From Papal Bulls to Policy Briefs: Scriptural Justifications of Empire Across Five Centuries

Abstract

This article reads a long series of documents – from 15th-century Papal Bulls on “discovery” and slavery to contemporary policy briefs on “stability”, “governance” and “development” – as a continuous scriptural apparatus of empire. Drawing inspiration from Kibavuidi Nsiangani’s clinical reading of imperial psychology (2014) and his re-centring of African federative projects (2010; this issue), I treat these texts not as transparent descriptions of reality but as ritual instruments that license dispossession. The analysis focuses on three moments: (1) theological charters of conquest, (2) colonial “civilising” decrees and (3) post-Cold War policy frameworks around “good governance” and “humanitarian intervention.” Across these moments, I show recurring narrative devices: infantilisation of African peoples, securitisation of European interests and the erasure of indigenous epistemologies such as Kikongo and Mandombe. The article also highlights the materiality of writing: Latin and later European scripts monopolise legitimacy, while African scripts are depicted as fetish or cipher. By reading imperial documents alongside emerging texts from USK, CENA and Kimbanguist archives, I illustrate how a counter-scriptural tradition is forming, one that refuses to accept the moral grammar of empire. The article closes by suggesting that any credible Pan-African federation must not only reform institutions but also repudiate the textual lineage that normalised our dehumanisation.