Activities of christian missionaries in East Africa
Introduction
Christian missions were organised efforts to spread the Christian faith for the purpose of extending religious teaching at home or abroad. Christian missionaries were among the early external people to get into contact with the people of East Africa. Their coming to East Africa and Africa in general was based on a number of motives which were humanitarian, economic, political and social in nature. They carried out a number of activities such as Agriculture, exploration, evangelism, etc. whose impact on the people of East Africa is still evident today.
By the 19th century, a number of missionary groups worked in East Africa and these included;
- The Church Missionary Society
- The Holy Ghost Fathers
- The University Missionary Society to Central Africa
- The White Fathers
- The Methodist Fathers
- The Mill Hill Fathers
- The Verona Fathers
- The Comboni Fathers
- The London Missionary Society
Activities of christian missionaries in East Africa
- Christian missionaries carried out a number of activities in East Africa. Their activities had various impacts on the social, political and economic conditions of East Africa. The following were the activities carried out by the Christian missionaries in East Africa.
- Missionaries carried out evangelization. Here they tried to convert and baptize many people into Christianity from their paganism and Islam.
- Christian missionaries carried out linguistic research and came up with new developments in language. Dr Kraft for example translated the Bible into Swahili and wrote a Swahili dictionary and grammar hence making it easy for people to understand the Bible more.
- The Christian missionaries built many churches in East Africa many of which are still in existence. They for example set up a church at Zanzibar, Rubaga and Rabai missionary station near Mombasa. .
- They carried out exploration work into the discovery of various East African physical features. For example, Kraft was the first European to see Mt. Kenya in 1849 while Rebman was the first to European see Kilimanjaro in 1848.
- Christian missionaries set up stations for free rehabilitation services for example in 1868 the Holy Ghost Fathers set up a home for the free slaves at Zanzibar.
- Christian missionaries participated in opening up various mission stations. Such mission stations could help in enhancing evangelization into the local population. For example Rebman set up one at Rabai near Mombasa.
- Christian missionaries participated in skill development in East Africa. They for example participated in modernizing Agriculture and carpentry by setting up agricultural institutions and carpentry workshops for training.
- Christian missionaries were also influential in establishing educational institutions and training efficient class of African clergy (catechists) who were close and more understandable to the local communities. This helped and enhanced the propagation of faith.
- Christian missionaries were at times involved in political processes that were beyond spiritual jurisdiction. They for example participated in the overthrow of Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda.
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Chapisha Maoni