Some of us especially in Africa lament the influence of christianity over other spheres of life outside the religious space. We would love to separate religion from other secular activities. History shows however, that christianity was not brought to Africa with only spiritual interest. Hence, this piece aims at highlighting the socio-economic interests behind missionary works and convertion. The piece has been divided into two parts. The first examines what propelled missionary activities, while the second part presents the factors that attracted the African converts to christianity.

Why missionaries came.

Commerce and missionary work complemented one another. Without the Industrial Revolution, perhaps, missionary work might not have been possible. While industrialists provided funds for missionary works, missionaries in turn secured raw materials and worked as merchants selling european manufactured products to Africans.

Apart from the belief, that spreading the Gospel is one of the conditions to make heaven, the emergence of the upper and lower middle classes in Europe played a significant role in missionisation. The missionary works of the 19th century was largely carried out by these classes. For most of them, missionary work was a chance to travel overseas and increase their social status. The British historian Max Warren attached the upswing in missionary activities in Britain to the attempts of these new classes to emancipate themselves.

The humanitarian principles of these missionaries were also not devoid of some economic interests. Adam Smith had -towards the end of the 18th century- propounded his theory of free labour as opposed to slavery. He had argued that forced labour was an hinderance to productivity. Based on Smith’s premise, freemen would work better, because they would be motivated by their earnings. Thomas Fowell Buxton argued in his book ‘‘The African Slave Trade and its Remedy‘‘ that commercial interest was a motivation for the fight against slavery by the missionaries.

For David Livingstone too, commerce and christianity were two sides of a medallion. With his Commerce and Christianity Programme for Africa, Livingstone wanted to facilitate the exchange of manufactured products from Britain with cotton and other agricultural products needed by British industries. Samuel Wilberforce, the son of the abolitionist William Wilberforce, was also a strong believer of ‘‘ commerce and christinanity‘‘. For him, only christians could be prosperous, good traders and exporters. The traders made missionary work possible and the missionaries promoted commerce.

Why Africans got converted.

Africans had almost the same motivations as their European counterparts. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who had been captured by the Muslim-Fulani slave raiders, was freed by the British Navy and taken to Sierra Leone. He was taken care of by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and later became a missionary himself. Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar in a fit to modernise her kingdom invited missionaries to establish schools. The Mfengu people, who were clients to the Xhosas in South Africa had the chance of improving their social and economic conditions with convertion to christianity.

Elsewhere in West Africa, missionaries built schools and provided western medical services. A lot of people were attracted by the educational offers. Western medicine provided solutions to problems that indigenous religions could not solve. Women could increase their earning through learning new crafts from the missionaries.

In conclusion, the choice of christianity by European businesspeople as a means to access Africa and the role of christianity in colonization remind one of the role christianity plays in politics, at least in Nigeria. Although the former President of Nigeria did not get reelected despite playing this religious card, the influence of the clergy should however not be underestimated. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, David Cameron used this means to secure the votes of some Nigerian-British citizens in the last general election. Religion seems to always have extra to offer and thus attracts followers with the mixture of spiritual, economic and other secular interests. Without pretending to know the future, let us keep watching this interplay between religion and other aspects of life.

Abiola Oladimeji, @am_oladimeji

Via: http://www.roughdiamondblog.com/2015/06/the-forgotten-economic-motives-of-missionisation/