Christian evangelism first took root in Western Africa when Methodists and Anglicans settled in Sierra Leone in 1804 to evangelize freed slaves returned to that British colony. By 1860 British and Swiss missionaries had opened several other fields among the slave-trade centers along the West Coast. Catholics entered the French-dominated territories, while Protestants became particularly active through the British and German possessions. Evangelical Christian influence made its greatest initial headway in southwestern Nigeria, on the coast of Ghana (then the Gold Coast), and in Liberia.
Some groups later sought to reach interior areas but could give little effective service because of the severity of poverty and disease. Through dedicated perseverance, however, some of these ministries rose to rank among West Africa’s most effective missionary organizations. These initial encounters with the masses of strictly pagan people can well be labeled the evangelization period. But the trekking missionaries were white and were not always discerning in their rejection of traditional customs. They had to face extreme ignorance and resistance to new beliefs.
As converts grew and Christian doctrines were more widely taught, there came the institutionalization period, which gained impetus following World War I. Schools and Bible schools sprang up; hospitals and dispensaries followed. Pagan religions were more uprooted by education and healing than by churches and trekking. As African leadership developed, more opportunity, more authority, and more equal status had to be provided. Observing this trend, most evangelical mission leaders began to implement the nationalization period, and this flourished largely from the end of World War II. The symbol of Christianity is becoming less and less the foreign missionary and more and more the consecrated national leader.
Each of these three stages of advance has been marked by a steady increase in missionaries and in Christian churches and believers. Thousands of pagan communities were reached by the gospel witness, and comparatively few parts of West Africa today remain untouched. Large areas, however, are still without any organized, effective work. The Christian community of all of West Africa (including numerous nominal believers) is only about 2.5 million—3 per cent of a total population of about 73 million. Scores of tribes have yet to be reached with the Gospel; many more have no writing and no Scriptures in their languages. A tremendous shift to the cities in recent years has spotlighted the evangelicals’ weakness in reaching the important urban areas. Great expansion of the reading public has spurred literature efforts, which still lag far behind the need. Expanding higher education calls for more Christian witness among Africa’s leaders of tomorrow. Five years ago Nigeria had only one university; today it has five, with a goal of 10,000-student capacity. More West African students are in overseas centers of learning than in schools in their own lands. Ghana has 4,500 abroad; Nigeria has 9,000 in Britain alone.
Nigeria is not only the largest and most important country in West Africa; it is also the brightest spot for evangelical Christianity. Its population numbers 55 million, about half of all West Africa’s people. It has also more than half the missionary force and trained African workers—2,000 missionaries out of 3,500. In Nigeria the indigenous church is the strongest, the institutional work of missions the most widespread and the most thriving, Christian penetration of the interior the most progressive. Nigeria permits missionary endeavor and supports such aspects as educational work, but in the solid Muslim north some restrictions and difficulties have been encountered. Unlike most African nations, Nigeria has real freedom of the press, and it is the base for the continent’s three Christian magazines with the largest circulation.
Ghana lists a population of more than seven million, but the other countries are smaller in numbers, ranging downward to .25 million. Ghana and Sierra Leone, former British colonies, are reasonably well staffed with missionaries. Ghana’s political climate is highly sensitive today, and foreign missionaries are looked upon by some with critical eyes. Sierra Leone remains completely free to the preaching of Christ. Liberia lists more missionaries per population than any other West African land, but a substantial section of the country is still in need of a transforming Christian thrust. The past century has brought about a shift of the majority from a solid evangelical standard to a more liberal, nominal Christian orientation.
The French-speaking states are woefully weak in evangelical Christian influence. Not one has more than 100 evangelical missionaries, and the total in over eight countries is less than 400. (The former French administration favored Roman Catholics.) Strong groups of Christians are now emerging, however, primarily in the interiors of Ivory Coast and Guinea and in parts of Dahomey, Upper Volta, and Mali. Mission leaders report that they enjoy more freedom and cooperation under the new African governments (apart from Guinea).
The northern area of this bloc is almost completely Muslim. This includes all of Niger, Upper Volta, and Mali, and large sections of Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey. Unworked gaps are still large here, with many tribes reluctantly bypassed by evangelicals.
Missions And Schools
Across the whole of West Africa, Protestant missionaries were pioneers of crucial importance in introducing education, and until recent years most schools were run by Christian missions. More higher-level schools are badly needed to follow up young people trained in the great network of mission primary schools. The expanding number of trained African teachers has already released scores of missionaries for other work. Although there are still more than forty West African languages into which the Scriptures have not been translated, some leaders cite as the greatest factor in Christianity’s growth the conspicuous progress made in reaching people in the vernacular. Also assisting the Christian impact is the Liberia-based radio station ELWA, which broadcasts the Gospel over five transmitters in more than forty languages.
While Christianity is steadily gaining ground, contending spiritual forces are also at work. There is a more uninhibited outward manifestation of that paganism which is still the most powerful religious group and controls the majority of West Africans. Worship of pagan gods and ancestors, superstition, sacrifices, and fetishes still abound. Meanwhile Islam permits polygamy, demands little, and provides a religion with continued social acceptance.
Communism has erupted to become a significant threat to Christian work in some places. Its atheistic influence is very small, but its socialistic ideas are popular with many political leaders and followers. The Communist influence has been greatest in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, and among labor and student groups in other lands.
Roman Catholics have majored primarily in institutional work, building schools and churches, mainly in the coastal areas. Catholic ritual and belief is quite acceptable to many in Africa, for it provides a framework for the African to maintain his mystical communion with the spirit world. But the overall record of accomplishment in West Africa is far behind that of Protestantism. Roman Catholics have not matched the Protestant performance in education, have not contributed much to the development of national leadership, and have largely neglected the interior.
Religious cults are almost everywhere in West Africa. Generally they center around individual, self-made prophets and are more closely related to paganism than to Christianity. Jehovah’s Witnesses have a significant following, but they have clashed with several sensitive governments over failure to salute the flag and sing the national anthem.
‘The Greatest Friends’
These opposing spiritual forces have been hard at work, but the true Church in West Africa has experienced a great period of development in the last fifteen years, largely due to its new consciousness of African responsibility. While the Church is taking on more of an African personality, Christian nationals feel that the presence of foreign missionaries is still necessary and desirable. Although they do not care to keep certain missionaries, Africans realize that missionaries are still helping in many ways—evangelizing, teaching, healing, training, advising. What they do now is, of course, often suggested by national leaders. Eruptions of anti-missionary feeling may spray from racially or politically minded radicals, as well as from an easily excited African press, but the premier of one Nigerian region probably reflects the predominant good will in saying: “When African historians come to write their own account of the adventure of Africa with imperialism, they will write of the missionaries as the greatest friends the African had.” Leaders in other countries have expressed similar appreciation, and earlier this year the president of Liberia awarded high government decorations to several foreign missionaries.
Welcome as these tributes are, the primary reason for the increased response to the Gospel in West Africa is that the African is finding his place in the work of the Gospel. Mission-board awareness of the need for and importance of consecrated, capable national leaders is the outstanding trend today. Whereas Christianity first stimulated the rise of African nationalism, this nationalistic spirit is now greatly affecting Christianity in West Africa. Depending on the response of the Church to the challenge, this could result in unprecedented advance for the Gospel.
