Andersson, Efraim (1896-1989)

Efraim Andersson (1896-1989) was a Swedish missionary and Africanist ethnologist. He was sent to the French Congo (Congo Brazzaville) by Svenska Missionsförbundet from 1929 to 1955. He carried out his missionary and ethnographic activity in a changing colonial society. He documented Kongo prophecies in a major book published in 1958, Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo. At the same time, he undertook a strictly ethnographic fieldwork in the Bakuta villages near the Gabonese border, to which he devoted his thesis, Contribution à l’ethnographie des Kuta, defended in 1953. He wrote most of his work after his return to Sweden in 1965.

Keywords: Christian missions | Missionary | 20^th century | Sweden | Congo | Kongo | Kuta | Prophetic movements and Messianism | Ethnographic Collections | Karl-Edvard Laman | Daniel Ndoundou