The emergence of independent schools and churches is an important feature of our 20th century history.
Whereas the early missionaries saw education as a necessary means by which to proselytise Africans they did not at first consider it necessary to adopt new methods that would be suitable to an African context. In most cases they tried to create replicas of churches and schools in their homeland. As a result, both formal school and Christianity came to rely for their prestige much more on their apparent links with European technological advancement than on their relevance to African needs.
