Christianity in Tropical Africa

Studies Presented and Discussed at the Seventh International African Seminar, University of Ghana, April 1965

C. G. Baëta

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351042802
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Originally published in 1968 this volume discusses the issues and problems relevant to Christianity in Tropical Africa. It includes historical studies of the earlier Catholic and Protestant missions and their relationship with African communities, traders and colonial administrations; the social and psychological aspects of conversion and responses to the teaching of the gospel and the impact of Christian teaching on indigenous beliefs; the analysis of modern trends such as separatism.

PART ONE

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

INTRODUCTORY REVIEW: FACTS AND PROBLEMS

(a) The Need for Continuing Research

The seminar frequently recurred to the need for more and continuing research on its subject. Professor Low recalled that while some very good use had been made of the mostly excellent archives of missionary bodies, the yield so far had tended to present too much chronicle and not enough history. New efforts now being undertaken should also seek to explore fundamental questions concerning the spread of Christianity in Africa, as had been done for early Christianity, for example, in A. D. Nock’s Conversion. It was noted that a good deal of re-thinking, in principle, concerning the mission and its implications was in progress within the circles of the World Council of Churches’ Division of World Mission and Evangelism, and that insights obtained here would doubtless further illuminate particular facts of mission history coming under study. The most important need was for posing the right questions.

Considerable attention was given to the areas in which it was desirable that research work should immediately proceed. One of these appeared to be that of the assumptions and the aims of the home-bases of missionary societies. It was an interesting fact, for example, that Anglican and Roman Catholic missions, working in Buganda for the same length of time and with what would appear to have been the same instruments, had produced two quite different kinds of elite; the one with a heavy emphasis on careers like journalism, the law, school-mastering, and politics; the other stressing the priesthood and positions in the chiefly hierarchy. Similarly, the particular religious ethos of the pietistic groups in Germany and Switzerland which, responding to the founding of the Basel Mission in 1815, so rapidly organized themselves into Hilfsvereine (supporting associations) had left its clear imprint on the work of this society and of other Protestant missions based on Central Europe, just as the peculiar enthusiasm of the Evangelical Revival in England had unmistakably marked Methodist African missions. Before the centralization of direction of Roman Catholic missions in Rome in the nineteenth century the different policies of different Orders and national missions at different times were likewise clearly reflected in their areas of activities. Thus in order to understand the distinctive impact of various missions it was necessary to see as fully as possible their separate backgrounds of conviction, prevailing religious temperament, type and style of piety, avowed objectives, and the ways and means of carrying these into effect. All these factors form part and parcel of an influence which could otherwise be completely misunderstood and misinterpreted.

An important element in this necessary background to mission history is the role played by the Bible Societies. As shown in some of the essays presented here, the Bible Societies’ conception of their own specific calling and function, and their activities to implement it, had major results which continue to be effective even today.

The question of the best unit within which to pursue such studies is also important if the most helpful results are to be obtained. Whereas the tribe as a linguistic unit would often appear to afford a useful basis and two recent works, each dealing in depth with the reaction of one tribe to mission (the Kalabari and the Basuto), have proved very acceptable, in some cases it would be difficult to cover, in this way, all the problems which fall to be considered. Some ‘tribes’ (e. g. the Ibo) would need to be regarded as more than one unit; while regional and administrative relationships with surrounding areas and the political structure of the entire territory within the colonial context, must be taken into account. Possibly the best approach is to study a distinctive tribe within these wider contexts as, for example, the Baganda within Uganda.

The search for materials should go well beyond the immediately relevant frontiers. Many valuable documents have been taken overseas by retiring missionaries to remain in private hands; and letters and notes written by African evangelists working outside their own tribal home, and in some cases by West Indian and American Negro catechists who had been brought in to help, can yield fascinating information.

