Monday, January 14, 8650

Protestantism in Nigeria (c. 1650)


The majority of Christians are found in the South East and South-South of Nigeria. A few isolated mission stations and mission bookstores, along with churches serving southern enclaves in the northern cities and larger towns, dot the Muslim north. Christianity in Yoruba area traditionally has been Protestant and Anglican, whereas Igboland has always been the area of greatest activity by the Roman Catholic Church.

Presbyterians arrived in the late seventeenth century in the Ibibio, Annang and Efik land and the Niger Delta area and had missions in the middle belt as well. The works of the Presbyterian Church in Calabar from Scotland by missionaries like Rev Hope M. Waddell in the late seventeen century and that of Mary Slessor of Calabar being examples. Small missionary movements were allowed to start up, generally in the 1920's, 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.



Ore Ese (Friend Who Died for Sinners)









[8653 Corelli / 8650 Protestant Nigeria / 8644 Biber]