W. Winwood Reade, fellow of the Geographical and Anthropological Societies of London, explored Africa in the mid-nineteenth century and wrote an anthropological treatise about his travels. He concluded that the Christian missionary endeavor in Africa was an exercise in futility.
He recalled his attempt to explain Christian theology to an African chief, who understood the basic idea that the death of the son of God could atone for the sins of humankind, but questioned the motivation behind such a sacrificial act. The word for "mercy" had no translation; instead, Reade described it as an act of love. At this, the chief laughed and made an obscene gesture. Apparently, in his language, the word "love" could only indicate a sexual relationship between two members of the opposite sex. There were no corresponding words for other types of love (Reade, 443). With no appropriate translation, Reade argued, how could an African "savage" ever understand the Christian message? If spiritual love could only be defined by sexual love, then that language barrier prevented transmission of theology across the two cultures. They could not understand "abstract truths," he stated, when their language did not have words to express abstract ideas (Reade, 443).
Reade's assessment of Christian workers in Africa in 1864 was similar to judgements that Sydney Smith, founder of the Edinburgh Review, had made in 1808 and 1809 about Christian missions. Many of Reade's English contemporaries, including writer Charles Dickens, regarded the missionary endeavor as heroic but futile or misguided. This perception was often based not on the actions or characters of individual missionaries, or even missionaries in general. Rather, it was filtered through a lens that judged Africans as intellectually unable to comprehend the higher, abstract truths of Christianity.
Ironically, although the British believed Christianity was universally true for all people at all times of history, and though they believed it was the main "civilizing force" for the world, the perception that its truth was too advanced to be understood by the "savage" mind relegated it to such elite status that it became useless as a "civilizing" force. Subsequently, a segment of nineteenth century Great Britain scrutinized the failures and successes of the missionary movement based on its conception of the African savage, leading those individuals to argue that the missionary movement was admirable but unable to convert or civilize the continent of Africa.
