ROLE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN THE SCRAMBLE AND PARTITION OF EAST AFRICA 1. Missionary groups which came to East Africa included: the Church missionary Society (CMS), Roman Catholic Missionary (RCM) among others. 2. They helped in signing of treaties, for example Bishop Tucker assisted in signing of the Buganda agreement of 1900 which put Buganda directly under the British control. 3. They softened the hearts of the East African people through their preaching like “leaders come from God”, and “blessed are those who are humble for the Kingdom of God is theirs”. 4. The Christian missionaries identified organised kingdoms and informed their governments about them. 5. They helped to set up infrastructures like roads that imperialists used. 6. The Christian missionaries built schools, which became centres of instruction, where Africans were taught to obey whites hence colonialism. 7. They also helped to stop slave trade, which glorified or made the white men to look very important in the eyes of the East African people, hence facilitating scramble and partition. 8. They promoted agriculture, which formed the foundation upon which the economy and income of the whites depended. 14 | P a g e 9. The Christian missionaries promoted legitimate trade that encouraged colonialists to come to East Africa. Their teachings turned East Africans against their traditional rulers, hence facilitating the scramble. 10. They made reports about the economic potentials in East Africa, which encouraged the colonialists. 11. Their teachings created a class of collaborators, clerks and interpreters among others who all facilitated colonization of East Africa. 12. The Christian missionaries translated African languages, hence making communication with colonialists easy. 13. They called their home governments to come and take over. 14. Their religions divided the East African people, hence making them too weak to resist colonialism. 15. They effected the policy of effective control of East Africa, as agreed upon in the Berlin conference. 16. They co operated with other European traders like the IBEACo and the GEACo. They gave financial assistance to them when they ran bankrupt. 17. In some areas they offered the east African people material goods like clothes, shoes, mirrors, and every white man was considered good and they welcomed the colonialists. 18. They occupied the most fertile land and they later handed it over to their home governments. 19. Earlier missionaries carried out exploration work and discovered navigable rivers, which they revealed to their home governments, hence colonialism.
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