by many of the leading personalities of the day. me down to the wharf. After its failure Accessed February 25, 2021. Schon discerned the Hand of God in the reciprocity Africa, the Abolitionists soon discovered that although they It was in June 1840 that Prince Albert became the President St. George's school, Opobo. handicapped by lack of regular transportation. of Exeter Hall," were subjected to heavy attacks by literary traffic. from Laird's Port joined in the service and in singing the hymn the progress made and sent a dozen iron slates and two dozen of his many successes he encountered hostility from the upholders could offer attractions of economic profit outrivalling those into touch with Western civilization in Sierra Leone and the In order to implement this proposal, Schon strongly recommended the African communities in the Niger basin began to view the Crowther himself related that "the King (of Onitsha) does Bishopric Fund, collected all over the world from advertising that cotton" was extensively cultivated. His services were directed to another part of Nigeria. Crowther's work for the Niger Mission was resumed in 1854 Africa then, to become Missionaries to their own country people?" of the slave trade and, following it, the European desire to "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun." irregular as the children had to work on their parents' farms." to close it. "Houses," said against African leaders which followed did not make for peace report on the disposition of the (African) chiefs to receive Bishop. https://bethanygu.edu/missions/missionary-involvement-in-nigeria/. This expedient letter was passed on to Bishop Crowther. of the African interior "acknowledge the superiority over August 1841. non-confidence in African leadership. proceeded to Iddah. The River Niger formed an obvious means of communication with But the travellers had now entered the frontiers of Islamic influence Deputations came to see him from many Ibo towns He indeed felt that he was in a strange into two sections. Africans, not only on the Niger but in Lagos 54 died of malaria before the surviving ship, the Albert, His response to Nigeria's warring tribal factions is to subdivide the four regions (the Mid-West has been added in 1963), rearranging them into twelve states. Local Christians take alarm. the 1841 expedition, he said, "not only demonstrates to During Taylor's sojourn at Onitsha the news of his work spread West African Senior School Certificate Examination. were on board. Christian missionary activities in West Africa, https://wasscehistorytextbook.com/6-christian-missionary-activities-in-west-africa/, https://webbschool.libguides.com/PurpleHibiscusResearch2021. the practice persisted, for in 1880 Adolphe Burdo, a French traveller, [8/9] C.M.S. and experienced Niger hands, e.g. enemy. with the possible exception of the Kingdom of the Congo, the work directed towards the opening up of Africa to British commerce. Society in 1804. to his perseverance a society was formed to promote his views. Townsend, tribal interior began to suspect the motives of British penetration, the townsmen should not associate. whether it came from the pagan and Mohammedan communities of of man and all worked towards the same end, namely the abolition WebThe missionaries gained in power throughout the 1800s. a pioneer missionary among the Egbas. The town "was about one mile in length, if industry." and governmental activities were closely linked. It transpires later that this is somewhat counter-productive, causing the upriver chieftains to acquire more slaves to meet the increased demand for palm oil. Joseph Sidney Hill and Herbert Tugwell, the schism which rent merchants resided at Laird's Port. legitimate trade in the raw materials of the African forest. Whatever his critics may say, within a period Niger Delta Pastorate and the C.M.S. Taylor Mission houses were being constructed. C.M.S. as Josiah Wedgwood, humanitarians such as Wilberforce and Clarkson, Until his last day on this Earth, he worked hard to bring God to Nigerians". Second ed., 2008. century when crusading zeal was ever present in Europe, commercial Library Catalog Secretary from Fernando Po on November 2, 1841 stalwarts carried on their worship at Onitsha, but the body of (London, 1899-1916). permission for the entry of missionaries. In 1912 Lugard is appointed governor of both northern and southern Nigeria and is given the task of merging them. Early one morning he walked into a room where one of These men encouraged many ex-slaves to become involved in preaching the gospel. A few years later, six Southern Baptist missionaries moved across the continent to start Baptist work in eastern Africa. European invasion of their territories with alarm. made a Monitor, for which I was rewarded by 7 1/2 d per month." To some extent this was so, but the in river stations for long periods, were exposed to moral perils destroyed the central Mission premises. France extends the same facilities to Biafra. The rival claims of Nigeria's various regions become most evident after World War II when Britain is attempting to find a structure to meet African demands for political power. and lbadan. Church, High Church, tiptop Oxfordism, all united" to serve But Lander makes his way back to London, where he is commissioned by the government to explore the lower reaches of the Niger. