History of Christianity in Abeokuta

History of Christianity in Abeokuta 

Abeokuta is the capital of Ogun state in southwestern Nigeria.  It is located on the east bank of the Ogun River.  Abeokuta means “Refuge among Rocks”.  It was founded around 1830 by Sodeke, a hunter and the leader of the Egba refugees who were fleeing from the Oyo empire.  The town was settled by missionaries in the 1840’s and by the Sierra Leone Creoles.

Abeokuta is an agricultural trade center which produces rice, yams, cassava, corn, palm oil and kernels, cotton, fruits, vegetables.  It is an exporting point for cocoa, palm produce, fruits, and kola nuts.  Rice and cotton were introduced by the missionaries in the 1850’s and cotton weaving and dyeing (with locally grown indigo) are now traditional crafts of the town.  (Britannica)  Local industry is limited but can now name fruit-canning plants, a plastics factory, a brewery, sawmills , and an aluminum products factory.  To the south are Aro granite quarries.

Apart from Benin and Warri, which had come in contact with Christianity through the Portuguese as early as the fifteenth century, most missionaries arrived by sea in the nineteenth century. As with other areas in Africa, Roman Catholics and Anglicans each tended to establish areas of hegemony in southern Nigeria. After World War I, smaller sects such as the Brethren, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others. African-American churches entered the missionary field in the nineteenth century and created contacts with Nigeria that lasted well into the colonial period.  Christianity came in with education to Abeokuta, January 1843 by Henry Townsend. Orthodox religion, Christianity and Islam are practiced with traditional religion. There is the belief in Egungun, Erinle, Ogun, Obatala, Sango, Gelede, Oro, Omolu, Obaluaye & Osun to mention few. 

Christianity was introduced into the diocese of Abeokuta in the early part of the 19th century.  It currently houses the first Bible that was brought into the country by the early Missionaries. Catholicism came to Abeokuta in 1880 from where it spread to the other parts of what is now Abeokuta Diocese. The history of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Abeokuta is intertwined with the wider history of the missionary works of the Fathers of the Society of African Missions (SMA) and Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA). While the SMA Fathers arrived in 1880, the OLA Sisters followed in 1886. Since then, the Church has continued to grow.

According to Wikipedia, there are in the diocese approximately 54,000 adherents of the Catholic faith, presently distributed into 19 parishes and 3 quasi parishes, administered by a total number of 47 priests with His Lordship, Most. Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale Martins. The Diocese has witnessed a rapid growth from 9 parishes and 11 priests in 1998 to what we have now. Its pastoral strategy includes the formation and maintenance of Small Christian Communities and particular attention to the youth and young adults, the future of the Church.

The Diocese of Abeokuta, like Ogun State in which it is situated, is typically a ‘Gateway’ diocese. Not only does it connect the Archdiocese of Lagos with the closely situated Diocese of Ijebu Ode and the Archdiocese of Ibadan in Nigeria, it is also strategically interconnected with the Church in the wider area of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), especially the adjacent Diocese of Porto-Novo in the Republic of Benin.  There is visible peaceful co-existence among the religious groups in the diocese as we have close ecumenical relationship as well as cordial relationship with the other religious bodies. There are a lot of joint religious programmes between the various Christian denominations.  (Wikipedia)

 The Nigerian press is a product of evolution from the early Christian missionary establishment in the South of the country. Between 1842 and 1885, the Church Missionary Society, the Baptist, Methodist and the Catholic Missions established their presence independent of one another in various locations, particularly in Abeokuta, Calabar and Onitsha. The desire to spread Christianity to the local people in their own language and anthological environment caused the CMS to start what is generally acknowledged as the first newspaper in Abeokuta. As it was reported, the Rev. Henry Townsend of the CMS was said to have observed, “My object is to get the people to read; and get them to inculcate the habit of reading.” (Oyovbaire)

References:

Abeokuta.  Encyclopaedia Britannica.com  Retrieved 8 June, 2011 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1111/Abeokuta

Abeokuta South.  Ogun State Government.  6 September, 2010.  Retrieved 8 June, 2011 from http://www.ogunstate.gov.ng/Government/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:abeokuta-south&catid=142:local-governments&Itemid=85

Christianity.  Retrieved 8 June, 2011 from http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/47.htm

Oyovbaire, Sam.  The Media and the Democratic Process in Nigeria.  29 August, 2001.  Retrieved 8 June, 2011 from http://www.waado.org/nigerdelta/essays/Oyovbaire.html

Roman Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta.  Wikipedia.  Retrieved 8 June, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Abeokuta

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