"Negro psyche": the representation of black people in the writings of missionary Olav Guttorm Myklebust

Abstract

This paper discusses the representation of blacks by the Norwegian missionary Olav Guttorm Myklebust, who worked in South Africa from 1931 to 1939. Although his intention seemed to be to give a friendly and balanced portrait of Africans, Myklebust ended up reproducing and confirming traditional stereotypes. According to him, the primary characteristic of the African mentality is the dominant role played by the emotions at the cost of logic and rational thinking. This suggested a number of presuppositions, namely that Africans were unstable and had only a weak capacity for independent thought. Also, they lived for the moment and displayed little ability to plan for the long term. Furthermore, according to Myklebust, they had little initiative and little endurance when they worked. Africans found it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality and to look at things objectively. They also lied frequently and extensively. Emotionally, they were like children. And not least, they lived in constant fear of evil powers, witches, ancestors, magic, etc. These stereotypes formed part of a colonial ideology that legitimated the idea that Africans were mentally, socially, and culturally inferior to Europeans.