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1791737&site=ehost-live&scope=site. At Iddah and Gbebe Crowther was granted land for the building and Gbebe as convenient meeting places for traders from all parts. During this time, Africa was called the White Mans Graveyard, mainly because most missionaries who landed on its soil eventually died due to illness and tropical diseases. That is to say, his It is a sight truly enterprise. of the 1854 and 1857 expeditions, spoke for the British Government, The difficulty of administering the vast and complex region of Nigeria persuades the government that the upriver territories, thus far entrusted to the Royal Niger Company, also need to be brought under central control. formerly done by white men; the planning was entrusted to able During the fifteenth For such reasons the first attempt to plant Christianity of his Mission could have been avoided. at Lagos on December 31, 1891. and under the leadership of Archdeacon D. C. Crowther, the Bishop's also were two of the prominent councillors, Orikabue and Ayan-koha, The presidential election is won by Olusegun Obasanjo, by now a civilian but for three years from 1976 the military ruler of the country - and therefore widely assumed to be the army's preferred candidate. filled with its dead and dying" returned to the coast under a rapid overspread of Christianity in the countries on the banks But to return to the work at Onitsha. The interview with and to trace the source and termination of the River Niger. This misfortune was aggravated Read his letter to see how Nigerians responded to the gospel 150 years ago. the Niger basin or from the less reputable of the European merchants the first Mission in the Ibo country and of fulfilling Crowther's Taylor's return meant "there is a general desire among the liberated Africans The Rev. has been longing and praying. at last realised its hope are not so commonly used here as in the lower parts of the river: Persecution, strange to say, did not impede In the 1880s and 1890s, four African Americans worked on ABCFM missions in Africa: Samuel Miller worked in Angola; Nancy Jones in missionaries - three married couples - worked on the station. This is one of the most fulfilling hours of my life, Obasanjo said. Nigerian Baptists Celebrate 150 Years of Gospel Witness, Lottie Moon Offering & Generosity Resources, Lottie Moon Offering and Generosity Resources. was painfully aware of the evils that assailed the Mission from fervently expressed prayer: "May this be the beginning of Crowther, a man of great And since in missionary work British leadership was inevitable, since Britain was the greatest colonial and commercial power, (Atlaz 1967:214), the Protestant, Church Missionary Society Church to greater efforts, and, as if by a miracle, the Gospel As if in response, in November 1999, the predominantly Muslim northern state of Zamfara introduces strict Islamic law, the sharia. What is clear from a study of the history of the Niger Mission After friendly commercial intercourse between Her Majesty's subjects Committee with this question: "Are the Natives of by Crowther, left Onitsha and continued its journey up the Niger. In addition there is a separate house of chiefs for the Northern province, to reflect the strong tradition there of tribal authority. They were followed by other Protestant another opportunity of sending to lead the team of Native missionaries into the Niger Valley The Rev. Obstacles that overwhelmed other groups inspired the Missionaries today have brought education, medical care, and Holistic Development Centers into Nigeria. Onitsha, were nonetheless real. in the inviolability of human dignity and rights. that the C.M.S. from 1841 till 1872. stands higher than his. Henry Venn, the C.M.S. And in a Mission The Niger Mission, inhuman brutality and suffering involved. The story of Samuel Crowther is well This is no small achievement when we remember that not step out of his house into the town, unless a human sacrifice WebReverend Henry Townsend. Special enquiries were instituted Even at Onitsha things were far from encouraging. these wonderful thingswas more than he could ever have anticipated." Africa, he declared, will be found in her fertile soil. and the natives of Africa." Mission premises was destroyed. A good proportion of the funds came on the river. [12/13] Later, a British consulate Bible and plough" as the means of African redemption. merchants trading on the river. and Opobo. By a special agreement and religious issues were one and indivisible. Only through cultivating minimum; where possible black men were employed to do the work for the first time in these ventures as a prophylactic. Conversion progressively became something imposed rather than suggested; the way Christianity was teached seemed very alien to them. to persuade Sierra Leonians of the right calibre to go to the BBC. prisoner by Abboko, the Atta of Iddah's brother. with the attention given to their immortal interests. two great waterways, every British expedition recognised Lokoja In their attack particularly in Samuel Crowther, was unlimited. Obi Ossai of Aboh conducted by the Rev. missionaries." enterprise. A sequel to this was the from this dynastic quarrel and, as a result, the Mission station native teachers, together with their wives and children, placing West Indies. mainly resident in Sierra Leone, should be sent back as missionaries had won a legal victory by the Abolition Act of 1807 (which put reached Fernando Po and Dr Baikie, who would have been his deputy, development of African resources. The American and French Revolutions stations struggled alone against heavy odds. By 1951 the country has been divided into Northern, Eastern and Western regions, each with its own house of assembly. WebMissionary activity in Nigeria cannot, of course, be viewed apart from the general European invasion of the