Garrick Sokari Braide: the Niger Delta prophet who led a mass revival in 1915
Thousands burned their shrines. Around 1915, in the creeks of the Niger Delta, a Kalabari preacher named Garrick Sokari Braide drew huge crowds with preaching, prayer and reported healings. People destroyed charms and idols, joined churches and gave up alcohol. His followers called him Elijah II. Within three years, he was dead, having spent time in a colonial prison.
Early life and revival
Braide was born in the 1880s in the Kalabari area of the Niger Delta, in present-day Rivers State. He was baptised in the Anglican church, part of the Niger Delta Pastorate, and became a lay evangelist at Bakana. Braide’s preaching emphasised repentance, prayer and faith in God alone. He condemned the use of charms and traditional shrines and urged people to rely on prayer for healing. Crowds gathered from across the Delta.
Temperance and tension
Braide preached against alcohol, and many followers stopped drinking gin, which was widely imported. The drop in liquor sales reduced colonial revenue from alcohol duties, alarming the authorities.
Anglican leaders were initially pleased by the growth but grew uneasy as Braide’s followers regarded him as a prophet. Bishop James Johnson of the Niger Delta Pastorate eventually opposed him.
Arrest and Christ Army Church
In 1916, colonial authorities arrested Braide on charges connected to his activities and the disturbances blamed on the movement. He was imprisoned. His followers formed the Christ Army Church, one of the earliest African independent churches in Nigeria. Braide died in 1918, shortly after his release. Some accounts link his death to the influenza pandemic of that year.
Historians see Braide as part of a wave of African prophets in the early twentieth century, alongside William Wadé Harris in Côte d’Ivoire and the Gold Coast. These movements showed African Christians taking leadership and shaping the faith in their own ways.
Church growth
Anglican membership in the Niger Delta grew sharply during the revival, even among people who did not join the independent church. Many people came to Braide for healing. He prayed for the sick and told them to trust God rather than traditional medicine. Reports of healings spread his fame quickly through the Delta’s waterways. Braide’s ministry lasted only a few years. The churches that grew from it, and the questions it raised about who leads African Christianity, lasted much longer.
