Is Christianity a Colonial Religion?

There is a challenge that faces many young adults in Africa and other countries that were once colonies of European nations: it is the question whether Christianity is a colonial religion or not.

The North African saints Augustine and Monica in a detail of a painting by English artist Ary Scheffer from 1846.

The issue is discussed briefly in my book Christian Leadership: A Challenge to the African Church (Paulines Publications Africa, 2004). Putting the matter simply and bluntly, can African Christians defend the Christian Church against the argument that the Christian faith is a European colonial religion?

There are strong reasons why some politicians and some of the young men and women of our time can argue convincingly that Christianity is a Western religion that was used by Westerners to further the aims of colonialism.

In many countries Christianity and colonial domination came at the same time historically. At times it was difficult to make a distinction between the missionaries who came to preach the word and the colonialists whose principal aim was to control the territories and resources of Africa.

You may be aware of the famous statement: “When missionaries came to Africa, they told the African people to pray, and while the Africans were busy praying with their eyes closed, white people came and took their land and cattle!”

Unfortunately, Christianity initially came clothed in a Western garment — it was conveyed from the perspective of Western culture, with all that was African being considered pagan and barbaric. Some churches went to the extent of making it a rule that one could not take an African name at baptism.

To make matters worse, in South Africa the Bible was used to support the policy of apartheid, with Africans being condemned as the children of Ham, whom Noah condemned to slavery for seeing his father’s nakedness (Gen 9:18-28).

To add to the complexity of the problem, one only needs to refer to the slave trade which resulted in thousands, if not millions, of Africans being uprooted from their continent and shipped to the Americas and other parts of the world — by Christian Europe!

The question is how can the leaders of the Church of tomorrow—the youth of today—be taught to counter these and other arguments?

This is a complex question, but the following is part of the answer:

First, it is necessary to acknowledge the evils of colonialism, slavery and apartheid.

Second, it is important for those who are being prepared to lead the Church of tomorrow to know something about the history of the Chosen People and the history of the Church.

The Jewish people, of whom Jesus was one and from whom we the gentiles have received the faith, were for a large part of their history a subjugated race. They actually grew numerically as a nation when they were in slavery on the African continent—subjugated by the ancient Egyptians whom scholars now believe were black people. Even after Moses led them back to the Promised Land they were conquered and taken into exile on a number of occasions.

At the time of Jesus’ birth Palestine was a colony of Rome. That is why many who followed him initially thought he had come to liberate them from Roman colonialism.

And for the first 300 or so years of its existence Christianity was a religion of the downtrodden, low-class people and slaves. It was these despised, low-class and persecuted Christians who converted mighty Rome to Christianity.

It is also pertinent to note that Egypt and North Africa (now mostly Islamic) became Christian before many of the countries that brought the faith to Sub-Saharan Africa were converted to Christianity. The great saint of the Church, St Augustine of Hippo, was brought to the faith by his African mother, St Monica, who belonged to the Berber ethnic group.

It can indeed be argued that after the conversion of Rome the Christian faith was propagated by missionaries from ruling races, but this does not make Christianity an essentially European religion. The European races that subsequently brought the faith to Africa during the era of Western imperialism were, like African races, originally pagan races that worshipped false gods.