Christendom’s Harvest in Africa

CHARLES LAVIGERIE’S dream of converting Algeria into a “Christian nation” proved to be just that​—a dream. Today, 99 percent of Algeria’s population are Muslims, and Christendom has lost ground in large parts of North Africa. But what about the rest of the continent?

“Christianity,” claims Dr. J. H. Kane, in A Concise History of the Christian World Mission, “has made more converts in Black Africa than in all the rest of the Third World combined.” However, are these converts really Christians? “One great danger in the African church,” admits Dr. Kane, “is Christopaganism.” Also, his expression “African church” is a misnomer. There are literally thousands of African churches, each with its own way of worship. Why?

Sowing Seeds of Disunity

The seeds of disunity were sown even before missionaries set sail for Africa. The London Missionary Society drew members from different churches, and heated doctrinal disputes took place between the missionaries on the voyage to their assignments. Conflict was bound to worsen after they settled down in their mission stations.

“The missionaries,” writes Professor Robert Rotberg in his book Christian Missionaries and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia 1880-1924, “fought bitterly with one another and with their overseas directors, usually to the detriment of their evangelical objectives. . . . Missionaries seemed to spend as much time and energy committing these quarrels to paper as they did in seeking to accomplish conversions.”

Sometimes, missionary quarrels resulted in the formation of rival missions. Catholic and Protestant missions fiercely competed for converts. This same lack of unity was bound to be reflected among their converts. In time millions of Africans left the mission churches and formed churches of their own.

“The African Independent Churches,” writes missionary historian Dr. Kane, “are to be found all over Africa . . . Altogether there are some seven thousand separate groups in this movement.” Competition among missionaries with conflicting beliefs was not the only cause of this. In his book The Missionaries, Geoffrey Moorhouse explains that another cause of the “black reformation” was “a resentment against white superiority.”

Christians or European Racists?

“The missionaries,” admits Dr. Kane, “had a superiority complex.” They “believed that the Christian religion must go with a European culture and European leadership,” says Adrian Hastings in his book African Christianity.

The Frenchman Charles Lavigerie was one missionary leader who held this view. Another was John Philip, superintendent of the missions of the London Missionary Society in southern Africa. “Our missionaries,” he boasted in 1828, “are . . . extending British interests, British influence, and the British empire. Wherever the missionary places his standard among a savage tribe, their prejudices against the colonial government give way; their dependence upon the colony is increased by the creation of artificial wants; . . . industry, trade, and agriculture spring up; and every genuine convert from among them . . . becomes the ally and friend of the colonial government.”

Is it any wonder that European governments saw such missionaries as useful agents for colonial expansion? For their part, missionaries welcomed the colonial conquest of Africa. As they declared at the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh: “It would . . . be impossible always to draw a dividing line between the aim of the missionary and the aim of the Government.”

Ruled as Kings in Africa

To assert their authority, some missionaries relied on colonial military might. Coastal towns were sometimes demolished by British naval gunships because the villagers had refused to accept missionary authority. In 1898, Dennis Kemp, a Wesleyan missionary to West Africa, expressed his “firm conviction that the British Army and Navy are today used by God for the accomplishment of His purpose.”

After establishing themselves, missionaries sometimes took over the secular power of tribal chiefs. “The London missionaries,” writes Professor Rotberg, “frequently used force to maintain their theocratic law. A favorite instrument by which they made known their disapproval was the cikoti, a long whip made of cured hippopotamus hide. With it, Africans were freely flogged on almost any pretext.” “One African convert,” notes David Lamb in his book The Africans, “recalls an Anglican missionary in Uganda known as Bwana Botri who frequently descended from his pulpit during service to cane African latecomers.”

Shocked by such acts, a missionary, James Mackay, lodged a complaint with the directors of the London Missionary Society. “Instead of being regarded as the white men who carry to them the good tidings of God’s love,” he warned, “we are known and feared.”

