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Nigeria Christianity
The majority of Christians were found in the south. A
few
isolated mission stations and mission bookstores, along
with
churches serving southern enclaves in the northern cities
and
larger towns, dotted the Muslim north. The Yoruba area
traditionally has been Protestant and Anglican, whereas
Igboland
has always been the area of greatest activity by the Roman
Catholic Church. Other denominations abounded as well.
Presbyterians arrived in the early twentieth century in
the
Ibibio Niger Delta area and had missions in the middle
belt as
well. This latter area was an open one. Small missionary
movements were allowed to start up, generally in the
1920s, after
the middle belt was considered pacified. Each denomination
set up
rural networks by providing schooling and health
facilities. Most
such facilities remained in 1990, although in many cases
schools
had been taken over by the local state government in order
to
standardize curricula and indigenize the teaching staff.
Pentecostals arrived mostly as indigenous workers in the
postindependence period and in 1990 Perte costalism was
spreading
rapidly throughout the middle belt, having some success in
Roman
Catholic and Protestant towns of the south as well. There
were
also breakaway, or Africanized churches that blended
traditional
Christian symbols with indigenous symbols. Among these was
the
Aladura movement that was spreading rapidly throughout
Yorubaland
and into the non-Muslim middle belt areas.
Apart from Benin and Warri, which had come in contact
with
Christianity through the Portuguese as early as the
fifteenth
century, most missionaries arrived by sea in the
nineteenth
century. As with other areas in Africa, Roman Catholics
and
Anglicans each tended to establish areas of hegemony in
southern
Nigeria. After World War I, smaller sects such as the
Brethren,
Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others
worked in
interstitial areas, trying not to compete. Although less
well-known, African-American churches entered the
missionary
field in the nineteenth century and created contacts with
Nigeria
that lasted well into the colonial period.
African churches were founded by small groups breaking
off
from the European denominations, especially in Yorubaland,
where
such independence movements started as early as the late
nineteenth century. They were for the most part ritually
and
doctrinally identical to the pavent church, although more
African
music, and later dance, entered and mixed with the
imported
church services. A number also used biblical references to
support polygyny. With political independence came African
priests in both Roman Catholic and Protestant
denominations,
although ritual and forms of worship were strictly those
of the
home country of the original missionaries. By the 1980s,
however,
African music and even dancing were being introduced
quietly into
church services, albeit altered to fit into rituals of
European
origin. Southern Christians living in the north,
especially in
larger cities, had congregations and churches founded as
early as
the 1920s. Even medium-sized towns (20,000 persons or
more) with
an established southern enclave had local churches,
especially in
the middle belt, where both major religions had a strong
foothold. The exodus of Igbo from the north in the late
1960s
left Roman Catholic churches poorly attended, but by the
1980s
adherents were back in even greater numbers, and a number
of new
churches had been built.
The Aladura, like several other breakaway churches,
stress
healing and fulfillment of life goals for oneself and
one's
family. African beliefs that sorcery and witchcraft are
malevolent forces against which protection is required are
accepted; rituals are warm and emotional, stressing
personal
involvement and acceptance of spirit possession. Theology
is
biblical, but some sects add costumed processions and some
accept
polygyny.
Major congregations of the larger Anglican and Roman
Catholic
missions represented elite families of their respective
areas,
although each of these churches had members from all
levels and
many quite humble church buildings. Nevertheless, a
wedding in
the Anglican cathedral in Lagos was usually a gathering of
the
elite of the entire country, and of Lagos and Yorubaland
in
particular. Such families had connections to their
churches going
back to the nineteenth century and were generally not
attracted
to the breakaway churches. All major urban centers, all
universities, and the new capital of Abuja had areas set
aside
for the major religions to build mosques and churches and
for
burial grounds.
Interethnic conflict generally has had a religious
element.
Riots against Igbo in 1953 and in the 1960s in the north
were
said to be fired by religious conflict. The riots against
Igbo in
the north in 1966 were said to have been inspired by radio
reports of mistreatment of Muslims in the south. In the
1980s,
serious outbreaks between Christians and Muslims occurred
in
Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area
between the
two religions.
Data as of June 1991
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