Christianity entered Nigeria through Portuguese influence in Benin and Warri in the 15th–17th centuries, expanded significantly through British missionary activity in the 1800s, and only reached Northern Nigeria much later due to deliberate colonial policies that slowed its spread.
How Christianity Got To Nigeria
This is the first church ever in Northern Nigeria. St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church in Wusasa, Zaria, was built in 1929, ninety-five years ago. Christianity in Northern Nigeria is quite a recent phenomenon. In most of Northern Nigeria,… pic.twitter.com/fZZGzAcGdk
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) November 16, 2025
How Christianity Got To Nigeria
This is the first church ever in Northern Nigeria. St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church in Wusasa, Zaria, was built in 1929, ninety-five years ago. Christianity in Northern Nigeria is quite a recent phenomenon. In most of Northern Nigeria, Christianity is less than a hundred years old.
Following closely behind Anglicans were Lutherans, who established a presence in Northern Nigeria in 1936. There are, however, claims that they arrived earlier than the Anglicans, but with no documentary evidence to support this, and having not built any churches prior to St. Bartholomew’s, such assertions are considered apocryphal.
The first place in Nigeria to experience Christianity was Benin in the 15th Century. However, Benin did not readily adopt Catholicism, as they had a well-developed culture and religion.
In cultural terms, the Bini religion is probably more developed than Catholicism.
The Vatican also had an embassy in Benin, or more accurately, a Papal Nuncio, which was the Pope’s permanent diplomatic representative in Benin at a place known as Papal Via, now corrupted as Akpakpava.
Five years after their failed efforts to Christianise Benin, the Portuguese Catholic traders and knights came to Warri and had more success there.
They eventually established the first monastery in Nigeria. It was called St. Anthony’s Monastery and was built in Ode-Itsekiri between 1690 and 1692 by Portuguese Capuchin monks. However, my people corrupted the name to Satoni. The remains of the monastery are still there.
Then, Christianity took off even further as a result of British colonialism, spreading to what is today known as Yorubaland or Southeastern Nigeria in 1842 with the arrival of the first missionaries from the Methodist Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Badagry.
Four years later, Christianity reached Calabar in 1846 with the arrival of a Scottish missionary team led by Hope M. Waddell. It peaked in that area with the arrival of Mary Slessor, who reached Calabar in September 1876. She became world famous for ending several repugnant practices in that area, including the killing of infant twins, who were considered taboo.
Christianity was first introduced to Igboland in 1857 through Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Although his mission did not gain widespread acceptance, it is likely that the people he met initially resisted him, possibly because they perceived him as a Black man, like themselves. As was common at the time, and still the practice in many places, they may have been hesitant to accept him due to the mentality that a fellow Black man could teach them nothing.
He was more successful in his academic pursuits, including codifying the language and producing the first Igbo language dictionary and books.
However, Christianity eventually gained ground in Igboland when Catholic missionaries arrived there around 1885.
As I conclude this piece, it is essential to state that during British colonialism, the specific denomination of Christianity that people in Nigeria practised was not a result of their own beliefs or choices. The missionaries were apportioned different parts of Nigeria to go to by the British authorities, who did not want Nigerians to unite under one strain of Christianity.
And in Northern Nigeria, they deliberately slowed down Christianity because they preferred Northerners to remain Muslim and be under Emirs, as it was then less expensive and cumbersome to rule over them directly.
Instead, they could rule over them indirectly by controlling the Emirs, who were able to retain their seats as long as they could collect taxes and maintain law and order.
As for the Portuguese, they introduced Catholicism to Benin and Warri, not for love of God, but for one primary reason.
They wanted Catholic kings in West Africa to guarantee that trade in the region was diverted from the Arabs, who at that time dominated commerce in these parts through the Sahara.