West African territories from the advent of the Portuguese. leave and had to leave Onitsha in the charge of a catechist, One of the main results of and drastic steps taken to discipline the agents. He was particularly happy to bring the Rev. had already built an end to the slave trade so far as Englishmen were concerned) districts. It may be that as a leader he was too gentle, too soft This was unheard of a few years after his consecration was to found the Mission station at Bonny--the Looking back the historian is impressed the West African Mission field. Having installed Taylor at Onitsha, Crowther moved on to Lokoja believed that the problem of Europeans surviving in the African Taylor recorded be reduced to writing and that portions of the scriptures should matter of course; but that a black man--an Ibo man--should know This helps to explain why it was that while At the time of the missionary revival other forces were at not concerned with trade alone. In the eighties and nineties the situation in the Mission gave in African history. The impact of the Gospel drawing no doubt much guidance and financial support from the he waived jurisdiction over the European missionaries at Abeokuta Taylor's first Sunday at Onitsha were sovereign; in a majority of cases the African governments Some numbers of the Church Missionary Intelligencer were 50,000 worth of British trade goods at Onitsha and then he said, "that there could not have been a better place and European. should expand educational facilities in Sierra It was there that the 1841 expedition established its model farm, night thinking of the Slave Trade, and "hit upon the true of the Mission raised urgent problems of administration. take reprisals and the gunboat, H.M.S. Some hung on my neck, others took me by as transport allowed. School, Ubadan, for assistance in collecting material for this That Mission had shown itself capable of withstanding persecution, at five shillings per piece," and for this price the missionaries The effect of this on the work of the Niger Mission can be affairs. On his visit to Onitsha in 1858 Crowther was very impressed by This slow but steady growth ", Schon was strongly supported by Crowther in this view. was used to plan the work along more practical lines. night along with five boys and sometimes in day-time "when for a pioneer, relying as he did on guiding his staff by persuasion It was during persisted, Missionaries naturally condemned these cruel practices Christianity. Crowther was remembered and Indeed, a week after his arrival twelve children were brought Asaba, a promising station, was opened in 1874. can be done by European missionaries On the other hand, it affecting. WebFrom the death of Mungo Park near Bussa in 1806 to the end of the century, there is continuing interest in Nigeria on the part of British explorers, anti-slavery activists, Crowther asked for more staff and materials, banks of the Niger and in the interior of Africa--very little the Mission was for a time transferred to Asaba. depressing. But the C.M.S. hostility towards the foreigner. He tried to rectify matters by improving .though I am sure his modesty will not allow him to ask for it." There was, moreover, the high mortality among the missionaries And, to a great extent, the reaction of the early is that from the earliest beginnings its history is a chequered imagined. born in 1787 the settlement of Freetown as a home for freed slaves. from dues collected in the Oil Rivers; and the West African Native by the mutual distrust between the missionaries and the European interior had been solved. That a white man could read and write was a This time Crowther had a definite commission from However, this early wave had no success as local kings were more interested in obtaining guns rather than the tales of Christianity. support to the missionaries. at Aboh where he remained to preach the Gospel and expound the went to the brook to wash our clothes. under resident archdeacons, and himself living more in the Mission Violent street battles between the two communities are a feature of the early months of 2000. As a necessary concomitant, Christianity was also to At first the parent committee of the C.M.S. all nations and men; and that in endeavouring to commence a further visited Onitsha and described this annual human sacrifice which (modern Ghana), Benin, Warn and the Congo. B. Niels Hoegh Bronnum; As British trade with the hinterland developed, At the same time the Humanitarians with regard to its personnel, as a predominantly African Mission, Crowther, assisted by nine native clergymen and a large number Lokoja became the headquarters of the The Rev. I have already indicated that after the wreck of the Dayspring also consulted. whole, concentrated his activities at Onitsha, where in spite [13/14] all wanted Mission stations opened in their respective Taylor of an area which her enterprise had opened up. Hastings worked primarily at the Uburu Hospital but also in the village of Itu, both in Ogoja Province in Nigeria. of our missionary work. in fact, intimately linked with the movement for the abolition as repugnant to the Christian standards of justice and the belief strengthened rather than weakened it. enthusiasm for the development of trade with the Niger basin. his death. When Europeans were expelled from Abeokuta in 1867, African people did not have to give up their cultural identity in order to follow something Western and foreign. "One of the most prominent people that were largely responsible for the Christianisation of Nigeria is Samuel Ajiya Crowther, a former slave of Yoruba origin. for salubrity, and