Christians in Colonial Africa
نویسنده
چکیده
Using information on the precise locations of Catholic and Protestant mission during Africa’s Colonial period, I examine the long-term impact of Protestant and Catholic missionary activity on religious conversion, education, civic participation and attitudes towards democracy. Examining variation across ethnicities and villages within 17 sub-Saharan African countries, I provide evidence that Protestant missions had strong effects on conversion, and increased educational attainment. Catholic missions, on the other hand, appear to have had little effect on conversion, and no effect on education. The results are in line with the arguments of Woodberry and Shah (2004), and confirm the cross-country analysis of Woodberry (2004, 2009). I also find that consistent with the cross-country analysis of Glaeser, Ponzetto, and Shleifer (2007), more educated individuals favor democracy, are more likely to vote, and are less likely to view violence as a justifiable political action. However, less consistent with their arguments, I find that more educated individuals are less likely to believe that voting rights should be extended to all. Although my results suggest that through increased education, Protestant missions increase the prevalence of attitudes favorable towards democracy and civic participation, I find no evidence that missionary activity, either Protestant or Catholic, affects these outcomes through any channels other than education.
منابع مشابه
A Thematic Analysis of the National Anthems of English West Africa
This paper investigates major themes espoused in the national anthems of English West Africa. Further, it seeks to find out how these themes are projected linguistically and literarily. Five English-speaking countries in West Africa, namely, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, were purposively sampled based on their colonial history, language and geographical location for this...
متن کاملMuslim Students in Adventist Schools and Islam in the Curriculum
slam and Christianity are today facing each other in a more hostile way than ever before. Recent events, including terrorist attacks, Western armies on Muslim soil, and the Israel/Palestinian conflict, have created a lot of enmity. Much has been said about these serious confrontations in the press, on TV, and in other media. Most of this is negative and colored by suspicion and mistrust on both...
متن کاملSmallpox in Africa during Colonial Rule
The history of smallpox in Africa during colonial rule is a relatively neglected subject. This is not because of ignorance or obscurity but in some ways just the opposite: it is thought that there is little more to be learned about it. To be sure, vaccination campaigns during colonial rule were one of the earliest and most extensive public health programmes that Europeans bragged about as evide...
متن کاملDe-compressing history? Pre-colonial states, economic change and the origins of colonial institutions in British Africa
Colonial institutions in Africa were shaped by a variety of factors, including local conditions prior to colonial rule, the policies of the imperial power, and rapid economic change during and after the period of colonial conquest. This paper contributes to a growing literature on the origins and structure of colonial institutions. It examines a neglected but important part of colonial governme...
متن کامل