ACTIVITIES OF EUROPEAN MISSIONARIES, TRADERS,

PHILANTHROPISTS AND EXPLORERS ON WEST AFRICA

By: James Nicholaus Myovella- BA-HISTORY (University of Dodoma-Tanzania)

“The sun never set if you keep working hard to achieve what you look for”

This paper attempts to explain the activities performed by European Missionaries,

traders, philanthropists and explorers on West Africa. Part one of the paper

describes the geographical location of West Africa and integration of West Africa

into capitalist World. Part two of the work identifies and explains activities

performed by these groups on West Africa; and, the last part finalize the work by

pointing out some effects brought by European missionaries, traders,

philanthropists and explorers to the societies of West Africa and Africa at large

from 19th century to contemporary era.

Geographically, West Africa covers the area of coast of Atlantic Ocean in the

south part up to the outer part of the Saharan desert in the north. In the West, West

Africa is bordered with Atlantic Ocean and in the east is boarded with Cameroon

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Mountain and Adamawa Mountain. Politically West Africa consist of sixteen

countries namely; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Côte

d’ I voire (Ivory Coast), Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra

Leone Togo, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea1.

Although Africa had integrated with European countries for many centuries, still

many parts of Africa and West Africa in particular were unknown to many

Europeans. By the late 15th century and early 16th century many European nations

like Portugal started to send the missionaries and explorers to investigate various

parts of Africa and West Africa in particular. As early as in the 19th century

European powers like France, Germany, and Britain likewise sent number of

missionaries, explorers, traders and philanthropists in West Africa. These groups

were sent in Africa to investigate the needed knowledge about Africans, their

history and culture, mostly knowledge about raw materials, visibility, potential

areas and the nature of African population2. These groups include;

1
. T.C. McCaskie, Western Africa (Regional Africa-Encyclopedia Britannica), accessed from
Http://www.britannica.com/.../western-Africa, retrieved on Sunday 04,May 2014

2
. Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 2nd Edition, (New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1995), Pg.294

2
European Missionaries were basically individuals sent in Africa and West Africa in

particular to accomplish the claimed “Three Cs” aims that entailed spreading

civilization, Christianity and commerce. During the 19th century many European

Christian societies or communities sent their missionaries in Africa, West Africa in

particular with the aim of fulfilling European economic interests. Among the

Christian societies that sent their missionaries in Africa included the British based

Anglican Church Missionary Society (C.M.S), the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary

Society (W.M.M.S)a, the London Missionary Society (L.M.S), the Protestant

Missions from France, Germany, Holland and from United States of America

(U.S.A) also came into Africa, however, the French Catholic Mission came later

after the Protestant Mission. It is documented that, missionaries in Africa did not

perform a single activity though they themselves proclaimed to have the single task

of spreading Christianity. One activity brought them in Africa influenced them into

other activity. To be precisely, Missionaries like J.T Van der Kemp, John Philip,

and Mary Slessor a Scottish Presbyterian missionary in Nigeria3, conducted

3
. Kevin Shillington, ibid, Pg.290

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different activities in West Africa to save the interests of their mother countries.

Such activities include;

Advocated the abolition of slave trade in West Africa; in Africa and West Africa in

particular, missionaries and their societies had a duty of abolishing slave trade and

promoting legitimate trade between the Africans and Europeans. For example,

between 1880; missionaries and their sponsors (Christian societies) such as the

London Missionary Society, the British based Anglican Church Missionary

Society, made a series of appeals to British government to help the missionaries to

eradicate slave trade. However, they formed the evangelical Christian movements

with strong missionary aim; one being the duty of every Christian to spread faith to

the wider heathen world (Africa). Within this duty, Christianity preached against

all evils of slavery and slave trade. In most work of the early missionaries, it is

documented that missionaries always condemned slave trade in favour of

legitimate trade for the fulfillment of European indusial economies. Therefore, one

can argue that, the basic motive of the missionaries was to fulfill the needs of

European industries, for example in 1841 Sir Thomas Fowell wrote in his book

titled “the African slave trade and its remedy that, “the only way to save Africa

from the evils of slave trade would be to call out its own natural resources, and at

the same time save the soul of those rescued from slavery and slave trade”

according to the statement, it therefore implies that, while missionaries were

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serving the Africans from the evils of slavery and slave trade, they could be

gaining natural resources which were found in Africa like gold, diamond, and

ivory to feed European hungry industries. In West Africa, after the abolition of

slave trade, new system of trade known as legitimate trade was established to

replace slave trade4.

