Christian History Home > Issue 56 > Link Essay: Great White Father
Link Essay: Great White Father
After Livingstone opened Africa, Western missionaries moved in by the thousands. Did they hurt or help Africans?
Mark Shaw | posted 10/01/1997 12:00AM
A play performed at the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Nairobi in 1975 depicted the three main oppressors of Africa. First on stage was an Arab slave-trader, who stole the Africans' bodies. Next came the European colonialist, thief of the Africans' land. Finally the wcc depicted a Christian missionary, who took the Africans' culture.
Modern historical scholarship has been harshly critical of "colonial missionaries." That Christianity was an agent of colonialism is so widely assumed, it has become, in the words of Brian Stanley, "one of the unquestioned orthodoxies of general historical knowledge."
Why the negative reaction? The benefits of the missionaries' involvement are obvious: hospitals, schools, colleges, commercial ventures, abolition of slavery, development projects, literacy programs, and improved agricultural methods. But the benefits came at a cost.
Partners in crime
Early missionaries to Africa are most frequently faulted for collaborating with colonial ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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