Rethinking the Missionary Legacy: A Post-Colonial Theological Critique of Western Mission in Yorubaland

This doctoral study presents a post-colonial theological critique of the Western Christian missionary project in Yorubaland, South West Nigeria, examining the epistemological, cultural, and theological violence embedded in nineteenth and early twentieth-century missionary evangelism and evaluating its enduring structural legacy in contemporary Yoruba Christianity. Drawing on post-colonial theology, decolonial theory, African epistemology, and Yoruba religious philosophy, the research reconstructs the missionary encounter through archival analysis of Church Missionary Society documents, missionary correspondence, and colonial government records alongside contemporary Yoruba theological scholarship. The study identifies specific mechanisms by which missionary theology inscribed Western cultural superiority, suppressed Yoruba intellectual traditions, and produced a Christianity structurally dependent on Western institutions. Original theological contributions of Yoruba thinkers including Samuel Ajayi Crowther, E.M. Lijadu, and contemporary Yoruba feminist theologians are recovered and engaged as decolonial resources. A constructive post-colonial theology of Yoruba Christian identity is proposed that recovers agency, restores suppressed theological voices, and reimagines the relationship between gospel and culture. The study fills a significant gap in Yoruba theological historiography and contributes to the global project of decolonising Christian theology. Keywords: post-colonial theology, missionary legacy, Yorubaland, decolonial theology, African Christianity