For God's Sake : The Work and Long-Term Impact of Christian Missionaries in Cameroon 1844-2018
Author
Summary, in English
Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have made great strides towards more accessible and higher quality schooling and medical systems in recent years. Despite this, education and health care in Africa lag behind other developing regions and large inequalities in educational levels and health care access remain across countries, subnational regions, and gender. Cameroon, in west-central Africa, with its unique history of colonial rule by three European powers is no exception as it still struggles to provide citizens with stable and inclusive education and healthcare. A growing body of literature attributes Christian missionary expansion in former African colonies since the mid-19th century with having a transformative and primarily positive impact on public goods provision. Since schools and medical facilities proved to be an effective tool for proselytization, missionary societies in Cameroon were not only the main providers of formal education but were also crucial players in the initial establishment of institutionalized health care during the colonial era. This thesis examines the interdependencies, dynamics, and long-term implications of mission work in Cameroon since their arrival and expansion from the 19th century until today.
I create novel historical databases documenting the temporal and spatial extent of missionary expansion in Cameroon by drawing on newly collected and largely unexplored data from annual mission reports. I further link geocoded historical information on the scope of mission work to data on individual-level educational achievement and health care infrastructure in Cameroon today. Qualitative evidence, financial records, and staff censuses from missionary reports allow for a deeper understanding of the interdependencies of missionary work with the indigenous population during the colonial era.
I find that the spatial extent of formal schooling was influenced by several geographical and spatio-historical features as well as characteristics of the local indigenous societies. In doing so, I move beyond existing research that mostly relied on inaccurate and Eurocentric historical atlases and often insufficiently accounted for the determinants of missionary locations in assessing the long-term effect of mission work on contemporary outcomes. Further, I identify a persistent and positive impact of colonial-era missionary investments in education and health care on Cameroonians’ schooling achievements, educational gender equality, and access to health care today. Potential mechanisms underlying this long-lasting impact are cultural shifts – set in motion by the work of missionaries – regarding the value of schooling and Western medicine, and the persistence of schooling and health care physical infrastructure. The magnitude of these effects differs by missionary denomination for educational outcomes, and between missionary societies and the colonial government for health care access.
Finally, I highlight the crucial role of Africans in the functioning of missionary work in Cameroon before World War I. Missions relied on the local acceptance of indigenous chiefs and depended predominantly on African personnel to facilitate the rapid and cost-efficient expansion of the missionary sphere of influence. While the financial contributions of indigenous Cameroonians to the mission funds were low (yet non-negligible) relative to donations from Europe and America during German colonial rule, Africans’ willingness to accept Christianity and their demand for missionary services ultimately determined the success of missions in Cameroon.
I create novel historical databases documenting the temporal and spatial extent of missionary expansion in Cameroon by drawing on newly collected and largely unexplored data from annual mission reports. I further link geocoded historical information on the scope of mission work to data on individual-level educational achievement and health care infrastructure in Cameroon today. Qualitative evidence, financial records, and staff censuses from missionary reports allow for a deeper understanding of the interdependencies of missionary work with the indigenous population during the colonial era.
I find that the spatial extent of formal schooling was influenced by several geographical and spatio-historical features as well as characteristics of the local indigenous societies. In doing so, I move beyond existing research that mostly relied on inaccurate and Eurocentric historical atlases and often insufficiently accounted for the determinants of missionary locations in assessing the long-term effect of mission work on contemporary outcomes. Further, I identify a persistent and positive impact of colonial-era missionary investments in education and health care on Cameroonians’ schooling achievements, educational gender equality, and access to health care today. Potential mechanisms underlying this long-lasting impact are cultural shifts – set in motion by the work of missionaries – regarding the value of schooling and Western medicine, and the persistence of schooling and health care physical infrastructure. The magnitude of these effects differs by missionary denomination for educational outcomes, and between missionary societies and the colonial government for health care access.
Finally, I highlight the crucial role of Africans in the functioning of missionary work in Cameroon before World War I. Missions relied on the local acceptance of indigenous chiefs and depended predominantly on African personnel to facilitate the rapid and cost-efficient expansion of the missionary sphere of influence. While the financial contributions of indigenous Cameroonians to the mission funds were low (yet non-negligible) relative to donations from Europe and America during German colonial rule, Africans’ willingness to accept Christianity and their demand for missionary services ultimately determined the success of missions in Cameroon.
Department/s
Publishing year
2022-08-22
Language
English
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
MediaTryck Lund
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- Mission
- Education
- Health care
- Gender equality
- African agency
- Persistence
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Cameroon
Status
Published
Supervisor
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-87793-87-5
- ISBN: 978-91-87793-86-8
Defence date
12 September 2022
Defence time
10:15
Defence place
EC3:108
Opponent
- Yannick Dupraz (Associate Professor)