ECWA IN IGBOLAND: A MISSIONARY WORK IN ETITI LOCAL CHURCH COUNCIL

Résumé

It needs no further emphasis that when scholars and or authors talk about Church history, they are concerned in the main, two facts of a historical perspective of a religious event or a phenomenon. Research work abound of studies in the evangelization of a people, a country or a community in Africa and indeed West African sub religion. Beginning from the early part of the 19 th century, with the fertile ground support of the Berlin Conference of 15 th November 1884 to 26 th February 1885, where the partition of Africa was concluded, missionaries accompanied by their brother colonial masters from Europe invaded Africa with the bible on one hand and their economic interest on the other hand. Nigeria had a good share of the presence of both the colonialists and the White missionaries, leading to the presence on African soil, Churches like Roman Catholic, the Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist etc. The SIM/ECWA was not left out in the struggle to show presence. They settled firstly in Northern Nigeria and gradually moved down to the south-east especially around Enugu, Aba, Umuahia and the old Etiti Province. The work is a historical survey of the coming of, and evangelization of old Etiti province by the SIM/ECWA; the first contact of the church with the people, the spread of the church and its present position in the area. It is an attempt towards the documentation of the activities of this church and further bring it to the attention and easy accessibility of scholars and students for the enrichment of new academic knowledge. It relies heavily on interviews, observation with little reference to documented sources bearing in mind that this work may have been the first attempt in this area in reference to the church and the people so studied.