European Missionary Influence on African Nationalism: A Case Study of Edward W. Blyden (2020)

This research project explores the influence of the activities of European missionaries, specifically missionary education, on the development of an early form of African nationalism through a case study of Edward Wilmot Blyden. Blyden was a West African intellectual during the late–nineteenth and early–twentieth centuries who influenced later nationalists, such as Leopold Sedar Senghor and his Negritude movement beginning in the 1930s. Drawing on Blyden’s biography, relevant historiographical material, and, most importantly, Blyden’s own written works and transcripts of his numerous speeches, I came to understand how interactions with missionaries throughout his life shaped Blyden’s intellectual perspective. His views would lead him to encourage other Africans, in his native Liberia and throughout the continent, to adopt racial and national pride into their lives.