The White Fathers (French: Pères Blancs), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (Latin: Missionarii Africae) and abbreviated MAfr, are a Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right for men. They were founded in 1868 by Charles Lavigerie, who was then the Archbishop of Algiers. The society focuses on evangelization and education, primarily in Africa. As of 2021, the Missionaries of Africa comprised 1,428 members from 36 nationalities, working in 42 countries across 217 communities.

The cholera epidemic of 1867 caused the death of 80,000 people in French Algeria and left a large number of Algerian orphans, prompting the establishment of the society of White Fathers in Maison-Carrée (now El-Harrach), near Algiers. While the initial focus of the White Fathers was on the education and Christian instruction of these children, the society's founder, Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who was then the Archbishop of Algiers, envisioned the society's mission extending to the conversion of Arabs in the Maghreb and the peoples of Central Africa to Christianity.

Lavigerie instructed his missionaries to integrate with local cultures by speaking the native language, eating the same food, and wearing the same clothing. As a result, they adopted traditional North African attire for their vestments: the gandoura for the cassock, the burnous for the mantle, and the chechia for the zucchetto. They also wore their rosaries with crucifixes as necklaces, symbolizing their religion and imitating the misbaha of the marabouts. This distinctive attire earned them the nickname "White Fathers".

A novitiate was established in 1868, and missionary posts were set up in Kabylie and the Sahara. In 1876, three missionaries traveling to Timbuktu were killed by desert nomads. In 1878, ten missionaries departed from Algiers to establish missions at Lakes Victoria, Nyassa, and Tanganyika. That same year, a caravan of missionaries arrived at the port of Mombasa and, after a three-month trek, reached Lake Victoria.

The White Fathers were the largest Christian missionary society operating in Zambia and among the earliest to settle in the country. Their first station, established in 1891 among the Mambwe people in the Tanganyika-Malawi corridor, predated the establishment of British rule. The Mambwe had been harassed by the politically and linguistically dominant Bemba people of northern Zambia, towards whom the White Fathers subsequently directed their efforts.

In 1898, the establishment of the Chilubula mission by Bishop Joseph Dunpont of the Nyasa Vicariate marked the beginning of the White Fathers' mission in Lubemba. This expansion allowed the society to extend its influence further than any other missionary organization in northern Rhodesia. By the mid-1930s, the White Fathers had established approximately twenty missions, primarily in present-day northern and Luapula provinces, with a smaller presence in the eastern Province of Zambia.

Additionally, much of the documentation on the Luganda, spoken in Uganda—such as grammars, dictionaries, and individual articles—is available in English or French. This can be traced back to the French Catholic missionary congregation of the White Fathers and their influence during the colonial period, between 1885 and 1921. The White Fathers, who arrived in the Lake Victoria region in 1879, published six Luganda grammars and dictionaries in French.

White Father missionaries in French Algeria ransomed a young slave, Adrien Atiman, and arranged for his education. Atiman later became a medical catechist with the White Fathers at Karema and is known for providing a significant autobiographical account of his enslavement, subsequent freedom, and integration into the White Fathers' mission.