Edward Wilmot Blyden

Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race Edward Wilmot Blyden

2016 Reprint of 1887 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. As a writer, Blyden is regarded widely as the "Father of Pan-Africanism". His major work, "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race" (1887), promoted the idea that practicing Islam was more unifying and fulfilling for Africans than Christianity. He argues that Christianity was introduced chiefly by European colonizers. He believed it had a demoralizing effect, although he continued to be a Christian. He thought Islam was more authentically African, as it had been brought to sub-Saharan areas by people from North Africa. His book was controversial in Great Britain, both for its subject and because many people at first did not believe that a black African had written it.