Indigenous missionaries and the making of Christianity in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, 1841-1960

Through interdisciplinary approach, my research addresses a gap in scholarship regarding the history of religion in Africa and in the geographically, socio-politically, and ethnically diverse region of Nigeria known as the Middle Belt (central Nigeria). There is a near silence on the unique contributions of Nigerian Indigenous men and women, who introduce and adapt Christianity to local African cultures in the historical missionary reports and accounts of Christianity in Nigeria between 1841 (when Church of England missionaries began their work) and 1960 (the year of Nigerian independence).

Much scholarship in religious studies articulates the view that Christianity is a foreign religion that invaded countries in West Africa during the colonial period as part of imperial efforts to dominate the region s populations and extract the countries resources. This narrative depicts the Africans who became Christians as mere consumers of the Christian message, tragic victims of forced conversions, or dupes of their oppressors and ignores the distinctive contributions of many willing Indigenous converts to the Christian faith, as well as formerly enslaved Christians who returned to Nigeria in the post-slavery period to serve as missionaries themselves. Christianity would not have succeeded in Nigeria without the efforts of these many Indigenous African missionaries in the 1900s. This study recalls their stories and analyzes the development of modern African Christianity in Nigeria s Middle Belt region as a process significantly influenced by African people themselves.