MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL AFRICA
This
began with the impact of Dr. David Livingstone’s appeals for the need to
establish a mission in Central Africa as later seen in the birth of the
University mission which was formed in
Other
missions were established by the Free church of
In
as much as the churches of Central Africa could have played a very important
role, they were all in disguise agents of European imperialism and these
description can rightly serve through an
analysis of the activities of the missionaries in different parts of
Central Africa and part of this included the improvement of living conditions
of the Africans for example in Malawi the Africans were freed from famine
diseases, slavery and wars in which case missionaries created a conducive atmosphere
between the local people and the whites.
In
addition, missionaries introduced education among the people of Central Africa,
taught people how to write and new languages like English, French a media that
improved communication between the different parts of
Economically,
better methods of Agriculture were introduced and a variety of crops like
pineapples, pumpkins, oranges, tobacco, tea among others were also brought
in. In this way therefore the
missionaries managed to lay a firm economic foundation on which colonial powers
were to rely in taking over
Missionaries
assisted in Organising societies in Central Africa through improvement of
social services like medical centers, extension of medical services which
greatly improved the health conditions of the people of
The missionaries in
Matabele and Mashona land greatly assisted in interacting with African rulers
for example Bishop J. Moffat signed treaties on behalf of Cecil Rhodes with
King Lobengula and those treaties were later used by the British South Africa
company as a way of taking over the independence of
Despite
these roles, the effects of these missionaries, their work encountered a number
of difficulties:
The
harsh conditions that were largely dictated by the climate in
Missionaries
were also faced with tropical diseases like Malaria which had a high death toll
among the Helmore missionaries and Price families of the U.M.C.A of Dr. David
Livingstone who was greatly to affect the missionary activities in
There
was hostility from the slave traders because the latter were protecting their
source of livelihood for example its believed that the Amachinga and Yao from
time to time attacked the missionaries south of Lake Nyasa and similarly the
coastal Arabs equally made life hard for the missionary activities to take off.
Missionaries
were also hampered by lack of proper transport and communication systems
because the region around Lake Malawi was difficult for missionary work because
of presence of swamps and the rapids on River Zambezi which made navigation
difficult for the missionaries which largely explains the initial failure of
the Universities Mission to Central
Africa because with poor communication, mobility was greatly reduced and very
few people reached their converts.
In
other areas, their work was hampered by political problems and insecurity for
example in North Malawi the Lungu and Mambwe were being raided by the Bemba
while some of their leaders were hostile to the missionaries for example
Lobengula didn’t allow missionaries to set up stations anywhere in his land
without his consent which also made missionaries’ activities difficult.
Closely
related, missionaries also suffered from the opposition of traditional African
religious leaders and their cultures which is because the coming of the
missionaries intended to spread Christianity, stop slave trade and bring in
western civilization. In this way
missionaries clashed with African traditional rulers who greatly believed in
ancestral worship, witchcraft, polygamy and other cultural values which were bound
to clash with the interests of the missionary work.
Lastly
the missionary activity was also limited due to language barriers for the
missionaries spent quite a long time trying to learn African languages and to
teach their metropolitan languages to the African which greatly slowed the work
of missionaries.
Estimate the impact of Christian
Missionary Activity in
The
background to the missionary advance in Africa was the evangelical revival in
He
believed that R. Zambezi was a god’s highway to the interior. The highway could also be used for
commerce. He also believed that white
settlement in the occupied parts of
He
thought that the open space would provide a very healthy alternative to the
slum dwellers of
· The
University’s
· The
Free Church of Scotland commonly known as the Livingstonia mission under Edward
Young of the royal Navy which operated in the Yao territory given to them by
their chief Mponda and near Cape Maclear.
· United
Presbyterian Church Mission under Robert Laws operating at Bandawe.
· The
London Missionary Society (LNS) operating around L. Tanganyika.
· Paris
Evangelical Mission at Leaului in the Southern part of
The participation of these different
religious sects in
i.To
play a divine role of spreading the “divine religion”.
ii.To
stop the inhuman act of slave trade being practiced by the Arabs and Portuguese
in
iii.To
extend European way of life by spreading the Western civilisation.
iv.To
assist and implement the legitimate trade and promote commerce in
v.To
create a living space to resettle the displaced people from
vi.To
“fight” against African poverty, ignorance, primitivity, disease and
backwardness.
It
is on record that out of these objectives the different missionary sects in
Central Africa had strong impact on the peoples of Central Africa especially
the Bemba, Ngoni,
When
these mission came to
“The hateful
Matebele rule is doomed, we as missionaries with our 30 years history behind us
have little (nothing) to bind our sympathies to Matebele people neither can we
pity the fall of their power”.
