Missionaries and African Christians

Taking the themes ‘Christian Societies,’ ‘Cultural Exchange’, ‘Asymmetries of Power’ and ‘Racial Inequalities’, this chapter examines relationships between missionaries and African Christians. It focuses on the period between 1790 and 1960, in which the modern missionary movement preceded colonialism but became entangled in it. It argues that the influence of foreign missionaries depended on their relationships with African missionaries, who were most effective in their spread of Christianity, and the modern technologies that accompanied it. The history of this period is important because, today, Christianity remains a missionary religion and Africans take up the mantel of being foreign missionaries in other parts of the globe.