Philippine E-Journals

Framing the Land of the Heathen: The Zamboanga Mission in the Photographs of the Alliance Missionaries

Servando D. Halili Jr.

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

The withdrawal of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) missionaries from China in the mid-1920s to the 1930s saw a major influx of missionaries to the Philippines. It was during these years when the number of missionaries deployed to the Zamboanga Mission ballooned from a handful to around twenty. Unlike their predecessors, these missionaries had the luxury of what may be deemed then as a technological advancement that facilitated a better documentation of their missionary endeavors. Among the most potent instrument used was the camera. Missionaries made judicious use of the instrument to document their activities in the mission field. Along with photographs, the missionaries also produced picture postcards to be sent to their superiors in America. The missionaries, thus, left behind a significant body of visual images that may be considered for study of history.