Missionizing and Transforming the Land: Alexander Merensky in Botshabelo Translated title: Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History, Summer 2021, no. 22: Missionizing and Transforming the Land: Alexander Merensky in Botshabelo

Abstract

The Berlin missionary Alexander Merensky founded the missionary village Botshabelo. This involved a severe change to the landscape of the site, as well as the introduction of new plants and animals. This contribution uses two texts by Merensky to illustrate the environmental changes accompanying the mission’s works and is part of a new research field that combines colonial mission history and environmental history. The Botshabelo case shows the local, regional, and global entanglements of mission activities that transformed ecological habitats.