This
shows by assessment that later missionaries accidentally became the friends of
the Matebele people. The missionaries
were influential in the 1896 Shona-Ndebele rebellion.
It was true that the Matebele rose against the Whites partly because of
the activities of the missionaries in the area.
The Shona and the Ndebele rose against the Whites, mission stations,
alien Christian religion as well as indigenous African who were loyal to
missionaries. This means that the
activities of missionaries unconsciously or consciously aroused a sense of
Matebele nationalism which led to the 1896 Shona-Ndebele rebellion.
The
missionaries in their activities built schools, churches and preached
Christianity, they also built hospitals and gave medical treatment to the
people and in occupation of animals.
This was done in Bandawe, Mombero by Livingstonia mission under William
Koyi and James Sutherland.
As
a result therefore they improved living conditions of the Africans accidentally
in a relationship of exploitation.
· Africans
near missionary stations benefited by getting free gifts, free from slavery,
diseases and famine.
· Africans
learnt foreign languages mainly English and French and hence improved
communication, Africans learnt new skills like crafts, carpentry, tailoring and
better methods of farming.
· There
was introduction of other new crops like oranges, coffee, tobacco to raise the
agriculture productivity.
· They
influenced and instilled a spirit of humane among Africans by preaching against
slave trade and other African barbaric ill-acts.
· However,
out of this, the African land was alienated and taken over by missionaries like
in Malawi and Zambia the African religion and Islam in Central African was
undermined and this finally led to the loss of African culture and traditions
to suicidal to socio-cultural African development for example names, behaviour,
customs among others. thus championing the socio-cultural imperialism in
The
African potential and skills to invent and discover new things and ideas were
undermined for example Blacksmithing, mat making, medicine making and others
all died because of over reliance on missionaries.
They
championed the development of legitimate trade and elimination of slave trade
which was no longer lucrative.
They
supported the African lakes company under the Evangelical Crlasgow businessman
and established commerce alongside Christianity.
They
supported Stevenson who constructed the road between the Lake Nyasa and
They
set up plantations especially tea and cotton which supported textiles
industries in England, thus the mission and land above all it was because of
these establishments that the missionaries needed security from their home
countries culminating info British colonisation of Central Africa.
The
missionary activities in Central Africa indirectly led to the rise of African
liberation struggles inform of revolutionary literature, educated unpolitical
aware African groups like the rise of independent churches i.e Mokalapa
churches, Ethiopian church, the Baptist church and the Providence Industrial
mission.
They
translated the Bible into Swahili and other local languages like the
Ngoni. The impact of this was that
Africans were softened and hence reduced the likely oppositions towards the
Whiteman. It was because of this that
King Lewanika and Chief Khama of
The
missionaries greatly prepared a smooth road for European colonization through
their evangelism for example Malawi (Nyasaland) and as already noted the
threats from Arabs under Mlozi and Portuguese in Zambezi the missionaries
campaigned for some form of protection in 1880’s like the cries of John Moir
and that was why Nyasaland was taken over in May 1891.
In
conclusion, in recapitulation socially, religiously, economically and
politically the missionaries had a profound impact in
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY IN
The
first European missionaries to West Africa belonged to the Portuguese catholic
missions which came as far back as 15th - 17th Century however their activities
did not have a lot of influence and thus no trace of their work could be found
in 19th Century
Among these
missionary groups included; the missionary society established in 1789 in
Meanwhile
in Ghana missionaries work was pioneered by the church of England society as
other churches moved as far as the coast of West Africa such that by 1860, the
Holy ghost fathers had moved to Senegal and Gambia, Dahomey, Sierra Leone and
Nigeria as the white fathers operated in ivory coast, Dahomey and Benin.
Missionary activities in
Missionaries
developed agriculture through introducing new crops and seeds, established
plantations and better methods of farming were taught to the people which is
exemplified by coffee, cocoa and orange plantations which were set up in Ghana
by the Methodists in the years of 1840’s, cotton growing was introduced in
Abeokuta in 1850.
Closely
related missionaries encouraged commerce through formation of trading companies
and setting up of trading centers through which their agricultural products
could be sold for example the
They
reduced inhuman practices like human scarifies to gods, twin mutilation all of
which created a conducive atmosphere for European occupation during the time of
colonialism.
