Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957 - by Augustine S O Okwu (Paperback)

About the Book

This book explores the strategies and methods of the Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland and Igbo response during the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Using oral traditions, primary sources, and the author's life experience as a Christian convert ...

Book Synopsis

This book explores the strategies and methods of the Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland and Igbo response during the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Using oral traditions, primary sources, and the author's life experience as a Christian convert and missionary, the text examines the missions' programs, missteps, and impact.

Review Quotes

A splendid account of the missionary programs among the Igbo, cast in vivid detail, against the background of the indigenous culture. While most studies on the subject concentrate mostly on the transformation of indigenous societies by foreign male evangelists/educators, this author, in addition, deftly integrates the multifaceted role of the Irish Holy Rosary Sisters into the absorbing story...The reader is irresistibly draw into the world of the octogenarian author, a convert to Roman Catholicism, a former RC teacher and government administrator, and a seasoned diplomat...Full of vivid color and emotion and in parts, controversial...a book that should be on the bookshelf of students and scholars, as well as the general reader, interested in the subject of social change.

Okwu, whose well-established intellectual reputation and global experiences are vividly apparent in this study, has a first-hand knowledge of the transformed world his research focuses on. The missionary church impact on Africa, and the ongoing vibrancy of the new order particularly in Igboland, continues to raise academic and policy tremors still being keenly felt. This book is an excellent and timely addition to this important debate!

About the Author

Augustine S.O. Okwu, earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is a former Nigerian-Biafran ambassador and an emeritus professor of history at the State University of New York; director of Africana studies and professor of African history, Bloomfield College New Jersey; and director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Naugatuck Valley Community College, Waterbury, Connecticut. He was a co-worker of the Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland. He has published several articles in learned journals in Europe and the United States of America.