But the most remarkable and painful gap in source materials at present is that occasioned by the absence of histories of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Roman Catholic African missions. Whereas bona fide scholars can obtain access to the archives of the religious Orders chiefly concerned, the central and presumably most comprehensive Vatican collections remain out-of-bounds. So long as this continues, it is not possible to obtain a reasonably complete picture of the missionary enterprise in Africa. In view of the seriousness of this handicap the seminar expressed the hope that this reference to the matter would be read as a respectful plea to the Roman Catholic authorities, and particularly to African bishops, that urgent representations be made in Rome for some relaxation of the hundred-year closure rule in respect of African history. In this connexion the information that the Church Missionary Society was intending to reduce its own fifty-year rule was welcomed. On the other hand some other missions, for example Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York, have effectively closed their archives altogether.

The call for a major and widespread operation to salvage documentation on the participation by indigenous Africans in the Christianization of the continent was warmly welcomed at the seminar. The fragile and perishable nature of these materials makes the matter extremely urgent, while their wide dispersal and the difficulties of collection demand careful planning and organization as well as adequate funds and personnel. This is surely an area in which joint action by all interested parties—missions, African churches, historians, and others, possibly on a regional basis—holds out the best promise of fruitful results. Such an undertaking is a crying need for, when all is said and done, the brunt of evangelization has in fact been borne by African Christians. To name just one example in which even the responsibility for directing the effort was carried by them, there is the very remarkable case of the missionary enterprise of Baganda Christians from the 1890s onwards, from which emerged one of the saints of Africa, Apolo Kivebulaya. Biographies of the earliest men and women to be converted in an area, local stories of the struggles of the pioneering days, of personal and group initiatives undertaken to advance Christianity; these and like materials are waiting to be assembled to enrich our knowledge and deepen our understanding.

The story of the Christian influence in Africa should consider not only the effects of evangelization on a people but also those of the people and their religion on the character and growth of the Christian communities which come into being among them. In India, China, and Japan early Catholic endeavours, characterized by a remarkably pacific approach, deliberately developed the policy of adapting Christianity to the indigenous religions. In parts of Latin America, more as a result of a natural development than of deliberate policy, blends of Christianity and African religious beliefs have emerged which, though presenting features somewhat startling to most other Christians, appear to satisfy deeply the religious need of those who practise them. In Africa, however, a distinguishing mark of missions has been their almost unanimous refusal to incorporate elements of the local traditional cults in any shape or form within the Christian system of religious thought and practice. The reasons for this general line must be sought in considering missionary attitudes and policies. Of interest in this context are the problems to which it has given rise, the measure of success which has attended it and the nature of the resulting coexistence of the two kinds of religion, particularly at the grass-roots. It should be illuminating to discover how prevalent is the practice that is sometimes called ‘wearing both braces and belt’ (so that if either should give way the other should hold the trousers), as illustrated for example by Martin Luther Nsibirwa, the Katikiro of Buganda, distinguished as a Christian gentleman who, when he was murdered on the steps of Namirembe Cathedral in 1944, was found to be wearing many pagan amulets. But, apart from the missions, to what extent has full syncretism occurred? In this connexion obviously the very remarkable development of independent churches is of immediate relevance; what is its true significance? Bearing in mind the eruption of forms of ‘enthusiasm’ in the most unlikely places (the incidence of sufi in Islam and of Bhakti in Hinduism, both movements being, like independence, populist, revivalist and devotional reactions against orthodoxy), one starting point from which the African scene may be considered is the extent to which the new phenomena represent the self-assertion, in African Christianity, of the emotional and ecstatic elements present in most religions, or are an expression of a desire, however unformulated and for whatever reason, to take up some vital features of the old local cults and way of life into the world religion now adopted.

(b) The Relations between the African Communities, Missions, Traders and the Colonial Administrations

With the abolition of the slave trade it was held as axiomatic by all interested in African affairs that ‘legitimate’ or normal trade and commerce should be greatly developed to replace the traffic in slaves. Particularly in the West, Europe had maintained commercial contacts with the African territories practically without interruption since the earliest seafaring ventures of the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, and although this traffic had come to dominate the scene, its abolition could not simply bring to a stop a relationship already long established between the two continents. In our context it is important to bear in mind how widespread and strong was the conviction among missionary strategists that the spread of trade and the development of agriculture, with ancillary minor industries, were essential conditions for the success of evangelization. Professor Shepperson pointed out that behind such ideas, which flourished in the 1860s and 1870s under the predominating influence of David Livingstone, lay Adam Smith’s view that the hidden hand of Providence directed economic effort, as well as Reid’s philosophy of ‘common sense’.

