Why missionaries came to africa

Initially, a majority of the missionary journeys was done with English-Speaking Protestants and later, in the s and s, they were joined by continental Protestantism from Germany, Switzerland and France. West Africa owes to the Christian missionaries not only a new religious faith which has changed the beliefs and life of millions of people, but also the foundation of western education.

The Portuguese were the first to introduce the Christian faith into West Africa but following their departure from the West Coast in the mid-seventeenth century, the Christian religion survived only in Upper Guinea where a bishop was maintained in the Cape Verde Islands serving also a part of the mainland.

It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. In this chapter, we shall examine how Christianity and Western-style education influenced West Africans values, attitudes and life-styles. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Unlike the Portuguese, the French colonial officials encouraged the Christian missionaries in the promotion of formal education and social services, notably health.

In the field of education, however, the missionaries had to adjust their programmes to fit in with the policy of assimilation. From the second half of the eighteenth century, a fervent wave of evangelical spirit developed in the United Kingdom, Europe and the New World which inspired men and women with the missionary fervour to found religious societies whose members would go out to Africa and the other lands. They were to spread the message of the Gospel, render social services to the people and to assist in the suppression of slavery and the slave trade.

Similar organizations were formed in several other European countries. The evangelical societies founded in the Americas included the Baptist Missionary Board and the Nova Scotian Methodists, whose members went to work among the Maroons, who had settled mainly in Liberia.

While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe.

These missionary societies laid the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church in West Africa, which lasted through to the independence period when African clergy replaced the white pastors.

The vast majority of the people of The Gambia are Moslems; but a sizeable percentage of the population, especially in and around the capital Banjul, are Christians. Early missions conducted by Roman Catholics were short-lived. They were followed in turn by the Methodists and the Roman Catholics.

Within a short time the missionaries spread their activities inland. Barely ten years later, after the first missionaries arrived, the Methodists, for example, had started a station as far inland as MacCarthy Island. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone.

Besides education, they cared for the sick. Thus, as early as , the Roman Catholic sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in as an ordained priest.

He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in His work, however, did not extend much beyond Cape Coast and the neighbouring area. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel later known as Presbyterian missionaries started work at Osu Accra. Soon after, in they moved up to Akropon on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country.

Joseph Dunwell. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in , and won the support of the Asante king.

The American Episcopal Evangelical A. Zion Church owes its foundation in Ghana to Bishop J. Bryan Small, who started work first at Keta in In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood.

But despite the work of Portuguese missionaries based on the island of Sao Tome and later of Spanish missionaries in Benin, it was not until the nineteenth century that the Christian religion was firmly established in Nigeria. It started first among the Yoruba recaptives who had embraced the Christian faith while in Sierra Leone freed from slave trading ships by the British Royal Naval Squadron , and who returned home between and The pastors of the Church Missionary Society, from Badagry and later from Sierra Leone, visited these Christian communities in Abeokuta and other towns.

Among the first missionaries was the Rev. Success followed the efforts of the pioneer missionaries. Next, branches of the C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. Other missionaries opened mission stations in the country. These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in About the same time, the Church of Scotland Presbyterian headed by the Rev. Hope Waddell started pioneering work, in , in Calabar.

Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. Hugh Goldie and William Anderson. Another missionary whose memory is revered in Nigeria was Mary Slessor, she arrived in the country in , and for many years worked assiduously as a missionary nurse. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero.

A permanent station was established in Lagos in , soon followed by others at Lokoja, Abeokuta and Ibadan. By , the church had spread further inland, thanks to Father Joseph Lutz who started work around Onitsha in and spread the gospel in many parts of the present day Imo and Anambra States. Another important Catholic missionary in this area was the Irishman, Bishop Shanahan. Although Lokoja had a small C. Their converts, for many years, were confined to the people of southern Nigerian extraction resident in the north, and to the-large non-Muslim population of the north.

They were followed by other major missionary bodies, including the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. As they could not recruit British missionary volunteers initially, the Church Missionary Society sponsored the services of German missionaries, who were Lutherans, to come out to Sierra Leone.

The first batch, who came out between and , included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. The Methodists, known as the Wesleyan Missionaries after their founder , arrived in Freetown in Their converts increased steadily in numbers until when a section broke away to form the first independent African, Christian church in West Africa, called the West Africa Methodist Church.

In spite of the division, the parent Methodist missionary church played an important role in the history of Christianity in Sierra Leone.

After an unsuccessful beginning by the society of African Missions SMA , this missionary body moved into other territories in what is now Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate.

