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  • ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH CHRISTIAN VILLAGE EVANGELISM IN NORTHERN NIGERIA BY THE MISSIONARIES IN 1884
  • By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
    • discuss how Christianity was planted in the Northern Nigeria
    • describe the problems encountered by the Missionaries in the 
    planting of Christianity in the Northern Nigeria
    • state how the problems were solved. 
    3.0 MAIN CONTENT
    3.1 Lord Lugard, the Governor of Niger Area
    Sir Lord Lugard, the Governor- General of the Niger area 
    made a policy that Christianity must not interfere with the 
    Islamic religion in the Northern part of Nigeria. He made the 
    policy in order to control the northern people.
    However, he added a clause that whoever tried to plant 
    Christianity in the area must seek for the permission of the 
    Muslim leader in the area before embarking on it. In 1890, an 
    attempt at establishing a Christian Village in the Northern Nigeria 
    was made. This is because the Catholic Mission noticed that 
    many slaves who were bought at Onitsha were taken beyond 
    Lokoja, Iddah and were sold in the market at Inchitabu to the 
    Igala people in the north. In order to stop the selling and buying 
    of slaves in the Lokoja area, Father Lutz had established a 
    Christian Village in the North. Besides, Lutz also aimed to 
    continue the spread of the Church Missionary Society along the 
    Benue River. For this reason, he planted a Catholic Mission to 
    the area. He wrote thus;
    “The struggle, with Crowther and the Protestants is 
    therefore going to being. It’s a matter of not setting 
    ourselves to be preceded in the great centers or along the 
    Benue River where there is no mission at all so far” 
    The Missionaries believed that they would be the first permanent 
    Roman Catholic Missionaries in Northern Nigeria, excluding the 
    abortive attempt made by a Missionary from Lyons to settle at 
    Lokoja in 1884. However, Roman Catholic Mission stations 
    had been established in the Northern part of Nigeria around 
    seventeenth Century. In 1708, they had about a hundred Catholic 
    members in the Kororofa where a Catholic priest built a sixty�ed hospital for treating the sick people in the area. In 1708, 
    Father Carlo da Geneva, was appointed Prefect for Bornu 
    Mission, but he declined to accept the offer.
    Another reason for the spreading the of the gospel from Onitsha to 
    the Northern part of Nigeria is the belief that the Hausa people 
    would be attracted by the doctrine of Roman Catholic faith. 
    They hoped that the Hausa people if converted to Christianity , 
    they would be used for the conversion of many people in the 
    area. However, in 1890, Goldie hindered the spread of Roman 
    Catholic faith in the Northern Nigeria. He did this by writing to 
    the Headquarters of the Holy Ghost Society in Paris telling them 
    that he had disallowed the Church Missionary Society from 
    converting Muslims in the Northern part of Nigeria and that 
    he was not prepared to protect the Roman Catholic Missionaries 
    that went beyond Lokoja in Kogi State to spread their faith. In 
    the letter, he enclosed a copy of the Niger Territories public 
    notice that was written in October 1889 forbidding Christian 
    Missionaries to work in Muslim areas which is mainly the 
    Northern parts of Nigeria. However, the home based Missionaries
    replied him that Hausa Muslims could be converted into Christianity 
    without much problem. Lutz was warned by Goldie not to try to 
    continue spreading Christianity beyond Lokoja area. If he does, 
    then, his Mission Station at Onitsha Wharf which belong to the 
    Royal Niger Company would be taken over by the government. 
    However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the prospect 
    of obtaining a foothold in the North for the purposes of 
    evangelization looked bleak.

