Pre-colonial West African Christianity in the Senegal River Valley

Résumé

Historical scholarship has often documented that Christianity was not present in West Africa until Europeans introduced it to West Africans around the fifteenth century. Yet history speaks differently. Many centuries before Europeans arrived on the West African coast to build economic alliances and to colonise West Africa, West Africans were introduced to Christianity from other Africans via trade and migration. This paper focuses on the presence of Christianity in the Senegal River Valley in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. It also shows the contemporary consequences of the often-said statement that Christianity was brought to West Africa solely through Europeans and presents the implications of sharing the truth of pre-colonial Christianity existing in the West African Senegal River Valley region with hopes that this rich history will advance Christianity among unbelieving African diasporic populations.