Page 137 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Middle Ages

some slaves then needed to exchange with African traders for
gold; they obtained some 400 slaves. After João II ascended the
throne in Portugal in 1481, he started to encourage trade on
the Guinea coast, taking the title “Lord of Guinea.” A declared
policy of the new king was to use African rulers as agents of
Christianisation. (1983, 36)

Portugal’s relationship with Benin began to decline in the latter part
of the fifteenth century. While tradition suggests that a church was built
during this time, there is little or no evidence to support this assertion.
It seems that for a period of time Christianity faded. During the middle
of the sixteenth century, the king of Portugal sent missionaries to Benin,
but they accomplished little. Meanwhile, traders from France, England,
and Holland invaded the region, and the scramble by these powers for
colonies began.

Christian Influence in Southern and Eastern Africa
In A.D. 1488, Bartholomew Diaz was the first Portuguese naval
captain to reach the Cape. Following custom, he erected a cross at False
Island. As earlier noted, in A.D. 1498 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape
on his way to East Africa and India. Da Gama located an area north of
the Cape that he named Terra de Natal. Other explorers followed and
soon the Portuguese established bases in Mozambique, Kilwa, Zanzibar,
Mombasa, Malindi, and Lamu. In the process, they defeated Muslim
forces in a major battle in A.D. 1509 and began to build forts and control
trade with the city-states. Since Jesuit missionaries accompanied the
naval fleets, they began missionary work. Fort Jesus in Mombasa, Kenya,
was completed in A.D. 1599 and became a base from which travel could
take place both north and south.

Occasionally the missionaries ventured inland. Remember, they were
inspired by their search for Prester John. As noted earlier, they thought
that he might live in Ethiopia. As a result, a Portuguese army unit went
inland along the Zambezi River to establish contact and foster trade.
This unit established trading posts at Sena and Tete. Rather than finding
Prester John, in A.D. 1560 missionary Gonzalo da Silveira located the
Kingdom of Monomatapa in the area we now know as Zimbabwe. The
famous ruins of the Great Zimbabwe kingdom still exist today. Although
gold was plentiful in the area, it may have been exhausted by the

::: 127 :::