Building educational institutions; in the history of west Africa, missionaries are

said to have played a great role in establishing new learning institutions such as

schools and colleges which were used by the missionaries to spread their languages

and their traditions, spreading the gospel of Christianity, promoting literacy among

the masses to enable them to read the relevant Christian literature like Bible and

discouraging the natives against the pagan beliefs. The missionaries built

elementary schools and secondary schools as well as primary schools. For

example, they built Fourah Bay in early 1827 in Sierra Leone; they also introduced

elementary school in the Gold Coast and Nigeria by 1870’s. by 1841 the Church

Missionary Society had twenty one elementary schools in Sierra Leone and in

1842 the Church Missionary Society founded two secondary schools, one for boys

and the other for girls, by 1846, the Wesleyan had also established four girls school

and twenty boys schools in the Gold Coast (Ghana), in 1876 they opened their first

secondary school known as the Wesleyan high school which is now known as

4
. Kevin Shillington, ibid, Pg.288

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Mfantsipim school in Ghana. The education provided by the missionaries prepared

the ground for the colonization of West Africa as it prepared man power who acted

as tax collectors, priests, teachers, interpreters and messengers. For example,

bishop Samuel Ajay Crowther (c.1806-1891) was one of the first student of Fourah

Bay College converted to Christianity who later on published numerous books in

English, also translated the Bible into Yoruba language5.

Missionaries introduced experimental and technical agriculture near the mission

centres: it is well documented by Naomi B. Katunzi in his work ‘Africa From the

Stone Age to the Nineteenth Century” that along mission centers like along the

church centres, missionaries encouraged the production of export crops which were

needed by the European industries, in addition to this, missionaries taught their

followers the skills of cultivation, planting and harvesting. For example, the

Church Missionary Society taught their followers in Northern Hausa land in

Nigeria the skills of planting, cultivating and harvesting cotton. In so doing,

missionaries were preparing the people to acquire the agricultural skills which

were more important and needed for future cash crop production during the

colonial period. Through experimental and technical agriculture, West Africa

5
. J. F. Ade Ajayi, General History of Africa, volume VI, (California: Heinemann Educational publishers, 1989),
Pg.46

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agricultural experts saved as agricultural experts during colonial domination

something which led to the exploitation of West Africans6.

Converting the Africans to the new faith of Christianity (spreading Western

Christian religion); during the late 15th century and early 16th century, many

catholic missionaries and their societies were sent to Africa and West Africa in

particular and they were concerned with converting or changing the West Africans

from their beliefs to the new faith of Christianity. From the time immemorial, it

was known that West Africans had their traditional beliefs; a good example is in

Nigeria where the indigenous Nigerians believed in many gods like Ani,

Amadiora, Egwugu and Echuku, who helped them in different bad times like

famine and drought. They had also several practices such as dancing, drinking and

form of sexual freedom of polygamy which kept production more stable.

Missionaries made sure that such practices are changed by converting Africans to

Christian beliefs. In order to convert the Africans to new faith, they thus preached

strict puritan moral codes while opposing African traditional dancing, drinking,

non-religious singing as well as forms of sexual freedom outside of monogamous

marriage. It is documented that, the converted Africans to new faith in order to get

a large number of West Africans who could become collaborators of the European.

