THE CHURCH, MIGRATION AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

This article is on the church, migration and social advancement in Africa. Migration though, is seen to be a normal human activity, in which humans have always moved from one country, locality or place of residence to settle in another, which has also affected the church in its mode of propagation through mission and evangelism. However, in recent times, it has been observed that irregular migration from Sub-Saharan Africa has been under the spotlight. Western media and politicians often use doomsday scenario to describe the supposedly millions of desperate people knocking at the gates of European Eldorado to escape poverty and warfare at home. Such a stereotypical conception of sub-Saharan African migration is not only overlooking its root causes, but it is also far from its real dynamics. This paper investigates how migration has affected both the church and social advancement in Africa, as well as how the church has handled the present trend of migration and its effects on social advancement in Africa, with Nigeria as the focal point. Historical and sociological methodologies are utilized in this research to assess the influence of migration on the church and social advancement in Africa. It was found that migration generally is often associated with better human capital development at both individual and household levels. On the inter-relationship between the church, Africa and social advancement, it was found that though the church in Africa have experienced an astronomical growth since its inception, the same could not be said about the rate of growth in social advancement in African societies, which in most cases have rather deteriorated. It was recommended that the church should step up its advisory role to the government, while the African governments themselves should show responsibility and integrity in their duties to ensure overall improvement in the social advancement of their land and people to discourage the current rate of migration and emigration.