    3.2 The Role of Lord Lugard in the Northern Nigeria

    In 1900, Sir Lord Lugard, the Governor- General for the Niger area, 
    tolerated the presence of Christian missions in the Northern part of 
    Nigeria in order for Missionaries to establish Schools to teach the 
    converts to read and know the Scriptures and to attract non- Christians 
    to Schools and through this way, the Church was introduced to them. 
    However, a serious disaster occurred in the Hausa land mission of the 
    Church Missionary Society. For that reason, Lugard decided to modify 
    his views about the utility of Christian Missions in the Northern Nigeria. 
    He believed that if the Missions that were established by the Church 
    Missionary Society in the North were really practicing what they 
    preached and taught, their efforts would be a great asset to his 
    government in that part of Nigeria.
    In 1901, the Acting High Commissioner, Wallace, made a pledge to the 
    Emir which read in part thus:
    I do hereby in the name of His majesty promise you protection and I do 
    guarantee that no interference by Government shall be made in your 
    chosen form of religion, so long as the same does not involve acts 
    contrary to the laws of humanity and oppression to your people.
    On the other hand, the Missionaries in Eastern Nigeria were aware of 
    the British Government’s policy of ‘non-interference’ in the religion of 
    the Northern Nigeria and declared that ‘this policy in Northern Nigeria 
    will be our greatest obstacle. Lugard’s protection of the Muslims, 
    ‘with the maxim gun’ as they put it, along with the establishment of 
    Muslim Chiefs through out the Northern Nigeria was the ‘greatest evil 
    imaginable’.
    However, the missionaries believed that their religion would one day 
    penetrate into Northern Nigeria. This is because they realized that one of 
    the Government’s most obvious problems was the question of the slave 
    children freed under the slavery proclamation of 1900. The British 
    government having freed the children was responsible for them. To 
    settle them in families as wards would have simply turned them into 
    domestic slaves.
    Besides, the Public Works Department could absorb a few as 
    apprentices.
    Lugard planned a freed slaves Home where the children would receive a 
    secular education. Sir Lord Lugard wrote:
    I see no reason why religion be it of one sort or another should be forced 
    upon the liberated slaves. I see much in it to exasperate the 
    Mohammedan master who considers himself robbed of his property that 
    we may further encouraged religious propaganda that is hostile to his 
    Creed.
    Lugard was rather perplexed about the whole question of slavery in the 
    Northern Nigeria and was quite uncertain as to whether the proclamation 
    forbidding it was a good thing. This proclamation could lead to 
    economic chaos and rebellion since the Northern Nigeria economy was 
    a subsistence one and with immense tracts of land there was no excess 
    of labour. Slavery he believed, was built into the Hausa system. Some of 
    the Missionaries in the East had advanced the same arguments and 
    demanded the ending of the village of liberty or Christian village system 
    of evangelization which was aimed at freeing and coverting the slaves. 
    The proclamation against slavery had been issued and Lugard was left 
    with the problem. By 1905, according to a Colonial Office Report, about 
    3,070 slaves had been liberated, and it was added; ‘these slave returns 
    do not profess to be a complete record.
    Lugard was beginning to realize that ‘the care of children is not 
    lucrative’.
    For example, One hundred children in the care of a European 
    Supervisor, two European women helpers and two assistant African 
    teachers cost one thousand four hundred pounds a year. Lugard knew 
    that his administration in Nigeria dependent on an imperial grant-in-aid 
    of the colonial masters. Therefore, the amount been sent to him by them 
    to use in the area was inadequate to care for the liberated slaves. He 
    pointed it out that he needed private philanthropy in the welfare of the 
    people of Niger Area. (Kalu, O.U, 1976). However, Lugard was 
    replaced by Lejeune as the Governor of the Niger Area by the Colonial 
    masters. He requested for philanthropists to come to his aid in caring for 
    the freed slave children in the Northern Nigeria. 

    The Misionaries’ Response to Lejeune’s Request

    As private philanthropists who happened to be missionaries heard of the 
    request, they responded and sent the Missionaries to help in caring for 
    the liberated slaves, especially the children. They used the opportunity 
    to plant Christianity in the Northern Nigeria. The Missionaries 
    established Primary Schools in Dekina in Kogi State. They also built a 
    Mission station in the area. In 1903, the Catholic Church had 1,100 
    children in seventeen Primary Schools in Northern Nigeria. The 
    Catholic Mission destroyed the economy of the Islamic adherents in the 
    Northern Nigeria. That is, slavery business which they were engaged in 
    has been discouraged by Christians. The Missionaries taught moral 
    instruction in the villages of liberty rather than the Catholic Creed.
     

    3.4 The Burning of Dekina Mision Station by the Muslim

    In 1904, the Dekina Mission station was set on fire by the Muslims in 
    order to prevent the spreading of Christianity in the area by 
    Missionaries. In 1905, another riot took place in Dekina. It was between 
    the Christians and the Muslims. The Muslims wanted Christianity to be 
    eradicated in the area. While the Christians insisted in the spreading of 
    Christianity on the area.
    About ten British Soldiers lost their lives under Major Merrick in 
    another riot that took place in the same area after the burning of the 
    Mission Station at Dekina by the natives who were Muslims. However, 
    in December, 1905, the Missionaries withdrew from Dekina area, but, 
    they left the Christian villages which they had established in the area. 

    SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
    Account for the role of Sir Lord Lugard in regards to religion in 
    Northern Nigeria around 1900 to 1905.

    4.0 CONCLUSION
    You are now concluding the study of the Roman Catholic Mission in 
    Nigeria in the early 1890s to 1905 in this unit. The Missionaries were 
    able to stop human sacrifice, slavery and the worship of ancestral gods 
    in the Eastern Nigeria through Christianity. They also established 
    Christian villages in the area.
    Many Primary Schools were also established to train children in the 
    Eastern and Northern Nigeria. The Missionaries also attempted to 
    establish mission stations in the Northern parts of Nigeria.
    However, they were confronted with many obstacles from the Muslims 
    in the Northern area. For this reason, they had little achievements in the 
    Northern Nigeria.

    5.0 SUMMARY
    In this unit, you have studied the following facts:
    Attempts were made by the Missionaries to establish Mission stations in 
    the Northern Nigeria. The policy of Sir Lord Lugard hindered the spread 
    of Christianity in the Northern Nigeria. The Missionaries faced 
    hostilities from the Northerners. For example, their mission stations 
    were burnt down in Dekina. However, they were able to establish a 
    Mission station at Dekina where freed slaves were cared for by them in 
    1903.

    6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
    1.bState the roles of the Missionaries in the planting of Christianity in 
    the Northern parts of Nigeria.
    2.bNarrate the obstacles that confronted the Catholic missionaries in the 
    Northern Nigeria between 1900 to 1905.
    7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
    Kalu, O.U. (1980).The History of Christianity in West Africa. Essays 
    Lectures, London: Longman. 
    Ade Ajayi, J.F. (197). Christian Missions in Nigeria 1841-1891. The 
    Making of a New Elite, Longman.
    E.P. Crampton, (1976).Christianity in Northern Nigeria, Second 
    Edition, Zaria: Gaskiya Corporation.

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