For example, the Christian Church Missionary Society converted Samuel Ajayi
6
. Naomi B. Katunzi, Africa From Stone Age to the Nineteenth Century, ( Dar es salaam: Tanzania Institute of
Education, 2002 ), Pg.62

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Crowther in Yoruba land in Nigeria. By doing so, the converted West Africans like

Samuel Ajayi Crowther became useful allies of European in establishing colonial

rule during the last quarter of the 19th century7.

European missionaries appealed to their home governments for various degrees of

political or military intervention in Africa; in Africa and West Africa in particular,

missionaries knew that without the help from their government in Europe, they

would face opposition from the natives of West Africa who used to think the

missionaries have strong political motivation in Africa. For example, the Catholic

Missionaries from Portugal were opposed in West Africa after the African chiefs

recognized the strong political motivation behind the catholic missionaries. In

response to opposition from the natives, the Christian missionaries requested their

mother government to protect them against the West Africans who were

threatening their safety and their activities. For example, in early 1880,

Missionaries and their sponsors in Britain made a series of appeals for protection.

In response to these appeals, their mother government responded positively to

these appeals by sending troops to venture and protect missionaries and their own

interests like market, raw materials and area for investment. With the appeals made

by missionaries, they accelerated to the colonization of Africa as protection of the

7
. Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 2nd Edition, (New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1995), Pg.288

8
 missionaries went hand in hand with the protection of the strategic areas and

commercial areas sustainable for European interests8.

European Explores was the group of individuals that ventured through Africa and

West Africa in particular in order to learn, investigate and examine the continent in

details mainly from late 18th century to early 19th century. The coming of these

groups was mainly the result of scientific revolution in Europe (marine technology

and industries), sense of adventure and desire for fame among Europeans. Number

of Europeans travelled through in Africa with missionary aim including individuals

like Mungo Park and Hugh Clapperton (1771-1806), Major Laing (1826), Laird

(1830), James Rennell, George Maxwell, Bruce, Burton, Speke, Baker, Rene-

Auguste Caillie (1799-1838), Heinrich Barth (1850s) and The Landers Brothers

(1830)9. Explorers in West Africa performed the following activities;

Mapping the coast and interior of West Africa; most of European Explorers spent

their time to investigate and to detail the interior and coast of West Africa to help

European powers that were searching areas with potential materials as European

countries were experiencing mushrooming of industries. For instance, between

1820 and 1834 several British expeditions explored Northern Nigeria, the first

expedition started from Tripoli and going to Nigeria via the kingdom of Kanem-
8
. ibid, Pg.288
9
. Kevin Shillington, History of Africa (Revised edition) (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Educational Ltd,
1995), Pg. 295

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 Bornu. Later expedition reached Northern Nigeria from the West and south. Hugh

Clapperton was the first European to publish descriptions of the Hausa state from

personal experiences; Heinrich Barth detailed exploration of the land between

Timbuktu and Lake Chad from 1850s. likewise Major Laing, was the first

European to reach Timbuktu but was murdered on way back and two years later

the Frenchman Rene Caillie having learned to speak Arabic joined a Mandinka

caravan travelling inland from Senegal to learn more about the life style of

indigenous of West Africa and returned in Europe and became the first European

to return alive from Timbuktu. Mapping of West Africa by the explores had helped

much penetration of colonialism as most of European countries like British, France

and Portugal benefited a lot from their exploration in 19th century10.

Explores assisted the European merchant groups; penetration of west Africa

interior in 18th century was real a hard and difficult but with the aid of explorers,

European merchant groups had advantage of trading in West Africa freely with

assurance of security of themselves and their trading commodities. For instance,

Heinrich Barth made potential journey in Sub-Sahara between 1850s-1855 and

aimed at assessing the West Africa interior for European merchant groups. He

assessed the trading potential of the Borno, Sokoto, and Niger band region. On

10
.Unknownmous, A short History of Africa, retrieved from
Http://www.aerocombab.stanford.Ed/jameson/Worldhistory/A Short History of Africa, accessed on Friday 25th
,April 2014 at 22:05 pm

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behalf of European merchants, Barth sought from the sultan of Sokoto a “letter of

franchise guaranteeing to all British merchants entire security for themselves and

their properties in visiting his dominions for trading purposes”. The sultan readily

agreed to the request a thing that enabled the British merchants to trade in Sokoto

freely and successful11.

