Converting a Savage Mind: Commerce and Christianity
"When [an Englishman] wants a new market for his adulterated Manchester goods, he sends a missionary to teach the natives the Gospel of Peace. The natives kill the missionary; he flies to arms in defense of Christianity, fights for it; conquers for it; and takes the market as reward from heaven"( Bernard Shaw, "The Man of Destiny" from Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant vol. 2 (New York: Viking Penguin, 1989), 334-336. )
Missionaries could be used by the traders as much as they used commerce for their spiritual wares. They relied on trade and government to provide transportation to and from Africa, to create law and order on a "barbaric" continent, and to back them up in danger; but trade and government relied on the information that missionaries supplied, the relationships the missionaries built, and the expectation of civilized Africans for trading purposes.
Africans also recognized that the missionaries were used by the traders and that the government did not take kindly to missionary "interference" when it came to commerce. This perception was articulated clearly during an incident in 1862, when a Yoruba community in Southwestern Nigeria stole some English property. In response, Governor Henry Stahhope Freeman created harsh trade blockades. The missionaries complained to the government and attempted to reconcile Gov. Freeman to the African tribes, writing letters to explain that the Yoruba communities had not realized it was English property. Little resulted from their efforts.
This incident exemplified the role the missionaries played in defending Africans' interests. The British officials often viewed this missionary role as meddlesome. From the other side, the Africans affected by the trade blockade perceived the British officials as using missionaries to achieve their commercial ends. When they wondered aloud about the severity of the punishment, the Reverend H. Townsend quoted them as saying: "'Is this what is intended, first to send missionaries to win us over, that such men as we see at Lagos may follow after and crush us down?'" (Rev. H. Townsend to the Rev. H. Venn, Abbeokuta, 2 July, 1862, British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies Africa, vol. 63 (Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970), 203.)
Despite the theoretical link between commerce and Christianity, people back in England struggled to accept the idea that sometimes missionaries had to trade to survive because they did not receive enough support from the mission agency (Roger B. Beck, "Bibles and Beads: Missionaries as Traders in Southern Africa in
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