The Christian missionaries of different missionary societies made a tremendous contribution to education in South Africa. This was a bitter pill for the Basel Mission to swallow after 19 years of devoted service in the mission field in the Gold Coast but they were not dismayed when they considered that in education and agriculture and artisan training and in the development of commerce, and medical services and concern for social welfare of the people, the name Basel by the time of expulsion of the mission from the country, had become a treasured word in the minds of the people. Missions, Education and Conversion in Colonial Africa The work of the missionaries also had little success initially. Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. 522 0 obj <>stream Copyright 2023 ABWE. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. senior high school government Technical and vocational education had been emphasized in the education system in Ghana since the colonial era. The Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. The common response among traditionally polygamous people is well illustrated by a passage in Jomo Kenyattas famous book on the Gikuyu in colonial Kenya: This [the insistence on monogamy] caused a great confusion, for the African could not understand how he could drive away his wives and children, especially in a community where motherhood is looked upon as a religious duty; the children are regarded as part and parcel, not only of the father, but of the whole clan (mbari), and without them the mbari is lost. It is interesting to note that this project is not a new concept. In 1827 it grew into Fourah Bay College. In this respect the Christian religion therefore differed from the traditional religions of West Africa, which along with an acceptance of one Supreme Being worshipped a hierarchy of gods. Request Permissions. This post may contain affiliate links. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. ABWE first began work in Ghana with a goal to reach unchurched Ghanaians in the Volta Region with the gospel and then to expand evangelism efforts to other parts of the country. The high temperatures coupled with high rainfall patterns in some parts of the country experienced during the daytime, made the missionaries stay indoors, which slowed down their activities. In an ironic twist, the more Africans became versed in the Bible, the more they began to challenge missionaries. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. Debate Speech: Religion Has Failed Society, A Speech Outlining the Achievements and Problems of Your School, 7 Factors Accounting for the Shortage of Capital In West Africa, The Resurrection of Jesus According to Marks Gospel. But the funds and other needed materials even when available could not reach their station in time. Your email address will not be published. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. The training college later became part of Achimota College. However, the early missionaries established medical centres, at first at their mission posts, and later far and wide, to attend to the sick. PDF Religion Education and Development in Ghana - EA Journals Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. Finally, education affects many other aspects of peoples lives, including economic opportunities and political attitudes. The evangelical societies founded in the Americas included the Baptist Missionary Board and the Nova Scotian Methodists, whose members went to work among the Maroons, who had settled mainly in Liberia. Wm. Schools were deemed important. Again, the missionaries persuaded Africans to abandon the practice of tribal marks. 503 0 obj <> endobj Burns & Oates, 1979. PDF Missions, Education and Conversion in Colonial Africa The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. essay writing hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions. The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. Alignment is the degree of congruence between your teaching philosophy and your institution's mission. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. Governments are also not free from blame even if they had a laissez-faire educational policy, as in Ghana, where until 1944 the registration of schools was not required and no attempt was made to exert detailed control even over the activities of grant-aided [by the government] institutions except for a series of minimal registrations (Foster 1965:114). Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. Theres still so much to be learned from the history of education in Africa and its long-term consequences. Prominent among the early Christian missionaries to come to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Basel, Bremen and Anglican missions. Among several others, the native Bishop Ajayi Crowther produced the first translation of the Bible in Yoruba. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. 3 (2002): 555-584. He is survived by two brothers, Walter and Kevin Burke. Daystar Press, 1978. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND VERNACULAR LITERATURE; Another valuable contribution of the Christian missionaries in West Africa was the development of literature in the local vernaculars, this included the translation of the Bible into some of the important local languages. The struggle over polygamy is well-known to historians and anthropologists. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. Required fields are marked *. The Basel Mission. The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. The contribution of the missionaries to the development of Setswana as In addition to teaching, he served as national spiritual director of the Ghana Sacred Heart Enthronement Centre and spiritual director of the Accra Diocesan Sacred Heart Centre. In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. Frank Ogodo Ogbeche Joseph Dunwell. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. By the close of the nineteenth century the major Christian missionary churches had opened elementary schools in many part of southern Nigeria with an enrolment of about 74,000 by the First World War. There were only bush paths, and no roads in the early times. Let's look in-depth into these scholarships. These attempts were traumatic for the students and threatened the survival of unique cultures. The statistical evidence suggests that education would have spread more evenly. All work is written to order. Christianity in West Africa: The Nigerian Story. Introduction, spread and effects, 6: Christian Missionary Activities in West Africa, 7: Scramble for and Partition of West Africa, 9: Problems of Independent West African States, 10: West Africa and International Organizations, 11: Women and Authority in West African History, 12: The Environment in West African History. Hastings, Adrian. However, with time, they brought some crops, which they cultivated and which sustained them. