European Christianity and European Imperialism in Africa

The chapter examines the relationships between the rising tide of late nineteenth-century missionary activity and the European partition of Africa into colonies known as the “great scramble.” Colonizers in fact paid little attention to Christian principles in this process, emphasizing rather national rivalries and displaying a seemingly limitless appetite for expansion. This was exemplified in explorer/adventurers such as Cecil Rhodes and Carl Peters, not to mention King Leopold of Belgium, who did the initial work of colonization. Some colonizers such as Henry Lugard found it easier to work with Muslims than with Christians. Both missionaries and colonizers could agree, however, on the presumed superiority of Western “civilization.” And once the colonies were acquired, colonizers did turn to missionaries to provide Western education and literacy as a means to smooth administration.