A
SHORT HISTORY OF CHRISTIANTY IN BORNO
Commemorating
150 years of Replanting Christianity in Nigeria in 1992
Written
by Dr & Mrs I.
U. Ibeme
e-mail: [email protected]
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The Old Borno
State was the largest state in Nigeria
covering about 116,589 square kilometers in area. The larger part of the region is made up of
arid and sandy plains. This is the same
area covered by the Anglican Diocese of Maiduguri.
Islam became the predominant religion earlier in Borno because one of
the early kings of Kineme-Borno Empire, Mai Hume Jilme adopted Islam about the
year 1090.
The first recorded case of Christian influence in Borno was as a result
of the scattering of the last Christian
Kingdom in Nubia
which is now Sudan. Reports of the influence of these remnant Christians
from Nubia soon reached Rome through freed salves
and occasional travelers. Some Roman
Catholic missionaries based in Tripoli soon
began to develop strategies for missions for the region of Lake
Chad and Borno, but there was no successful visit to Borno despite
trans-Saharan attempts in 1703 and 1710.
However, according to the Catholic historians, there was an Italian
Franciscan based at the monastery in Tripoli
who heard that a Catholic family had settled in Borno, and decided to visit
them, His name was Philip da Segni. He
travelled, despite the heat of the Sahara desert, from Tripoli via Murzuk and Bilma to Kukawa. He arrived in 1850 and was warmly received by
the wise Sheikh of Borno, Shehu Umar.
Amazingly, he made no attempt at establishing any mission or planting a
church.
After Philip da Segni’s trip, the missionary route diverted to the Coast
as River Niger
had been explored. Missionary trips were
done from the south rather than crossing the dessert. The earliest but abortive attempt was made by
Rev. Allukur Sharpe, a freed Kanuri slave who became a Methodist minister. His hope to return to his people of Borno was
dashed when he died at Egga mission station on the Niger in 1884.
THE
CBM/EYN:
Stover Kulp was born in 1894 in Pennsylvania,
USA. He was minster with the church of the
Brethren Mission which was part of the Anababptist movement. Kulp arrived Lagos in 1922 (December), accompanied by his
colleague Rev. Albert Helser. His vision
was to establish a mission anywhere North- East of the country. Another vision was to set up a line of
Christian missions in the Savannah region of Nigeria where
Islam had already taken some root.
Kulp started with the Bura people of the Biu Plateau in Borno. He arrived at Biu on 12th
Febrauary 1923. The Biu people however
were repulsive to the missionaries because of the bitterness against the
colonial government who placed them under Muslim Emirs. Kulp opted for Garkida, a small village
separated by the River Hawul from the rest of the Biu community. There, the first Christian mission station in
Bornu
province was dedicated on 17th March 1923. A small school and medical clinic were opened
in Garkida in 1924 with Dr. Homer Burke,
a missionary doctor, supervising.
It was only in 1930 that another site
for a new mission station was chosen at Marama on Biu Plateau. The building was to be done the same year. That was when the real evangelization of the
Buras began. Kulp and his group
established other mission stations among the Marghi 1927, where Muslim mason by
by the name Mr. Risku had been converted to Christianity in 1926. He worked hard to translate the prayers and
Bible stories into Marghi and opened the first mission school in Lassa where a
mission hospital was later built. Other
stations were: Chibok in 1941, Gulak in
1948 and Uba in 1955. The mission at
Marama was opened in 1931.
Mission stations were also opened in
Wandali in 1930 and Shafa in 1950. Many
new primary schools were opened and this led to the opening of Waka Teachers’
College near Biu in 1952. It is this Church of the Brethren Mission (C.
B. M.), that later came to be known as Ekklesiya Yanuwar a Nijeriya (E.Y.N).
THE
SIM/ECWA:
A young Canadian named Rowland Bingham
had the inspiration to found the Sudan Interior Mission (S. I. M.) He set out
in 1893 and arrived at Lagos. The first station of the S. I. M. was opened in Kukar Gadu, near the border
with Bauchi province in 1935. Between
1935 and 1971, the S. I. M. in Borno and Bauchi were merged and later formed
one district. The present day E.C.W.A
(Evangelical Churches of West Africa) was
established from the former S. I. M.
Churches in May 1954. They
founded stations in Potiskum, Damaturu, Biu, Gashua, Kukawa (the old Kanuri
capital) with headquarters in Maiduguri.
THE
SUM/COCIN:
The mission of the Sudan United Mission (S. U. M.) started first as a
medical outreach. Permission was granted late in 1936 for S. U. M. to open a
small leper colony in Molai, a small village near Maiduguri the S. U. M. was founded by Dr Charles Kumm a young German
born in 1874, The S. U. M. used this
humanitarian ground (of health services) as a base for evangelism since they were
not allowed to preach openly in Kanuri
villages. They came to Molai in
1937. Dr. Priestman was of immense help in establishing the leper colony which
was officially opened in April 1938 by the Shehu of Borno Umar Sanda Ikarimi.
