ABSTRACT
In sharp contrast to Northern and Northeastern Africa, West Africa had no contact with Christianity before the fifteenth century, when Portuguese explorers reached the coastal zones. Many North Africans and Ethiopians were Christians who had distinctive forms of Christianity as old as anything found in Europe. In sharp contrast, West Africans were introduced to Christians and Christianity by European travelers, traders, and missionaries directly from their homeland, who imported European forms of the Christian tradition which they saw as solely legitimate. Although they differed on the subject of how quickly Africans could exercise leadership over their own churches, there were few missionaries who advocated the infusion of African culture into Christianity, as Europeans had done with their culture centuries before. Despite these foreign associations, Christianity has become an important religious tradition, particularly during the period since the colonial conquest. Ironically, West African Christians played important roles in the nationalist movement that led to the end of European domination and colonial rule. In analyzing the history of West African Christianity, I divide this process into
four distinct periods:
1 The era of initial exploration and the Atlantic slave trade (1444-1807). 2 The period of growing missionary work, initial colonization, and intervention
against the Atlantic slave trade (1807-1900). 3 The height of colonial rule and missionary influence (1900-1945). 4 The era of decolonization, independence, growing African leadership of
Christian communities and Catholicism since Vatican II (1946-2014).