Geographical discoveries; many European explorers were sent in African continent

assigned to make a geographical assessment of landscape and the associated

features in West Africa to simplify the penetration of colonial roots in West Africa.

For instance, Mungo Park in 1805 was sent to find the source of the Niger River

and visited the Niger River twice (1795-1977) and (1805-1806) though he died in

an attempt to follow the course of the Niger River to the Atlantic sea. Mungo park

described his geographical exploration in West Africa in his book titled “Travels

into the Interior of Africa” as “rendering the geography of Africa more familiar to

my countrymen, and opening to their ambition and industry new sources of wealth,

and new channels of commerce”; The Land Brothers succeeded to trace the source

of Niger River to its mouth by sailing downstream from the inland town to Bussa

and reported to their metropolitan states that Niger River was the navigable

waterway into the interior and reported that the area is suitable for palm oil, hence

11
. Kevin Shillington, op.cit, Pg. 297

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helped merchants and manufacturers in West Africa12. Therefore explorer fed the

capitalist Europe with vast geographical knowledge of West Africa interior and its

economic potentialities such as presence of minerals like gold in Gold Coast

(Ghana).

Philanthropists in West Africa were the groups and individuals who donated their

time, volunteered or held belief to charitable cause and made major impacts

through their volunteering. In 19th century, philanthropists came with the

“humanitarian arguments” that demanded the abolition of slave trade. For instance,

some individuals had slogan like “Negro is a man” and advocated on developing

Africans through Christianity, civilization and normal trade (legitimate trade or

trade in forest goods). For example; American ex-slave dealers having themselves

devoted from dealing in slaves, persuaded the British ex-slave dealers to join

British movement for abolition of slave trade in West Africa. For example,

William Wilberforce put more pressure to House of Commons on abolition of

slave trade, and on 25th March 1807 Britain abolished slave trade in West Africa13.

Traders provided information about economic potentiality of West Africa to their

home government; some traders in West Africa like John Lok is believed to have

12
. ibid, Pg. 296-7
13
. J.F. Ade Ajayi, General History of Africa: Africa in the Nineteenth Century Until the 1880s, Vol. VI (California:
Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1989), Pg. 65

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provided information such as geological agricultural and bargaining in exchange

between the West Africans and European which was very important for most of the

Europeans traders. However, most of the information was about natural resources

like gold at Guinea Coast. With information of this kind, many European traders

were influenced to come in West Africa to trade with indigenous but in an honest

way as information provided by these traders revealed that African were tolerant in

exchange with the Europeans if only exchange was done in honest. For instance,

the English sea merchant known as John Lok reported to his friend in England that

Guinea Coast people,

“Are clever in bargaining, they don’t overlook a single bit of the gold

they offer for sale, they use their own weights and measures and they

are very careful how they use them, anyone who want to trade with

them must do so honestly, for they will not trade if they are bad

treated”14.

Traders signed a number of treaties with African rulers; a number of treaties in

West Africa were signed between the West African traditional rulers and the

traders on behalf of British. Most of these treaties aimed to take the African land

which was potential in raw materials. The treaties were deliberately mistranslated

14
.Basil Davidson, A History of West Africa 1000-1800, New Edition, (England: Longman Group Limited, 1977),
Pg.158

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to the chiefs. After the signing of these treaties, local rulers were undermined by

the Europeans and their lands were colonized. Its documented that, in West Africa,

specifically in Ashanti, the signed treaties aimed at maintain peace and order for

the sake of promoting both the missionary and the traders activities, however, the

treaty signed recognized the independence of the former state in Ashanti like south

Assin, Twifu, Fante, Mzima and the terms of the treaty agreed to stop all disputes

between himself and the southern states. These treaties also aimed to build a

peaceful environment for the exchange of commodities in Ashanti. In a long run,

the treaty subjected Ashanti in the control of the British as Ashanti began to be

used by British traders as a dumping store for their commodities15.

