This paper focuses upon the interaction between the Northern Tswana kingdoms, located in present-day Botswana, and evangelizing missionaries. Agents of such highly institutionalized, monotheistic ‘religions’ as Judaism, Christianity and Islam mutually conceive of their faiths as entirely incompatible with others and as defining radically distinct communities. The relationship between such communities involves issues of conflict and coexistence that are basically different from the case of the Tswana. Where ‘religion’ is immanent, institutionally as well as culturally, the interface might not only be characterized by processes of separation, but also by mutual adaptation. Evangelizing missionaries, Christianity and the Tswana interacted on the basis of cultural models that only partially overlapped, a fact that gave rise to some controversy. Coexistence may be attributed to the limited extent to which Tswana ideas about superhuman forces are externalized in public rituals that are perceived as ‘religious’ by missionaries. By extension, notions of ‘faith’ and the sacred-secular divide are questioned as concepts adequate for cross-cultural comparison. Such considerations suggest that the colonized are not necessarily the passive victims of evangelizing missionaries. Yet, amongst the Tswana, Christianity has, at times, contributed significantly to aggravate the tensions and conflicts inherent in Tswana polities. This has led Tswana rulers to tackle various challenges, including the rise of indigenous Christian movements, by incorporating the missionary church in their polities as a kind of ‘state church,’ granting it a monopoly.