Nigerian converts, Mormon missionaries, and the priesthood revelation: Mormonism in Nigeria, 1946-1978
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION
On October 24, 1946, the Office of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) received a letter from an unlikely place—Nigeria, a British
colony that would gain its independence in 1960. Written by O.J. Umondak, the letter
requested missionaries and literature about teachings of the LDS Church. After discussing its
obligations to preach the gospel to the world, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second
highest governing body within the church's hierarchy, decided to delay responding to this
letter, because the church had actively avoided proselytizing among "Africans of the black
race" since 1830. This long-standing policy had its roots in two assumptions. First,
Mormons conceived of Africa as a gloomy and forbidding continent dominated by sorrow
and tyranny. More importantly, Mormons believed that Blacks were ill suited for
conversion, because dark skin was the symbol of a divine curse in Mormon scriptures, a
punishment for transgressions in a pre-mortal existence.
The Apostles' attention, however, was called to Umondak's letter the following year
when, on October 9, 1947, a missionary in Los Angeles wrote to church headquarters in Salt
Lake City to ask about the church's attitude towards "negroes."4 The council once again... [TRUNCATED]
Description
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 268
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