The story of missionary work in colonial Africa begins with The Age of Discovery. This is a period where European powers set their sights on exploring the world. This was the start of a global economy and colonialism. The British colonized many nations including Nigeria to exploit native labor and natural resources beginning in the 1700’s (Reviews). Their justification for colonization was that they were providing better education and healthcare to the natives (Nigeria – Influence).
Another primary justification for colonization was missionary work. Today, Christianity is criticized in the context of Colonialism because it was used to justify Colonialism. The British, along with many other European empires, pillaged these countries of resources, engaged in human trafficking of the native people, and exploited their labor in the collection of these resources.
Missionaries attempted to convert as many native people as possible to Christianity. This effect of this work is still apparent today where nearly half of Nigerians are Christian (Nigeria – United). Different denominations of Christianity divided the Nation into their own spheres of influence in order not to compete with each other. Among the Igbo, Catholic missionaries were particularly present. In fact, the British were successful in largely eliminating common practices in Nigeria of human sacrifice and the killing of infant children.
The missionaries felt that spreading the gospel to these people was of great importance, and actively tried to erase their beliefs in Polytheism. British missionaries even promoted the Natives into leadership positions within the church. In fact, the British missionaries were successful in largely eliminating common practices in Nigeria of human sacrifice and the killing of infant children.
The Christian missionaries of the Colonial Age worked in very different ways from the missionaries of today. They believed that converting native people to Christianity was of such dire importance that they felt justified in forcibly and violently converting them. This did much damage not only to those directly impact by the hostility but to the generations of lost culture and tradition of native religions all across Africa.
The British Empire, colonialism, and missionary activity:
Christian missionary activity was central to the work of European colonialism, providing British missionaries and their supporters with a sense of justice and moral authority. Throughout the history of imperial expansion, missionary proselytizing offered the British public a model of civilized expansionism and colonial community management, transforming imperial projects into moral allegories.
Missionary activity was, however, unavoidably implicated in either covert or explicit cultural change. It sought to transform Indigenous communities into imperial archetypes of civility and modernity by remodeling the individual, the community, and the state through Western, Christian philosophies.
In the British Empire, and particularly in what is historically known as the ‘second’ era of British imperialism (approximately 1784–1867), missionary activity was frequently involved with the initial steps of imperial expansion. A heightened sense of religiosity in Britain at this time ensured that Christianization was seen as a crucial part of the colonizing and civilizing projects of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, under the double aegis of “the bible and the flag”, governments, merchants, explorers, and other adventurers were exploiting the aura of ethical responsibility lent by religion to every effort to carry British civilization to a benighted world.
Whilst earlier European empires (such as the Spanish and Portuguese) had spread Catholicism, Protestant churches had traditionally been too deeply divided to make any commitment to overseas missions.
Note: It is written in Matthew 16:24-25.
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
Note: In other words, if a man is not denying himself he is wicked how can he do missionary work without doing the missionary work on himself?
Note: It is written in Matthew 10:13-15.
13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
Note: This is how you do Missionary work outside of this is wicked.
