Scripture Union (SU) was another significant conservative evangelical influence.220 As we see in chapter three, it laid the foundation for the Civil War Revival.221 Its growth among Igbo young people was closely linked to Western liberal-modernist controversies. This issue prompted the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU) to break away from the Student Christian Movement (SCM) in 1910.222
218 Hastings, History of African Christianity, 162-63; Igwe, Church Union, 70; Kalu, Divided People of God, 68; Kalu, ‘Church Union’, 360.
219 Kalu, Divided People of God, 74.
220 In a recent address, Augustus Mbanaso, SU (Nigeria) National Chairman, described SU as the
‘foremost Evangelical Movement’ in Nigeria during the 20th century. See Augustus Mbanaso, ‘Keynote Address by the National Chairman’, First Scripture Union (Nigeria) Summit, Camp of Faith Okigwe, 16th October 1999, 5.
221 For more on the early history of SU in Britain, see Nigel Sylvester, God’s Word in a Young World.
The Story of Scripture Union, London: Scripture Union Publishing, 1984, 11-53; Ojo, ‘Campus Christianity’. It was originally called the Children’s Special Service Mission (CSSM), but adopted the name Scripture Union in 1960. Sylvester, Scripture Union, 116-17.
222 SCM was originally established as an evangelical mission-orientated organisation in British and American universities, but as direct missionary work declined, it began to focus on theological and
socio-CICCU was a branch of SCM, but its members were mainly conservative evangelicals, opposed to the liberalism of SCM. This led to the formation of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) in 1920 and the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in 1947. Since then, a clear distinction has existed between the SCM and the more conservative evangelical IVF or Evangelical Christian Unions (ECU), as its member branches were known.223 This had implications for the work of SU Nigeria.
Igbo Presbyterian Francis Akanu Ibiam introduced SCM into Igboland after his return to Nigeria in 1935 following medical training in Scotland, but for some years, it remained outside the educational institutions.224 In 1944, SCM work in Eastern and Western Nigeria was amalgamated, and in 1948 was introduced into the University of Ibadan, where British expatriate teachers reinforced its status.225 Until the mid-1960s, it remained the only interdenominational student organisation in the universities of Ibadan, Ife, Lagos, and Nsukka,226 but by the end of the decade, it was in decline, largely due to the increasing influence of SU and the ECUs, introduced into universities by British lecturers as an alternative evangelical witness.
Despite pressure from liberalism, SU maintained its strong conservative evangelical stance, partly due to its links with the IVF and British Christian Unions. SU work in Nigeria was directed towards young people, rather than children, and in this, it was
political issues. In an attempt to contextualise the gospel and become relevant to a new scientific generation, it became committed to liberal Christianity, with a critical approach to the Bible. For more on SCM, see S. Bruce, ‘The Student Christian Movement and the Inter-Varsity Fellowship: a Sociological Study of Two Student Movements’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Stirling, 1980; Ojo, ‘Campus Christianity’; Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 176-77; Sylvester, Scripture Union, 115-16. For a critical history of CICCU, see Oliver R. Barclay, Whatever Happened to the Jesus Lane Lot?, Leicester: IVP, 1977.
223 For details of the split, see Douglas Johnson, Contending for the Faith: A History of the Evangelical Movement in the Universities and Colleges, Leicester: IVP, 1979, 66-83.
224 Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 176-77.
influenced by the Nigerian context. SU required a literate environment, and this was found in the secondary schools and colleges.227 Its work in Nigeria actually began in the late 19th century, long before the introduction of SCM and the ECUs, but was initially limited to the circulation of Bible reading notes.228 It almost disappeared in the 1940s, but was resurrected by British expatriate teachers, who introduced it into secondary schools. Most were former members of the British IVF, and later a close relationship developed between SU and the ECUs.229 In the early 1950s, SU in Nigeria flourished as more expatriate Christians arrived as teachers and government workers,230 and by 1960, there were 22 SU groups in Western Nigeria, 11 in the East, and 38 in the North.231 The same year, students at the universities of Ibadan, Lagos, and Nsukka began meeting to read SU literature as a supplement to their SCM activities, and in 1961, the Ibadan Varsity Christian Union (IVCU) was formed out of an existing SU group.232 Later, IVCU became an early focal point of Nigerian neo-Pentecostal activity.
225 For the introduction of SCM into Western Nigeria and especially the University of Ibadan, see Ojo,
‘Contextual’, 176-77.
226 Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 177.
227 Ibid., 177.
228 It was apparently introduced by CMS missionaries in 1884, and by 1892, a SU group had started to meet at Onitsha, North-Western Igboland. Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 177; Sylvester, Scripture Union, 150; T. J.
Dennis, Letter Home, 21 January 1895, cited in John Goodchild, ‘Dennis and the Ibo Bible. The Missionary Work of Tom Dennis in Nigeria and the Creation of the Union Ibo language’, unpublished manuscript, 1997, 26, 55.
