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The Native Pastorate Controversy and Cultural Ethno-Centrism in Sierra Leone 1871–1974

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Hollis R. Lynch
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Extract

The years 1871 to 1874 witnessed in Sierra Leone an expression of cultural ethno-centrism characterized by a revolt against attempts at Europeanization of Africans, by emphasis on racial difference and the need for developing the special attributes of the Negro race and of maintaining its distinctive culture. The immediate background to this new phenomenon was the tension which had existed between the native pastors and European missionaries of the Church Missionary Society over the control and management of the native pastorate, and the rampant sectarian rivalry in the colony. In the period under discussion, the tension within the C.M.S. erupted into an open controversy and assumed a wider significance when educated lay natives joined the issue on the side of the native pastors. Both native clerics and laymen saw as their chief opponents European missionaries who, so they charged, through a fierce sectarianism but common contempt for African customs and institutions, were doing grave harm to Africans by creating new divisions among them and by destroying the wholesome base of African society. They argued that reform was necessary, and was to be brought about through the agency of an independent African Church, of which they saw the native pastorate of the C.M.S. as a nucleus, and of a University, preferably secular, run by educated Negroes themselves. Though the movement was primarily cultural, it had the ultimate political objective of self-government, and part of its raison d'etre was preparing Africans towards this end.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , November 1964 , pp. 395 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

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References

1 There is no literature that fully treats this controversy, but Fyfe's, C. H. comprehensive History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), passim, has pertinent references to the issues and personalities involved.Google Scholar

2 For this see Venn's own four papers, three on ‘The Native Pastorate and Organisation of Native Churches’, the other ‘On Nationality’, in Knight, Willam, Memoir of H. Venn (London, 1880), 305–21, and 282–92 respectively;Google Scholar also Ajayi, J. F. A., ‘Henry Venn and the Policy of Development’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, No. 4 (1959), 331–42.Google Scholar

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5 CA1 /O9. Tenth Annual Report of the Sierra Leone Native Pastorate, 14. (In this and the following footnotes, CAI/O refers to the serial classification of the original letters of the Sierra Leone branch of the C.M.S. West Africa Mission, while CAI /L refers to the letter-books of the same branch.)Google Scholar

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19 CAI/L8, Venn to Blyden, 16 Nov. 1871; Venn to Cheetham, 23 Oct. 1871. Venn seems never to have believed the charge of adultery against Blyden. He wrote to the Bishop: ‘Upon Mr. Blyden's case we must be content to differ in Judgement without mutual recrimination…. We fear that you have been too much swayed by reports.’ See also Venn to Hamilton, 17 Nov. 181, where he chides European missionaries for feeling ‘so much hurt’ by Blyden's appointment.Google Scholar

20 These were Syble Boyle, William Grant, T. J. Sawyerr, Thomas Bright and T. J. Macaulay. Like the native pastors, these and other educated lay natives who supported Blyden were predominantly Recaptives or sons of Recaptives. The original Creole element—descendants of Negroes repatriated from the New World—whom Blyden grew to detest and who in turn felt themselves superior to native Africans, were either indifferent or opposed to aspirations for an independent, non-denominational African Church and a secular University. Blyden later wrote of the role of Recaptives in this period: ‘They exceeded the settlers in numbers and influence and exhibited greater moral force than their teachers (Creole settlers), for they displayed a power of organization and self-control of which the settlers had given no example.’ Lagos Weekly Record, II, No. 34 (6 06 1896);Google Scholar for an analysis of the historical development of Freetown society and the role played by different elements, see Porter, Arthur T., Creoledom (London, 1963).Google Scholar

21 CAI/O47, Blyden to Venn, 27 April 1872.Google Scholar

22 CO. 267/312, Kennedy to E. R. Wodehouse, 4 Dec. 1871, enclosure: Blyden to Kennedy, 11 Oct. 1871.Google Scholar

23 CAI/O47, Blyden to Venn, 6 Sept., 16 Sept., 11 Oct., and 28 Oct. 1871.Google Scholar

24 C.O. 267/315, Kennedy to Kimberley, 3 Jan. 1872, enclosure: Blyden to Kennedy, 21 Dec 1871. Venn, thinking it would be ‘a grievous thing if Blyden is lost to Africa’ had also requested Governor Kennedy to employ the Liberian in a ‘civil office’. CAI/L8, Venn to Kennedy, 16 Nov. 1871.Google Scholar

25 C.O. 267/315, Kennedy to Kimberley, 3 Jan. 1872.Google Scholar

26 Major Laing had visited Falaba in 1825 using a much more southerly route; in 1869 Winwood Reade also visited the pagan centre using the regular trade route by which Blyden returned.Google Scholar

