Historicity of the Missionary Activities in West-Africa (Nigeria) 4.3 Conclusion
4.5 Summary
4.4 Tutor Marked Assignment 4.6 References for further Reading 4.2 Main Content
HISTORICITY OF THE MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN WEST-AFRICA (NIGERIA)
Christianity in Nigeria began in the 16th century when the Portuguese initiated Latin Christianity in Benin and Warri. Considering Christianity from that early beginning to the present time, many stages of growth had taken place resulting to the planting and growth of churches.
The birth of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) which divided the Christian church to five major groups aided the growth of the church in Nigeria. The time from 1980 to 2010 is amazing as it witnessed the spread, growth and spread of churches in Nigeria.
Church growth led to numerical strength of churches as seen in the spring up of churches in Nigeria today.
In 1472 till the close of the 18th Century, a period of about three hundred years marks the
‘first contact of Europeans with the natives of the Delta region”. At this moment,
“Christianity failed to gain any stable grip in Benin, Warri, Bonny, and Calabar”.
Antonio Galvao, the 16th century historian, accredited the first Portuguese voyage through the Bight of Benin to one Ruy de Sequira in 1472. The last habitation of the Portuguese in the Bight of Benin began in the 1480s through the accessibility of slave, just as gold was obtainable in the Port of Elmina. Portuguese trade with Benin brought political ties, and under King John II, Christian missionaries were sent out with traders 2.
Christianity was brought into the kingdom of Benin by opportunity. It was unplanned because the Portuguese were in the West Coast of Africa chiefly to trade in gold, ivory, pepper and slave. As a Christian nation, they aimed at the decisive alteration to the catholic faith in their trading partners. Accordingly, the king and the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church at home encouraged them. Again the Portuguese sought the conversion of their native trading partners because, “as Christians, they were looking for allies against Islam.
Missionary activity in the 15th century was smallest because the superseding commercial curiosity in trade in slave and pepper had been popular. Nevertheless, the 16th century witnessed a notable interest in missionary activities on the part of the Portuguese.
Because of this, Esigie (1504-1550), the Oba of Benin sent an embassy to king Manuel of Portugal in 1514, and in the following year Christian Priests came to in Benin. Egharevba put it that churches were built, the Oba’s son and some prominent men were baptized and began to learn how to read and write. Esigie’s successor, Orhoghua, was said to have been educated by the Portuguese in their school and was baptized.
On the other hand, by Mid-Sixteenth Century, the Itsekiris had turned into rivals to the Benin in slave trade, and when the Portuguese Missionaries were rejected in Benin in the period, they were received by the Itsekiri rulers and the kingdom developed through contact with the Europeans under the order of the Bishop of SaoTome, Gasper Cao (1556-1565, 1571-1574). Christianity was brought to Warri by a group of Augustinian Monks sent to Warri, who established a Christian settlement, called Santo Augustino.
The primary achievement of the Augustinian Missionaries was sent to Portugal in 1600 to be educated, and returned to Warri some years later with a noble Portuguese wife and three priests.
For the next two hundred years, “Roman Catholic Missionaries” travelled to Warri, though occasionally, sometimes going with trading parties and often times exclusively on their own. At the close of the 18th Century, European trading vessels no longer visited Warri, because of the fall in the capacity of trade accessible to the Europeans in Warri.
What went on at this moment were the Association of Missionary Enterprises with the enthusiasm of trade, intermittency and long interval between the postings of Missionaries, insufficiency in the number of missionaries, meagerness in the number of
were not trained for it and lack of material aid for the few missionaries obtainable.
Besides language barrier, concentration was heading for many places at the same time and the base was far from the field. For instance, Sao Tome was made the base for missions to Fernado po, Elmina, Principe, Warri, Ughoton, and Inland town of Benin.
Additionally, from the Warri know-how, the proselytizing effect of the Roman Catholic Missionaries was reduced by their high death rate because of the detrimental atmosphere only the palaces or courts were visited by the missions and efforts of the Portuguese or Italian priests were stories of Jesus and not Christianity based on the Scripture. All the aforementioned features led to the breakdown and end of the mission.
The period of Denominationalism and Missionary Activities.
In 1840, missionary bodies formed in Europe and America around 18th century thrived in converting Nigerians to Christianity and set up stable mission stations among the people.