Such is the background of the close links between Christianity and trade which could be seen when, for example, directors and other well known home-based personalities of missionary societies were also directors of trading companies operating in the same area of Africa. Professor Low provided a clear example from East Africa. Mr. T. F. Buxton, a prominent member of the parent committee of the C. M. S., was also a director of the Imperial East Africa Co. Later he was director of the first major company in Uganda, the Uganda Company, which took over the Church Missionary Society’s Industrial Institution and developed the export of cotton. Dr. Grau also instanced a similar case in West Africa from the Bremen Mission. One of its first missionaries sent to the Coast was to investigate the opportunities for legitimate trade, and as a result a merchant member of the parent committee, Herr Vietor, opened up trade in the Gold Coast and Togoland, his company giving employment to the mission-educated Africans.

Occasionally missions went directly into trading. The Basel Mission of the Gold Coast set up a trading company which developed cotton production and sought to introduce Christian trading standards, which largely meant the refusal to deal in fire-arms and liquor. Professor Shepperson recalled that the Scottish Free Church missionaries of Malawi founded a trading corporation which is still in existence. Between 1878 and the 1890s such interpenetration of mission and trade, with a fusion of economic and spiritual aspirations, was quite common.

The ideal was that the missionaries should form nuclei of industrious and frugal communities of believers and converts, living godly lives and providing all their own material needs. Farmers and artisans, as well as graduate teachers and doctors, were regarded as being just as much missionaries as the ordained preachers, and most of the latter were at the same time competent craftsmen, well able to practise a trade if need should arise.

While still supported by the home base they had to give a strict account of their expenditure of funds. In this connexion it is interesting to note that ideas which have recently become modern again, such as forming interdenominational or nondenominational missions, or serving the Lord in secular occupations as Christian lay witnesses in potential missionary areas or situations were already current and even partly put into effect. Thus missionaries imperceptibly became settlers, and worldly business, originally taken up out of necessity or the desire to make missions self-supporting, frequently came to be pursued to the disadvantage of evangelism.

But some societies strictly forbade trading activities of any kind. In the Gold Coast, alongside the Basel Mission which, as has been seen, had its own trading company, was the Wesleyan Methodist Mission which rejected any involvement in trade. Dr. Freeman-Grenville pointed out that the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa was also strictly forbidden to trade, but noted that its missionaries came mainly from the English aristocracy and that most of them possessed private incomes. Father Bell recalled that Canon Law prevented Roman Catholic missionaries from engaging in trade but allowed them to undertake agricultural production (e. g. cotton and coffee) and even some mining in Uganda. Dr. Reardon commented that Catholic industrial settlements and plantations in the Congo had incurred charges of slavery because African labour had been used without remuneration. Father Schuyler noted the Topo Island plantation experiment of the Société des Missions Africaines near Badagry in Nigeria, which, at first regarded as a commendable work of charity, later gave rise to complaints that missionaries were competing in the commercial field.

Mr. Tufuoh distinguished five categories of missions as regards their connexion with trade: those which set up industrial missions, training artisans; those engaged in agricultural production; those in which mission personnel was involved in separate trading ventures; those which traded directly, and those which shunned trade altogether. While the last-mentioned group tended to be too little involved, for its own good, in African affairs, only the first generally escaped bitter criticism for engaging in activities incompatible with their proper business. Even here occasionally there could be friction when, for example, artisans trained in such industrial institutions began to compete, say, in the production of furniture.

If trading could be used to eke out mission funds, it also readily suggested itself to African mission agents as a means of supplementing their usually quite inadequate salaries. However, this provided an easy ground of criticism against them, generally from those financially much better placed. The charge of trading against the Rev. Moses Ladejo Stone of the First Baptist Church in Lagos led to the first secession in that area under African leadership. It now appears that Philip Quaque of Cape Coast, who has been heavily criticized on the score of trading, actually received his emoluments for some time, at least partially, in trade goods.

