White Man brought order to pagan Africans? A Traditional Catholic Examination.

 

Preamble

The title of this piece is derived from a comment to a post on Facebook I stumbled upon. It reads;

"The white Man brought order to pagan Africans"

This statement—“the white man brought order to pagan Africans”—is historically loaded and needs careful, truthful, and Catholic analysis.

 This essay offers a concise yet substantive response from a Traditional Catholic perspective—neither romanticizing paganism nor unjustly glorifying colonialism. 

1. Pagan Africa before Colonization: Not Eden, Not Hell

Africa, prior to European colonization, had complex kingdoms, cultures, and social orders. However, much of the continent was steeped in paganism, involving:

• Idolatry and animism,
• Human sacrifice, in some regions,
• Tribal wars, slave raids, and superstitions.

These are not signs of the “noble savage” myth but of fallen human nature in need of grace. However, to suggest that Africans lived in total savagery or chaos is false and degrading.

2. Did Europeans Bring Order? Only Partially—and Often Disordered

European colonizers did bring certain forms of external order:

• Legal codes,
• Roads, railways, and bureaucratic administration,
• Suppression of some brutal local customs.

But this "order" was often deeply compromised:

• Exploitation, forced labor, and theft of land,
• Destruction of native sovereignty,
• Imposition of European economic interests above native wellbeing,
• In some cases, suppression of legitimate native cultures that were not evil.

Moreover, not all “order” is just order. A dictatorship may impose "order" by fear. So the claim that the white man brought order oversimplifies and often ignores the moral disorder inflicted through colonization.

3. Order vs. Just Order

Order (in a basic sense) refers to external structure, stability, and function—laws, roads, governance, etc.

But Just Order is more than outward control. It is order rooted in truth, justice, and the moral law—that is, the natural and divine law.

"Order without justice is organized injustice." – Adapted from St. Augustine.

A tyrannical regime may impose “order” through oppression, but such order is unjust and contrary to the common good. Only when order aligns with the Kingship of Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church can it be truly called just.

4. The Only True Order: Christ the King

True peace and true order can never be without Christ, nor apart from His most holy law.  (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, §1)

What Africa, Europe, and all nations need is not colonial order, but the reign of Christ the King. Only the Catholic Faith can root out superstition, idolatry, and social disorder from within. Wherever missionaries brought the true Faith:

• Tribes were baptized,
• Cannibalism and witchcraft were renounced,
• True peace and charity were sown.

But: This missionary work was often hindered or co-opted by colonial governments. Some missionaries colluded with colonial interests; others—true saints—defended native peoples against white oppression.

Nations will be reminded... that not only individuals but rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, §19)

The Church is not an intruder in any land... She brings a higher civilization, not by the sword or by cunning, but by the preaching of the Gospel. (Pope Benedict XV, Maximum Illud §16) 

5. Conclusion: Reject Both Romanticism and Racism

The statement, "The white man brought order to pagan Africans," contains partial truth, but is:

• Overgeneralized,
• Morally dangerous if used to justify colonial oppression,
• False if it implies that true order comes from race, rather than grace.

True order comes from the Catholic Church, not race or empire. Africa’s future lies not in returning to pagan roots, nor in glorifying colonialism, but in embracing uncompromised Traditional Catholicism—as preached by heroic missionaries, not imperial powers.

Think on it!