The Norwegian Missionary Society was closely linked to the state Lutheran Church of Norway. It was also imbued with the Pietism of the Haugian revival which had transformed early nineteenth-century Norwegian Protestantism. The NMS arrived in Madagascar at a propitious time – just as Queen Ranavalona iii was poised to declare Protestant Christianity  the official religion of the Merina state. By the end of the century, the society was only exceeded by the London Missionary Society (which had been in Madagascar for much longer) in numbers of converts and congregations. At the heart of Skeie's fascinating account is a discussion, modelled on Pierre Bordieu's work, of the architectural space of the house: what it says about gender relations, the rearing of children, class configurations and attitudes to modernity. The mission house, designed according to modern European precepts (in contrast to both traditional Norwegian and Malagasy forms), provided discrete spaces for different activities, separating the family from the servants (and the animals). It was a private space, in contrast to the ‘outside’ activities of evangelism which were at the heart of the mission project, especially as these activities increasingly focused on the church building or school room. The house was the ‘inside’ world of the wife, where she hung portraits of Norwegian forebears, arranged furniture designed in a Norwegian style but constructed from local materials by local artisans, developed culinary habits which blended Norwegian cuisine with Malagasy produce. The mission house modelled the order, cleanliness and discipline which, in the external world, the male missionaries were working to instil among their converts. Norwegian missionaries in Madagascar had exceptional endurance, rarely returning home, and working for thirty or more years, often dying in post. The senior Norwegian pastors became veritable patriarchs of their missions. Nevertheless, they were progressive in educating converts to a high level and encouraging indigenous ordination. By 1900 there was a considerable body of intelligent and creative Malagasy pastors, who had evolved subtle ways of sharing power and responsibility with the missionaries, in accordance with Malagasy perceptions of spiritual authority.

In 1895 the French took over Madagascar. The Merina queen was deposed. Support for Protestantism was replaced by a regime which favoured French Catholics and challenged the Protestant domination of formal education. This period was accompanied both by a resurgence of traditional religious cults of protest, and by an indigenous Christian revival which operated quite independent of missionary supervision. The Norwegian missionaries on the spot sympathised with a movement which accorded with their Pietist roots. They also welcomed the desire for an independent Malagasy Lutheran Church, articulated in a 1902 Constitution drafted by a local synod for discussion with the mission. Unfortunately, this did not go down well with the mission board in Stavanger. The NMS secretary, Lars Dahle, made an official visit to Madagascar in 1903. He called an extraordinary synod of the Malagasy Church. In his sermon Dahle berated the Malagasy for constructing an overly ornate ‘elaborate carriage’ when they lacked a horse sufficiently strong to pull it. Dahle considered the local church to be quite incapable of taking over the financial burden from the mission and self-government was a chimera without self-finance. Taking an image from ‘an English cook book’ (first catch your duck), he dismissed the idea of an independent church: ‘what good does one achieve with the recipe …. if one does not have a duck?’

The chief Malagasy pastor, Hans Rabeony, replied with a carefully honed, dignified response, in the polite language prescribed by local custom when speaking to superiors, but implying total disagreement with Dahle's cynical pessimism. Skeie persuasively contextualises this event within the larger mission framework of ‘imperial evangelism’, and the emphasis on colonial tutelage which was subverting earlier missionary ideals in other parts of Africa. Skeie's work is a fine example of the renewed interest in nineteeth- century missionaries from post-colonial and gendered perspectives.