Since the great encounter between people of African and European descents, which can roughly be said to have begun around the15th century (for more on this see David Northrup), there have been two major influences on how the encounter has progressed - the influences of religion and science. In fact, one can say that the modern history of the West has been driven mainly by religion and science, powerful phenomena that have shaped how the West has encountered the "other". The dissemination of Western religion and science to non-Western peoples, especially Africans, is what I refer to here as the evangelization of Africa. The evangelization of Africa here should therefore be understood not mainly as the movement to spread religion but also as the movement to spread science.
While many may see evangelism mainly as the proclamation of the Christian faith, and hence related to Western missionary activities, it is worth noting that this missionary activity has often gone together with science. Thus, the West has resolved not only to teach Africans Western Christianity but also Western science. In fact, the spread of Western science has often been described in scientific terms. In much Western discourse, science and religion are seen as two distinct discourses and many scholars have made attempts to calibrate the relation between these apparently separate discourses.
In an African imagination, however, science and religion are not two discourses because they have been historically experienced and even traditionally conceptualized as one discourse. They have been historically experienced as one discourse because that is how Europeans made it look like when they came to Africa. The missionaries and colonialists were both interested in schools and hospitals, railroads and firearms. Education did not only enable the convert to read the Bible but also to dabble in Western science. Thus, many Africans have experienced Western religion and science as a single phenomenon. From the perspective of African traditional thought, science and religion are a single phenomenon because they are also experienced as single - both are geared toward the realization of what Africans conceptualize as the good life.
In the Western evangelization of Africa, however, the religious side of this evangelization seems to have experienced more success than the scientific side. Thus it is that while Christianity is growing in Africa it is declining in Europe. On the other hand, however, Western science has not experienced much growth in Africa. What intrigues me in this post is why this disparity. Why is it that Western science has continued to grow in the West while Western religion is growing in Africa, even though both religion and science were and continue to be experienced by Africans as a single phenomenon?
There may be many reasons for this but I will focus on just one theory and this theory is situated in the history of scientific evangelism. In a very revealing article titled "Pump and Circumstance: Robert Boyle's Literary Technology," the historian of science, Steven Shapin, has demonstrated how Robert Boyle, the British scientist who is associated with the invention of the air pump, had a hard time selling this invention. In fact, being a Christian himself, Boyle understood the dissemination of science in Christian missionary terms. A major part of Boyle's difficulty in selling science was money. Science is not cheap and scientific evangelization, even in Britain, was not cheap. Because science is expensive, only the rich promote scientific evangelization and the rich mainly benefit from it. In fact, some scientific findings are often jealously guarded not only because they may have dangerous effects on the general populace but also because much money has been expended in the discovery process and there is a need to recover this money. Those who can pay this money can gain access to the knowledge while those who cannot pay are left out. Take the example of getting a medical degree.
Religion, on the other hand, is cheap and even free. This is a central theological motif of the Christian faith - it is called grace. To send a missionary to India or Tanzania does not avail much. Compare the expenditure for a Master of Divinity Degree and that of a Degree in medicine. The conclusion here is that poverty seems to account for why Western religion has grown in Africa while Western science has lagged behind. Science is for the rich and the West has the money to sponsor it; many African countries do not. Religion is cheap and Africa has the resources to sponsor it. If this is the case, then Karl Marx was right: religion is for the poor. This is glaringly manifested in Western history itself where few are talking about the importance of religion while most people are talking about the important or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Thus, scientific evangelization is promoted in the West while religious evangelization is promoted in Africa. This theory seem to explain much.
While many may see evangelism mainly as the proclamation of the Christian faith, and hence related to Western missionary activities, it is worth noting that this missionary activity has often gone together with science. Thus, the West has resolved not only to teach Africans Western Christianity but also Western science. In fact, the spread of Western science has often been described in scientific terms. In much Western discourse, science and religion are seen as two distinct discourses and many scholars have made attempts to calibrate the relation between these apparently separate discourses.
In an African imagination, however, science and religion are not two discourses because they have been historically experienced and even traditionally conceptualized as one discourse. They have been historically experienced as one discourse because that is how Europeans made it look like when they came to Africa. The missionaries and colonialists were both interested in schools and hospitals, railroads and firearms. Education did not only enable the convert to read the Bible but also to dabble in Western science. Thus, many Africans have experienced Western religion and science as a single phenomenon. From the perspective of African traditional thought, science and religion are a single phenomenon because they are also experienced as single - both are geared toward the realization of what Africans conceptualize as the good life.
In the Western evangelization of Africa, however, the religious side of this evangelization seems to have experienced more success than the scientific side. Thus it is that while Christianity is growing in Africa it is declining in Europe. On the other hand, however, Western science has not experienced much growth in Africa. What intrigues me in this post is why this disparity. Why is it that Western science has continued to grow in the West while Western religion is growing in Africa, even though both religion and science were and continue to be experienced by Africans as a single phenomenon?
There may be many reasons for this but I will focus on just one theory and this theory is situated in the history of scientific evangelism. In a very revealing article titled "Pump and Circumstance: Robert Boyle's Literary Technology," the historian of science, Steven Shapin, has demonstrated how Robert Boyle, the British scientist who is associated with the invention of the air pump, had a hard time selling this invention. In fact, being a Christian himself, Boyle understood the dissemination of science in Christian missionary terms. A major part of Boyle's difficulty in selling science was money. Science is not cheap and scientific evangelization, even in Britain, was not cheap. Because science is expensive, only the rich promote scientific evangelization and the rich mainly benefit from it. In fact, some scientific findings are often jealously guarded not only because they may have dangerous effects on the general populace but also because much money has been expended in the discovery process and there is a need to recover this money. Those who can pay this money can gain access to the knowledge while those who cannot pay are left out. Take the example of getting a medical degree.
Religion, on the other hand, is cheap and even free. This is a central theological motif of the Christian faith - it is called grace. To send a missionary to India or Tanzania does not avail much. Compare the expenditure for a Master of Divinity Degree and that of a Degree in medicine. The conclusion here is that poverty seems to account for why Western religion has grown in Africa while Western science has lagged behind. Science is for the rich and the West has the money to sponsor it; many African countries do not. Religion is cheap and Africa has the resources to sponsor it. If this is the case, then Karl Marx was right: religion is for the poor. This is glaringly manifested in Western history itself where few are talking about the importance of religion while most people are talking about the important or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Thus, scientific evangelization is promoted in the West while religious evangelization is promoted in Africa. This theory seem to explain much.
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