It’s tough being a missionary these days. The term is very unpopular, smacking of cultural imperialism and carries the image of a fundamentalist Bible-beater with a pith helmet converting the natives. OK, you insisted. I’ll share the joke:
Q: Why didn’t the cannibals eat the missionary comedian?
A: He tasted kinda funny.
And of course what discussion of missionaries is complete without a picture of a missionary in a pot?
The concept of being a missionary has evolved rapidly over the last two centuries. From early attempts to bring civilization to the savages, to Livingstone’s social progress through commerce, to contemporary attempts to bring light to the darkness, we keep moving toward a more culturally sensitive approach. But at the same time, we are pretty wishy-washy these days. I can’t see a missionary denouncing idolatry and burning sacred fetishes these days. Gone are the good old days when a missionary could just plow into a village and start preaching and converting. We have to be careful now. We’re nervous about being considered insensitive or imperialistic.
So what is it then that a missionary does these days? Well, Lingamish has long been a portmanteau for “linguist-missionary.” I suppose at the time when I first started using that term the idea was that I was a linguist first and a missionary second. Or that I was a missionary by way of being a linguist. Some of the greatest linguistic work has been done by missionaries of various persuasions. Very often linguists arrive in the field to discover a legacy of language development work, religious and secular, has been carried out by people with an agenda involving conversion of the lost.
What does it mean to me today to be a “Mish?” Simply put, MISH stands for “make important stuff happen.” As an outsider we sometimes have the luxury of time to dedicate to a task that wouldn’t otherwise happen. Make important stuff happen. There’s a well that needs digging. Buy a shovel. There’s a church without Bibles. Bring in a box of Bibles. We can paralyze ourselves by wondering if our every action is going to result in dependence. Do something and then stick around long enough to see the impact of what you did. I’ve written about the interdependence of missionary activity before. But let me summarize here. You simply can’t get anything done without “local wealth.” We often perceive ourselves as the ones with the resources and the knowledge. But there are local resources and knowledge upon which “our” projects are completely dependent.
There needs to be something previous to MISH and that’s WISH: watch interesting stuff happen. This is why short-term missions tend to fall flat after the short-termers leave. Good ideas cooked up before arriving on the field almost always misfire. That’s because we caricature the “natives” and their “needs.” They are native to the situation and they do have needs. But there are complex forces at work and patterns of behavior in operation that don’t just step aside once you pull into the village and start handing out Bibles and mosquito nets. Watch interesting stuff happen. That takes time. And I also believe it requires a disciplined ethnographic approach. Keep a journal. Take pictures. Reflect systematically on what you are seeing and build up a body of knowledge and experience about the local situation. Far too often we base our work on very good assumptions (Children need good nutrition to grow) and then we show up and start doing something whacky like handing out Flintstone vitamins (I love those things!). Changing eating habits or religious behavior is really, really complex. People have been eating the way they eat for centuries. Now you want them to suddenly start adding moringa powder to their porridge. A Zambian friend said that the government tried to get people to add margarine to their nsima in order to increase the dietary value of the staple of the Zambian diet. The plan failed horribly. The margarine changed the texture. It left your fingers feeling all greasy. And it changed the taste. Yuck!
We can make important stuff happen but first we need to watch interesting stuff happen. By spending time on the field, getting involved in the lives of the people we serve, and learning the value of local resources and knowledge we increase the chances that our work as a ‘Mish won’t be a mishmash. WISH before you MISH.