ANSWER
----Missionaries signed treaties which were later used
by colonialists to take over colonies e.g. Tucker, a British Missionary
interpreted the 1900 Buganda Agreement to the regents of Kabaka Daudi Chwa II.
This led to loss of political, economic and social powers to the British
protectorate government. Sir Harry John stone who signed on behalf of the British
government confessed that;
---“I John stone shall be bound to acknowledge the assistance offered
to me by the missionaries especially the CMS. Without their assistance on my
side, I do not think Uganda’s chiefs would agree to the treaty which
practically places their country and land in the British hands”.
----(From
partition of Africa by Prof Sempebwa).
------Missionaries
supplied information to the colonialists which they utilized to plan how to
effectively impose their colonial rule on how to crash the African resistance.
In the religious wars in Buganda, the British fought behind the Protestants.
Colonel Saddler a British commander once said;
------“The CMS was the first in the field …. Its connection with the
political history of early days, the difficulties, it successfully surpassed
and the assistance it rendered to the colonial government at the time of the
rebellion are too well known to need recapitulation. There has been complete
accord between the colonial government and Christian missionaries and in no
single instance has there been a friction of any kind. I would wish to thank
them for willing fully placing at my disposal a fund of information they have
regarding the country and its people”.
------In
fact there was a reciprocal relationship between missionaries and the
colonialists that is why missionaries laid the ground work before the
partitioners offered missionaries protection for the success of their
evangelization mission. It’s here that words Reverend Willis are partnent;
-------“We as missionaries are indebted to the presence of the colonial
government in this country and we would not forget when we reckon upon the
triumph of the cross in Uganda. In how large a measure, these victories have
been paved for us by others in the colonial government with its officers around
us. We owe a peaceful country”.
-------The
Church missionary society managed to raise enough funds for Imperial British
East African Company for its staying in Uganda for at least 2 or more years.
The church missionary society and Captain Lugard viewed that the company’s
withdraw would live the British and the protestant party in a dangerous
position versus Moslems.
----------Missionaries
enhanced the growth of tropical raw materials like coffee, cotton to satisfy
the British industrialists urge but disguising everything in Christianity.
Bishop K. Boroup for example introduced cotton in Uganda.
-------They
appealed to their home governments for protection in case of attack. It is in
this light that Britain came to Uganda during the religious wars of 1884-1892
and later occupied Uganda.
------They
created a collaborating class by luring it religiously and materially. This
class helped colonialists to fight resistors despite the fact that they were
all Africans.
------In
their evangelization role, they brain washed Africans with biblical teachings
as “love your neighbor as you love yourself”, “blessed are the humble for the
kingdom of God is theirs”, etc. With these preaching’s they made potential
resistance important.
--------Religion
was a mechanism of divide and rule. The converts and the non-converts hated
each other which caused division to the advantage of the
Europeans.
-----Collaboration
with chattered companies, European Christian missionaries and their converts
worked hand in hand with the Imperial British East African Company to defeat
Kabalega’s resistance.
------Missionary
stations served as military bases from where the European colonial forces
launched attacks on the resisting Africans. African Lugard used old kampala
hill as a military base against Kabalega.
-------Mission
stations served as colonial government headquarters. The established mission
infrastructure was used to help in the establishment and sustenance of European
colonial rule.
--------Colonialists
lacked skilled manpower, so the missionaries by design or accident were very
faithful servants of the colonial government i.e. they were Colonial government
servants.
-------They
created a peaceful atmosphere for the germination of colonialism in areas of
hostility. This is because they emphasized the centralized leadership where
peace and obedience were expected.
--------Missionaries
also trained manpower through introduction of education which was used by
colonialists. This was done through teaching those academic subjects and manual
skills like use of a plough and how to grow coffee.
--------They acted as interpreters
e.g. Tucker in the 1900 Buganda agreement.
--------Through
conversion of the Buganda chiefs and pages before Buganda commoners it meant
that each party i.e. the Church Missionary Society and France had gained
converts. This was a political security of sympathy to the Christian
missionaries as against the Kabaka in Buganda’s leadership. This indirectly
undermined the Kabaka’s authority and respect i.e. his traditional power base
was being eroded.
No comments:
Post a Comment