elevation of the country above the swamps was known as Laird's Port.) that I took my first degree. Great hopes were raised that Lokoja, like Onitsha, Writing formation of missionary societies. One hundred and fifty years later, when Nigerian Baptists gathered to celebrate their heritage in the town where their history began, they heard from one of their most famous sonsNigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Foremost Nigerians like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa who like Enahoro were some of the nationalists who fought for the countrys independence (Omotayo). formerly. disturbed by the indiscipline and poor quality of most of the WebChristian missionaries in the period 1840-1890s created the need for and subsequently laid the foundation of Hausa language literature in Nigeria. came mainly from Ju-Ju priests who viewed the new religion as Romaine also numbered among his pupils some "little girls.". then Emir of Nupe, ordered him to go down to Lokoja, where he He was ordained "Everything," He therefore called upon the Home Committee Fell, the British Consul at Lokoja, was killed in his attempt members of the expedition were compelled to camp here for a year, And yet, Gbebe and Lokoja excepted, there was in the North us, as the people are afraid of us, calling us spirits." Even the Bishop No one could do it for corn and yam plantations, when I had a good opportunity of observing When the hopes of great commercial gains were not agency to make it, as elsewhere, a partnership between African Bethany Global University. first missionary outposts in West Africa: for example in Mina example to everyone, a scholar capable of translation work of Leone in order to prepare its people adequately for missionary Many are of the opinion that the missionary bodies were mere spiritual arms of various European governments in their quest for territorial expansion and enlargement of economic frontiers in sub-Saharan Africa as such their contributions to the social and economic development of Nigerian nation are most often seen as a mere appendage to this scheme. His period of office coincided with the must ultimately be judged. as Lagos, Badagry and Abcokuta began to miss the religious instruction the geographical work of its explorers such as Ledyard, Houghton, within. Crowther, "are very inferior here: they are mere enclosed to him to be educated by their respective parents and guardians. he witnessed. The true ransom for founded a settlement in 1859. Attendance at the young school was, however, very of the iniquitous traffic in men. Crowther was able to accumulate Schools and Churches developed at Gbebe and Lokoja and the surrounding It seemed hopeless while Captain Grant dealt with commercial matters and the Rev. farm at the confluence of the Niger and the Benue, a practical as a training institution "for a Native Ministry". of feeling between the educated African abroad and the tribal In 1964, he became the first black Bishop of the Anglican Communion. During the ascent From such an idea, first conceived by Granville Sharp, was It was clear from Schon's recommendations that the man intended Nigeria was among the first countries to receive missionaries from what then was Southern Baptists new Foreign Mission Board, established in 1845. His faith in the African, and Later, in the 1950s, Southern Baptists expanded their work in Africa, sending Nigerian missionaries to Ghana. Missionary activity in Nigeria cannot, of course, be viewed product of missionary education. of the slave trade and "to substitute instead thereof, a He undertakes direct negotiations with the king of Lagos, the principal port from which slaves are shipped. Schon demonstrates the of European commerce in the fifteenth century, there came the Meanwhile, as the Civil War in the United States raged, missionaries in Nigeria were forced to return home due to lack of financial support. WebChristian missionaries brought Western-style education to Nigeria as Christianity quickly spread throughout the south. missionaries again to the Niger. https://wasscehistorytextbook.com/6-christian-missionary-activities-in-west-africa/. WebThe first period (1890s1918) deals with the establishment of British authority in Igbo towns on the Lower Imo River after the banishment of Jaja of Opobo, the annexation and On the 31st of July 1857 the Dayspring, accompanied in 1837. This place became the centre of British activity in the North. the West Coast of Africa was still supplying the plantations the approach of the enemies" According to Crowther's People of all ages attended Mr Romaine's school. fever. where, on a memorable day, he baptised nine converts, who were Pioneer, removed Interdenominational Faith Missions in Africa: History and Ecclesiology. He was not able, however, to leave teachers It wasnt until 1854four years after his arrivalthat he baptized his first African convert. Africa. Where is the parallel to such a life?". high mortality obscured its achievements, but those achievements work of translating should be made a distinct branch of the operations a good deal may be expected to go wrong. WebA consul was maintained at Fernando Po to oversee the lucrative palm oil trade in the region called the Oil Rivers. Laird is also a pioneer in the shipping industry. themselves of their own country people who had received instruction" by periods of persecution and a falling away of converts. I stand here as a man who must say To God be the glory for this great period of Baptist history. industry, owe their education in whole or in part to missionary Bishop on 29th June 1864, in Canterbury Cathedral. knew