2005. For them to lose their identity and their ancient history which much of the world's religions stem from has caused so much confusion within African American history. But sometimes … Christianity was something that the white men did. Missionaries were therefore deeply involved in the formal education of Africans. [ Links ], Garner, RC. This decision was founded on the demeaning misconception, held by some white missionaries and their masters, that Africans were either sub-human or less than human. That said, members of Pentecostal/healing churches were less likely to get infected because of their churches' strict teaching against premarital and extra-marital sex. Literary data concerning the history of mission in the sub-Saharan African region from the nineteenth to the early twenty first century were studied, assessed and analysed. Although Christianity, couched as it was in western civilisation, brought some relief to Africa in freeing it from some of its woes (albeit, in some cases, only partially - e.g. Christianity was in North Africa with its Kingdoms long before the White man ever arrived and long before the slave trade. The slaves were utilizing a religion that was once only a white man’s religion to foster a community with a sense of hope and optimism. Preaching in a context of poverty. For this reason, much of Africa's ways of life were frowned upon, if not totally demonised. Slavery: An Unlikely Catalyst. This was certainly prompted by the missionaries' belief in the equal value of all human beings (see Woodberry & Shah 2004:53). Unpublished paper presented at the 2013 Congress of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa at the North-West University in Potchefstroom from 23-25 January 2013. According to Nomazana (1998:45), Livingstone believed that "Christianity would provide principles for moral guidance, while legitimate commerce and education would encourage Africans to produce their own goods from their fertile soil to trade with Europeans." The initiation of a Christian driven slave trade was a very detrimental blow to African culture; thus having a negative effect on the development of African Americans. Many of the early missionaries had a goal to create a more docile and obedient slave by feeding them select bits and pieces of Christian scripture. Accessed on 2012/11/19. When the European settlers discovered the communities in Africa, they saw opportunities for advancement of their society. Witchcraft in the religion of the Hlubi of Qumbu: focussing on the issues of sickness and healing in the society. Their conversion and adaptation to Christianity held many positive and negative effects for the African Americans. The Church in South Africa: church history outline. Indeed, according to Good (1991:2): "African populations everywhere almost invariably seem to believe that health workers employed in the church-related health services provide care that is superior to their Ministry of Health counterparts because they are trained to understand the connection between body and soul and show greater compassion for human suffering.". However ... in one particular aspect, Africa will not be marginalized. More importantly, the church also provides people living with HIV with a community. Newton himself, a former slave trader, came to see (after his conversion to Christ) "that since the slaves were also created in the image of God, the slave trade was wrong in itself, and could not be humanized. That one area is the field of Christian theology and Christian religious scholarship generally." Christianity has brought along these things" (Smith 2011). Christians believe God is a Christian while Muslims believe God is a Muslim forgetting that God has no religion. A decade later, in the 1940s, Dr Xuma, a Christian medical practitioner, was the ANC President. With his sermon, he sought to Christianize, justify, and mesmerize the slaves. Cilliers (2013:1) refers to three principles, and takes human dignity as his point of departure: "first, human dignity hinges on the embracing of the 'other,' while human indignity results from the exclusion of the 'other'; second: human dignity is given in the reversal of traditional relationships; and third, human dignity has sacramental dimensions, while human indignity is anti-sacramental". The first key word is impact. In South Africa, one of the first influential institutions of higher learning was, according to Hinchliff, Lovedale. The encounter between Christianity and African traditional cosmologies produced a new situation, a situation with unique characteristics. Tom Manthata, an outspoken apartheid critic and community leader, strongly denounced the despicable way in which the apartheid government took over the church school system in the 1950s (Nolan 2000:26-27).