Missionaries
also encouraged education through establishment of both elementary and
secondary schools and colleges which greatly served to improve the literacy
level in different part of West Africa and also contributed to the civilization
mission of missionary activities for example the
Despite
the impact of these missionaries, their activities were greatly hampered by the
unhealthy climatical conditions, tropical diseases which cost a lot of their
lives such as malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness among others. It’s not
surprising that historians have described
They
also faced a problem of poor communication and transport because
They
faced the challenge of Islam especially in some parts of
There
was opposition and hostility from the tribal and traditional leaders who they
foresaw as people who wanted to take over their independence. These were supported by traditional religious
groups which were greatly opposed to missionary activities for example the Poro
Society among the indigenous Temne and Mende in
Despite
all these problems, missionaries played a very important role in paving way for
European colonialism in the different parts of
MISSIONARY WORK IN
The
missionaries in East Africa like elsewhere in
These
missionaries made a second expedition once again led by Krapf in 1851 with a
hope of establishing a mission station although Krapf was killed while
traveling towards
It’s
therefore partly from this basis that missionaries have been accused of fore
running European imperialism.
Meanwhile
by 1860’s - 70’s, other missionaries like the Holy Ghost fathers came from the
Reunion Island and started a mission in Zanzibar to fight against slave trade
and established their station at Bagamoyo where slaves were hosted, taught
skills like agriculture, carpentry, reading and writing. Others like Dr. David
Livingstone had traveled through
Meanwhile
in
It
was under these circumstances that the C.M.S. sent the first batch of missionaries
on 30th June 1877 in the persons of Lieutenant Shergold Smith and Rev. C.T.
Wilson who were later joined in 1879 by the white fathers led by Father Lourdel
and Brother Amans who reached Mengo and begun to lay a foundation for religious
divisionism because they begun to take sides which finally led to a civil war
because each group was looking for Triumph over the other and indeed the
Kabaka’s Court had become a battle field for the two missionary groups and
their converts.
Therefore
these missionaries like elsewhere begun to lay a foundation for European
imperialism for like explorers; missionaries provided information about Africa
in regard to geography i.e the navigability of rivers, military strength of
certain African societies which greatly assisted in paving way for European
imperialism.
Furthermore,
the missionaries called their home governments to occupy colonies in order to
provide protection against the hostile societies as the missionaries carried
out their work.
They
are also believed to have greatly influenced the signing of treaties, which
were later used as a basis for the occupation of given spheres of influence.
An
accusing finger has also been pointed at the missionaries for having brain
washed the Africans through their biblical teachings which greatly neutralized
the Africans hostility to European colonialism.
Similarly
Africans were made to feel inferior about their own traditional religion and
adopted the Western religion. It’s
therefore not surprising that in areas where christianisation had an impact;
the Africans were made “impotent” and docile and couldn’t resist European
colonization.
The
missionaries also furthered the divisions among African societies, which
greatly rendered them helpless and weak in the eyes of European
colonialism. It’s therefore not
surprising that African resistances were undermined because of this
divisionism.
The
missionaries laid a fertile ground for colonial exploitation because partly
they were instrumental in the abolition of slave trade and advocacy for
legitimate trade. Meanwhile in some
areas missionaries introduced agriculture and some of the first seeds, making
Lastly,
missionaries trained cadres of European imperialism through the introduction of
Western education which produced good servants of colonialism. It’s therefore apparent from the above basis
that missionaries have generally been referred to as fore runners of European
imperialism.
In
conclusion therefore, a critical analysis of the activities of the missionaries
justifies the view that missionaries and imperialists were “bed fellows” and
indeed the “flag followed the cross” dictum was true. However the missionaries did not hold a
monopoly in paving way for European colonization for they were partly assisted
by trading agents in the description of chartered companies.
· Provided
information about the interior of
· Brainwashed
the Africans.
· Missionary
stations that had been created acted as Military bases and first administrative
sites for the colonists.
Examine the problems faced by
Christian missionaries in
The
missionary work in
Earlier
in 1875 the church of Scotland mission the
In
doing all these as a new group in Malawi, the missionaries had to experience
various external, internal, economic, political and geographical challenges
which obstacles the advance of their work for sometime notably; the major
observed problems which the mission in Malawi since 1857-1914 experienced were
mainly as follows;
The problem of
communication; it is true that there was acute difficulty of communication
between the coast i.e Zanzibar and the interior centres of Cape Maclear,
Blantyre, Magomero, Bandawe, Karonga and others. This greatest challenge suffocated the work
of the mission, thereby delaying their supplies, some them retiring still at
The
missionaries automatically experienced the problem of unconducive climate of
hot and wet favourable to mosquito breeding in the Eastern part of Lake Malawi
and Tsetse fly infected areas of Western Malawi. This bred to diseases like Malaria, sleeping
sickness which created hazardous health circumstances that greatly claimed the
a lieu races for example Cape Maclear was abandoned because of malaria climate
by Dr. Laws who advanced to Bandawe among these Tongo who had been disturbed by
the Ngoni raids. Coupled with this, the
missions were not used to the Central African high temperatures and therefore
most of the times during the day, their work would be hampered; for they would
remain indoor. It was not until they got
used to the climate and established some healthy centres that their missionary
activities advanced.
