The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. Babalola, E. O. Christianity in West Africa. Teaching in the vernacular had an additional use as it further strengthened colonial rule, of which missionaries were often agents, for as the Kikuyu people of Kenya were aware, [the] inability to communicate in English would be a crucial factor in the perpetuation of their subordinate status in the colony (Berman 1974:531). From 1835 to the middle of the nineteenth century the Church was in opposition to traditional religion. They had to speak through few interpreters who did not have sufficient education to interpret correctly. It is one of the oldest continuously published periodicals by and about Black people. missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. English for life Development of Education in Sierra Leone. Some of the missionaries came with them (549 years ago) but many died from the cruel tropical weather of forested West Africa. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate. Again, the Wesleyan missionaries established Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast in 1876. 0
Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). One reason why the Christian missionaries came to Ghana and the rest of Africa was to convert the people to the Christian faith. It was only after the Second World War that the colonial governments started to show a real interest in the promotion of formal education in West Africa. However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. 1931. For example, the missionaries preached against certain aspects of African culture they considered barbaric or satanic or both. These commercial activities, therefore, made an important contribution to the economic development of Ghana. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines.
Called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries.
Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana - Cegast Academy His request to the Danish Crown for missionaries was forwarded to . government questions Christianity in northern Nigeria. 2236624), The beginning of Africanisation : the dawn of the missionary motive in Gold Coast education, Early colonial and missionary records from West Africa, West Indies material in the archives of the USPG, 1710-1950. Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. All rights reserved. Free resources to assist you with your university studies!
About us | Ghana Education Service - GES The Presbyterians, also, opened hospitals in several parts of the country, including the one at Agogo in Asante-Akyem. With the exception of the first two volumes, marked "West Africa", these items are drawn from the volumes Series CWW. It is important for several reasons. Father Vincent Burke SVD, 83, recipient of Ghanas Officer of the Order of Volta Award, passed away at Techny, Ill., on Sept. 21. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. The First Missionaries were sent as a result of a request by Major de Richelieu, Governor of Christiansborg. Johannes Zimmermann, for example, produced a Ga dictionary, Ga bible and grammar book. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. Instead of needing to import skilled workers such as carpenters, the mission schools provided colonial governments with workers capable of building and maintaining the colonys infrastructure and basic technology, a contribution that kept the colonies running smoothly. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone. Find below a list of mission schools that still exist in Ghana today. Father Jean Marie Coquard, operating in and from Abeokuta for forty years, was renowned among the Egba as a priest and surgeon in the second half of the nineteenth century. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. I have used my expertise to design and implement strategies for major projects including new programme development, global proposals, book launches, international talks, lectures, and executive . The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of privately owned higher education institutions in Nigeria, including those owned by religious bodies and even by their individual members. homework help
Education in Ghana - Wikipedia The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. Textbooks were heavily biased towards western ideas and values. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. Hope Waddell of the Church of Scotland had opened a school at Duke Town, Calabar. 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. The work of the missionaries also had little success initially. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. Learn how your comment data is processed. Missionaries and the intellectual history of Africa: a historical survey. Itinerario 7, no.
Contributions of Missionaries Towards Education in India A short history of education in British West Africa. Another difficulty that the early missionaries faced in the spread of Christianity was insufficient Christian literature at that time. Literature
PDF Missions, Education and Conversion in Colonial Africa About the same time, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) headed by the Rev. Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. Africa and the Winder World 3. Following ordination, he was sent to Washington, D.C., and the Catholic University of America, where he earned a masters degree in English literature. Cookies are small, safe and secure text files that sit on your computer which we use to give you a better experience on our site and help us improve the service that we provide to you. Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. crs questions and anwers Before we examine the contribution of Christian missionaries in Ghana, we need to identify the missionaries that came to Ghana. Economics First, I looked at how educational outcomes depended on the distance to historical missions. The others include the French trading posts at Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), Assinie and Libreville in Gabon. The anti-slavery issue and the humanitarian conscience also played a vital role in stimulating European interest in Africa and gave an impetus to mission work. The churches opened primary schools both in the capital and in the rural communities. In regions where a denomination felt threatened by another denomination, the denominations were more likely to establish more schools in an attempt to gain more converts than their rival, while in regions such as northern Nigeria, where colonial policy prevented too much rivalry, schools were scarce (Bassey 1991:45). *You can also browse our support articles here >. Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website.
