PREFACE
African Christianity has been well studied in its early, pre-Islamic phase. Likewise many excellent works have been written about modern African Christianity, beginning with the late 19th century. For the middle period, the subject of this book there is hardly anything in english except for a few specialized articles. The material is vast enough to write many detailed volumes. I have limited myself to giving a general survey, with perhaps a little greater concentration on the Nigerian material. I have used original sources as far as possible, but for certain sections, particularly East Africa, I had to rely mostly on secondary sources.
The sources at my disposal for the most part were written by Europeans. One would like to know better the reactions and thinking of the people who received the missionaries. That information, unfortunately, will never be available to our satisfaction.
The title indicates that this is Catholic Church history. The book in fact touches on Nubian and Ethiopian Orthodoxy and early Protestant missions, but mission work throughout this period happened to be almost exclusively a Catholic enterprise.
The aim of the book is to present a factual account, telling all that is of interest, whether to the glory or the shame of the Church, with no apologetic tidying up of history. I thought it premature to attempt a general assessment or indulge in must historical theorization. That is a necessary but delicate task, which needs to take many historical currents into account. Richard Gray (1969) has made a worthy introductory draft towards such an assessment.
In the meantime I hope this book will fill a gap in African Church history reading lists, and prove useful for students of advance or university level.
Joseph Kenny, O.P.
St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, Ibadan, and
Department of Religious Studies,
University of Ibadan