One
of the objectives of the mission advance in
The
missionaries further still received terrible harassment from the Portuguese
operating along R. Zambezi and Shire.
They regarded the missionaries as trespassers in their territory for
example the
The
mission experienced the obstacle of lack of enough man-power. The numbers of missionaries were low and few
adventures into the interior from
The
economic difficulties: This was purely
an external problem coupled with their weakness. Although it is asserted that the missionaries
were the daughters of industrial revolution hence rich, this was untrue because
most of them were poorer than even the Africans. Some had come to
The
Bilingual problem: This was mainly the language problem whereby it was not easy
in their preaching and discussing with the chiefs. They depended on the interpreters who would
not express the real meaning of the matter.
They were therefore misinterpreted in most cases and looked as the
deadly enemies hence more opposition towards them. Further still, the interpreters would need to
be rewarded therefore they took much of the missionaries monies which would
have supported them for sometime for example the interpreters of the
missionaries of Edward Young and the Yao Chief Mponde took a lot of gifts and
this was a problem to them.
The
historical problem, this is mainly the impact of Islam which had been spread by
Arabs and slave traders. It started as
far back as Indian Ocean trade and later the Arabs’ penetration of
The
conflictual relationship between missionary values and the African values. Of course Christianity came with purely new
values aiming at total change. The
missionaries preached against everything Africans in
Disunity
and divisionism within the Christian missionaries: This was purely their internal weakness. There was inter-dominational rivalry between
the missionaries in the eyes of the Africans.
They lacked co-operation and organisation due to competition for
converts. They criticised one another as
conservative, thieves and others hence the Africans began to discredit their
beliefs and lose trust in what they were preaching leading to the emergency of
independent church movements for example there were rivalries between U.M.C.A.
at Magomero against the church of Scotland at Blantyre, the Paris Evangelical
mission at Lealui against the London missionary society at Inyati. This remained an obstacle in their activities
due to the fact that they failed to create confidence within their converts.
Eminent
Hostility from the local rulers: This cut across the whole of Central Africa
including
It
should be noted that although the missionaries experienced terrible challenges
both within and outside Malawi, lacked supportive materials, poor
accommodation, experienced miserable life, hostility deaths and demotivation,
it is clear that the missionaries persisted tried to reduce most of the
problems, established legitimate trade, put up social-economic infrastructure,
evangelized people and nearly undermined the basis of traditional African
authority and by 1914 therefore they had prepared enough which had brought the
intervention of European powers mainly Britain consequent the colonisation of
Malawi.
In
conclusion, the problems of confronted the missionary work in
EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN
Missionary
societies whereever they worked, left a lot of social, political and economic
effects, all of them were imbedded in positive and negative categories as
exemplified by;
1.
The missionary societies converted the
West African people and generally in the whole of
2.
They encouraged and developed
agriculture through introducing new crops, distributing seeds to native
farmers, establishing plantations (development of Legitimate trade) and putting
up experimental farms characterised by better methods of farming all of which
were aiming at increased raw materials for European industries. Examples of
major crops include: Coffee, Cloves, Sisal and orange plantations that were set
up in
3.
Missionaries encouraged commerce and
trade through formation of trading companies and developing cordial
relationship with chartered companies that were operating in
4.
They introduced new architecture
suitable for the tropics for example brick laying, stone houses, tile roofing,
corrugated iron roofing all were introduced in
5.
Missionaries checked inhuman African
cultural practices that were quite backward and barbaric for example they
preached against polygamy, human sacrifice, murder of twins, all of which
created social development, peace and stability in
6.
They embarked on systematic study of
African local languages and even taught Africans how to speak foreign
languages. They taught Africans how to read and write and read their languages,
they taught them
7.