The impact of Christianity on West African society has persisted to this day. While it has brought undoubted benefits, it has also harmed the traditional way of life. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. Apart from giving to the converts a new religious faith which they consider is superior to the traditional religions, the Christian missionaries did pioneering work in introducing new crafts, industries, Western education and modern health services.

The Christian religion teaches the doctrine of one supreme God and is opposed to the worship of any other forms of deity. Its message was that of love and the universal brotherhood of mankind. In this respect the Christian religion therefore differed from the traditional religions of West Africa, which along with an acceptance of one Supreme Being worshipped a hierarchy of gods. Without denying that prior to the introduction of Christianity in West Africa the people had developed their own crafts, one must admit that it was Christian missionaries who introduced modern forms of crafts such as carpentry and masonry.

Whatever this means, this shows that there was unwillingness on the part of some missionaries to honestly search, and be open to Tswana beliefs and practices. They failed to approach them with open minds.

Another problem was that the missionaries came from a society where religion was reflected by church buildings, and represented religious beliefs and practices. The absence of these structures among the Batswana was an attestation of the Tswana 'heathen' life heathenism , lack of a concept of Modimo and the total absence of religious beliefs and practices. Influenced by this sort of understanding, Moffat further presented the following picture about the Batswana:.

This may be so; but during years of apparently fruitless labour, I have often wished to find something, by which I could lay hold on the minds of the natives, - an altar to an unknown God, the faith of their ancestors, the immortality of the soul, or any religious association; but nothing of this kind ever floated in their minds.

Campbell very graphically said, 'with the eyes of an ox'. To tell them, the gravest of them, that there was a Creator, the governor of the heavens and earth, of the fall of man, or the redemption of the world, the resurrection of the dead, and immortality beyond the grave, was to tell them what appeared to be more fabulous, extravagant, and ludicrous than their vain stories about lions, hyenas and jackals Moffat Moffat's descriptions of 'Native' beliefs and practices are on the whole, sketchy and prejudiced a product of his strong belief in the superiority of his own European culture.

He was obviously more interested in the Setswana language than the customs of the Batswana see Schapera xix. He does not seem to have been a good observer of how the people lived. This is understandable because he was not anthropologically trained. He also had no prior knowledge of African life and ways. He was not trained to ask the right questions.

His only cultural model was European. He therefore failed to ask the right questions in his investigations of the people's practices. He seemed to have quickly drawn conclusions about Tswana religion before he had been among the people long enough to have an intimate experience of their culture. Consequently, his view of the indigenous beliefs of the Batswana lacks depth. The cumulative effect of all these limitations led to his failure to discern even the slightest evidence of Batswana's belief in Modimo, the Supreme Being.

What Moffat saw as, 'A profound silence [that] reigns on this awful subject was, for instance, interpreted differently by the earliest European explorers, such as Dr.

Contrary to Moffat's views on the Batswana, David Livingstone, another LMS missionary among the Batswana, who was also Moffat's son-in-law, came to realise that Batswana indeed possessed religious beliefs and practices Schapera He wrote at length about these religious beliefs. While he was very skeptical about Batswana's religiosity in his early writings, he later wrote more sympathetically and positively about these people.

For example, just after his arrival among Batswana in , when he was still unfamiliar with the Tswana beliefs and while still heavily influenced by what he heard from those he found in Africa, Livingstone wrote thus:. I could not ascertain that they had the least idea of a future state. And though they have some notions which seem to us to be connected with a belief in its existence, I have not met one who could put the necessary links together in the chain of reasoning so as to become possessed of the definite idea.

Indeed, they all confess that they never think of anything connected with death, and do not wish the introduction of that subject. Their conceptions of Deity are of the most vague and contradictory nature, and his name conveys no more to their understanding than the idea of superiority.

Hence they do not hesitate to apply the name of God to their chiefs, and I was every day shocked by being addressed by that title, and although it often furnished me with a text from which to tell them of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, yet it deeply pained me, and I never felt so fully convinced of the lamentable deterioration of my species before.

It is indeed a mournful truth that 'man has become like the beasts that perish' Schapera A few years later, however, David Livingstone's views had drastically changed. He found that Batswana were clearly and most positively asserting 'that of old, before they ever heard of white men, they were in the daily habit of speaking of God and referring certain events to his will.

All those who possess intelligence speak in the same strain' Schapera He only came to this realization after spending time with the people and after becoming acquainted with their beliefs and practices. In , he came up with a definite conclusion that the people had a clear belief in a Supreme Being. This conclusion was poignantly captured thus:.

There is no necessity for beginning to tell even the most degraded of all these people of the existence of a God, or of the future state, the facts being universally admitted. Everything that cannot be accounted for by common causes is ascribed to the Deity, as creation, sudden death etc On questioning intelligent men among the Bakwains as to their former knowledge of good and evil, of God, and the future state, they have scouted the idea of any of them ever having been without a tolerably clear conception on all these subjects.

