Identity area
Identifier
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Mission Share(d) Digital Archives
Other form(s) of name
Type
Community
Educational
Church Archive, Religiuous Archives, Institutional Archives
Contact area
Type
Address
Street address
Locality
Region
Country name
Postal code
Telephone
Fax
URL
Note
c/o Post Office Box 5400, Adum - Kumasi
Description area
History
A central methodological element of the project is the systematic analysis of written and visual materials that have emerged in the context of Protestant missionary and partnership work between Austria and Ghana since the 1950s. These include, in particular:
• Missionary magazines, parish newsletters, annual reports, and donation folders from Austria and Switzerland (EAWM, Basel Mission)
• Church publications, conference documents, and programs from Ghana (PCG, women's organizations, partner congregations)
Geographical and cultural context
This project is dedicated to the analysis of self-images and images of others in Protestant missionary practice between Austria and Ghana. It focuses on theological, cultural and social anthropological, and contemporary historical perspectives, which are interwoven within the framework of an interdisciplinary, historically and decolonially reflective research project.
Mandates/Sources of authority
• University of Vienna: African Studies, Protestant Theology, Religious Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Institute of Educational Science (contact via Leo, Vanessa, Maria)
• Archive of the Basel Mission (contact via Maria)
• Archive of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (contact via Elvis)
• Archive of the Evangelical Church in Austria (contact: Johannes Leitner)
• Austrian Protestant Topothek (contact: Johannes Leitner)
• Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture (contact via Desiree or Maria via EMS)
• Bread for the World (contact via Maria)
Administrative structure
Elvis Kofi Kwarteng, Administrator
Records management and collecting policies
Buildings
Virtual
Holdings
• Oral histories and testimonies from Ghanaian Christians, missionaries, diaspora communities, and participants in cultural exchange programmes.
• Church and institutional records from both Ghana (e.g., Presbyterian Church of Ghana, women’s groups, educational institutions) and Austria (e.g., Evangelical Association of World Mission, Basel Mission Archive).
• Multimedia collections, including photographs, letters, publications, audio recordings, and videos.
• Narrative and scholarly reflections that contextualize materials within broader decolonial and historical frameworks
Finding aids, guides and publications
It examines how actors who were involved in missionary contexts or who came into contact with them in various ways remember, describe, and locate themselves and their counterparts – and how these perspectives have changed over the course of more than seven decades, across cultural and geographical boundaries.
Access area
Opening times
Always Open
Access conditions and requirements
Accessibility
Services area
Research services
Reproduction services
Public areas
Control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
January 2025
Language(s)
English
German
Script(s)
Sources
Maintenance notes
Access points
Access Points
- Education (Thematic area)
- Arts and Culture (Thematic area)
- Communication (Thematic area)
- Ghana, Austria and Topothek (Digital platform) (Geographic subregion)