Because of the restrictions, the S.U.M.
established a bookshop in Maiduguri
in 1945 where people could at least go and read about the gospel. Fellowship of Christian Students (F. C. S)
was established by the staff of S. U. M. schools in Gindiri in 1957 and from
there, it spread quickly to the old Northern region. The S. U. M. also opened mission bookshops in
Bama in 1949. Similarly, bookshops were
also opened in Nguru and Geidam in 1950.
Other bookshops were opened in Biu and Gwoza.
A dispensary was opened in Bama by Dr.
Lawrence Chandler in 1950. He and his wife were associated with the
formation of a Christian church in Gwoza as well. Also Dr Carling of S.U.M.
master-minded and executed the Lake Chad Project which established dispensaries
on the malaria infested Islands of Lake Chad.
This was in 1965. Dispensaries
were also opened in Mallam Fatori (1964) and Allagarno near Baga (1966).
The S.U.M. succeeded in rallying round proselytes among the indigenes
for missionary work. Though the nucleus
of the first COCIN Church in Maiduguri
began in 1944, Borno became a district of COCIN as a full region in 1966. This present Church of Christ
in Nigeria (COCIN) evolved from the S.U.M.
OTHER CHURCHES FROM THE SOUTH:
In 1949 the first inter-denominational Christian church in Maiduguri which started in
1936 by southerners assumed an almost exclusively Anglican character. The Baptists were no longer able to use the
church venue at will, so they withdrew from the church and began to conduct
their own services in the house of one Mr. I. A. Omotosho. This was in April 1949. This accounts for the origin of the first Baptist Church
in Maiduguri. It was mainly started by Yoruba traders who
sought their means of living in the North.
Potiskum however is the oldest Baptist community in Borno where the
first Baptist Church was built as early as 1930 or
1928 as some would contend.
Back to the Catholic Church, Apart from the unsuccessful attempts made
by the earlier mentioned Franciscan Monks, the first Catholics to settle in Maiduguri were migrant traders
and antisans from the southern provinces.
It was in 1945 that the Catholic community in Maiduguri withdrew from the
interdenominational Christian services and began to conduct their own
services. Similar services had come up
in Potiskum by 1949 and in Nguru by 1964.
Maiduguri
has also seen other indigenous churches since then. Christ Apostolic Church since 1968, the
Deeper life Bible Church, the National Evangelical Mission and other
Pentecostal Churches, Ministries and Fellowships since the 1980s.
THE
ANGLICAN CHURCH IN BORNO:
Although there had been attempts to plant Christianity along the
coastlines of Nigeria
by some Catholic monks in the 16th century, these remained
unsuccessful. It was not until 1842 (150yrs ago) when the Methodist Mission led
by Thomas Freeman on one hand, and the Anglican Mission (Church Missionary
Society – CMS) led by Henry Townsend on the other came and effectively
established Christian missions and planted the Christian church in Nigeria. By December 1842, both had started the work
of their lifetime which was to earn their places in the history of our
land. The church they planted later grew
to cover the whole of southern Nigeria
and began to spread northwards.
The first Anglican Church in Maiduguri
evolved from the inter-denominational group organized by southern
Christians. After the Baptists and Roman
Catholics started their separate services in 1946, the Anglicans teamed up in
1947 to build the first completed church building in Maiduguri.
The church which was called Holy Trinity Anglican Church was located in
the present site of the Borno State Secretariat Complex, where its foundation
stone was laid on 26th July 1947 by Bishop Sherwood Jones. By 1954, the Igbo Christian traders, artisans
and workers had built St. John’s
Anglican Church on its present site.
These churches were later to be registered under the then Diocese of
Northern Nigeria. Other Anglican
Churches came up later at Potiskum and Nguru meeting the spiritual needs of
mainly southern Christian traders and workers.
It is worthy to note that Anglican missionaries worked hand-in-hand with
the S. U. M. to establish the Maiduguri Missionary Bookshop (now Albishir
Bookshop) in 1945. In fact the first man
to take charge of the Bookshop was an Anglican Missionary by the name Mr. R.
Smith.
Other English Reformed churches which had been brought up to Maiduguri by Southerners include the Wesley Methodist
Church and the
Presbyterian Church, these came to be established in the late 1970s.
The Church
of Nigeria, (Anglican
Communion) in February, 1990 created the Missionary Diocese of Maiduguri out of
the old Kano Diocese. This covers the
area of the old Borno State now Borno and Yobe states of Nigeria. Rt. Rev. E.K. Mani, a former military
chaplain who hails from Zuru in then Sokoto state was consecrated the first
Anglican Bishop of Maiduguri. Through his dynamic leadership, the Anglican
Church in Borno and Yobe
States has grown in size
and strength. Many new congregations
have been founded recently. Today a Bishopscourt is already under construction
in Maiduguri
and has reached an advanced stage. All
of us here are witnesses of the unveiling of the plaque of its foundation stone
this 18th day of July 1992 in the year of our Lord.
To our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died in our
stead to satisfy God’s Justice, offering once and for all a sufficient oblation
and sacrifice as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, to Him be
glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Dr. (Ordinand) I.U. IBEME
(3rd Jubilee Secretary)
FOR:
THE PLANNING COMMITTEE.
Last revised: September 10,
2008
Copyright
© PriscAquila Publishing, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
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