0% found this document useful (0 votes)
106 views7 pages

Introductory Chapter

This document provides context on the impact of colonialism in Africa. It discusses how European colonialism disrupted Africa's identity and imposed foreign systems and policies that still oppress the continent today. Colonialism enforced Eurocentrism through Christian missionaries who used religion to promote colonial agendas. Missionaries condemned African cultures and imposed a Western education system and lifestyle. While countries have gained independence, many argue the imposed colonial systems continue to shape Africa's political, social, cultural, religious and economic life in negative ways.

Uploaded by

Lawrence Mpeta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
106 views7 pages

Introductory Chapter

This document provides context on the impact of colonialism in Africa. It discusses how European colonialism disrupted Africa's identity and imposed foreign systems and policies that still oppress the continent today. Colonialism enforced Eurocentrism through Christian missionaries who used religion to promote colonial agendas. Missionaries condemned African cultures and imposed a Western education system and lifestyle. While countries have gained independence, many argue the imposed colonial systems continue to shape Africa's political, social, cultural, religious and economic life in negative ways.

Uploaded by

Lawrence Mpeta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Research Background and Context

The African continent has relentlessly journeyed in its quest for absolute religious,

political, sociocultural, and economic freedom. This arduous expedition commenced a few

decades after the unforgettable Scramble for Africa that was launch between 1884-1885

during the Berlin Conference.1 It is not an overstatement to claim that the inception and

progression of colonialism brought pernicious and deleterious consequences that forever

contorted Africa's identity. Malesela Edward Montle aptly posits, “The colonialists

revolutionized the cultural backdrop of Africa and imposed European values upon African

natives. This affected the social, economic, and political identities in Africa. Today, the

imagination of identity-crisis in the African continent is appalling.”2

The European imperialists thrived on Africa’s identity crisis through the coercion of

Eurocentrism in all the colonies. Colonialism enforced intolerable, inhumane, and monstrous

conditions of life among Africans. For instance, they instigated the oppressive system of

Apartheid3 in South Africa. Through the abhorrent law of Apartheid, native South Africans

were segregated and deprived of their human rights. During mid-twentieth century, such

systems became so unbearable that all African colonies struggled for freedom against the

European nations that had subjugated them since the inception of the Scramble for Africa.

1
For more about the Berlin Conference and Scramble for Africa, see Mieke van der Linden, “The
Acquisition of Africa (1870–1914),” 2016. "Brill | Nijhoff" p.5-7 https://brill.com/display/title/33020 New
World Encyclopedia URL https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Berlin_Conference_of_1884-
85#The_General_Act
2
Montle, Malesela Edward. 2021. “The Genesis African-Identity-Crisis through Wole Soyinka’s Death
and King’s Horseman”. NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 12 (2):158-67. URL
https://doi.org/10.15642/NOBEL.2021.12.2.158-167
3
For more details about the South African Apartheid state, see Luiz, John M. "The Evolution and Fall
of the South African Apartheid State: A Political Economy Perspective." Ufahamu: A Journal of African
Studies 26, no. 2-3 (1998). p. https://doi.org/10.5070/F7262-3016619
African’s vision during the struggle against colonialism, was to see Africa being

emancipated in all facets of life. However, Africa's post-colonial life is still not consistent

with what Africans envisioned during the struggle for freedom. This is because European

colonizers imposed deep-rooted systems4 and policies that would perennially oppress Africa.

Ahamad Faosiy Ogunbado writes:

The Berlin conference was Africa’s undoing in many ways than one. The colonial

powers superimposed their domain on the African continent. By the time

independence returned in 1950s, the realm had acquired a legacy of political

fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily.5

While there is universal declaration that all African countries are independent, these political

policies are alive and well in Africa. Therefore, Africans wholeheartedly believe that their

political, sociocultural, religious, and economic lives are shaped by the imposed European

colonial systems.

