CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section IV: Africa Missions

Part 8:   Nigeria - Yoruba Mission, 1880-1934

Part 9:   Nigeria - Yoruba Mission, 1880-1934

Part 10: Nigeria - Niger Mission, 1880-1934

Part 11: Nigeria - Niger Mission, 1880-1934 and Nigeria - Northern Nigeria, 1900-1934

Part 12: West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission, 1881-1934

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

Introduction to Part 13

Part 13 continues the papers of the West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission. 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 easy 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 Anne’s 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 Iyi-Enu and the Zaria Medical Mission at Wusasa Hospital and Leprosy Centres including 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 following extracts give a feeling for the material in the papers. The first is taken from the Sierra Leone papers for 1942 and is written by the Principal of Fourah Bay College.

30th November 1942
Dear Mr Hooper

The Present Position

I am enclosing a letter written unanimously by our present staff on their own initiative. You will see from it that they consider that Council and Executive have not insisted on an adequate staff and that they are therefore being asked to carry an impossible load. They have made positive suggestions as to what they consider to be an adequate staff and I certainly sympathise with them. They have carried our present load now for five years and are a little weary. The task of settling the College at Mabang and still maintaining the Arts Course has made heavy demands on them and perhaps it would be as well for the Home Society to realise that the letter means what it says. We have asked for reinforcements but actually we have received none; they want above all else decisive action one way or the other. I think I voice their feeling correctly when I say that if the College is to be saved as a university college it must be saved now. A College reasonably well staffed may well be considered when the university for West Africa is under discussion; A College understaffed and overworked would have little chance….

This term has been fairly difficult; settling the students into country life where there is no water laid on and no electric light and many mosquitoes has presented many new problems. Downing has been ill twice with fever, Thomas once with fever and in Freetown at present with a septic finger and my wife has a similar complaint a the present moment; fortunately I have carried on without mishap. I think the worst is now over and that conditions will get steadily easier, but our staff will not do much good for the rest of this tour. I hope I have not painted too gloomy a picture but it is well for the Home Society to realise what they are asking from the staff here”

The following extract is from a memorandum entitled “Welfare in Nigeria” found in the Medical Papers for 1946 for the Oji River Leprosy Centre:

It is probably not disputed that in the treatment of leprosy “Welfare” has a large part to play on the spiritual, mental and physical sides…. It is the aim of this memorandum to suggest a basis of agreement on these points between Government, the Missions and BELRA.

1. At the International Leprosy Conference of 1938 a unanimous resolution was passed to the effect that, although it would be the function of governments increasingly in the future to shoulder the burden of leprosaria from the financial point of view, whether existing or new, the administration and management of them could often be undertaken by voluntary organisations, particularly with reference to children’s preventoria, which however the governments should generously support…. The DMS Nigeria, commenting in July 1946 on this and with reference to BELRA stated:

“It has for some time now been realised that the patients segregated in settlements should be provided with the amenities and occupations which would be enjoyed by them in other surroundings. Much along these lines is being done in the larger settlements in Nigeria. It is becoming clear, however, that there is large scope for such work alongside the medical work carried on outside settlements in clinics and segregation villages. A further need which is becoming more and more apparent is the rehabilitation of discharged patients within the villages from which they may have gone into isolation years before…”

The next extract is taken from the Nigeria – Niger Mission papers for 1935 and describes the work of a supervisor of schools:

A Supervisor of Schools

The title does not sound very inspiring and gives little idea of what is implied in the joyous privilege of taking part in the great Missionary adventure of African Education which is playing its important part in the refashioning of African life. Education in Nigeria is still in its infancy, in the stage of experiment in the building up of organisation and technique. In many parts it is still in the pioneer stage of small beginnings, the building of village schools and the finding and training of teachers to staff them. To be a Supervisor of Schools means to be a pioneer in African Education. It is a Missionary job of the first importance, for the Christian schools of today are building the Christian Church of to-morrow and will determine the quality of the Africa which is to be.

What does a Supervisor do?…. Think of a backward area such as the Warri province, where in the interior parts schools are just beginning to grow up. The Supervisor’s work is full of variety and interest, as well as of problems and difficulties due to native prejudices and lack of staff. It involves constant travelling by bicycle, canoe and launch (in less difficult country it would be by motor car). There are new schools to be thought of and it is necessary to know the country so as to be able to choose the strategic points for village schools and central schools for it is impossible as yet to put a school in every village…..

When schools are established they have to be supervised. The teachers are young and inexperienced and they need constant guidance and encouragement. Owing to the large number of schools it is only possible to pay visits at fairly long intervals so this particular Supervisor likes to spend some days ( a week if possible) in the school. It is then possible to help the teacher both in his teaching and in all the difficulties of all kinds which attend his path in his often very lonely task….

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