They also encouraged education through
the establishment of both elementary and secondary schools as well as training
colleges. In West Africa by 1841, the C.M.S had established 21 elementary
schools in Sierra Leone and in 1845 it found secondary schools one for boys and
another for girls at Abeokuta in Nigeria. In East Africa missionaries built a
secondary school in Mengo, Gayaza which began as educational centers for
daughters of
However,
missionary education concentrated in elementary subjects like bible study,
reading and writing. Such subjects taught to Africans prepared them to be good
servants to the colonialists as they worked in position of secretaries, office
messengers, Clerks and interpreters.
Nevertheless
missionary education has been credited to have established schools in African
continent that educated important personalities in Africa like Kwame
"Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenneth Kaunda of
8.
Creation of disunity and divisionism
among Africans. The competition for converts between Catholics, Protestants and
Orthodox missionaries left a lot of enemity planted among Africans that made
them weak to resist against colonialism, for example in Uganda in 1886-1893
period there were religious war in Buganda among the Muslims, Wangereza
(Protestant) and Wafranza (Catholics) which were silenced by Lord Lugard in
1893 which saw the triumph of the protestants in politics of Uganda up to now.
9.
Missionaries established some
infrastructural developments in
10.
Missionaries came to expose the
African continent to the outside world. This was done through offering of
Scholarships to notable Africans such as Sir. Apollo Kaggwa who went to
PROBLEMS FACED BY MISSIONARIES IN
1.
Harsh
climate:- The humid and hot climate of
2.
Diseases:
For a long time, west and central
3.
Political
problems and insecurity:- This was also a major set back to the
missionary work in Africa especially due to the fact that it was the time when
slave raiding was still rampant especially in central
4.
Hostility
from slave traders: These strongly hated missionaries
because of their preaching campaign against slave trade for example it was due
to this hatred that some missionary stations in central Africa were attacked by
slave trading societies for example Amachinga Yao in South of Lake Malawi while
coastal Arabs could not allow missionaries to set missionary stations on their
coastal regions which explains the missionary activity in Zanzibar, Pemba,
Kilwa and Sofala zones of East Africa while in West Africa, Jaja of Opobo, one
of the famous Niger Delta states chiefs, strongly resisted the entry of
missionaries in his areas because they feared the loss of their commerce.
Meanwhile
'societies which were heavily hit by slave trade and slavery activities had to
welcome the missionaries as a relief, to this inhuman activity in their area for
example the Shona of Central Africa, the Fante of West Africa, central
societies of
5.
Lack
of proper transport and communication systems:- Africa
being in the tropics, its geography is characterised by swamps, lakes, rivers,
rift valleys, forests and mountains which hindered the movement and creation of
necessary infrastructure for example roads, navigation systems that wouldn't
facilitate missionary work in the African continent for example around Lake
Malawi, presence of swamps and rapids of River Zambezi made navigation
difficult for the movement of missionaries. This contributed to the failure of
initial university mission in central Africa that had pioneered missionary activities
in Shire highlands in 1850 in
In
West Africa, the presence of forests and boggy topography in southern
6.
Lack
of supplies:- It should be noted that missionaries were
operating far away from home , it would often take many months and at times
years for them to receive assistance from home, the difficulties of transport
and hostilities of the environment in which they worked made it difficult for
them to receive supplies in time of need.
It
was often risky for a small group of missionaries to travel from the interior
up to the coast and other places to look for food, medicine, clothes, and
sometimes hostile tribes aggrieved the situation by ambushing and looting any
such limited supplies of the missionaries for example the Dutch missionary
group in central Africa were victims and had to close down because of lacking
essential suppliers.
7.
Language
barrier:- This limited the missionary work as in some
cases missionaries spent long time trying to learn African languages or would
find it necessary to teach their European languages to the local people if they
were to get converts in
8.
Limited
missionary man power:- Missionary groups in
9.
Quarrels
and misunderstandings between whites themselves limited the
progress of their work for example in 1858 the Universities
10.
Hostility
of local rulers;- Rulers like Lobengula didn't allow
missionaries to station in their land without his consent and in Mashona-land
the king strictly controlled the movement of the missionaries in his territory.
It's believed that Lobengula resisted the entry of missionaries in his
territory for a long time and they ended up by calling on their home government
for protection and the British South African company force was sent in 1893-94
and immediately took over the independence of the Ndebele and Shona societies.
11.
Opposition
from traditional religious and the African cultures:
The Africans had already developed a concept of God whom they approached
through religious mediums such as Mwari cult of the Ndebele that was strongly
rooted. Such traditional beliefs influenced the Africans to resist the spread
of the white religion. The tradition of the ancestral worship, sacrifices,
witchcraft, polygamy and other values of the African society blocked the
progress of the missionary work.