The Journal of George Grenfell

Record summary

George Grenfell’s journals and published letters document Baptist missionary travel in the Congo basin, including encounters with local ritual specialists, sacred objects, illness explanations, and conflicts between Christian teaching and existing religious authority. They offer multiple dated observations rather than a single constructed ethnography, making them useful for comparison across communities and journeys. The material is identifiable through Grenfell’s journals and the Baptist Missionary Society. Interpretation remains difficult because translation, mission strategy, selective publication, and colonial power shaped what was recorded.