EFFECTS OF GENDERED CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY EDUCATION POLICY IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA (1857-1970)

Abstract

Christianity has been an ardent supporter and promoter of education for centuries and in several countries. By establishing centres of learning and great universities, Christianity has formed people's minds in several fields of knowledge. It has also used education as an evangelisation strategy and a proselytising tool. That was the case in the early years of Christianity in southeast Nigeria. Much literature has been written on this, but a hugely neglected area is the gender implications of such an evangelisation strategy. This paper is built on the hypothesis that the education policy of early Christian missionaries in southeast Nigeria within the period under study was skewed in favour of boys, thus neglecting girls, who then constituted a considerable portion of the population of the society. Apart from delaying their entrance into the school system, the policy discriminated against women when they were eventually given some education opportunities by the nature of their curriculum, which did not prepare them for public roles in society. By examining the intersections of religion, gender, elite class, and education through critical reading of primary and secondary materials on the subject matter, the paper discusses the social, economic, and political consequences that the gendered missionary education policy had upon the region and its people, especially their impact on the gender norms of the region. In short, it investigates how the schools’ curriculum was designed to influence the adoption of gendered roles within families and how this brought changes to the social dynamics of the region