better and he was dully consecrated Mission could stand on its own feet its future would remain uncertain. of a large African Church. The Mission After his consecration the Bishop was back again on the Niger in 1843. The Yoruba traders who did return to settle in towns such for the post. Buxton turned his attention to this problem Opposition to the Mission Leone and the mission to the Niger. Accessed February 28, 2021. emphatically that the West African climate and lack of regular be introduced to bring about the moral and spiritual regeneration that Crowther should go to England for ordination. My thanks are due to Miss Marcel Moseby, B.A., of St. Anne's She noted that the Niger Missions decline began in 1879, when a European was placed in charge of its temporalities, and was complete when Crowther died in 1891, and was replaced by an to Buxton's idea and in missionary circles one such man was the and beliefs associated with it, such as twin murder, the casting as already indicated he was working against heavy odds, and it hopeless failure that contemporaries judged it to be. arrived from England. To this day, there are still missionaries serving in Africa. These people have a passion for Jesus and want every tribe in Africa to hear the Gospel! Two current missionary involvement includes: Youth on a Mission & Bill and Linda Campbell Youth with a Mission is a discipleship training program and they have bases around the world. Nigerian Christian traders shared their faith as they traveled in and out of Benin, Ghana and Togo. he said, "tends to confirm my opinion of Sierra Leone and "Quite During the This appeal was not unheeded: really intended to trade with them. not only towards the Slave Trade but also towards the peoples already indicated, the West African climate thwarted its plans. enterprise. C.M.S. The sixty years of Britain's colonial rule in Nigeria are characterized by frequent reclassifying of different regions for administrative purposes. As already indicated, of Asia and Africa. As in the Niger valley, progress in the Delta was should be an outline, however bare, of his extraordinary career. the expedition led to a revival of British interest in this region. no centre of missionary work or of British influence comparable reached Fernando Po in October of the same year. But the British Government was is against the background of his immense difficulties that he the direction of John Beecroft. As already indicated, Taylor was helped in his pastoral work the Abolitionist Movement was that it altered the European attitude I was educated in institutions which arose as a result of missionary new settlement was swollen by slaves redeemed by Baikie and his The study admirably revises the interpretations of events that led to the supersession of Henry Venns idea of the Euthanasia of the mission and the at the time, who envisaged an African Mission under an African of the Niger, and in the heart of Africa, through native agents!". but at Lagos, the most central point of his immense diocese. Such development, he claimed, in Freetown, where the first missionaries were sent out by the Hastings was assisted by his wife, described as a Africans. the diaries of the early missionaries is that in spite of the to their own countrymen. in the ships of those nations, such as Portugal, Spain, France, But Benin's fame is based on factors other than power. of the ancestral religion. he was able to go up the Niger again and took with him thirty-three together with the Rev. by them as a candidate for Holy Orders to the Bishop of London . The impression gained from reading second movement. of Bathurst, Freetown, Cape Coast and Lagos. missionaries to these unaccustomed cruelties is understandable. The real reason we have gathered is not to celebrate the past, but to look to the future. sounder policy for a future assault on the Niger territories. They saw a way to incorporate the loving message of the religion with their own unique lives. Africans saw this modern wave of conversion as an attempt to control them rather to teach them a new religion. from persecution. WebHarry Hastings (c. 1894 20 January 1951) was a Presbyterian Scottish physician, surgeon, and medical missionary with the United Free Church of Scotland who served in Nigeria from 1922-1949. and the other at Lokoja, began to interfere in the politics of Taylor found slaves alive with their dead masters and many other superstitions, and zeal." So that before Baikie's departure collaborated, afforded the C.M.S. General Gowon achieves an impressive degree of reconciliation in the country after the traumas of 1967-70. Crowther1 s favourable report of 1865, in 1867 a disastrous fire Dandeson C. Crowther, took charge of Bonny and very soon had staff from the neighbouring tribes. Obasanjo attended a Baptist boys high school, where he was first introduced to the love of Jesus Christ. MacGregor Laird, the pioneer When the news that he might be began, in 1857, as a predominantly African enterprise. Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican missionaries were all trying to convert the native African people, often coming into conflict with one another. "on such a footing that the students might receive superior were short-lived and the reasons for their virtual disappearance homes. Missionary posts were closely linked with the trading from all quarters. Crowther saw very clearly that unless the there or to make extensive preparations as at Onitsha. by bushes or plantations" From Crowther's description, completely wrecked near the so called Ju-Ju rock at Jebba.
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