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Consequences of British rule in Nigeria
Consequences of British rule in Nigeria
Essay on the three fundamental religion practiced in Nigeria
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Christianity in Nigeria
Several religions coexist in Nigeria, helping to accentuate regional and ethnic distinctions (Kane 86). Religion is often times the source of customs, culture, happiness and wars: it influences nearly every facet of our life. In Nigeria, the main religions are Christianity, paganism, and Islam. Christianity began to spread in the 19th century and has continued to spread up through the 21st century. The major spread of the Christian church in Nigeria is clearly credited to the independent churches of the Nigerian people.
Portuguese Catholic priests, who landed on the shore of Nigeria with traders, first introduced Nigerians to Christianity (http://www.nigeriannation.com). Because these priests were only in Africa to serve the Portuguese trading community, the influences of Christianity were literally non-existent by the 1800’s. The true missions of the Christian church began in the late nineteenth century with Britain trying to abolish slave trade (http://www.nigeriannation.com). In 1850, Thomas Bowen of the Baptist convention arrived in Abukuta, Nigeria. Since he could not enter into mainland he mainly focused on his work in Abukuta. Soon more missionaries joined him from the Baptist convention and several bases were opened—the work was slow but steady for the first fifteen years. In 1875, W.J. David, Thomas’ friend and colleague arrived in Abukuta and together they revived the mission. Within five years there were six churches and outstations in the area (Falk 340). Not much later, the new converts decided that they would like to start reaching out to their fellow Nigerians. Several congregations of converts split and made
an independent church and were allowed to enter Nigeria (341). This changed everything; within fifteen years, the membership grew to 2,880 and was still growing.
Around the same time that the Baptists entered Africa, the Methodists and Presbyterians also began their mission. The Methodists used scripture and literature prepared for them by the Presbyterians and together they nearly covered the southern half of Nigeria by 1916 (Falk 342). Meanwhile, the Lower Niger Mission began working slowly with the Igbo in 1906. The Igbo people were very receptive of Christianity, so the mission within their tribe was focused on (Hastings 93). Many school- teachers and doctors were sent to their area and a government was soon set up (www.uiowa.edu). Unlike many cultures, the Igbo requested more missionaries (Falk 347).
Amin, Julius A.“Secular Missionaries: Americans and African Development in the 1960’s”. American Historical Review.Apr2012, Vol.17 issue 2, p559-560.2p.Book review.Web.30 April 2014.
Nigeria has a complex history and though it is independent the effects of British colonization are still present.1#2 Nigeria’s dissension is inextricably linked to the merging of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914.2#3 Early missionaries used Western education as a tool for evangelism causing a northerrn pulation dominated by islam to be suspicious and reject Western influences.3 In the south western ideals were more widely accepted as a result of their acceptance to Christianity and evangelism. Due to their easy acceptance of westernization the British built schools, roads and infrastructure in the South, none of which appeared in the North.
The expansion growth in these countries is due primarily to their high reproduction rates and their hunger for the Christian beliefs that the missionaries brought with them. Jenkins says in this book that the missionaries faced no problems trying to explain a higher deity or other “bafflingly alien world views” to the Africans, because it followed closely with many of their own tribal beliefs. Many of the tribes worshiped one higher power already and also found that many of the Christian beliefs fell in sync with their own heritage and customs. They did, though, encounter one problem: the beliefs fell so in sync with their tribal traditions, that eventually the African culture started to incorporate their customs such as exorcism, dream visions, prophesy, healing, and mysticism into their Christian churches, creating an entire sub group of Christianity. These sub groups are closely related to the more Pentecostal churches, but are far from the ritualistic practices of the Anglicans and Catholics that primarily missionized them.
