Essay about European Missionaries in Africa

As mentioned before, violence was a key component in Europe’s colonization of Africa. Countless fights and rebellions took place, and the Europeans won the vast majority of them. One African veteran of a rebellion against the British recalled that after the natives surrendered, they “were treated like slaves” and harmed by “the White people” (Document 4). Another African, the leader of the Herero people, wrote about the Germans in a letter to another African leader saying that “each day they shoot someone dead for no reason at all” (Document 5). This segment does contain some bias since it was written to explain the difficult situation of someone being oppressed by Germans. Nonetheless, brutality against Africans was known to take place and this was one of many incidents. As shown in these two sources, Africans were essentially not treated as humans; they were persecuted by Europeans in unfair and often uncalled for ways. Previous to the unwelcome appearance of the Europeans, the natives were able to live their lives under their own terms for the most part. But the arrival of Europeans brought on drastic change: Africans went from being free to practically

Christianity also helped steer us into the age of exploration. During the 1500s, Europeans set out traveling the high seas to every part of the world in order to spread Christianity. Many European countries believed that they could convert the non-Christians and Muslims throughout the world. They insisted on missionaries going to Africa and Asia to run Christian schools to teach the people about their religion. However, there are many churches that were established by non-Christians that were independent of the Roman

One difference lay in the attitude of English colonists toward Africans and Native Americans. Somehow, the English, especially those who were missionaries, were more reluctant to try to convert Africans to Christianity than they were Native Americans. Perhaps, they saw Africans as more like uncivilized savages who could only be converted

Starting with the first effect of imperialism, the introduction of Christianity in Umuofia, Okonkwo’s fatherland. Four years into Okonkwo’s exile, his good friend Obierika payed him a visit, informing Okonkwo of the arrival of missionaries in Umuofia. The Christian followers had to come to Umuofia to build a church and to convert locals into their anomalous religion. Most importantly, “what moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter’s son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia.” (Achebe 143) The introduction of Christianity was one of the many effects set upon the African villages. Locals were becoming

Islam came about from the trade from the North of Africa, with the trade came religion. The Christian population is largely composed of Roman Catholics and Protestants. The trade with Germany that occurred before imperialism, brought their Christian beliefs with them to the region, so many were forced to convert to a religion, that connected to the people who enforced colonization on them. A 2008-09 Pew survey found that, "51 percent of Tanzanian Christians described themselves as Catholic, and 44 percent described themselves as Protestant”(3) All of the people who imperialized have had some influence towards the religious views. Over time, by imperialism, more people started to convert to Christianity. People looked at the Christian missionaries in one of two ways. The first, people viewed the Christians as saints, they were exemplars of ideal piety because of their successes. However, later on, missionaries were then viewed as arrogant and rapacious imperialists. People started to realize that, this was an aggressive force that the missionaries imposed on them, "some Christians have tried to make sense of post-colonial Christianity by renouncing practically everything about the Christianity of the colonizers. They reason that if the colonialists’ understanding of Christianity could be used to justify rape, murder, theft, and empire then their understanding of

The Missionaries also served to civilise Africa, “They founded schools where sanitations and agriculture as well as the three R’s [reading, writing arithmetic] were taught”(document N). Thus benefiting Europe's excuse to extract the materials needed from Africa saying that they were just Civilising the natives.

The Effect of White Missionaries on an African Tribe in Things Fall Apart by Achebe

During the 1800s, many European countries sent explorers to colonize Africa. Many European missionaries and explorers went to Africa in an effort to help their countries to achieve power, pride, and money. The main driving forces behind the imperialism that helped Europeans attain power, pride, and money were technological forces, politics, and economics.

The Europeans thought it was their burden as white men to bring religion and God to whom they thought were uncivilized people (Spielvogel and McTighe 227) . When coming to Africa the Europeans spread the word of God through missionaries and bible teachings and converted a lot of the Africans to Christianity. As explained through an African proverb, “When the whites came to our country we had the land and they had the Bible, now we have the Bible and they have the land” (Document 3). To justify taking African religion the Europeans said it was their job as white men to give the Africans God so they can experience what comes with it. Bringing new beliefs to the Africans it replaced the other religious ideas and in turn lost much of the culture the Africans held. Incoming Europeans were more concerned with protecting their traditions and culture and spreading it to this new region rather than respecting the Africans and their existing traditional culture. While the Europeans worked to conserve their culture, religions and traditions they were looking to gain economic stability from Africa to help them to become more powerful and overall have good economic

Additionally the Europeans brought formal education to congo and taught them about religion, languages, and basic subjects. The goal of the Missionaries was to spread western ideas, custom, and religion to people in

In many places such as Europe, people did not have religious freedom. The new world provided freedom of religion and place where you could spread your beliefs without being punished. People wanted to spread Christianity to the new world to help stop the spread of the Middle Eastern Muslims. After the explorers and settlers arrived in the new world, missionaries were sent to help spread Christianity.

Documents two and three reveal the effort among Africans to react with diplomacy. In Document two, Ashanti leader Premph I rejects a protectorate status under British rule goes to great lengths not to offend “Her Majesty” and insists

Donovan speaks about the missionaries who came to East Africa after they were taken into slavery. The missionaries thought it would be a good idea to come over and buy the people to save them from harsh lives, so they bought as many as they could. Doing this they also taught them all of their customs and where forced into Christianity instead of their beliefs ways and cultures. This struck off a

Missionaries frequently rushed to Africa and Asia to convert its people to Christianity. On the other hand, social Darwinism argued the survival of

Missionary expansion throughout the centuries has taken a hard, often violent road. The expansion of Christianity begins with the adherents of Jesus Christ and ended with the premature demise of many of the disciples. In the centuries following the disciples, many missionaries were faced with percussion and death as the gospel was proclaimed. As missionary expansion occurs throughout the centuries, often times facing trial and difficulty, the question comes up; is the capital cost of missionary expansion worth the monetary value? This paper will highlight many trials that have been faced by three missionaries in particular and explain often by the words of these missionaries why the enormous cost of missionary expansion is worth the cost. The thesis of this paper is: everyone is called to preach the gospel; the calling of the missionary is called to live by faith even when facing difficulty.