Their economic activities went beyond the development of agriculture. By using postcolonial theory as a framework for analysis, it is evident that the Western formal education introduced to the people of the Gold Coast by the Christian missionaries and the British Colonial government did not serve the indigenous population well. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. A special memorial Mass was celebrated at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 9. Teacher training colleges in Ghana did not expand as fast as the secondary schools. T. Nelson. Following agitation by the people in 1934, the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally. 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. 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. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect . Furthermore, each denomination had differing policies on education, so standards in education fluctuated across each colony, depending on what denomination had schools in each area. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. 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). Other difficulties they faced were the problems of the many languages and dialects and their ignorance of the true meaning of the various cultures, beliefs, values and ways of life of the people whom they set out to convert to Christianity.
PDF OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION IN GHANA - WikiEducator In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . Its message was that of love and the universal brotherhood of mankind. A notable example was the Asafo Company, a purely military and social organisation of the peoples of Ghana, which was condemned by the early missionaries because of its presumed connection with fetish practices. A member of the CMS, Henry Venn, boasted that the mission schools of Nigeria would produce an educated African elite that could form an intelligent and influential class of society and become the founders of a Kingdom which shall render incalculable benefits to Africa (Venn cited in Bassey 1991:37). Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. Ghana continued to call.
Role of Missionaries in Colonial African Education - UKEssays.com Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. The achievement of the purpose of these Christian Missions came with some costs. In 1989-90, the government banned the activities of several religious organizations, including the Church. Perhaps the greatest service of the missionaries was the promotion of western education and the development of vernacular literature. Soon after, in 1835 they moved up to Akropon on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. In many instances, they made their converts rebel against traditional rulers and other spiritual leaders. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. Again, in West-Africa, the efforts to go beyond the coast to reach those inland with the gospel coincided with the southwards expansion of Islam which posed some threat to the expansion of the work of Christian evangelizing missions.
For example, they made our people view polygamy and puberty rites as pagan practices. 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). As happened in other West African countries, many more mission-sponsored hospitals were founded in the course of the twentieth century. Porter, Andrew. Lake Volta provides a vital venue for aviation evangelism in remote areas. History of the church in Africa: a survey. Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. There were only bush paths, and no roads in the early times. Alignment is the degree of congruence between your teaching philosophy and your institution's mission. 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. Father Burke, whose students included Father Tetteh and Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, arrived in Ghana, West Africa, in 1963, only four years after the country gained independence from Great Britain. However, accustomed to monogamy, few European missionaries were open to such arguments. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. For that matter, they rebelled against their chiefs and elders. The first Europeans arrived at the West-African Coasts at the end of the fifteenth century. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . The Portuguese were the first to introduce the Christian faith into West Africa but following their departure from the West Coast in the mid-seventeenth century, the Christian religion survived only in Upper Guinea where a bishop was maintained in the Cape Verde Islands serving also a part of the mainland. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. Metadata. This post may contain affiliate links. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. In an ironic twist, the more Africans became versed in the Bible, the more they began to challenge missionaries. After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the missionaries Chretien Proten, Henrick Huckuff and Jacobus Capitein, the Anglican, Rev. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. However, by the turn of the Nineteenth Century there was systematic efforts by churches of Christian Europe, namely: Anglicans, Methodists, and Baptists who were active in Sierra Leone and, with Presbyterians, in Nigeria, while Methodists also set up missions in Ghana, Gambia, and Dahomey. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They discovered that the holy book did not clearly prescribe monogamy, and contained several examples of renowned Christian polygamists. Required fields are marked *. Given their priorities, it should thus come as little surprise that missions often provided poor education to the African pupils. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. As an institution introduced by agents with radically different values, the Christian religion damaged the culture and traditional beliefs of the people of West Africa. Brief History. Nevertheless, the first higher institution in Ghana, now the Presbyterian Training College at Akuapem Akropon, was established in 1848, first as a centre for training catechists, and later to train teachers as well as ministers of the Presbyterian Church. Young Vincent began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word at Divine Word Seminary at Miramar in Massachusetts in 1947. The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The Journal of Negro Education (JNE), a refereed scholarly periodical, was founded at Howard University in 1932 to fill the need for a scholarly journal that would identify and define the problems that characterized the education of Black people in the United States and elsewhere, provide a forum for analysis and solutions, and serve as a vehicle for sharing statistics and research on a national basis. The Methodists founded Mfantsipim (1876) for boys and Wesley Girls High School (1884). 503 0 obj
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The History of Christianity in West Africa. 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). A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. 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. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher?
