The Activities of the Early Missionaries in Nigeria

After the abolition of slave trade in 1833 by the then British Empire, Freetown in Sierra-leone (West coast of Africa) was acquired for the settlement of the liberated Africans. Some of the liberated Africans became converted Christians and educated in the formal school system in Freetown. Back home in Europe there were great revival of missionary movement in Britain. The revival led to the founding of different religious groups. These groups were founded as follows: Baptist Missionary Society (1792), London Missionary Society (1795), Church Missionary Society (1799).

The revival zeal of these establishment prompted their missionaries to move into the field to win souls. Sierra-Leone became their landing point, from where they move to other parts of West Africa.

With the evangelical atmosphere change in both Britain and Freetown, the call to spread became eminent. Some of the early converts, especially of the Yoruba origins returned home to join their kiths and kins. They relayed their experiences abroad; the slave ships, their rescue by the British warships, the religion and schools at Freetown and so on. These stories became captivating to their local audience. As time went on, several of these rescued slaves returned home and their stories were the same. These wonderful experiences, relayed to this local audience resulted to calls from Badagry and Abeakuta to the missionaries in Sierra-leone and Britain. On 24th September, 1842, the Wesleyan Methodist Society sent Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman, the then superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Society in Cape Coast, to Badagry. This was in response to a formal invitation by the Yoruba emigrants from Sierra-leone who had settled in Badagry. Freeman (a son of a Negro father and an English mother) was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. William de Graft, who later established primary schools in Badagry. Mr. William de Graft was also an African, born at Cape coast (Osokoya, 1989).

In 1843 Rev. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Rev. C. A. Gollmer and Mr. Henry Townsend all from the Church Missionary Society arrived at Badagry for missionary work. They later moved to Abeokuta in 1846 where they founded two schools; one for boys and the other for girls.

The Presbyterian Mission arrived at Calabar and established a station there in 1846. In 1853 the Southern Baptist Convention opened a school at Ijaye and another at Ogbomoso and Lagos in 1955. Between 1842 and 1964 various missionary bodies have made their presence felt especially within the Lagos, Calabar and across the Niger areas. These missionary bodies are: 

• the Wesleyan Methodist Society 
•  the Church Missionary Society 
•  the Baptist Mission 
•  the Roman Catholic Mission 
• the Presbyterian Church of Scotland 
• the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society 
• the Qua Iboe Mission 

Exercise 2:

• Discuss the activities of the early missionaries in Nigeria between 1842 and 1882. 

Early Mission Schools in Nigeria

The early mission schools were established in church premises. Each Christian denomination was actively involved in the establishment of their own churches and schools. They used education as a means of converting Nigerians into their various denominations. Because of this overriding interest on evangelism, the missions confined themselves within the area of literacy, religion and moral education.

The Aim of Mission Schools

As it has been highlighted earlier, the missions schools aimed at leading the people to Christ through the following:

• The training of indigenous manpower to carry out the evangelical work to the various local communities; 
• The training of lower manpower to serve as interpreters, messengers, clerks, cleaners, etc for the various missions and the British Businessmen. 

Exercise 3:

• Comment on the aim of the early mission schools. 

Content of the Mission Schools

The curriculum content of the schools were Religion (Christian Religion), Arithmetic, Reading and Writing, (all in English Language). Other subsidiaries included agriculture, nature study, craft.

The main text of reference was the Holy Bible and other related commentaries. There was no separation between the church and the school. The school teachers were also the church agents and their wives.

Control of Schools

The schools were solely organized, controlled and managed by the different Christian missionaries. There was discipline in the schools, even by the use of corporal punishment.

Problems of Early Mission Schools

A lot of problems were identified in the operation of the early mission schools, such as:

1. lack of central school laws; leading to non-uniform standard for running schools; 
2. the schools lacked standard qualification for teachers; 
3. the movement of teachers and pupils was not checked resulting to irregular attendance; 
4. the focus of the school was religion; 
5.  there was acute shortage of fund and this affected the availability of qualified teachers; 
6. there were no trained teachers and no training colleges; 
7.  there was lack of common syllabus and no standard textbooks; the few that were available were not relevant to the local people; 
8. the school lacked adequate supervision as well as teaching and learning materials and necessary facilities; 
9.  there was no regulated standard examination for all the schools; 
10.  there was no uniformity in teachers’ condition of service and no job security for the teachers; 
11. in some cases, some older pupils were used to teach the younger ones; this affected quality; 
12. the method of teaching was mainly by rote; 
13. it created the problem of educational imbalance between the northern and southern parts of Nigeria; 
14. there was no serious interest and commitment shown by the missions in secondary and vocational education in Nigeria. (Osokoya 1985 p.