CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Section IV: Africa Missions

Part 13: West Africa (Sierra Leone), 1935-1949 and Nigeria Missions, 1935-1949

The papers pre 1880 have been filmed in Parts 1, 2, and 5 and the papers from 1881-1934 in Part 12. The papers for the period 1935-1949 are covered in this part. The material is divided into General, Dioceses, Education and Medical papers. Part 13 also contains papers for all the Nigeria Missions 1935-1949. The earlier papers for the Nigeria Missions can be found in Parts 3-4, 6, 8-11. The material is divided into General, Dioceses, Education and Medical papers.

The papers for West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission and the Nigeria Missions for 1935-1949 are very ease to use as they are mostly typed and therefore very easy to read. The papers are arranged chronologically so that the most recent are at the beginning of the file. For these later papers it was decided by CMS to arrange them in a different manner by subject area. They begin with General material relating to the mission, including Executive Committee Minutes and Press Reports. The papers are then divided into Diocese related material, papers regarding Education in the mission and Medical material.

The General material contains items such as: letters between Bishops; notes of interviews with Bishops; pleas for more nurses; discussions re length of furloughs during WW II; transfers of missionaries to other stations; reports on the unrest in Sierra Leone; reports on Fourah Bay College; plea for staff for the Annie Walsh Memorial School; reports on juvenile delinquency and social conditions in Freetown; reports on staff and buildings; reports on literacy campaigns. There are also numerous press cuttings.
The papers relating to Dioceses are split into the different mission areas and contain items such as: statistics and reports, papers and letters from the Bishop, pamphlets, reports on conferences. Included also are editions of newspapers such as Niger News.

For Education there are reports regarding staff and buildings, literacy campaigns, syllabi for colleges, lists of subjects studied , up to date news re endowment funds, newspaper cuttings from papers such as The Daily Guardian, annual reports from the schools, details on salaries and requests for financial assistance, copies of the paper The Sierra Leone Royal Gazette, pamphlets on higher education, photographs of schools, plans for extension, school supervisors' reports, papers of the CMS Bookshops in the missions. For the Nigeria missions the papers are divided into areas and cover individual schools, training centres and institutes such as Christ's School at Ado Ekiti, St Annes School at Ibadan, the Girls' School at Lagos, the Industrial Institute at Abeokuta, the Girls' Training Centre at Akure, Immanuel College at Ibadan, Igbobi College at Ebute Metta, St Andrews College at Oyo, the Rural Training Centre at Asaba, the Women's Training College at Umuahia Obanelu. The papers contain statistics, reports including those of the school supervisors, correspondence and pamphlets, press cuttings for example from The Daily Guardian, news re village training, plans for buildings, appeals for missionaries, estimates for rural training, periodicals such as Theology - A Monthly Review, accounts, photographs.

The Medical papers contain material related to the various hospitals such as the Princess Christian Memorial Hospital, medical missions such as the ones at Lyi-Enu and the Zaria Medical Mission at Wusasa Hospital, and Leprosy Centres such as the ones at Oji River and Zaria. The papers contain: appeals for medical missionaries, questionnaires, detailed reports on the work in the hospitals, conference reports, statements on medical policy, statistics, expenditure and much interesting detail on the work in the leper colonies.

The CMS Archives reveal much about Sierra Leone and Nigeria history and culture. They record the collision between western and indigenous cultures and the changes that resulted from this. They describe the introduction of western medicine, the establishment of education and the confrontations and compromises which arose. The papers are a rich source for ethnologists, social historians and all those trying to understand Africa before and after missionary intervention.