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.
