How the West plundered Africa under the guise of Christ. History shows what was behind European humanitarian missions in Africa.
For decades, humanitarian aid has been the epicenter of Western engagement with the African continent. Africa has been largely depicted as a continent lacking essential needs, from food and medicine to governance and human rights. While this act is largely encapsulated in the ideals of cooperation and generosity, history offers a reminder that beneath some of them lie hidden dark secrets that perpetuate a sense of dependency and efforts that hinder Africa’s progress.
Historically, deceptive benevolence disguised as humanitarianism dates back to the colonial era, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After the discovery of vast natural resources by the 19th-century explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley, Belgium’s notorious King Leopold II contacted him and convened the Brussels Geographical Conference in 1876.
The conference was promoted as a humanitarian mission to ‘civilize’ the region, end the Arab slave trade, sponsor Stanley’s expeditions, and open the Congo to global commerce – which in practice meant trade in looted goods by colonial invaders. In 1877, King Leopold II called for the establishment of the International African Association (IAA), ostensibly a humanitarian organization governed by a board of explorers and geographers.
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To advance their imperial ambitions, colonial governments poured money into sectors that could most effectively indoctrinate local populations – often at the urging of missionaries themselves. The British colonial administration, in particular, provided grants to institutions such as Fourah Bay College, which later became affiliated with the University of Durham in Britain and served as a training center for missionary clergy, colonial administrators, and clerks.
In Ghana and Nigeria, the passage of the 1882 Education Ordinance Act formalized colonial support for missionary education through curriculum development, teaching materials, and the promotion of the English language. This curriculum glorified the British Empire and its literature while portraying Africa as a primitive, barbarous continent “without history.”
As King Leopold II wrote to the missionaries in 1883:
“Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won’t revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent’s teachings. The children have to learn to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist on their total submission and obedience.”
When Africans resisted such indoctrination, missionaries often turned to military force through the backing of colonial governments. This was the case with the German-Swiss Basel Mission’s activities in the Ashanti region of the Gold Coast, now Ghana. The missionaries lobbied the British House of Commons and provided intelligence on the organization of the local population, paving the way for the colonial military subjugation of the Asante people and their rulers.
The conflict stemmed from the Asante’s deep commitment to their traditional religion, cultural practices, and military strength – all of which stood in the way of the missionaries’ deceptive ‘benevolence’. Many African chiefs shared the Asante’s fate. In Botswana, for example, the missionaries campaigned for the removal of Sekgoma Letsholathebe (1835–1870), who was subsequently detained for five years under the authority of the British colonial high commissioner.
What was called a ‘civilizing mission’ ultimately revealed itself as an enduring project of imperial domination. As South African theologian Desmond Tutu once put it:
“When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible, and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened, we had the Bible, and they had the land.”
Read the full story at: RT International
Header image from the article, resized and slightly enhanced by me.
Against the Grain 