The arrival of Belgian rule in the late nineteenth century initiated significant changes in the labor history of Tanganyika, a province in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well the discursive regimes used to legitimize these transformations. After the colonial conquests, unfree labor was justified by paternalistic rather than mythical discourses. Although unfree labor was less common in the postcolonial period, the state forced farmers to sell crops at low prices and build roads for no remuneration. In the Cold War context, the language and practice of developmentalism mediated the coercive practices of the independent Congolese state (known as Zaïre, 1971–1997). The floundering Zaïrian government expanded its presence in Tanganyika due to its partnership with USAID. USAID's rhetoric and practice was influenced by a “bottom up” approach to agricultural production, but the cuts to its funding in the 1980s meant it struggled to soften Mobutu's coercive administration.

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This article charts the history of a White Fathers’ mission in a challenging rural milieu on the margins of the Christian ‘kingdom’ they established in southeastern Congo. It follows the Society from their arrival in the town of Sola in 1909 to the end of the colonial period. The history of this mission contradicts Jan Vansina’s claim that missionaries in general were part of an ensemble of actors able to shatter a millennia-old political tradition in Central Africa. Their position on the margins of their Christian ‘kingdom’ meant that the White Fathers in Sola were not powerful enough to fully enforce their will on the population of the town. Rather, they struggled to gain converts before the First World War because they were unfamiliar with Sola. Afterward they had to compete with waged labour, Protestantism, and traditional ‘secret societies’ for Africans’ attention.

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