229 Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 177-78. Actually, the relationship between the SU and the CUs can be traced to the early 1880s in Britain, when SU established links with CICCU. See Sylvester, Scripture Union, 45.
230 An agriculturalist called John Dean became the first SU Travelling Secretary in Nigeria. Dean became a Christian while studying at Cambridge University. In 1956, he became a missionary teacher with the Sudan United Mission (today, Action Partners) at the Boys’ Secondary School, Gindiri, and in 1957 was seconded to SU.
231 Sylvester, Scripture Union, 216, 152-53. The groups in the North belonged to the autonomous Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS), formed in Northern Nigeria in 1957, with first John Dean, then Reuben Ariko and Emmanuel Oladipo as successive general secretaries. As it was thoroughly evangelical, it was felt unnecessary to form SU groups in the north.
232 Ojo, ‘Contextual’, 177-78.
The first SU school groups in Igboland were established at Umuahia in 1955 and Enugu in 1957,233 and by 1966, the number of groups in the East had grown to approximately thirty.234 In 1966, Bill Roberts became the first SU travelling secretary in the East, based in Umuahia.235 As we see in chapter three, Roberts became a key figure during the Civil War Revival, and its main expatriate influence.236 In the early 1960s, Igbo students started a SU group in the newly opened University of Nigeria at Nsukka (UNN), Northern Igboland.237 Following the 1966 pogroms, Igbo students from Ibadan and other Western Nigerian universities relocated to UNN. This was an important factor in SU’s growth in the East, as the influx of ECU members helped to revive the small SU group at UNN, which was soon re-organised and renamed the Christian Union, following the model of IVCU, Ibadan. After the closure of UNN (due to the war) some of these ECU members joined Roberts and shared leadership of SU Umuahia, which became the focal point of early revivalist activity.238
233 A. U. Mbanaso, ‘School Ministry: The Experience of Yesteryears’, Plumbline. The Journal of the Pilgrims Ministry, S.U. (Nigeria), 1992 Maiden Edition, 10-11; Ojo, ‘Campus Christianity’, 79.
234 Nigel Sylvester, Letter to S.U. Biafra, 13 September 1968; Ojo, ‘Campus Christianity’, 68-9, 79; J. O.
Onuora, ‘The Radicalization of the Scripture Union during and immediately after the Civil War’, paper presented at the Remembering the Seventies Conference, Enugu, 28.4.00, 2; Mbanaso, ‘School Ministry’, 10. SU groups existed in some of the more prestigious Protestant mission schools in the East, such as Hope Waddell Training Institute (Calabar), Dennis Memorial Grammar School (Onitsha), Methodist College (Uzuakoli), and the Government Colleges at Umuahia, Owerri, Afikpo, and Enugu. See Onuora,
‘Radicalization’, 2. But it was the group at Government College Umuahia, which was the strongest.
235 Minutes, Scripture Union Overseas Committee meeting, 17 January 1966.
236 Roberts grew up in the Anglican Church, and was converted in 1954. After a brief spell in Nigeria during his National Service, he became a student at Cambridge University, where, like members of Ruanda Mission a generation earlier, he was involved with CICCU. OI, Bill Roberts, 23.7.99, Cullompton; Roberts, Life and Death, 12. For a photograph of Roberts, see Plate 2.2.
237 S.E. Ifere,God's Response to Nigeria. The Story of NIFES, Jos: NIFES Press, 1995, 23.
238 J. O. Onuora, ‘Radicalization’, 8-9. Onuora himself had been a student at the University of Ibadan, where he was a member of IVCU, which at the time was led by Mike Oye. Following relocation to UNN he became an ECU leader prior to the war. In June 1967, UNN closed, and Onuora stayed with Roberts for six months, helping to plan and lead SU Umuahia activities. OI, John Onuora, 30.4.00, Enugu;
Roberts, Life and death, 36; Roberts, Letter to Harold Ling, SU London, August 1967.
There were several reasons for SU’s growth and popularity.239 First, the Nigerian educational system was expanding rapidly, and SU was welcomed into schools as most were still run by Christian missions. Its conservative evangelical stance proved an attractive alternative to the more liberal SCM and the dominant brand of mission church spirituality. Secondly, large numbers of Christian expatriates arrived to work in Nigeria, and they were responsible for starting SU groups in Nigerian educational institutions. There was also an element of prestige attached to the presence of a white travelling secretary, and this encouraged cooperation from British mission churches.
Thirdly, SU policy of promoting indigenous leadership, a subject I return to later.
Another factor was SU’s efforts to contextualise the gospel and relate the Bible to contemporary life.240 Finally, SU’s interdenominational policy meant that members could participate fully while still maintaining their church affiliation. In fact, SU was arguably more successful at promoting unity and cross-denominational fertilisation than the church union movement. I return to this in chapter three. Yet like ECWA/SIM, SU adopted an anti-Pentecostal stance, which limited its appeal. As we see later, this had repercussions during the Civil War Revival.