"Blyden's hope for the negro is...in the negro missionary...he would fain see the negroes of the Western world return to Africa...free to develop their Christian teaching...on their own lines." -Pall Mall Gazette, Oct. 11, 1887
"Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race by Edwar Wilmont Blyden will...help readers understand that Africa and Africans are still not free...I greatly recommend this work by one of the greatest African thinkers." -Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Feb. 23, 1998
"We should welcome the truth...I am not sure but that Dr. Blyden's book 'Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race' may yet prove the greatest contribution of the age on the gigantic subject of Christian missions." -The Times (London), Oct. 31, 1887
Why did African-American Christian believer Edward Blyden feel that Islam as a missionary religion had been more successful than Christianity and who did he blame for this failure of Christian outreach?
A major spokesman for the pan-African movement who was highly regarded for his great intellect, Edward Blyden (1832 –1912) was born in St. Thomas, West Indies, then lived in the United States as a youth before moving to Liberia in 1851.
His writings on pan-Africanism were influential in both Liberia and Sierra Leone where he taught for five years. These colonies were founded during the slavery years for the resettlement of free blacks from Great Britain and the United States.
In 1887, Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912) would publish "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race," in which he gives a 19th Century Afro-centric perspective on race, religion, and African development.
In introducing his work, Blyden writes that his book was "written chiefly with a view of instructing Negro youth in Christian lands eager to study the history, character and destiny of their race....The Christian Negro has, hitherto,...rarely been trained to trust his own judgment, or to think that he can have anything to say which foreigners will care to hear. ... But it is evident that there can be hope for the future improvement of the African only as he finds out his work and destiny and, as a consequence, learns to trust his own judgment; and it is hoped that this volume and the reception it has met, while stimulating effort in that direction on the part of the rising generation of Africans, will encourage their European guides and patrons to allow greater scope and freedom, not only for their mental and moral, but for their social and political evolution."
Other works by Blyden include:
• The Negro in Ancient History
• African Life and Customs
• West Africa Before Europe
• Africa for the Africans
• The Call of Providence to the Descendants of Africa in America
• The Elements of Permanent Influence
• Liberia as a Means, Not an End