The imperialists also imposed a Eurocentric education system as a perennial buttress

of imperialism against Africans. Dr. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, a Kenya prolific author averred,

“Colonial education has another aim: to produce a native elite which has absorbed the culture

of imperialism, and through who imperialism, in its neo-colonialism stages, can continue

looting and plundering the wealth of the country.”6 In the contemporary era, Africans suffer

4
Apartheid, Britain’s “Divide and Rule,” and France’s “Assimilation and Associations” are just a few
of the colonial systems that still oppress Africa today. For more details, see Ocheni, Stephen, and Basil C.
Nwankwo. "Analysis of colonialism and its impact in Africa." Cross-Cultural Communication 8, no. 3 (2012):
53 URL http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.ccc.1923670020120803.1189 Liya Palagashvili African chiefs:comparative
governance under colonial rule. Public Choice 174, 277–300 (2018). URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-018-
0499-3
5
Ogunbado, Ahamad Faosiy. “Impacts of Colonialism on Religions: An Experience of Southwestern
Nigeria.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science 5 (2012): 51-57. URL https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-
0565157
6
Wa Thiong'o, Ngugi. "Education for a national culture." Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in
Neo-Colonial Kenya. Trenton, NJ: Africa of the World P 100 (1983). p.29 https://doi.org/10.5070/F7122017159
neocolonialism because of the consistent consumption of this colonial education which has

profoundly perverted their dignity and identity. It is therefore not incorrect to postulate that

this colonial education system in Africa is fully functional as it achieves its purpose.

The European colonialists were obsessed with imperialism that they also used

Christianity for the exploitation of Africa’s resources and the perversion of culture. Christian

missionaries partnered with their colonial governments for civilization by the enforcement of

the western education system in missionary schools. Fedelis Nkomazana writes:

“Missionary education, therefore, was firstly used as an agent of change. It

was to reconstruct African culture. Secondly it was used as a vehicle to import and

impose western values on Africans. To missionaries, western education represented

modernity and civilization. It was used to spread western social, cultural, and

economic value systems.7

European missionaries coerced Africans to embrace a Eurocentric lifestyle.8 Eventually,

missionaries’ coercion of Westernization brought internal cultural changes such as the

practice of “white wedding ceremony” to replace primordial indigenous wedding ceremonies.

In the modern Africa, a White Wedding ceremony is the most preeminent and widely

preferred. The African indigenous wedding ceremonies has great phased in Africa.

Certainly, European missionaries subtly used Christianity for the promotion of

colonialism. Nkomazana aptly asserts that “Although the task of missionaries was to

evangelize the people, Christianity was unnecessarily turned into an ideology which was used

to lay the ground for white domination. Religion was used to legitimize, sustain and even

7
Fidelis Nkomazana and Senzokuhle Doreen Setume. “Missionary Colonial Mentality and the Expansion of
Christianity in Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1800 to 1900.” Journal for the Study of Religion 29, no. 2 (2016): 30.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24902913
8
For a few changes that European missionaries brought in Africa, see Emily Lyons,, and Chicoine
Luke. "The Long-Term Effects of Christian Missions on Family Formation in sub-Saharan Africa." (2019).
https://www.bates.edu/?s=The+Long-Term+Effects+of+Christian+Missions+on+Family+Formation+in+sub-
Saharan+Africa&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bates.edu%2F
promote political oppression (Bourdillon 1960:269).”9 The Christianity that was imposed by

European missionaries, contorted almost all key facets of life in Africa. For instance,

missionaries of the London Missionary society used the Bible to colonize Batswana

politically, culturally and economically.10 Therefore, some European missionaries11

consequently advanced colonial agendas as they were preaching the gospel in Africa.

Western missionaries Eurocentrically interpreted the Bible for the suppression of

African cultures and the propagation of colonialism. Musa W Dube avers, “The Bible was

brought into contact with Latin American, African and Asian cultures in a setting where

power relations were not characterized by mutuality or equality…Christian missions

accompanied colonial expansion and participated with ease in the suppression of other

cultures.12 Dube adds that modern colonial (or civilizing) missions were characterized by

cultural collision, which often placed the Bible on the side of the colonizer’s cultures and

functioned as a tool for the subjugation of the other.13 Therefore, Christian missionaries

altered the African lifestyle by condemning and suppressing African cultures through the

biased interpretation of the Bible to lead-off Europeanization and colonialism.

