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Christians in Colonial Africa

Using information on the precise locations of Catholic and Protestant mission during Africa’s Colonial period, I examine the long-term impact of Protestant and Catholic missionary activity on religious conversion, education, civic participation and attitudes towards democracy. Examining variation across ethnicities and villages within 17 sub-Saharan African countries, I provide evidence that Protestant missions had strong effects on conversion, and increased educational attainment. Catholic missions, on the other hand, appear to have had little effect on conversion, and no effect on education. The results are in line with the arguments of Woodberry and Shah (2004), and confirm the cross-country analysis of Woodberry (2004, 2009). I also find that consistent with the cross-country analysis of Glaeser, Ponzetto, and Shleifer (2007), more educated individuals favor democracy, are more likely to vote, and are less likely to view violence as a justifiable political action. However, less consistent with their arguments, I find that more educated individuals are less likely to believe that voting rights should be extended to all. Although my results suggest that through increased education, Protestant missions increase the prevalence of attitudes favorable towards democracy and civic participation, I find no evidence that missionary activity, either Protestant or Catholic, affects these outcomes through any channels other than education.