AUCHI POLYTECHNIC, AUCHI

SCHOOL OF ART AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

DEPARTMENT OF
FASHION DESIGN AND CLOTHING
TECHNOLOGY

COURSE
OUTLINE HISTORY OF AFRICA

LEVEL: HND II

GROUP 9

1. IDOWU OMOYEMWEN QUEEN ART/2092070065

2. ETIM ELIZABETH ART/209200108
3. ONOMESINO GRACE OGHENEFEGO ART/2092070125
4. OMOKHA CONFIDENCE ART/2092070122
5. ONWE FAITH CHINAZA ART/2092070099
6. OGWESHA OMOSO ART/2092070028
7. ICHATA EVELYN INEMUWOA ART/2092070143
8.
9.

QUESTION
DISCUSS THE IMPACT OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN
MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN AFRICAN

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WHO IS A MISSIONARY?

A missionary is a member of a religious group which is set into an area in

order to promote its faith or provide services to the people. Biblically a missionary

is one who is a Christian who have been called by God to leave the comfort of their

homeland and go overseas to spread the gospel.

Missionaries on the continent who predominantly came from Portugal,

France, Great Britain and Germany, travelled to Africa colonies under the premise

of converting local communities to Christianity. While some missionary groups

remained true to their purpose, many others actions propelled colonialist efforts.

Missionaries were among the earliest explorers of Central and Southern

Africa. The London missionary society sent David Livingstone to South Africa in

1840, where he became one of the first Europeans to traverse the continent.

The expansion of the missionary movement into Africa was part of the

growing conception of Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African

people.

The anti-slavery issue and the humanitarian conscience also played a vital

role in stimulating European interest in Africa and gave an impetus to mission

work. It included the opening up of Africa forces of change namely; non-slave

trade, Christianity, civilization and colonization.

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 Missionaries who followed in Livingstone’s footsteps by addressing both

spiritual and physical needs have had a profound impact on the continent.

Hospitals established and often run by missionaries are frequently the only

available source of health care, particularly in rural areas. Countless children have

been and continue to be educated by missionaries. In the South Africa, for

instance, mission schools started educating African children in the mid-1800s,

almost a century before government schools were built for them.

The missionaries made it possible to convey the gospel in languages and

forms that are familiar to people and worshippers. Translation and recording of

gospel stories recorded in textual forms that people could read, sing, and recite in

prayers. This aspect was of great help especially to children.

The desire of the missionaries was that the Africans should abandon their

religion and culture and adopt Western Religion and culture, which they hoped

would facilitate the extension of colonialism. This motive was, therefore, to

prepare the Africans mentally for the takeover by the colonizers.

People were converted to the gospel irrespective of the way they were

dressed. Whatever thing Africans were doing according to the missionaries was

wrong, and only what they gave or brought was the right thing. As a result

missionaries became politicians and started venturing into politics and suppressed

the Africans and started to represent their countries and gradually took the land and

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forgot the elementary thing they came for and this resulted to conflicts, and many

began to reject the Bible. Most of the missionaries came alone without wives and

they began to rape black women.

THE IMPACT OF THE MISSIONARIES IN AFRICA

Negative Impact

1. Missionaries came in the name of God to Africa but introduced European

culture instead of God, they claimed to have represented. They wanted to

change the Africans into becoming little black whites. They changed the

dress coat and termed those who clad like the Christian not necessarily that

Christianity was one justification that European powers used to colonize and

exploit Africa. Through the dissemination of Christian doctrine, European

nations such as Great Britain, France and the Netherlands sought to educate

and reform African culture.

2. Divisiveness (Christianity as a Fifth Column): Without a doubt the

missionaries (and Christians) tended to be divisive in traditional society

(although the Basotho example shows that this need not have been so

disruptive and could have been contained within manageable levels, just ad

Europeans eventually found ways to transcend religious differences).

Most missionaries for a long time pursued the idea of separation of converts

from traditional society and encouraged their coverts not to participate in

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 many national custom and rites. As noted earlier, this led to the

‘red’/’school’ split in Xhosa society.

Positive Impact

1. They introduced and encourage the use of foreign products (clothing, tea,

etc) which undermined the former self-sufficiency of the subsistence

economy.

2. They established schools because education was deemed indispensable to

their aim, but always placed religion at the forefront of the school

curriculum.

3. They also help to introduce new technologies.

4. The missionaries also brought about or helped the Africans to abandon

certain cultures, like killing of twins, albinos and children with different eye

color than the usual black and brown. As Africans thought that children with

different eye colors were possessed.

5. They established the original social and economic infrastructure which

enable the colonialists to penetrate the interior with ease. These economic

infrastructures like roads also facilitated the spread of colonial rule and

colonization of Africa.

6. They brought hospitals and roads.