Relations between European traders and missionaries, and between these and the African communities, tended to reflect the identity or divergence of their prevailing interests. In Lagos and the Niger Delta during the 1860s and seventies, when European traders were conducting their business in partnership with educated Africans (some of them prominent Church members or close kin of leading African Clergy), there was harmony between them and the European and African missionaries. When, however, in the eighties European traders, their hands strengthened by the increasing consolidation of imperial rule, began to establish a trade monopoly on the Niger and to drive African traders out of business, they were supported in this economic war by European missionaries, whereas the African clergy sided with the African traders.

Occasionally circumstances united missionaries and traders in a common front against the colonial government. Dr. Reardon pointed out how, for example, in the Congo they co-operated to break the state monopolies which, up to 1903, had kept the traders out of the interior, and to do away with the disabilities imposed on Protestant missions that had made it practically impossible for them to secure mission sites. M. Bureau said that in the Cameroons missionaries arrived after traders and the colonial government, and were greatly dependent on both. Traders and missionaries alike settled around government posts and their common interests, particularly their fears of African revolts, kept the three foreign groups closely linked together.

Whereas missionary voices expressing misgivings about some of the excesses of the pacification during the early days of colonial rule were never completely silent, and occasionally a missionary society would take a stand against imperialist moves detrimental to Africans, such protests were on the whole few and far between. As Dr. Grau’s paper shows, in missionary circles at the time strong disapproval was being expressed of the harshness and injustice during pacification. But no effective public objection was raised, for example, against reprehensible Portuguese, French, and Belgian colonialist methods. Dr. Webster cited individual missionaries, like Tom Harding and S. G. Pinnock in Yoruba country, who registered unequivocal disagreement with some high-handed actions and openly espoused the African cause, but were sharply dealt with both by the governments concerned and by their own missionary societies.

Lord Lugard in Nigeria dismissed missionary criticism of the administration as arising from envy of the district officer who...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD by Professor Daryll Forde
• GENERAL INTRODUCTION by the Rev. Professor C. G. Baëta
• Part One. Historical Perspective
• Introductory Review: Facts and Problems
• I. DR. RICHARD GRAY. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
• II. MR. I. TUFUOH. University of Ghana
• III. THE REV. DR. E. GRAU. Evangelical Presbyterian Church Seminary, Peki, Ghana
• IV. DR. RUTH SLADE REARDON. 'Unitas and Maison St. Jean, U. K. and Belgium
• V. MR. T. PRICE. University of Glasgow
• PART TWO. THE ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Introductory Review: The Engagement of Christianity with African Concepts and Way of Life
• VI. PROFESSOR D. A. LOW. University of Sussex
• VII. M. M.R. BUREAU. École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
• VIII. THE REV. F. B. WELBOURN. University of Bristol
• IX. THE REV. FR. DR. J. B. SCHUYLER, S. J. University of Lagos, Nigeria
• X. DR. J. B. WEBSTER. University of Ibadan, Nigeria
• XI. PROFESSOR G. SHEPPERSON. University of Edin¬burgh
• XII. THE REV. DR. D. B. BARRETT. Secretary for Research, Church of the Province of East Africa
• XIII. THE REV. FR. R. LAROCHE, W. F. St. Victor's Catholic Seminary, Tamale, Ghana
• XIV. DR. V. MULAGO. Université de Lovanium, Leopold¬ville, Congo
• XV. THE REV. DR. JOHN MBITI. University of East Africa, Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda
• PART THREE. TRENDS AND PROSPECTS IN AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY
• INTRODUCTORY REVIEW-1
• XVI. REV. PÈRE V. MARTIN. Fraternité St. Dominique, Dakar, Senegal
• XVII. DR. NORMAN LONG. University College of Rhodesia and University of Manchester
• XVIII. THE REV. PROFESSOR E. BOLAJIIDOWU. Univer¬sity of Ibadan, Nigeria
• Index