example the issues of rights and democracy are very prominent in the minds of people
there. This stems from the growing inequalities in the country and a political history
where the democratic spaces of Peru are seen as favouring the elite and marginalizing
the poor. For many missionaries working in Africa the reality of the aids pandemic as
an issue is uppermost in their minds.
This long-term connection missionaries have with developing countries is also
important. They are living in the midst of people and communities struggling to
survive. Many spoke of what they had learned from the people and felt that they had
received more than they had given. There is a tremendous value attached to living in a
community for a long time. One missionary in Latin America believes it gives you the
9
chance to figure out how the people tick. He maintains that there is a whole lot of
stuff, cultural perceptions etc that you only get by being present with and present in
over a period of time. And it is through this presence that you get a glimpse of what
the people are saying.
Conclusion
Concepts of development for missionaries are rooted in the totality of their life
experience in the developing world. The discourse is fairly uniform and the issues
highlighted by Irish missionaries are: Poverty, justice, fair trade, education and health.
My research leads me to conclude that their development thinking is formed in the
main through a process of informal learning. As actors in the field they construct
meaning out of their overall development experience. The main factors in this process
of learning are the embedded identities of location - the lived reality of life in
particular regions and occupation - their work. Lave and Wenger (1991) who set out a
theory of social practice provide a useful framework for understanding the process of
learning and the role of embedded identities in the construction of concepts of
development. A theory of social practice for them “emphasises the relational
interdependency of agent and world, activity meaning, organisation learning and
knowing. It emphasises the inherently socially negotiated character of meaning and
the interested concerned character of the thought and action of persons-in-activity
(Lave and Wenger, 1991, p 51).
10
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