The study examines the interaction of missionaries and clergymen with the colonial administration in South West Africa/Namibia under German rule (1884–1915). It seeks to put forward a new, more specific picture of members of religious societies often characterised as "advocates of the natives" or "collaborators of the colonial state".

On the basis of detailed archival research of German, Namibian, Finnish, South African and English archival sources the study aims at providing sufficient evidence for the argument that it is not only misleading, but historically incorrect to characterise mission, church and state relations in a colonial society by general terms such as "collaboration" or "opposition", arguing against the assumption that the groups involved had homogeneous social and political structures.