This was just after the abolition of the slave trade; the obliteration of slave trade motivated a fresh religious interest among the Europeans and Americans. By the aid of the missionary bodies the freed slaves in places like Sierra Leone and Abeokuta encouraged missionary enterprises. At this moment many churches from the British Isles and America sent missionaries to the coast and interior of Nigeria. The Anglicans under the Church Missionary Society (CMS) were the first but the Niger Expedition in which they came in 1841 was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the first victorious access of Christian mission into the interior of Nigeria was made in 1842, when the Wesleyan Methodists on the call of the freed slaves who had settled at Badagry and Abeokuta, sent Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman and an assistant William de craft and his wife from the Gold Coast (Ghana) to Badagry and sometime afterward Henry Townsend to Abeokuta.
In the Cross River in the old slave-trading town of Calabar, the Presbyterians sent Rev.
Hope Masterton Wadded followed by Mr. and Mrs. Edgerl A. Chishalm and E. Miller, who landed in Calabar in April 1846, to set up the church of Scotland Mission. Their toil was very thriving because a Presbytery, the Presbytery of Biafra, was instituted in 1858.
The American Baptist Mission started work in Nigeria in 1850. Rev. Thomas J. Bowen, the Pioneer Missionary, founded stations at Ijaiye and Ogbomoso. The Roman Catholicism, through the Society of the African Missions, came in 1862. The ex-slaves were structured and stations opened in Lagos and Abeokuta. When the Italian Priest, Father Broghero, made a trip to Lagos in 1863, there was a catholic church in Yorubaland. The Holy Ghost Fathers began work among the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria in 1885 through Father Joseph Lutz working at Onitsha. Samuel A. Bill started the Qua Iboe Mission in the Qua Iboe River area from 1887, however it was not successful until 1891 that the Qua Iboe church was formed as an Independent evangelical and inter-denominational body.
Mission work in Northern Nigerian began in 1893 all the way through Rolland Bingham, Walter Gowans, and Thomas Kent in 1904, the Sudan United Mission (SUM) joined the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) in the mission work in the North, focusing in the regions of Adamawa, Benue and Bornu.
It is to be distinguished that this phase was portrayed by missionary activities being based on denominations and restricted to the Southern part of the country. The missionaries who came were taught and actually organized; nonetheless many were brought down by the climate. The language barricade that had existed was reduced to the bare minimum by the use of interpreters and the missionaries themselves learning the language; Trained Nigerian Ministers started to come forward; churches and later schools and hospitals were built. More significantly, baptism was administered to the converts as an unforgettable mark for the new faith they had received and the old ways they had abandoned.
Implication of Proliferation of Churches to Church Growth in Nigeria
The implications of rise of churches in Nigeria have both the positive and negative impacts. One positive impact of proliferation of churches in Nigeria, is that it makes people to become conscious that Nigeria is very religious and that many Christian churches abound in the country. More so, the Christian body under one umbrella name called Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) stands as a pressure group in the nation at whatever time a major rule which affects the Christian group or the overview of the country is made by the government. A distinctive instance was the issue of Nigeria becoming a member of the Organization of Islam countries (OIC) in the 1980s and 1990s. The Christians critically mounted pressure against this and emphasized that Nigeria should hang about in her secular status. Consequently, Nigeria, turn out to be an onlooker then until when Maccido, the emir of Sokoto pronounced that Nigeria had become a full member of OIC. In responding to the assertion made by Maccido, Augustine Madu-West and ex-chairman of CAN Kaduna State said “The government should be aware of the danger it is doing to this country, if its secularity is tampered with”. In the direction of Augustine Madu-West, the end result of joining OIC full membership means that the economy of any member state and leadership (of OIC) would have to be Muslim oriented and that it was not good for Nigeria as a country because it would tend to enforce religion on the constitution of the country which to him was not reasonable. To Madu-West’s response the government then kept silent having comprehended what it could breed into in the country.
An additional way by which CAN stand as a pressure group is when an action is taken by the government that is disadvantageous to public interest. An instance was during Abacha’s regime in Nigeria when many people were put in imprisonment because of their views and opposition to government policy, the Christian Association of Nigeria’s leadership act in response to that effect in their diverse protest statements. Example of such objection statements were made by Ondo State CAN chairman Bishop Gbonigi at Akure and Bishop Olubunmi Okogie the National CAN Chairman in Lagos.
There are furthermore the negative impacts of proliferation of churches. The doctrinal differences that originate as a result of division more often than not confuse the members of the churches. Nevertheless, some churches are founded for commercial purposes with
overseers of these religious sects both foreign mission and indigenous have become splendidly rich at the expense of their congregations.
Generally speaking, explosion of churches, has led to the birth and growth of churches in Nigeria as churches spread very wide here and there. It is to be known that the Deeper Life Bible Church, Living Faith Winners Chapel and Redeemed Christian Church are among the fastest growing churches in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general at the moment.