Respecting their sense of right and wrong, they profess that nothing we indicate as sin ever appeared to them otherwise, except the statement that it was wrong to take more wives than one, and they declare that they spoke in the same way of the direct influence exercised by God in giving rain in answer to prayers of the rain-makers, and in granting deliverance in times of danger, as they do now, before they ever heard of white men.

The want, however, of any form of public worship, or of idols, or of formal prayers or sacrifice, make. Bechuanas appear as among the most godless mortals known anywhere Moffat himself actually amended or withdrew many of his earlier statements, as he came closer and closer to the people and gained a better and intimate understanding of their cultural beliefs and practices.

The image of Modimo that eventually emerged from Livingstone's writings was later reproduced and confirmed by modern African scholars of Tswana traditional religions such as Setiloane Modimo is believed to have created all things, the One who penetrates and permeates all things and the One who is the Creator and the Source of all life Setiloane When Moffat began to translate the Bible into Setswana in , he had no other indigenous name equivalent to that of the God of the Bible.

He therefore had no choice but to adopt and use the same Tswana name, Modimo to designate God or the Supreme Being. Concerning this, Mackenzie says that the idea to use this word came from the Tswana interpreters. Morimo God has not been mentioned in the preceding description of native worship and superstition. When missionaries first met with Bechuanas they addressed them through the Dutch language.

They found Bechuanas who could already speak both languages, and who therefore acted as interpreters. At Griqua Town there were and are still regular services in both languages. The invariable equivalent for God in Dutch, given by all the interpreters, was Morimo.

It was no suggestion of the missionaries: the Bechuana interpreters, after hearing concerning God in the Dutch language, said that their name for Him was Morimo. But the Bechaunas would seem never to have entirely forgotten God. His name was found by the missionaries still floating in their language Mackenzie This also was the case in their teaching and preaching. Right from the onset, their Batswana interpreters used the name Modimo for the Supreme Being, because he was the Supreme Being for them Pauw In this way, missionaries were constantly confronted by the Tswana way of life, which Willoughby, describes as follows:.

Bantu life is basically religious Religion so pervades the life of the people that it regulates their doing and governs their leisure to an extent that it is hard for Europeans to imagine Willoughby In the heart of their beliefs and practices, as Willoughby points out, was the concept of badimo and Modimo. Everything for them revolved around Modimo. They did not know how to live without these spiritual entities. Everything for them, be it politics, economics or social, revolved around the religious beliefs and practices.

Missionaries and the Batswana Traditional Way of Life. As Willoughby has stated above, Batswana had a strong religious and cultural tradition of their own.

Though the missionaries found this very rich African background, most of them had an attitude of contempt for the African way of life. They considered it to be backward and inadequate.

Some alluded to the fact that Africans were heathens and almost irreligious. Robert Moffat, He talked about a total absence of religious structures and a concept of the Supreme Being Moffat The missionaries usually equated non-western cultures with degradation, barbarism, ignorance and darkness Moffat They wanted Africans to denounce their culture and adopt western ways.

Concerning this missionary attitude, J. Freeman writes:. They must be secluded not only from the heathen portion of the community but from their home habits, customs and occupations, even though their parents may be Christian, lest they imbibe that love of a life among the flocks and herds by which natives seem so Mackenzie The desire of the missionaries was that the Africans abandon their religion and culture and adopt western religion and culture, which they hoped would facilitate the extension of colonialism.

The motive was, therefore, to prepare the Africans mentally for the takeover by colonizers Magorian The aim was to have Batswana children grow up being ignorant of their African identity and then becoming Europeanized in their ways and thinking, thus softening their hearts to embrace the European colonial takeover from a tender age. For European missionaries there was a thin line between westernizing the world and converting it to Christianity Latouche Influenced by that understanding, missionaries spread Christian values and western civilization simultaneously.

Western civilization, Christianity, commerce and colonization were believed to be inseparable. On the other hand, African traditions and cultural practices were perceived to be inferior, uncivilized and primitive. Reproducing their culture and imposing it on the Africans was therefore seen as part of the missionary mandate to ' civilise' Africans.

God was thus presented to Batswana in a foreign idiom, as if the indigenous people had no language of their own Amadiune Seeing this as part of their mission work, therefore, missionaries co-operated with the colonizers in weakening the religious institutions on which the Tswana ancient cultures were founded de Vries The missionaries targeted the rulers for conversion, hoping that once the Chiefs were converted, their subjects would follow suit, thus preparing the ground for the colonial government.

