contribution of missionaries to education in ghana contribution of missionaries to education in ghana

522 0 obj <>stream Father Tetteh also took note of Father Burkes humility and devotion to his students. Another missionary whose memory is revered in Nigeria was Mary Slessor, she arrived in the country in 1876, and for many years worked assiduously as a missionary nurse. These attempts were traumatic for the students and threatened the survival of unique cultures. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. Its general scope extends to both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant missionaries in relation to education works. All rights reserved. The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. In 1950 Albert Academy was founded in Freetown; for-a long lime it was the secondary school in the Colony serving largely children from the provinces, among them were the future heads of state, Sir Milton Margai and Dr. Siaka Stevens. English grammar For three years, he taught English and biblical ethics. In 1981, Father Burke was promoted to headmaster and rector of Pope John XXIII Secondary School and Minor Seminary in Koforidua. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. Mission Statement The missions agricultural schools were especially beneficial for colonial governments considering that governments believed that manual labour was a means to prevent discontent and unrest in the tribes (Hansen 1984:232). 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). Catholic Higher Education and Mission in Nigeria: The Contributions of It is interesting to note that this project is not a new concept. Edward Berman notes that contemporary critics of the missionaries felt that missionaries were more interested in increasing enrolments in their respective churches than in pooling their resources for the benefit of African education (Berman 1974:533). Also, Christian missionaries in Ghana were as zealous as their counterparts in Nigeria in pioneering medical services. He was very simple in dress and in the use of modern technology, Father Tetteh said. Thus by training Africans to fill only the lower levels of the colonial administration and providing skilled workers from the vocational and agricultural schools who contributed to the economy and were less likely to question colonial rule than more educated Africans, mission schools helped to strengthen colonial rule. First, I looked at how educational outcomes depended on the distance to historical missions. Kuhne , his fellow captive and co-author joined him at the mission as a trader in cotton, an activity which was part of, and a means of, financing the mission. self help The missionary activities in Nigeria, especially their educational programs helped to whip-up the consciousness of a shared identity and helped to train a new set of elite that championed the course of nationalism and constituted a virile leadership for the young nation at independence.Click to see full answer What is missionary education?A mission school or [] Frank Ogodo Ogbeche In addition to studying the impact of these struggles on education, we also need to understand how they influenced gender inequality. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. non-slave trade), Christianity, Civilization and Colonization. The Contribution of christian missionaries to education in Meru 1908-1963. In the field of education, however, the missionaries had to adjust their programmes to fit in with the policy of assimilation. Being ignorant of the significance of certain institutions and practices of the people of West Africa, and occasionally being misled by their over-zealous followings into wrongly interpreting the peoples heritage, the missionaries compelled pupils in their schools and docile adult converts to shun their own ancestral practices. Learn how your comment data is processed. They even considered traditional drumming and African clothing as practices that were not worthy in the sight of the Lord. These included the Basel Missionary Society, founded in Switzerland, and the Breman Mission formed in Germany. During the first half of the 19th century they targeted healthier places, with relatively lower malaria-risk, where European missionaries could survive and train local African missionaries and teachers (Jedwab et al. 2006 - 2023 Microform Academic Publishers | Microform Academic Publishers is a division of Microform Imaging Limited (Company registered in England no. African poetry Government & Politics Lets now take a closer look at both the positive and negative impacts of the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and the rest of Africa. 1. It was also terribly hard for a woman to be driven away, and to lose her status in the society where she is respected as a wife and a mother. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. For that matter, they rebelled against their chiefs and elders. Success followed the efforts of the pioneer missionaries. Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in Missionaries continued to be the main providers of education even after colonial powers established control during the so-called Scramble for Africa which occurred between 1884-1914. All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions. They also prescribed many taboos which, in the light of modern medical science, had no relation whatever with the illness being treated. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In the Western Region, the Catholic Sisters running a hospital at Eikwe specialized in maternity cases, and like Slessor in Nigeria succeeded in stamping out the practice of killing twins at birth. Within a short time the missionaries spread their activities inland. 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. Thus as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic Sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. life skills PDF OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION IN GHANA - WikiEducator This comes at no extra cost to you. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. However, with time, they brought some crops, which they cultivated and which sustained them. A new attempt to spread Christianity was made when the Church Missionary Society (CMS) arrived from Britain in 1821. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. Just look at the lyrics of this evangelizing song written in 1819 by Reginald Heber, a prolific English hymnist in the Anglican church. Your email address will not be published. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. Sign in to view the collection. Educational Reforms in Ghana: Past and Present - ResearchGate From 1835 to the middle of the nineteenth century the Church was in opposition to traditional religion. . The others include the French trading posts at Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), Assinie and Libreville in Gabon. Contribution of the Methodist Church to education in Ghana Without denying that prior to the introduction of Christianity in West Africa the people had developed their own crafts, one must admit that it was Christian missionaries who introduced modern forms of crafts such as carpentry and masonry. Vol. 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. English for life Etherington, Norman. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. The Methodists founded the Boys High School in 1874, and another high school for girls six years later. Renewed evangelism started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). West Africa owes to the Christian missionaries not only a new religious faith which has changed the beliefs and life of millions of people, but also the foundation of western education. education was an important means for mission evangelization. A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. Apart from giving to the converts a new religious faith which they consider is superior to the traditional religions, the Christian missionaries did pioneering work in introducing new crafts, industries, Western education and modern health services. DISCLOSURE. As Sir Henry Johnston, a key figure in the Scramble for Africa says, they [the mission stations] strengthen our hold over the country, they spread the use of the English language, they induct natives into the best kind of civilization, and in fact, each mission station is an essay in colonization (Johnston cited in Sheffield 1973:10). They relied very much on their home churches for their funds. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Europe in those days looked upon Africa as the Dark Continent with very primitive civilizations, and most Europeans refused to adapt their religion to suit the local situation. By focusing on the African demand for education, I showed that Africans were not just passive recipients of mission schooling. Prior to advent of the Christian missionaries and indeed well into the pre-independence period, most sick people depended for cure upon concoction herbs and roots and barks of trees. WAEC Agricultural school graduates did not compete with European industries or European farmers, as they mainly grew crops that could not be grown in European climates. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. CUP Archive, 1979. They were to spread the message of the Gospel, render social services to the people and to assist in the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. Looking for a flexible role? They were at the forefront during the fight for self-rule in Ghana. others adopted a system of education varied from one and the other hence, lacking consistency in the educational sector [3]. One is led to ask, why this sudden development? C.M.S. Private Study Father Burke was preceded in death by his parents and his brother John. In fact, most of the norms opposed by missionaries concerned gender relationships. They were replaced in Sierra Leone by the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1864, who made converts in large numbers not only among the pagans but also among the members of the then competing Christian churches. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. More women than men attend church, and the more strict churchgoers tend to be wealthier and of higher social status than less churchgoers or non-Presbyterians. It is one of the oldest continuously published periodicals by and about Black people. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! At the time of its inception, however, there was no publication that systematically or comprehensively addressed the enormous problems that characterized the education of Blacks in the United States and elsewhere. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. Hugh Goldie and William Anderson. The consequences of norm conflicts are likely to manifest beyond educational pursuit. In fact, Jacobus Capitein, a former Ghanaian slave who became a priest in the Dutch Reformed Church in the 18th century was on record to have defended the practice of slavery. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Moravian Mission, the Mission of Bremen, the Methodists, and Roman Catholic missionaries all established themselves on the Gold Coast (Ghana) between 1820 and 1881, opening elementary schools for boys and girls . The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana, Reasons Why Christian Missionaries Came to Africa, Discontinuation of Outmoded Cultural Practices, Negative Effects of Missionary Activities, Negative Impact on Traditional Authorities, Limited Support for The Production of Local Food Crops. But with the abolition of slavery, the introduction of cocoa, and the Churchs efficient school system, she gradually became the Church of the social elite. EVANGELICAL MOVEMENTS AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES. Missions, Education and Conversion in Colonial Africa The resulting atmosphere of disunity enabled the European colonialists to easily achieve their goal of economic exploitation. S.J. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. Christian missionaries were the first to introduce European-style education in sub-Saharan Africa. Operating from Whydah in what is today the Peoples Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey), Father Berghero, in 1860, visited Abeokuta and Lagos where freed Catholic slaves from Brazil welcomed him warmly. These new movements considered such ventures to be their contribution to Europes reparation for centuries of exploitation of Africans, reparation for the centuries of exploitation which the Trans Atlantic slave trade had caused to African society. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king, Otumfour Nana Kweku Duah I who reigned between 25th August 1834 to 27th April 1867). They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. 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. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. As happened in other colonial territories, the government did not show great interest in the provision of education in Ghana until the missionaries had extended their services throughout the country and had set up primary schools and a few secondary schools and training colleges. As happened in parts of Yorubaland in the last century, some of the Christian missionaries often engaged in local politics and took an active part in helping the colonial authorities in their wars of territorial expansion. After completing that assignment, Father Burkes superiors asked him to teach English as a second language (ESL) to Divine Word missionaries who did not know the language. Father Burke spent more than half of his lifealmost 50 yearsin Ghana on the West Coast of Africa, said Father Edward Tetteh SVD, pastor of Blessed Sacrament-Our Lady of Divine Shepherd in Trenton, N.J. During his many years in Ghana, since he worked mostly in educational institutions, he produced excellent professionals: teachers, priests, ministers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, journalists and many others who work in different parts of the world.. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. crs questions and anwers The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). Free resources to assist you with your university studies! quiz The European Christian missions preached the Gospel, built churches, and seminaries translated the Bible to Ghanaian Languages such as Ewe, Ga, and Twi. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . English Clarke, Peter Bernard. Their converts increased steadily in numbers until 1821 when a section broke away to form the first independent African, Christian church in West Africa, called the West Africa Methodist Church. The Christian religion teaches the doctrine of one supreme God and is opposed to the worship of any other forms of deity. Reiterating what teacher education must encapsulate, Adegoke (2003) and Benneh (2006) indi-cated that the mission of Ghana's teacher education is to pro- Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. In 1902 the Methodists opened a clinic at Igbo-Ora. However, accustomed to monogamy, few European missionaries were open to such arguments. In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. We shall now turn our attention to the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. station in 1858, it was not until 1889 that the missionaries entered Hausaland, which was predominantly Muslim. This hymn sums up the reasons why the Christian missionaries came to Africa and other parts of the world. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. Their converts, for many years, were confined to the people of southern Nigerian extraction resident in the north, and to the-large non-Muslim population of the north. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. Email: henrydonsco@gmail.com Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. Young Vincent began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word at Divine Word Seminary at Miramar in Massachusetts in 1947. Lastly, the missionaries were not used to eating our local foods. Last, missionaries provided a very poor education, causing their students to be ill-equipped for social or material success, as they believed education to simply be a means for proselytization, were unqualified teachers, and allowed inter-denominational rivalries to interfere. With the support of the Propagation of the Faith within the Vatican, whose Cardinal Secretary became Pope Gregory XVI, various Roman Catholic missionary societies were founded. By 1914 there were barely thirty schools in that vast area. The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. Some early success included the Liberian coast where Afro-Americans and freed slaves were converted. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). The European missionaries engaged in trading and other commercial activities as well. A special memorial Mass was celebrated at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 9. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. The foreign exchange earnings helped to develop Ghanas infrastructure. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. And yet the Asafo provided most of the services which a community needed: protection against military attacks, communal services, etc. But that increase was greater in monogamous societies. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect . Among the first missionaries was the Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. 2018). In fact, the Christian missionaries encouraged Ghanaians to reject African names and choose Christian names instead. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. 0 The agricultural schools the missions ran would have been even more advantageous to the colonial governments considering the discouragement of local industries that might have competed with the motherland. Waterville Pub. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into writing. It is possible to hear the tune of this missionary hymn. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bremen, Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM), Universitt Bremen. Ralph teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) online. Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. Their luggage and other necessities had to be carried on heads and took a long time before reaching the missionaries. In 1845 the C.M.S. Kalu, Ogbu. His work, however, did not extend much beyond Cape Coast and the neighbouring area. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. African prose These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. This special relationship continued until 1960 when Fourah Bay became a college of the newly reconstituted University of Sierra Leone; the other constituent college located at Njala developed from a training college founded in 1920. His request to the Danish Crown for missionaries was forwarded to . Because of rivalry, instead of building one common, multi-denominational school in a village that really only needed the one school, missionaries each built a school for their particular denomination and competed for students (Berman 1974:533). Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. English comprehension Notable among these were cocoa and coffee. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, France encouraged Roman Catholic missionaries right from the start of her colonial activities in West Africa. Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. %%EOF He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. Some observers have argued that the Europeans used the Christian bible to justify the practice of slavery and the slave trade. 11 Missionary College Scholarships You Can Apply For After World War I was declared in 1914, the German missionaries were restricted in their movements by the British in the British colonies. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. senior high school English We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. Indeed, in some situations the converts were taught to feel that they were absolved from obeying their own traditional rulers and certain laws of the state. Under the Basel Missions Salem system, converts were separated from the traditional society. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. Henry Townsend who went from Sierra Leone to Badagry in 1842 in his company was the Rev Ajayi Crowther. The Scottish Missionary Society had been working in Calabar, Nigeria, also a British colony adjacent to the Gold Coast and it was from the Calabar Presbyterian Church in Nigeria that a missionary was sent to take charge of the Presbyterian work in the Gold Coast after the deportations. The early success of the missionaries included areas like Freetown and surrounding villages. In my study, I explored how colonial era conflicts and disagreements over marriage norms lastingly affected educational development. 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 churches opened primary schools both in the capital and in the rural communities. They impressed it upon their converts not to have anything to do with these traditional practices. Seeing as missions in the British and Italian colonies had monopolies on education for the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, this reluctance meant that there were few secondary schools at all (Ayandele 1966:287; Beck 1966: 120). An Alumnus of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, a Journalist, Author and a Philanthropist. This was around the same time that the first Portuguese sailors arrived on the coast of Ghana. The Christian Connector Scholarship. Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana - Cegast Academy Cultural deprivation is what many of us suffer from []. Meanwhile, the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, had established a reputation in the Cross River area as a nurse. Although there were many disagreements between European missionaries and African populations, antagonising polygamy is probably the best-documented norm conflict. Another difficulty that the early missionaries faced in the spread of Christianity was insufficient Christian literature at that time. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. The Rev. famous poems 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. And yet this was what earlier missionaries in pagan Europe had done when, for example, they had changed the Sabbath to suit the pagan Sun Day (hence Sunday), and had also adopted the dates of the pagan festivals to celebrate Christmas Day and the Easter festival. Soon after the start of elementary schools, the missionaries started opening higher institutions also. Thus missionaries, by imparting education that promoted dependence on colonial rule, arguably contributed to the political instability that continues in the present day in many former African colonies, such as Kenya and Eritrea. They provided missionaries a way to spread Eurocentric norms and attract new converts. How to Get Involved in Church Missions: The Ultimate Guide, 16 Causes of Crime Essay (with Solutions), Justify the Title of the Novel Second Class Citizen, The Role of Ghana in the Formation of the OAU, Economic Developments in Ghana Before Independence, 11 Causes of the Rise of Nationalism in Africa, Importance of the Odwira Festival in Ghana. Lewis, Donald M., ed. A.G. Frazer, did much to encourage the promotion of indigenous culture, but by and large the colonial authorities contributed to dwindling a good deal of our cultural heritage. Yes! Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate. I compared data on the historical locations of mission stations since 1924, in 26 sub-Saharan countries with recent education data between 2008 and 2018. Despite the skills and opportunities mission schooling afforded, many Africans were not willing to pay the price. The positive contribution of Christian missionaries in Ghana can be felt in such areas as education, local language development, stoppage of outmoded cultural practices, agriculture and commerce. Mission schools provided a steady stream of educated Africans capable of filling the lower levels of the colonial administration and operated vocational and agricultural schools (Ayandele 1966: 295; Foster 1965: 90-91; Sheffield 1973: 10-11). Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The Basel missionaries, in particular, established experimental farms and plantations in places like Akropong. The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. Besides education, they cared for the sick. Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. It was however in the coastal territories filled with mulattos and other European trading communities that Christianity won some of its early success. Unsurprisingly, the level of education increased as one moved closer to the missionaries.