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33 CO. 267/324, No. 978, enclosure: The Nerro, XI, No. 1 (16 April 1873). I am indebted to Mr Christopher Fyfe for this reference. This is the only copy of the Negro known to have survived. And judging from this single issue—a small ‘tabloid’ of four pages with purely local news—its claim to be a pan-Negro organ was more symbolic than real. However, Blyden did make efforts and succeeded in getting subscribers in the West Indies and the United States: Blyden to Coppinger, 6 April 1872, A.C.S. Papers, XVI, pt. I. There were subscribers, too, in England, among them Henry Venn, who wrote to Blyden: ‘I have read the first two numbers of the Negro with much interest and sincerely wish it prosperity’, CAI/8, Venn to Blyden, 1 May 1872.Google Scholar

34 The West African University, 6.Google Scholar

35 Ibid. 8.

36 Ibid. 7.

37 Ibid. 11.

38 Ibid. 13.

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40 The West African University, 16.Google Scholar

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47 CAI/O47, Blyden to Venn, 1 Jan. 1872. Blyden had also visited this town on his expedition to Falaba.Google Scholar

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50 Quoted in Cheetham to Venn, 1 Feb. 1873, CAI/O25e.Google Scholar

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57 CAI/O25e, Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 13 April 1873.Google Scholar

58 Ibid. Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 13 March 1873.

59 Ibid. Cheetham to Venn, 1 Feb. 1873.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid. Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 53 March 1873.

62 See, for instance, CAI/O9, The Eleventh Annual Report of the Sierra Leone Native Pastorate Auxiliary Association.Google Scholar

63 CAI/O25e, Cheetham to Venn, 1 Feb. 1873.Google Scholar

64 C.O. 267/320, Hennessy to Kimberley, 4 Jan. 1873. Hennessy took this opportunity to again urge upon the Colonial Secretary a general policy of appointing Africans to responsible positions. He wrote: ‘I have seen so many evils resulting from the employment of Europeans here and in other settlements in posts for which there are competent natives on the spot that I venture to repeat [that] … wherever it can possibly be done I would strongly recommend dispensing with the services of Europeans on the coast.’ He was sure that ‘the Bishop would have no difficulty recommending to your Lordship from the Native Pastors a far better Colonial Chaplain than he could hope to find amongst those who offer themselves in England for such positions’.Google Scholar

65 CAI/O25e, Cheetham to Henry Wright, 5 Feb. 1873. The Bishop's letter is not among the Colonial Office records. Kimberley had sent it on to Pope-Hennessy who probably did not return it.Google Scholar

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69 CAI/O25e, native pastors to Bishop Cheetham, 3 April 1873.Google Scholar

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71 Ibid. the native pastors to the Secretary of the Missionary Leaves Association, 29 May 1873.

72 Minutes of Committee of Correspondence, 10 March 1873, C.M.S. Committee Minutes, XXXIX.Google Scholar

73 CAI/O25e, Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 21 April 1873.Google Scholar

74 C.O. 267/324, No. 978, enclosure: The Negro, II, No. 2 (16 04 1873).Google Scholar

75 CAI/O123, native pastors to Johnson, 19 April 1873.Google Scholar

76 Ibid. Boyle, etc., to Johnson, April 1873.

77 Blyden was not among the signatories of the laymen's letter.Google Scholar

78 CAI/O123, native pastors to Johnson, 19 April 1873.Google Scholar

79 CAI/O123, Johnson to native pastors, 17 April 1873; Johnson to Boyle, etc., April 1873.Google Scholar

80 CAI/O25e, Cheetham to Hutchinson, 9 April 1873.Google Scholar

81 Ibid. Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 21 April 1873.

82 Ibid. Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 10 May 1873.

83 Ibid.

84 Ibid. Cheetham to Secs. of the C.M.S., 21 April 1873.

85 CO. 267/321, No. 7165, Blyden to Alexander Bravo, 13 May 1873.Google Scholar

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87 CA1/O25e, Cheetham to Secs. of C.M.S., 24 May 1873.Google Scholar

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89 C.O. 267/321, No. 7165, Colonial Office Minutes, 18 July 1873.Google Scholar

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93 Ibid.

94 C.O. 267/322, Berkeley to Kimberley 1873.Google Scholar

95 CAI/O24, petition by native pastors to Secs. of C.M.S., 7 April 1874.Google Scholar

96 CAI /O23, Johnson to G. J. Macauley, 4 May 1874, in a cutting from the Negro.Google Scholar

97 Ibid.

98 The conversion of Fourah Bay into a University College has already been mentioned. In 1874 the parent committee of the C.M.S. resumed handing over churches to the Native Pastorate, and this certainly was as a result of the controversy.Google Scholar

99 I am thinking particularly of the very serious dispute on the Niger in the early 1890s. That dispute had its origin in the high-handed actions of English C.M.S. Secretaries on the Niger, which Africans interpreted as an insult to the old and venerable Bishop Samuel Crowther. and indeed, the whole Negro race. It is interesting to note that both James Johnson and Blyden played important roles in this dispute. For a detailed discussion of this see James Webster, B., ‘African Churches of Yorubaland, 1888–1922’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1963), Chap. 1.Google Scholar Also Ajayi, J. F. A., ‘Christian Missions and the Making of Nigeria, 1841–1891’ (unpublished London Ph.D. thesis, 1958), 656–24.Google Scholar