Historical Christian missions and African societies today: Perspectives from economic history

ABSTRACT Christian missionaries spread across the African continent in the early twentieth century following the expansion of colonial control, and invested in various areas of African societies in order to gain converts. This paper describes the recent literature in economic history that attempts to document and estimate the long-run impacts of Christian missions, including outstanding issues in the literature. The paper summarizes recent studies that attempt to tackle these issues. One conclusion is that more micro data is needed on the evolution of African societies as a result of missionary activities in order to fully document the mechanisms behind the long-run impact of missions.