Topic 4 METHODISM IN AFRICA

4.1. The origins

Methodism came to Africa through the joint efforts of the American Colonization Society and
the Methodist Episcopal Church.

With in mind the intention of the conversion of Africans to Christianity and in order to protect
Negro Freedmen, the Colonization Society bought a land in Liberia and sent free Negroes to
Africa. Many of them died.

In the course of the trip one of the emigrants, Daniel Coker, a minister of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, organized on shipboard a Methodist Society in accordance with the Discipline
of his church. He landed in Liberia in 1822 with a society or church already formed.

With diseases (African Fever) and death decimating the region, missionaries were reluctant to
come to Africa.

In 1833, Melville B. Cox was the first Methodist missionary to come to Africa, but died few
months later. Seys and Francis Burns were sent to Liberia in 1834.

The 1836 General Conference constituted the Liberia Mission a Mission Annual Conference, It
was the first Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1837, Dr. Goheen, a medical doctor sailed for Liberia.

In 1856, the General Conference settled upon the election of a missionary bishop for Liberia.
Francis Burns was elected first bishop of Liberia in 1858 (died in 1862). He was succeded by
Bishop Roberts John Wright in 1866 (died in 1875). As a result, no new bishop was elected for
Liberia.
4.2. Expansion of Methodism over Africa
4.2.1. American Bishops

i.William Taylor

The first missionary Bishop of Africa was William Taylor. He was a former missionary to India
and the South America West Coast. He was chosen by the 1884 General Conference and
consecrated bishop.

He was given two assignments: the oversight of Liberia and the penetration of the continent.

Taylor is known to have founded self-supporting missions through industrial institutions,

plantations, livestock exploitations, etc.

Taylor’s scheme was the establishment of a chain of missions from Liberia up to Mozambique,
trying to make a border against the propagation of Islam.

He therefore formed missions in Angola in 1885 (Dondo, Nhange-a-Pepe, Malange, Luanda).

In 1886 in Congo (Kimpoko, Vivi, Luluabourg).

In 1892 in Mozambique, in Inyambane previously belonging to the American Board.

Erwin Richard was appointed to that portion of Africa.

At the time of his retirement in 1896, Taylor left attached to the Liberia Conference the districts
of Angola, East Angola, Congo and Zambezi (Mozambique).

ii. Joseph Crane Hartzell

He was elected by the 1896 General Conference, second missionary bishop for Africa.

He came with a double purpose, both to carry forward the African enterprise formally supervised
by Taylor and to reorganize it along lines agreed upon by the General Conference and the
General Missionary Committee.
He himself pretended to have a dream, that of establishing churches under the British colonies.

A week after arriving in Monrovia, Bishop Hartzell at the annual conference session divided the
Liberia conference into two:

- The Liberia conference: to which the General Conference assigned all the work on the West
coast of Africa North of the equator (Liberia organization + later Madeira Islands 1898).

- The Congo Mission conference: to which was assigned all of Africa, South of the equator:
Angola & the Zambezi districts (Mozambique + later Mashonaland district in 1898, Old Mutare).

The Congo district was transferred to a Swedish mission.

In 1900, the General Conference ordered the division of the Congo Mission conference into:

- The East Central Africa Mission conference (1901) with two components: Mozambique +
Southern Rhodesia missions.

- The West Central Africa Mission Conference (1902) with Angola + later the mission in
Madeira ( from the Liberia conference).

In 1904, with the election of a new missionary Bishop for Africa in charge of the Liberia
conference, Bishop Hartzell remained in charge of the rest of the Methodist work in Africa.

In 1910, a new African missionary unit was formed : The American Mission in North Africa. In
1913, it became the North Africa Mission conference and in 1916, it was assigned for the
episcopal supervision of Europe.

In 1910, John M. Springer founded a new mission in Congo which became part of the West
Central Africa Mission conference before being separated as the Congo Mission in 1915.

In 1915, the Rhodesia mission became the Rhodesia Mission conference.

In 1916, the Mozambique component of the East Africa conference became the Inhambane
Mission conference. It extended the work later into the union of South Africa in 1919.
Bishop J.C. Hartzell retired in 1916.

iii.Eben Samuel Johnson

He succeeded Bishop Hartzell in 1916. His official residence was in Umtali, Southern Rhodesia.

iv.John Mckendree Springer

1936-1944

He resided at Elisabethville (Lubumbashi) in the DRC.

v.Newell Snow Booth

1944-1964

Bishop of Africa South of the equator, then after, Bishop of the DRC and Europe.

He promoted African freedom in leadership.

He returned to USA as Bishop.

vi.Ralph Edward Dodge

1956-

Bishop of Angola, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique

Then Bishop of Zimbabwe up to his retirement.

4.2.2. African Bishops

From 1964, the General Conference took the resolution of electing national bishops in Africa,
with the exception of Angola.

- Harry Peter Andreassen (from Norway): 1964 Angola

- John Wesley Shungu: 1964 DRC

- Escrivao Anglaze Zunguze: 1964 Mozambique

- Abel Muzorewa: 1968 Zimbabwe

- Emilio de Carvalho 1972 Angola

4.2.3. UMC in Sierra Leone and Nigeria

What follows will be limited to sub-Saharan Africa. The mission in North Africa always
belonged to the European region. With the exception of Liberia (Methodist Episcopal Church,
1822/1832) and Sierra Leone (United Brethren, 1855), the Methodist mission from the U.S. in
sub-Saharan Africa began towards the end of the 19th and the early 20th century.

Up until the union in 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren Church supported ministry in Sierra
Leone and Nigeria. In Sierra Leone the EUB mission became autonomous in 1968. In Nigeria, it
began as cooperation with the Sudan United Mission, forming the Muri Church in 1965. In 1980,
these autonomous churches in Sierra Leone and Nigeria joined The United Methodist Church.
General Conference then authorized the creation of a West Africa Central Conference,
comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

4.2.4. UMC in Cote d’Ivoire

The United Methodist Church’s roots in Côte d’Ivoire date back to 1914, when William Wadé
Harris arrived in the country from neighboring Liberia.

In 1924, the Methodist Church was officially established in Côte d’Ivoire.

The church was related to the British Methodist Church for most of the 20th century, becoming
fully autonomous in 1985.

In 2004, The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly welcomed the Protestant
Methodist Church of Côte d’Ivoire into the denomination as a provisional annual conference.
Four years later, the assembly confirmed Côte d’Ivoire as an episcopal area of the denomination.
Boni, who had been president of the church since 1998, became bishop in 2005.

The United Methodist mission extended to neighboring Senegal, and Cameroon,

4.2.5. UMC in Burundi and East Africa

In 1984, the Evangelical Episcopal Church of Burundi joined the UMC and became part of the
central conference of Africa. Its bishop NDoricimpa became a United Methodist bishop. Due to
the political situation, he fled to Kenya in 1994. Thus, the mission of the UMC began to spread
to Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. These countries, except Tanzania,
became part of the East Africa Annual Conference and episcopal area.