Northern Africa: Doors Closed and Closing

The area here conveniently labeled Northern Africa comprises Mauritania (0.78 million people), Spanish Sahara (less than 0.1), Morocco (11.9), Algeria (10.1), Tunisia (4.2), Libya (1.2), and the United Arab Republic (26.6). Spanish Sahara and Mauritania have almost no Christian activity; much is being done in Morocco; Algeria in transition knows much activity but little success in the Church’s testimony; Tunisia has just spoken against Christian propaganda; Libya permits no missionaries per se to enter, and there is no Church; the U.A.R. outlaws any effort on the part of its Christian population to win Muslims.

Morocco has a developing political situation not yet stabilized, and there is great ferment in the minds of the intellectuals. Political parties form, disintegrate, reform. All the conventional missionary methods are used with varying success. The famous Tulloch Memorial Hospital at Tangier has known increased government pressure in the past few years, yet has planned an architectural rejuvenation and has opened an eye clinic. At least ten dispensaries and five missionary schools are run by various societies throughout Morocco. Most teaching is done in Arabic, some in English. Camp and conference programs are used to gather together young people taught in Bible classes throughout the school year and to give the Christian community a sense of unity and common purpose.

Few groups of Christians can be termed churches. The strongest are at Tangier, where nationals are in charge of the leadership, and at Fes. A third group that has been much blessed is in the southern capital, Marrakech, where the Lord has given the gift of ministry to a woman national. Churches made up of European Christians (many other Europeans left at independence) continue in Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, and Fes. These are making encouraging efforts toward integrating Arab believers in their fellowship, though some animosity remains as an aftermath of Morocco’s struggle to gain independence. A few hundred other European believers are scattered around the country. An English missionary leader states he has seen the baptism of more converts during the past five years than he has known in all his previous experience. While the picture is promising, no one would claim that the most minimal goals have been reached.

In Algeria are a people caught up in post-independence enthusiasm and a government too occupied elsewhere to devote any attention to missionary or church activity. The government accepted the burden (inherited from the French) of providing the salaries of the six Reformed Church pastors, but this church now numbers about 1,000 members and has “given” a number of its buildings to the government in those areas from which Protestants have departed.

The Methodist Church has the most developed work in terms of churches and institutions, located principally at Algiers, Constantine, and in the region of Kabylia. Eighty per cent of the Methodist European membership has gone to France, making adjustment necessary throughout the mission society’s institutions. Yet the work has developed in other directions, with perhaps a stronger emphasis on evangelism. In Kabylia, where Algeria’s large non-Arab minority lives, a new hospital has been established with an American doctor in charge. In Constantine a reading room is being planned to reach that city’s young men and women.

The dozen or so societies working in Algeria all to some extent use the methods of visitation, dispensaries, reading rooms, manual arts classes, literacy campaigns, and schools. In addition, the North Africa Mission has a team in the University of Algiers working among students, has just received authorization to open a commercial bookstore in the capital, and has had a team spearheading an evangelistic advance in Oran for more than a year. The Salvation Army, with a large social service program, continues its classes and services, attended by great numbers of Muslims. A Moody science film showing drew unprecedented crowds of young people and was in some localities sponsored by the local office of the government party. The Evangelical Baptist Missions work largely through the French language; institutional work here has been minimal, but converts have come forth, and plans are being made for an increased summer camp program in the west.

Just before the Mediterranean shore dips sharply southeast, Tunisia is encountered. The smallest and poorest of the North Africa states, it is richest in human resources and constitutes a crossroads between Europe and the Middle East. Due to the numbers of converts and the penetration of the Gospel among the masses through Bible correspondence courses, the authorities refused legal status to the North Africa Mission in 1963. Only workers in professional capacities have been able to remain in their posts. The Methodist Church, because of its more socially oriented program, has not been confronted with any insurmountable opposition up to this time.

Restrictions In Libya

To the east, the sparcely populated land of Libya is enjoying its newfound wealth—oil. As in most Muslim states, the traveler who has been in Israel is not permitted to enter. In the past five years the North Africa Mission has been declared an illegal society in Libya, and its staff had formally to declare themselves disconnected from the mission. Thus the dispensary that continued for some sixty years with a strong evangelistic impact is now carried on without other witnesses than that of the presence of Christians. In Tripoli itself, there are four American churches, permitted to function only on the understanding that no Muslim will enter their doors or be contacted by them. These churches are crowded with American service personnel and oil company staff. Christian nurses from Lebanon work in the city’s hospitals, and some Christian professors have been invited—not always knowingly—to teach in the city’s university. There are only two or three known national brethren. One of the strongest witnesses in Libya is being given by a small number of oil company employees.

The U.A.R. deserves separate consideration, since traditionally it is not part of North Africa. Christian influence in Egypt antedates the Muslim invasion in the eighth century. The Coptic Church numbers from seven to ten million, though the government acknowledges only five million. The United Presbyterian Church has for many years run churches and church schools, hospitals, and dispensary services in Egypt. In Cairo alone there are some 200 churches, the majority of their members drawn from the Coptic community. The largest of these numbers well over 1,000 members. The law of the land forbids any overt attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The Society for the Salvation of Souls is performing a fine service for Christ both within and without the churches in Egypt, seeking to stir up Christians to vital life and witness. Their periodical, one of three distributed internationally by Egyptian churches, suffers from a lack of articles produced by nationals. It has not been unusual to see crowds of three or four thousand persons at their Sunday evening meetings in Cairo. The Egypt General Mission, now the Middle East General Mission, was greatly reduced in numbers after the Suez crisis of 1956 but continues to serve in several villages in Upper Egypt. This work also is principally among Coptic Christians.

Some Common Needs

Summing up, there are several factors common to all these countries. Even after eighty years, conventional missionary activity has not resulted in the formation of churches (the U.A.R. excepted). The nationalistic revolutionary spirit that dominates these lands should act as a stimulant and a challenge to the Christian groups within them. Need is shown for correspondence courses and radio to be given priority in mission strategy. ELWA in Liberia broadcasts daily to North Africa, and Trans World Radio’s broadcast to the Middle East can be heard in Egypt. Correspondence courses have been initiated from Morocco to Egypt with tremendous response; this ministry is continuing from the North Africa Mission station at Marseille, France. A further aim of this station is to provide North Africa with adequate and powerful radio coverage geared to the Muslim mind.

Recent opposition to the work of the Bible Society (begun in North Africa in 1832) has been formidable in Tunis, where its assets have been frozen, its colporteur has been forbidden liberty to distribute the Scriptures, and its shipment of books has been held in the city’s port for more than two years. In fellowship with parallel organizations, the Bible Society in North Africa intends to triple its distribution by the end of 1966.

Roman Catholicism is a minor factor in North Africa today; its only obvious missionary activity is in schools or colleges and professional centers. This is permitted on condition that no religion is introduced, but some observers suspect that secret baptism is being practiced. Seventh-day Adventism works among Muslims in Algeria through correspondence courses, and Jehovah’s Witnesses labor with little success in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Both these groups find more scope for their type of activity in Egypt.

A strong potential missionary force is the presence of Egyptian and Lebanese teachers in Libya, Algeria, and Morocco. One city has 120 Syrian professors, some of them Christians. In Northern Africa the Church has too long adopted an attitude of submission to government edicts, with little apparent regard to its Christ-given commission. The Send the Light team was a great stimulus in every North Africa country in 1962–63. When the Church can no longer contain within her breast the truths she knows but must dispense them to the waiting Muslim multitudes, the picture of Christianity in these Mediterranean states will undergo a wonderful transformation.

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