The Coming of Protestantism to sub-Saharan Africa

The coming of Protestantism to sub-Saharan Africa is to be dated from the late eight- eenth century, and is closely linked with the great evangelical awakening in England at this time. Many were appalled at the slave trade, in which British merchants bought slaves from local tribal leaders in Africa, before exporting them to the plantations of the American colonies. The conversion of John Newton, a former slave-ship captain, to evangelical Protestantism created a growing awareness of the problems. Newton celebrated his conversion with one of the world’s best-known hymns – “Amazing Grace” – which told of his own spiritual transformation. Yet this same writer also wrote hymns such as “The Negro’s Complaint,” which spoke of the dignity conferred on all people by God, which slavery could not diminish, still less abolish.

Evangelical Protestants responded to this new concern for Africa in two ways: first, working for the abolition of slavery, a project especially associated with William Wilber- force and his circle; second, by bringing the gospel to this region of the world. These were powerful visions, which caught the imagination of many in the 1790s, though it was not until August 1833 – a month after Wilberforce’s death – that the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, abolishing slavery, and giving all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.