ABSTRACT
The monotheistic world religions of Christianity and Islam made great advances in West Africa under colonial rule. Islam, as Froelich has put it, made greater and more profound progress in fifty years of colonial rule than in the thousand years preceding it. In that half century the Muslim population of West Africa doubled. Islam had the initial advantage over Christianity in that it had been much longer established in West Africa. Islam was not restricted in its spread by the newly imposed colonial frontiers, whereas the Christian missions, which had their bases in Europe, had to gain permission to establish themselves in a particular colony from its administration, and had to organise their missions colony by colony. Islam enjoyed a second great advantage over Christianity in that the colonial governments gave it more active support than they gave the missions.
