Missionary practices and religious knowledge in Eastern Africa: the writing of Friar João dos Santos’ Etiópia Oriental (1586-1609)

Abstract

This article explores the circulation of religious experiences and knowledge in the missionary textuality of Dominican Friar João dos Santos, addressing the historical context of missionary activities in Eastern Africa, a target of conversion efforts since the mid-16th century. Delving deeper into missionary practices, the article examines episcopal networks and local knowledge transmission circuits in which the Dominican was engaged, within a transcultural religious universe characteristic of a frontier space. His work serves as a guide for missionary activity in that territory, within the framework of the confessional practices promoted by post-Tridentine Catholicism.