Traders formed chartered companies; in Africa and West Africa in particular,

traders managed to introduce commercial companies which were also given a

charter of their mother country. The prominent companies formed in West Africa

were the Royal Niger Company formed by George Goldie in 1877. Also, George

Goldie soon developed another company known as the National African Company

(A.N.C) which came to be combination of several firms. The other companies were

like the United African Company (U.A.C) which was given power by the colonial

masters to do all commercial duties and administration on behalf of their mother

15
. J.B. Webster& A.A.Boahen, The Growth of African Civilization: The Revolutionary Years West Africa Since
1800, (London: Longman Publishers, 1967), Pg.211-213

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governments in Niger in 1886. The companies were given the power to collect tax

from the natives, import and export goods which were highly demanded by

European industries. They exploited the natural resources like gold, diamond, and

copper in demand to feed their homeland industries. By so doing, traders enabled

their mother countries to come and occupy Africa in the second half of the 19th

century16.

Establishing new system of trade (legitimate trade); like missionaries, traders

facilitated the introduction of new system of exchange in West Africa. The system

of exchange came to be known as legitimate trade. The trade replaced slave trade

in which human beings were exchanged, following the abolition of slave trade. The

trade involved the exchange with the raw materials especially forest products in

West Africa and the most important commodity in West Africa was palm products

which were present in forest belt. Palm products were needed in the manufacture

of lubricant. Within legitimate trade, British and France were the major

commercial trades in West Africa. To be precisely, the new system of trade was

established in order to gain forest products such as palm. By introducing legitimate

trade, the traders encouraged their mother countries like France and Britain to

show their commercial interests in West Africa. For example, in 1872, Britain was

16
. Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 2nd Edition, (New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1995), Pg.333

15
in control of the whole coast of the Gold Coast and by 1874, British forces invaded

Ashanti in claim to control the sources of gold. The development of legitimate

trade facilitated the European powers to colonize West Africa in the demand for

commercial interests17.

Therefore, through their activities; Missionaries, Traders, Explorers and

Philanthropists became the catalyst of colonization of Africa and West Africa in

particular by the European powers during the last quarter of the 19th century. Their

long lasting activities in West Africa resulted to the emergence of an educated elite

class as Leo Kuper mentioned that many Africa students passed through

Missionary educational Institutions in West Africa by 1880 and the country that

produced the first significant number was Sierra Leone. Some of these elites

include Samuel Ajayi Crowther, James Johnson Africanus, Samuel Lewis, and

Broughton Davies; fusion of European culture on West Africa like worshipping

and educational system, exploitation of African resources and construction of

physical infrastructures which in one way or another resulted into the

underdevelopment of Africa and West Africa in particular the wounds that

Africans still experienced to date.

17
. Naomi B. Katunzi, Africa From Stone Age to the Nineteenth Century, ( Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Institute of
Education, 2002 ), Pg.58

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davidson .B, (1977) A History of West Africa 1000-1800, New Edition, England, Longman
Group Limited

J. F. Ade Ajayi, (1989), General History of Africa, volume VI, California, Heinemann
Educational publishers

Katunzi B.N, (2002) Africa from Stone Age to the Nineteenth Century, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania Institute of Education

Shillington K, (1995), History of Africa (Revised edition), London and Basingstoke, Macmillan
Educational Ltd
Webster J.B. & Boahen A.A., (1967), The Growth of African Civilization: The Revolutionary
Years West Africa since 1800, London, Longman Publishers

A Short History of Africa (N.d), retrieved from Http://www.aero-

combab.stanford.sd/jameson/worldhistory/A Short History of
Africa.pdf

T.C. McCaskie, Western Africa (Regional Africa-Encyclopedia Britannica), accessed from

Http://www.britannica.com/.../western-Africa

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