Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race

Introduction

The book appeared in London in 1887 with an introduction by the Sierra Leonean lawyer Samuel Lewis. It gathers essays and addresses that Blyden had published in British and American periodicals over the preceding years. Writing after more than three decades in Liberia and Sierra Leone, he compares the effects of the two religions in West Africa: Islam, spread largely by Africans themselves, had in his view fostered learning and self-respect, while missionary Christianity taught converts to despise their own culture. Other chapters deal with education, the African diaspora and Liberia’s mission. The book caused an uproar in missionary circles and is counted among the early texts of Pan-Africanism.