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. (with Examples), Top 20 Topics in English for Academic Purposes, 7 Rules of Referencing and Citation in Academic Writing, 10 Importance of Referencing and Citation in Academic Writing, How to Get a Degree Without Going to High School, Joseph Rhodes Dunwell Methodist Missionary, 1835, Thomas Birch Freeman Methodist Missionary, 1838, Thomas Thompson Society for the Propagation of the Gospel/Anglican, 1752, Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast Methodist missionaries, Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast Methodist, Adisadel College, Cape Coast Anglican Missionaries, Holy Child School, Cape Coast Roman Catholic, St Augustines College, Cape Coast Roman Catholic, Archbishop Potter Girls School, Takoradi, Aburi Girls Secondary School Presbyterian, St Monicas High School, Mampong Anglican. Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. grammatical name While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. Again, the Wesleyan missionaries established Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast in 1876. Following ordination, he was sent to Washington, D.C., and the Catholic University of America, where he earned a masters degree in English literature. Senior High School Literature The American Episcopal Evangelical (A.M.E.) Zion Church owes its foundation in Ghana to Bishop J. Bryan Small, who started work first at Keta in 1898. For instance, in Ghana, it was in 1858 that Rev. The early Christian missions concentrated their activities not only on religious matters. He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In addition to contributing to fluctuating educational standards across the colony, inter-denominational rivalry caused a disparity in access to education. Contribution of the Methodist Church to education in Ghana Some earlier scholarship on mission education has taken this as a positive impact of the missionaries. The Journal of Negro Education, 8 8 The Effect of Western Formal Private Study Hugh Goldie and William Anderson. Isichei, Elizabeth. In 1858 the Rev. As happened in Ghana, the development of training colleges in Nigeria was slower than secondary schools, though the C. M. S. had opened the first training college at Abeokuta as far back as 1849. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. Before we examine the contribution of Christian missionaries in Ghana, we need to identify the missionaries that came to Ghana. The others include the French trading posts at Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), Assinie and Libreville in Gabon. Hope Waddell of the Church of Scotland had opened a school at Duke Town, Calabar. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. A large body of studies show that missionaries had a lasting impact beyond their early years. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. Its message was that of love and the universal brotherhood of mankind. The colonial Eritrean government ensured that native Eritreans received poor education by permitting them to only attend school up to the fourth grade (Miran 2002:127). The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. 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Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into writing. hbbd```b``vd d"e ] DrI`5 d"(/ Soon after, in 1835 they moved up to Akropong on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. This made it difficult for the early missionaries to stay in the country for long. By 1885, the church had spread further inland, thanks to Father Joseph Lutz who started work around Onitsha in 1886 and spread the gospel in many parts of the present day Imo and Anambra States. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. House, 1967. Mission education left an uneven legacy: an analysis of 26 African 4; img 109. They also introduced vocational education in the country. These missions significantly influenced the systematic educational development in the Gold Coast. Operational Christianity started 267 Years ago. . Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. Africa Christian Press, 1996. Thank you for supporting this project. Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. It is much easier to interact on an equal basis or even challenge the authority of another group when one is able to communicate in that groups language, instead of having to rely on an interpreter or non-verbal gestures, which undermine ones ability to show authority or express ones beliefs. This comes at no extra cost to you. Ayandele (1966:283), writing in the 1960s, says, By their [the missions] efforts the main languages of Nigeria have been preserved as a lasting legacy to the Ibo, Yoruba, Efik, Nupe and Hausa. However, this practice was in fact probably more due to stereotypes of African ignorance than an interest in being culturally respectful: missionaries may have believed that it would take too long to teach a superior European language to the unintelligent natives when the natives souls were in such desperate need of saving. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. Human Zoos: Untold History of Suppression, The Legend of King Ulu (Ancient Thai Folklore), The Kingdom of Saud of The Arabs (Saudi Arabia), The Wesley Brothers of Oxford University (1700s), Razia Sultan of Medieval India (786 Years Ago), The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (The Revelation), Education in Africa: The Impact of Colonialism, Why The Legendary Geneva Bible was Banned. The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. They were followed in turn by the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. In Ghana, for instance, they persuaded their converts to reject polygamy and human sacrifice. The foreign exchange earnings helped to develop Ghanas infrastructure. quiz Specifically, it addresses the unique role of Christian missions in. Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. Therefore, considering that the impact of mission education continues to have serious repercussions today, one must question whether the First World should continue to interfere in African education.

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