It was for this reason that David Livingstone believed that the missionary work had an important cultural role, that is, 'to leaven the alleged primitiveness of African society with Christian western culture' Martin In fact, most missionaries in Southern Africa believed that their way of life represented values of universal application.

They saw it as their moral duty to 'civilise' Africans. Civilization in this case referred to European values, standards and way of life. They also regarded themselves as chosen by God, in terms of their religion and their nations, with a duty to retrieve Africans from backwardness, heathenism and superstitious influences.

They aimed at bringing these customs into conformity with western standards Martin The weakening power of the chiefs bogosi was understood as a destruction of Tswana political and cultural systems. The failure of the missionaries to make many converts during Sekgoma's reign was, for instance, seen as a good reason to destroy powers of the chiefs. Tswana chiefs who resisted Christianity, were removed with the assistance of the colonial government Moffat B Wookey, for instance, advocated for the removal of Sekgoma Letsholathebe of the Batawana from the throne because of his refusal to embrace missionary teachings.

Missionaries advocated for a direct British rule, hoping that the system would make it easy for them to spread western culture, which in their view, was superior and friendlier to the spread of Christianity. Through the weakening of the powers of chiefs they hoped that they would be able to impose rulers who would readily support this process.

This partly explains their taking sides with Christian rulers in cases of dispute with their non-Christian counterparts.

Evidently, the efforts of the missionaries were to work towards weakening the traditional authority, its values, being and potential. And thus, in their evangelization drive they supported the colonial process.

They, for instance, insisted that their converts to Christianity should also adopt the western cultures as part of their religious life. In doing this, the missionaries did not only violate the key teachings of Christian religion, but also compromised its message. Toyin Falola argues that even the missionary campaign against such things as polygamy was part of the strategy to force Africans to adopt a western style of life, which was seen as part of the larger vision of seeing indigenous people completely sold to their colonizers Falola Tlou and Campbell argue that Livingstone supported colonialism because he persuaded Sechele to abandon his many wives except one.

The Bible and Evangelisation. The missionaries are also alleged to have used the Bible as a tool to colonise the minds of the Africans Dube It is argued that the Bible was presented in such a way that it painted everything associated with African practices as pagan in order to promote western ideologies, values and practices. The missionaries particularly disliked such practices as rain-making rites, initiation ceremonies, bogadi bridewealth , and polygamy, because they viewed them to be contrary to the teaching of the Bible and also a hindrance to the spread of missionary teachings.

The missionaries are accused of having used the Bible to colonise Batswana politically, culturally and economically. The Kutlwano, for instance, observes that: 'At the initial stage, the aim of these missionaries was to Christianize Africans and change their way of life which was then regarded as primitive by settler Europeans' Kutlwano Musa W. Dube relates a popular story about the Bible and the white man as follows: 'When the white man came to our country he had the Bible and we had the land.

The white man said to us: 'Let us pray'. After the prayer the white man had the land and we had the Bible' Dube Dube explains that this is how Africans connect colonialism to the Bible. By cooperating with scientists and explorers, missionaries are seen to have acted as agents of imperialism.

Andrew Walls also suggests that there was very little or no dividing line between missionaries and their colonizing counterparts. He notes that:. Sometimes missionary occupations preceded annexation or political penetration and sometimes it followed, as in Uganda, Nyasaland and Bechuanaland.

It was intimately associated with the establishment of British rule Walls Dube speaks of Livingstone as a good example of a divinely commissioned genius in colonizing Africans, and a shining example of a missionary who openly championed colonial domination in sub-Saharan Africa, especially through his declaration that civilization, Christianity and commerce should always be inseparable Dube She further accuses Livingstone of having capitalized on the rampant, human trade in the interior of Africa to appeal to his compatriots to colonise Africa.

They varied enormously in their ability to contribute to the quality of life of those they lived with. Some remained dedicated but contemptuous of those they claimed to be converting. Others developed deep affection and respect for those they worked with and made a long lasting impression.

The Scottish factory worker, Mary Slessor was one such missionary. She spent over 40 years in southern Nigeria, in Calabar. She learnt the local language and lived a life of total simplicity. She dealt head-on with some of the customs of the region, such as throwing twins into the bush to die, and negotiated an end to this. Today she is still revered and loved as a local figure. This resulted in King Lobengula giving away all his land to speculators, thinking he had only signed away a limited mining concession.

In This Issue. World Newspaper Archive — African Newspapers. On Using the World Newspaper Archive. Ariel Marcus. Research Assistant, Center for Research Libraries. Church Missionary Society Archive. Section VII. Edwin C. Bishop Hannington, a Missionary Hero. William G. Berry ?