BIBLE TRANSLATION IN ANGLICAN MISSIONARY EXPANSION IN IGBOLAND NIGERIA, 1857–1960- A SOCIO-CULTURAL EVALUATION
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- 1-5 Chapters
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- NGN 3000
Background to the Study
It is not an assumption that many indigenous languages are facing the challenge of relevance in the contemporary global missionary and religious expressions. The Igbo language, for instance is seemingly on the brinks, inspite of the early efforts made by the Anglican (CMS) missionary agents, to translate the Bible for effective communication and expansion of the Gospel among the Igbo people. Unfortunately, many people still celebrate and promote the foreign languages over the indigenous languages, perhaps, as a mark of eliticism. This study evaluates the interplay of Igbo Bible translation with the cultural consciousness of the people. The first chapter introduces the problem and purpose of the study with emphasis on its scope and methodology, which unveils its significance for Igbo identity. The second chapter employs the qualitative analysis of related literatures, using the conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and the empirical studies to establish the gap that this research fills. The third chapter examines the locale of the research and its enccouter with the Christian missionary activities, while chapter four, which is the body of the study surveys the historical efforts to translate the Bible, especially by the Anglicans, particularly in Igboland. The last two chapters provide the platform for reinterpreting the impacts of Bible translation on the Igbo socio-cultural realities, and the contributions of this study to knowledge, especially for effective Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland. Evidently, the awareness that language barrier was to pose a major challenge to the planting and expansion of Christianity in the African soil, necessitated the inclusion of, 2 and in fact the pioneering efforts of the ex-slaves and the natives in the early Anglican (CMS) missionary activities, particularly in Igboland. Since the Bible which is the major instrument of communicating the new religious faith and advancing the expected religious concepts and civilization was originally not documented in languages and forms familiar to the people, the need for translating and transcribing the gospel message into understandable forms through the process of education became obvious for the Anglican missionaries. It is therefore proper to advance that the course and activities of Anglican missionary expansion, and western colonization, which eventually became a major challenge to the African cultural definition, would have been practically impossible if effective communication were not achieved by breaking the barrier and building the bridge between the language of the missionaries and that of the people. It will be recalled that Christianity, which came to Africa on the wings of western civilization was also inextricably linked with western commerce. The spread of Christianity was therefore a phase of western expansion (Adiele, 1996). On the note of this relationship between Christianization and Colonization, Anyadele (1966) observes that “as far as the Nigerian peoples were concerned, the administrator and the European missionaries were birds of the same feather and they saw them really flocking together” (p. xvii). Kalu (2003) explicates this further when he said that, “from the start, therefore, evangelical spirituality and manifest biblical obligation to mission were joined to using commerce and civilization as agencies for mission” (p. 55). Indeed, the missionaries were the pathfinders of the European influence. They share most things in common with the colonial masters, including their ideologies and policies. Among the African communities that received the hard-cracking effect of the language gap between the missionaries and the indigenous recipients were the Igbo of Nigeria. In any case, the I857 Niger Mission was headed by a non-Igbo speaking Missionary, Samuel Ajai 3 Crowther, and attention and prominence have often been given to him, almost to the obscurity of the contributions of his other colleagues. There is therefore a yawning gap for the historical explanation of how the missionaries communicated the content of the gospel, which they presented to the Igbo people, who were their primary recipients. This language challenge and the consequent need for Bible translation, and the extent to which the Anglican mission in Igboland has expanded vis-à-vis the latter is what many historians have not given adequate scholarly attention. Against this backdrop, it has frequently been held by most African historiography that the early European contact with Africa was primarily commercial until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Anyabuike (1996) holds that why the first move to evangelize West Africa failed was because “the first impulse was not stimulated by genuine divine love for the so called ‘be-nighted’ Africans, but by a deep commercial interest, a gold-seeking enthusiasm” (p. 21). Evidently, it was not until Christianity witnessed the wave of spiritual re-awakening of the 18th Century in Europe, and the bubbling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, that the Church was challenged into missionary action. This generated a kind of evangelicalism that demanded a renewed zeal, revivalism and commitment on the part of the individual Christian and a deep and genuine concern for a personal act of conversion. However, it is remarkable that significant impacts were made upon the sociocultural lives and the nationalistic consciousness of the people resulting from the expansionistic drives of Anglican missionary activities in various parts of the African societies especially in Igboland. Adiele (1996) therefore maintains that “the evangelization of the Eastern States of Nigeria is not an isolated event but very much linked with the 18th Century enlightenment and ideological changes that swept through Europe and America” (p.11). One of the significant products of the period was the avowed criticisms and revolutions against slave trade by the humanitarians and Christians of Europe. Okeke (2006) views that one of “the powers behind this 4 attempt, was the forceful, persuasive, and persistent argument of Thomas Fowell Buxton, a great British humanitarian” (p.4). Buxton believed that a new approach to the anti-slavery campaign must be sought. His strategy was pragmatic and devised to involve the British Government, the humanitarians, interested business and missionary societies in a cooperative endeavour to stop the slave trade. Hence, the effect of the eventual abolition of the obnoxious slave trade became the springboard upon which missionary activities into the African soil was launched. However, it had hitherto been thought that the task of “civilizing” Africa was one that would be accomplished by the white man. On the contrary, to achieve a meaningful missionary expansionistic programme, Henry Venn, the then Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society (C. M. S.) from 1841-1872, had advanced the policy of self-governing, self-supporting and self-extending Church. Nmah (2010) corroborates this view, observing that this concept has “indeed improved the situation of the indigenous Churches that transcended the indigenous Churches and gave rise to the economic and political nationalism” (p.486). This concept particularly promoted among the C. M. S. concurs with the missionary consciousness that Africa must be regenerated by the Africans. One major tool to accomplish this must be the understanding and the effective communication of the religious and moral message of the Bible through the medium of the peoples’ language. Hence, the role of Bible translation for Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland becomes significant.
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