Christianity was predominantly in Europe and that is where the churches were built and flourished, “Christianity was established in Africa well before it reached Europe. Although Christianity was first confined to the early churches in Egypt and Ethiopia, historians record that it was the Portuguese who converted the Kongo people in the area around the mouth of the Congo River, for soon after the colonizers came the missionaries” (Heale, 82). Therefor the missionaries like Nathaniel Price were aiming to keep the history of this religion in the Congo alive and not just to simply vacate their newfounded beliefs and customs. The local traditions were also a part of christianity in Africa, “However, African Christianity ultimately developed its own special character in which local traditions played a role. This religion has had a profound effect on the social and political development of modern Africa. Today, membership in Christian churches is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world” (Haley). Perhaps Nathaniel was simply trying to achieve this ideal community with a diverse culture and religion, yet it was not successful by any
During the late nineteenth century Christianity is introduced to Africa, which brings conflict and unrest. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, he portrays a cultural and religious struggle between the native Igbo people and the Christians. When the Christians become involved in the Igbo community things change. The Igbo and Christians have different beliefs about the spiritual world and this causes tension between the cultures. The differing spiritual customs of the two religions break them apart even further. Finally the destruction of the Igbo culture happens as a result of contradictory beliefs based on kinship ties within the religions. The differences between the religions are the ultimate downfall of the Igbo culture and both religions contribute to this demise equally. Understanding the dissimilarity between the Igbo religion and Christianity allows the reader to fully apprehend the reason for the eradication of the Igbo culture.
It wasn 't until religious missions began in Africa that it was able to begin to advance as a society, while starting to heal from these past events. According to Nunn, in his paper “Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa”, evidence shows that the presence of European missionaries was an important factor affecting economic development in many different all over the world, Africa being one of them. The paper examined the long-term impacts of Protestant and Catholic missionary activity during the colonial period on educational attainment, and Nunn provided evidence that Protestant missionary activity had a positive long-term impact on educational attainment in
Nnolim, Charles E. "The Missionaries." Approaches To the African People: Essays in Analysis. London: Saros International, 1992.
Religion and the Igbo People The Igbo are a profoundly religious people who believe in a benevolent creator, usually known as Chukwu, who created the visible universe (uwa). Opposing this force for good is agbara, meaning spirit or supernatural being. In some situations people are referred to as agbara in describing an almost impossible feat performed by them. In a common phrase the igbo people will say Bekee wu agbara.
http://moodle.oakland.k12.mi.us/internationalacademy/pluginfile.php?file=%2F68302%2Fmod _ folder%2Fcontent%2F0%2FAfrica%20Essay%2FAchebe%20Interview%20An%20African%2 20Voice.docx&forcedownload=1>. Arinze, Francis A., and Kalu Ogbu. The "Igbo Religion" www.ic.galegroup.com.
Even though the European worlds have tried to claim Christianity as their religion, the teachings of Christianity are of universal application. Musa A.B Gaiya noted that, “There is strength in the Christian present in Africa they first dates from the apostolic period. It first entered Egypt and quickly spread to other [part of North Africa, namely Ethiopia, Nubia, and Maghreb area. These means Christianity was indigenized since Africa were themselves instrumental in the spread of the gospel” this has made Christianity not to be considered as a foreign religion. “Historically Christianity was thriving in Africa long before it reach American and British where most of the protestant missionaries come from. We can therefore call Christianity an Africa religion” . We may there...
...taken up his religion also say that our customs bad.” Christianity is destroying and guiding two different societies. It guides the people that don’t believe in Christianity to convert because converts who once had the same beliefs as them are saying that theirs customs are bad. This causes Ibo people to convert to Christianity.Which guides the Christian society into better directions because they are gaining more converts. At the same time this destroys the Igbo religion because they are losing their members to the Christian society.
As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go, but they were wrong. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. Christianity was rather intriguing to many of the natives and many of them turned away from their families and everything they were to become a member of this new religion. Before this, they natives had been very superstious, but as they new religion flooded over the peoples, their superstiousocity began to lessen and their belief in the many gods they had previously believed in.
To colonize the land of Nigerian tribal people or any other lands in the world, the British wisely used religion as a tool of invasion. Though the process of spreading Christianity took longer time than war and killing, the attack on belief and spirituality made the native people completely submit to the new government which generated and supported the religion that those people followed. In fact, the British missionaries succeeded in convincing the Igbo people of the new religion despite the Igbo’s conservativeness and extreme superstition.
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving
While the outside world considered Nigeria to be a united and monolithic entity, even the British colonial administration was wary of the reality of Nigerian politics; the nation was not so much a “country” as it was more than three hundred different groups coalesced into one.4 5 These tribes were divided between three main spheres of influence: the Yoruba, the Igbo, and the Hausa. Historically, their interests were often opposed, and their cultures did not come into regular contact with one another until the British occupation. In spite of the differences British administration a...