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Mission stations are a widely dispersed, more or less permanent cultural feature of rural Africa. With their chapels, residences, dormitories, schools, dispensaries, gardens, utility buildings, water-supply systems, and good access roads they stand in great contrast with their immediate surroundings. In the confrontation of Europeans with African ways of life these stations have been for the missionaries a refuge, a symbol of achievement, and a home; for the Africans they have been strongholds of alien ways from religion to agriculture, an intrusion but also a promise of help, of learning, and of a better life.

ticle presents a preliminary and condensed overview of the pioneer distribution of Christian missions on the African continent south of the Sahara.3 The m

THE COASTAL APPROACH AND OVERLAND ROUTES All missionaries came to Africa south of the Sahara by sea and depended for their maintenance on imports that reached them via coastal commercial points. Even the White Fathers, experienced in desert and Muslim environments, failed twice in a trans-Saharan reach from their base at Algiers and proceeded to Uganda from Zanzibar in 1878, and to Timbuktu from SaintLouis in 1895.13 Only after stations had been established in the interi

When the Portuguese first made contact with Africa in the fifteenth century, they were in search of four things. Number one, they were in search of a sea route to the spice trade in the Far East because Muslims controlled the land route through the Levant and the breadbasket in the Maghrib. Second, the Portuguese wanted to participate in the lucrative Trans-Saharan gold trade. Third, they initiated the "Reconquista" project to recover Iberian lands from the Muslims. Finally, they sought to reconnect with the mythical Christian empire of Prester John (/people/history/african-history-biographies/prester-john) for the conversion of the heathens.

The gospel bearers enslaved prospective converts. In the next century, abolitionism and evangelical revival catalyzed the revamping of old missionary structures and the rise of a new voluntarist movement. Spiritual awakenings emphasized the Bible, the event of the cross, conversion experience, and a proactive expression of faith. Evangelicals mobilized philanthropists, churches, and politicians against the slave trade, to be replaced by treaties with the chiefs, legitimate trade, a new administrative structure, and Christianity as a civilizing agent.

These early missions, however, were limited to coastal areas until the early twentieth century with the exception of areas of southern Africa.

Christian missions used the school as a key tool for evangelizing, and most mission stations were associated with schools

Another promising line of research has explored the roles of missions in shaping African beliefs, attitudes, norms, and institutions. Nunn (2010) finds that individuals living close to mission stations are more likely to be Christian today