The historiography of European missions in Africa reveals the pathetic attitudes,

actions and even derogatory remarks that missionaries made against Africans. For instance,

John Mackenzie and Robert Moffat are a few of the missionaries who participated in the

Christianization, civilization and colonization of Africa. Moffat asserted that African culture

was full of degradation, barbarism, ignorance and darkness. Mackenzie also affirmed that

Africans must be secluded from their home habits, customs and occupations because they
9
Nkomazana and Setume. 30
10
Nkomazana and Setume.40
11
For instance, missionaries from the London Missionary Society (David Livingstone, Charles
Mackenzie etc.) see, Our History, “The Missionaries Who Invaded Africa” Our History (Documentary about
Missionaries) Feb 15, 2022, accessed February 26, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ggxt7LZHIU.
12
Dube, Musa W. "Intercultural biblical interpretations." Svensk Missionstidskrift 98 (2010): 364-365.
https://www.academia.edu/25138182/Intercultural_Biblical_Interpretations
13
Ibid.365.
may imbibe that love of a life among their flocks and herds.14 It is pathetic that missionaries

could utter such reprehensible remarks against people whom God had send them to.

With this terrible attitude, missionaries enforced Christianity through various ways

such as churches, crusades and schools. The missionaries’ strategy was crucial to the spread

of European Christianity that even the post-colonial era bears witness to the impact that is

made by their approach. As of February 15, 2023, a statistics agency estimated that there are

about 658 million Christians in Sub-Sahara Africa, and that Among all countries in Africa,

Zambia has high percentage (95.5%) of Christians.15 The Christian religion is the most

influential in Africa. Certainly, European Christianity still affect Africa’s religious, political,

cultural and economic activities as did in the colonial era. Like the colonial education,

European Christianity is widely embraced in Africa.

Therefore, Christianity as taught by the missionaries inevitably becomes a crux in

Africa’s quest for absolute freedom in critical areas such as religious, cultural and political

issues. This is because it has shaped Africa to what it is today. The missionaries’ attitudes,

and actions such as the enforcement of colonial education, western civilization and the

promotion of European subjugation, raise crucial objections and allegations against

Christianity in Africa. Mastobane J. Manala writes, “Christianity led to the demise of the

African customs, which it viewed as pagan and evil; the religion also led to the

implementation of apartheid (to which it gave its theological support), and undermined the

leadership role of women. Finally, Christianity has bedeviled race relations in Africa

14
Nkomazana and Setume 38
15
Stastica, “African countries with the highest share of Christians as of 2023” Stastica.com accessed
February 25, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1239389/share-of-christian-population-in-africa-by-
country/
generally.”16 Therefore, some African elites such as Joshua Maponga17 hold that Christianity

is just a system for the continuous colonization of Africa.

The missionaries’ participation in the colonization of Africa is deeply deplorable as it

questions the legitimacy of the true biblical Christianity. Just as it has been proven, the

historiography of European missions in Africa implicitly suggests that Christianity is a

system for the incessant suppression of Africans. Instead of condemning colonialism,

missionaries used Christianity to advance the imperialists agendas. Therefore, Eurocentric

Christianity has negatively affected the social, political, economic, and religious lives of

Africans.18

Based on the negative effects of Christianity in Africa, radical African elites such as Joshua

Maponga,19 hold that this religion is a scam against Africa. Therefore, Maponga advocates

for the or at decolonization hypothesis for Africa to attain her freedom and development in all

facets of life as other continents. Joshua Maponga is just an example of the spectrum of

Africans20 who hold such notions against Christianity especially during the 21st Century.

Christianity is under serious attacks in Africa because of its historical compliments of

colonialization of Africa when the tenets of Christianity were used to justify Eurocentrism in

Africa. Hence the critical objection: is Christianity a European system for the incessant

colonial subjugation of Africans?

16
Matsobane Manala J. "The impact of Christianity on sub-Saharan Africa." Studia Historiae
Ecclesiasticae 39, no. 2 (2013): 285-302. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-
04992013000200016
17
Joshua Maponga is a Zimbabwean theologian, philosopher, and a former Bishop of the Seventh Day
Adventist Church. For details about his criticism against European Christianity, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_0g0Ay7Q_4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLa-E6XCrOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULW7sHGNAvM
18
For more, see Mastobane J. Manala http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?
script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992013000200016
19
Joshua Maponga, for more about his decolonizing Christianity hypothesis, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAXTo5bxgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As48G-M4sd4

20
For more criticisms against Christianity in Africa, see https://www.africaw.com/religion-in-africa-
and-the-harmful-effects Elijah Adjei Boakye https://www.modernghana.com/news/1104819/religion-has-
had-95-negative-influence-on-africa.html

You might also like