The World Wars

“For a century and more,” states the book The Missionaries, “had been told persistently and vehemently that fighting and all the savage instincts which it released were both fruitless and wicked.” Then, in 1914, World War I erupted between the so-called Christian nations of Europe.

“The missionaries of almost every nationality were sucked into the Great War,” explains Moorhouse. To their shame, missionaries urged their African converts to take sides. Some missionaries even led African troops into battle. The effect of the war is well expressed by Professor Stephen Neill in his History of Christian Missions: “The European nations, with their loud-voiced claims to a monopoly of Christianity and civilization, had rushed blindly and confusedly into a civil war which was to leave them economically impoverished and without a shred of virtue.” “The Second World War,” continues Neill, “only finished off what the first had already accomplished. The moral pretensions of the West were shown to be a sham; ‘Christendom’ was exposed as being no more than a myth. It was no longer possible to speak of ‘the Christian West.’”

Understandably, the black reformation accelerated after World War I. But what about Africans who stuck to Christendom’s churches? Were they thereafter taught the truth from the Bible?

African Ancestral Beliefs

Christendom’s missionaries condemned African religious practices, such as the consulting of diviners to appease their deceased ancestors. At the same time, the missionaries insisted that all humans possess an immortal soul. They also promoted the veneration of Mary and the “saints.” These teachings confirmed the African belief that their dead ancestors were alive. Also, by venerating religious images, such as the cross, missionaries gave justification to the African use of amulets as a means of protection from evil spirits.

Professor C. G. Baëta explains in his book Christianity in Tropical Africa: “It is possible for an African to sing lustily in Church, ‘Other refuge have I none’, while still carrying an amulet somewhere on his person, or being able to go out of Church straight to his diviner, without feeling that he is betraying any principle.”​—Compare Deuteronomy 18:10-12 and 1 John 5:21.

Many missionaries told Africans that their pagan forefathers were being tormented in a fiery hell and that the same fate would befall them if they refused to accept missionary teachings. But the doctrine of eternal torment conflicts with plain statements in the very Bible that the missionaries went to such pains to translate into African languages.​—Genesis 3:19; Jeremiah 19:5; Romans 6:23.

In fact, the Bible states that sinful human souls die and that “the dead . . . are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Ezekiel 18:4) As for Africans who did not get an opportunity to hear Bible truth, they have the prospect of being included in the coming “resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15) Such resurrected ones will be taught about God’s provision for salvation. Then, if they respond appreciatively to God’s love, they will be rewarded with everlasting life on a paradise earth.​—Psalm 37:29; Luke 23:43; John 3:16.

Instead of teaching these wonderful Bible truths, Christendom has misled Africans by false teachings and religious hypocrisy. Certainly, the role played by Christendom’s missionaries in the colonial conquest of Africa finds no support in the Bible. On the contrary, Jesus said that his Kingdom “is no part of this world” and that his true followers would likewise be “no part of the world.” (John 15:19; 18:36) Early Christians were ambassadors of Jesus Christ, not of worldly governments.​—2 Corinthians 5:20.

Hence, Christendom’s African harvest as a whole is an unhappy one, characterized by shocking disunity, distrust, and “Christopaganism.” The violence that has marked many “Christian” parts of Africa is certainly not in harmony with the teachings of the “Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) The fruitage of Christendom’s work in Africa stands in direct contrast with Jesus’ words about his true followers. In prayer to his heavenly Father, Jesus requested that “they may be perfected into one, that the world may have the knowledge that you sent me forth.”​—John 17:20, 23; 1 Corinthians 1:10.

Does this mean that all missionary work in Africa has been a failure? By no means. The fine fruitage of true Christian missionary work in Africa and throughout the world will be discussed in the articles commencing on page 10.

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Missionary leaders of the last century, such as John Philip, believed that European civilization and Christianity were one and the same

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Cape Archives M450

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Christendom’s missionaries encouraged African ancestral beliefs by spreading unbiblical teachings, such as the immortality of the soul

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Courtesy Africana Museum, Johannesburg