THE EARLY MISSIONARIES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Christian Missionaries form Sierra-Leone and Britain began their activities in Nigeria 1842. The focus was evangelism, which necessitated the early mission schools. This unit examines the activities of the early missionaries in Nigeria between 1842 and 1882.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• state reasons why Europeans visited Nigeria in the 1840s; 
• examine the activities of the early missionaries in Nigeria; 
• state the aim, content and control of the early mission schools; 
• mention the problems of early missions schools in Nigeria; 
•  list out the contributions of the early missionaries to Nigeria. 

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ATTEMPT IN NIGERIA

As we have already discussed in module one, there existed, in Nigeria, two highly developed education system before the introduction of western education. The two system of education, which are still relevant today are the traditional education and the Islamic education.

However, the 1842 Christian missionary entry into Nigeria was not the first, it is important to note that as early as 1472, the Portuguese merchants has visited Lagos and Benin. By 1485 they had started trading activities with the people of Benin. Consequently, by 1515 the Catholic Missionaries through the influence of Portuguese trades had established a primary school in the Oba’s palace for the children of the Oba and his chiefs and they were all converted to Christianity. The Catholic missionary activities also extended to Brass, Akassa, Warri where churches and schools were established, But the catholic influence was almost wiped out by the slave trade which ravaged West Africa for nearly three hundred years [Fafunwa, 1974: 74-75]

The aims of the education as at that time was to enable the Africans participate effectively in commerce. Hence, it was argued:

The Portuguese were mainly interested in commerce but they nevertheless realized that if Africans were to be customers, they must have some rudiments on education and accept Christianity. (Fafunwa, 1974 p 74). 

Reasons f European Penetration into Nigeria in the 19th or century 

 Industrial Revolution: The industrial revolution which began in Europe in the 18th century challenged them look for markets to buy raw materials and sell their manufactured products. Africa became central in their hope for this transaction. They sent explorers to West Africa with Nigeria
inclusive. Between 1795 and 1850 great impact had been made in the exploration of the continent of Africa by men like Mungo Park, Clapperton, Lander Brothers and Heinrich Barth. The feedback was
very encouraging to the European continent.

Anti – Trans – Atlantic: After the law abolishing slave trade by the British parliament, there seemed to be no end to human trade even in West Africa. The humanitarians in Europe then proposed that the surest way to end the trade was to introduce alternative trade.

However, opinions were divided on this second reason. The first school of thought holds that the European industrialists were worried that the slave trade would affect the production of raw materials in the African continent which they needed in their industries. The second school of thought opines that the move was championed by some religious denominations in Europe who believed that slave trade was morally wrong. To these missionaries, the continent should be penetrated with the word of God, so as to change their orientation from vices.

This humanitarian position was further encouraged by Thomas Fowell Brixton in his book “The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy” published in 1840, he charged the missionaries and the humanitarians as well as the industrialist to: “Go inland with the Bible and plough and finish slave trade.” (Osokoya, 1989 p.58)


Hence, it could be convenient to argue that the initial reasons for the European penetration into Nigeria in particular and Africa in general in the 1940s were both religious and economic. The early Christian missionaries came for the main assignment of evangelism, whereas the industrialist came to trade.