Nigerian Christianity and the Society of African Missions. History, Strategies and Challenges

In a bid to expose and understand the adverse effect of such applications, we wish to comparatively examine the factors which made missionaries adopt such measures. Their use will be evaluated with regard to their effect on the socio-political and religious lives of the people. This will lead us into an expository analysis of post-colonial Christian development in this part of Nigeria. Some of the strategies were changed or re-organised during their missionary enterprise in Nigeria. Our principal concern in this chapter will be to examine these strategies, make comparative analysis of their applications and critically analyse their conflict and violence implication in Christianity and Igboland.

The earliest contact between what is today known as Nigeria with the outside world was in the 15th century, during the golden age of Portugal and Spain. You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article. This site requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals.

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Show Less Restricted access. This book is about the dangers of religious intolerance, conflict and violence oriented strategies in our contemporary society. It exposes the evangelical strategies of Christian Churches and Denominations in the Nigerian society. This type of Christianity destroys religious values and exposes the society to the danger of materialism. Christian Churches should be advocates of empowerment, freedom and dignity instead of victimization of its members.

Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. 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.

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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.

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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 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.

The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. Also the missionaries set up model farms where scientific agriculture was taught and new crops were introduced for the people, to go alongside longstanding indigenous production. A notable example, in Ghana, was the Methodist experimental farm near Cape Coast whose crops included cotton, coffee, black pepper, mango, ginger, cinnamon and olive trees. Another valuable contribution of the Christian missionaries in West Africa was the development of literature in the local vernaculars, this included the translation of the Bible into some of the important local languages.

In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into writing. In the Rev. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language, and in the Rev. Christaller produced a Twi Grammar and Dictionary. In Fanteland, the Methodists and Roman Catholics pioneered similar works. While the Evangelical Presbyterian missionaries were the First to develop literature in Ewe, the Roman Catholics were responsible for Nzima literature.

In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C. S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. In , the first newspaper in Yoruba, called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. In the Gambia, the Methodist missionary and first principal of what later became known as the Gambia High School, the Rev.

James Fieldhouse, produced a Wolof Grammar in The missionaries also greatly improved the health services.

• 6: Christian Missionary Activities in West Africa – History Textbook.
• African Missionary, Autumn/Winter 2018, No. 32;
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• North Wales Hospital, Denbigh 1842-1995;
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Prior to advent of the Christian missionaries and indeed well into the pre-independence period, most sick people depended for cure upon concoction herbs and roots and barks of trees. Although modern scientific research has confirmed the medicinal properties of these concoctions, traditional medical practice had several shortcomings. Preventive medicine was hardly known; the result was that epidemics of different kinds were frequent. Also, the traditional doctors more often than not could not diagnose illness accurately.

They also prescribed many taboos which, in the light of modern medical science, had no relation whatever with the illness being treated. However, the early missionaries established medical centres, at first at their mission posts, and later far and wide, to attend to the sick. In due course leprosariums and orphanages were built to supplement their medical services. For instance, in Nigeria, one of the first groups of missionaries to introduce organised medical services were the Roman Catholics. Father Jean Marie Coquard, operating in and from Abeokuta for forty years, was renowned among the Egba as a priest and surgeon in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the Methodists opened a clinic at Igbo-Ora. Meanwhile, the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, had established a reputation in the Cross River area as a nurse. Through hard work and persuasion she succeeded in stopping the practice among the people of killing twins. Another important missionary doctor was J.

Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. As happened in other West African countries, many more mission-sponsored hospitals were founded in the course of the twentieth century. Also, Christian missionaries in Ghana were as zealous as their counterparts in Nigeria in pioneering medical services.

The Roman Catholic Sisters provided medical care in the Upper and Northern Regions of the country before the government started to provide hospitals and clinics in the regional and district headquarters. In the Western Region, the Catholic Sisters running a hospital at Eikwe specialized in maternity cases, and like Slessor in Nigeria succeeded in stamping out the practice of killing twins at birth.

The Presbyterians, also, opened hospitals in several parts of the country, including the one at Agogo in Asante-Akyem. Christian missions also took a leading role in the campaign to end the slave trade and to suppress slavery. Perhaps the greatest service of the missionaries was the promotion of western education and the development of vernacular literature. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. It was only after the Second World War that the colonial governments started to show a real interest in the promotion of formal education in West Africa.

Development of Education in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C. In it grew into Fourah Bay College. In the college became associated with Durham University in England, which awarded degrees to students of the college. This special relationship continued until when Fourah Bay became a college of the newly reconstituted University of Sierra Leone; the other constituent college located at Njala developed from a training college founded in In the C.

Secondary Schools in the Protectorate started later, following the establishment of Bo Government Secondary School in In Albert Academy was founded in Freetown; for-a long lime it was the secondary school in the Colony serving largely children from the provinces, among them were the future heads of state, Sir Milton Margai and Dr. As happened in other colonial territories, the government did not show great interest in the provision of education in Ghana until the missionaries had extended their services throughout the country and had set up primary schools and a few secondary schools and training colleges.

Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in In the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. Among other things the regulations required that all teachers should be registered, and a minimum salary was fixed. The government gave grants according to the strength of the staff and the efficiency of the school judged by inspection reports and the results of public examinations. Before , there were only three secondary schools and three teacher training colleges in Ghana.

All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions.

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Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in and Accra Academy, established in Teacher training colleges in Ghana did not expand as fast as the secondary schools. Nevertheless, the first higher institution in Ghana, now the Presbyterian Training College at Akuapem Akropon, was established in , first as a centre for training catechists, and later to train teachers as well as ministers of the Presbyterian Church.

In ten years after the founding of the first college, the Presbyterians opened a sister college at Aburi for the training of women teachers. It was not until that the government opened a teacher training college and a technical school in Accra. The training college later became part of Achimota College.

The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in This was the work of the great missionary, Thomas Birch Freeman, who placed two missionaries, Mr and Mrs. Soon after the Methodist experiment, the church Missionary Society set up their own school at Badagry. These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. They were closed down in in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in , had one time British control. Earlier in , the Rev. Within ten years the C.

S had opened twelve more schools in what is today Cross Rivers State. By the close of the nineteenth century the major Christian missionary churches had opened elementary schools in many part of southern Nigeria with an enrolment of about 74, by the First World War. Soon after the start of elementary schools, the missionaries started opening higher institutions also. Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in , the C. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in Following agitation by the people in , the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally.

This instruction in developed into the University College in Ibadan. The original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. By there were barely thirty schools in that vast area. As happened in Ghana, the development of training colleges in Nigeria was slower than secondary schools, though the C. In the Gambia, as happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the Gospel alone.

Thus as early as , the Roman Catholic Sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. The churches opened primary schools both in the capital and in the rural communities. Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. The early European Christian missionaries in West Africa experienced a number of difficulties, some arising from factors outside their control and others of their own making.

The tropical climatic condition in the country was not favourable to the early missionaries who came to the shores of West Africa. The high temperatures coupled with high rainfall patterns in some parts of the country experienced during the daytime, made the missionaries stay indoors, which slowed down their activities.