SIR: Issues revolving around Professor Lumunba’s discourse about Christianity in Africa vis a vis the role of the colonial masters need another critical look in order to put them in proper perspective. In the revered professor’s view, the missionaries who brought the Bible and Christianity to Africa were the same people that colonised Africa after the partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1885.
With due respect to the learned professor, this writer vehemently disagrees with such view. The missionaries were never part of the colonialists and their mission was solely to bring Africans out of utter darkness into the light. The missionaries and the colonialists were two independent bodies each with its mission, aims and objectives. Indeed, it may even be said that while the missionaries represented God’s love for mankind, the colonialists who were solely businessmen and politicians were more of ambassadors of malevolence thereby acting like the devil incarnate.
According to their mandate, the missionaries brought Christianity and the Bible, built schools and spent their money and sweats to educate Africans thereby laying the foundation of people achieving freedom from the enslavement which colonialism represents. It was those educated by the missionaries who were later at the vanguard of the movements against colonialism in all countries in Africa. Therefore, equating the missionaries with the colonialists is most unfortunate and serves to underplay the great roles played by the missionaries in not only bringing Africans to the light but also educating them on a platter of gold thereby giving them the tool to fight oppression. It’s true that Christianity is no longer what it ought to be and schools built by different churches are not accessible by their members; the fault can never be that of the missionaries but the caricature status Christianity has now assumed.
• Jide Oyewusi is the coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.
