Moment of Encounter: Preface by Kees W. Bolle

The tragic encounter of the Bemba, a people of central Africa, and Europeans during the colonial era is seen in this book as a clash between two fundamentally different images of man. Understanding the myths and symbols which express these images is shown to illuminate and deepen our understanding of political history, and a structural relation between the history of religions and political science is established. Rather than at the aesthetic level of artistic creation, the most important function of «creative hermeneutics» lies at the ethical-political level of modern man's quest for peace.