Happy Deaths CMS Missionaries, Medicine, and Deathbed Experiences in West Africa, 1860-1890

The paper investigates the role played by Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in the health and healing of African converts in West Africa, 1860-1890. It is argued that CMS missionaries did not employ western medicine as a means of spreading the gospel in West Africa nor did they demonstrate much concern for a convert’s health and well-being. Instead of trying to heal, sickness and death were employed as a means of judging sincerity as missionaries watched converts to ensure they placed their faith in Jesus. This desire for sincerity led missionaries away from health and healing, believing that a dying convert could serve as an inspiration not only for potential converts in West Africa but to Christians back home. Framed as a joyous occasion, ‘happy death’ narratives provided missionaries the opportunity to comment upon a range of moral and ethical issues while instructing converts on how a true Christian was expected to act in their final moments. Missionaries reported that dying converts looked forward to the afterlife and did not ask nor want to be healed. This framing of a convert’s final moments may have discouraged and limited the number of medical missionaries sent to West Africa.