The Missionary Role on The Gold Coast and In Ashanti: Reverend F.a Ghana sits on West Africas coastline along the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by the Ivory Coast and Togo to the west and east and Burkina Faso to the north. DISCLOSURE. 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. Arnold, 1986. For the West Africans, the acceptance of Christianity meant the total rejection of most of the cherished institutions upon which their society rested. It also talks about all the mission societies from all denominations engaged in educational works. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century.
Missionary Work in Ghana: The Genesis - African Research An Alumnus of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, a Journalist, Author and a Philanthropist. During this period, difficulties encountered were different from the initial difficulties which will more related to sickness, deaths and the suspicion of indigenous people in accepting the Gospel. 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. The city of Akuropong capital of the Akan state of Akuapem in Ghana, has known the Christian presence during the last 186 years, initially centered on the Basel Mission, then on the Free Church of Scotland, and now on the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. The vast majority of the people of The Gambia are Moslems; but a sizeable percentage of the population, especially in and around the capital Banjul, are Christians. Please click this link to download the chapter. In addition, while missionaries did run many academic primary schools, they provided little secondary education, a practice which prevented natives from becoming too educated (Ayandele 1966:286) and potentially subversive. 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. 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). Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy.
Education - Education in British colonies and former colonies Hilliard, F.H., 1957. Initially, their activities focused on coastal areas. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in 1904. opened, in Freetown, the first boys secondary school in the country and another for girls in 1849, later renamed the Annie Walsh Memorial School. Therefore, whether through their rigid educational polices or lack thereof, colonial governments contributed to the poor education, though there is no denying that missionaries also contributed to the quality of education to a great extent.
Asuikante Gabriella Atengdem - Senior Research Assistant - University An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. And yet the Asafo provided most of the services which a community needed: protection against military attacks, communal services, etc.
PDF Educational Reforms in Ghana: Past and Present Samuel Adu-Gyamfi1 The result is that today, many Africans are alienated from their authentic ways of life. Specifically, it addresses the unique role of Christian missions in. John G. Christaller (described as the Father of Twi Literature) produced a Twi grammar and dictionary, a collection of Twi proverbs, a Twi translation of the Bible as well as prayers and hymns. While the Evangelical Presbyterian missionaries were the First to develop literature in Ewe, the Roman Catholics were responsible for Nzima literature. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. JNE sustains a commitment to a threefold mission: first, to stimulate the collection and facilitate the dissemination of facts about the education of Black people; second, to present discussions involving critical appraisals of the proposals and practices relating to the education of Black people; and third, to stimulate and sponsor investigations of issues incident to the education of Black people. Bamgboye & Company Press, 1976. The others included the Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. It is possible to hear the tune of this missionary hymn. Rev. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. Amidst much honest missionary activity in the country for two centuries, prosperity gospel teachers have also gained influence, and numerous indigenous cults have arisen with distinct appeal and just enough truth to create confusion and syncretism. WAEC He knew me as a boy [in Ghana] who washed his car and went with him when he said Mass at mission stations, yet [as an adult] he treated me as an equal, Father Tetteh said. Prominent among the early Christian missionaries to come to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Basel, Bremen and Anglican missions. This finding was supported by two types of analysis. Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could.
Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony.
Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. The Basel missionaries, in particular, established experimental farms and plantations in places like Akropong. The European missionaries believed that European culture was superior to African culture. They often attributed natural ailments to supernatural causes and resorted to mystic cults to appease the unknown spirit, before applying medicine to the sick person. In such asituation, provisions and other things had to be sent into the country not in large quantities as would have been desired by the missionaries. Chapter by Chapter Summaries of Second Class Citizen, 22 Reading Comprehension Past Questions and Answers, Second Class Citizen Summarized: Plot Summary, Themes & Characters, 50+ List of Characters in Second Class Citizen, Top 7 Reasons for the Colonization of Africa, 90+ Likely Grammatical Name (Past) Questions and Answers, Black Woman Analyzed: Subject Matter, Themes and Poetic Devices, Analysis of Bat: Meaning, Themes and Poetic Devices, 20+ Sample WASSCE English Summary Questions and Answers, Chapter 2 Summary of Second Class Citizen, Bookshop: High School Textbooks for Sale (PDF), English Language Audio Lessons Free (mp3), Download Key WASSCE PDFs, E-Books and More, July 2002 WAEC Economics Questions and Answers, 2001 WAEC Economics Questions and Answers (Nov-Dec), WASSCE 2000 Economics Questions and Answers, WASSCE 2002 Economics Past Questions and Answers, Is It You and Me or You and I? The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. 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. The lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown.