This single problem made the missionary work very difficult. Waterville Pub. Their activities had both positive and negative effects on Ghanaian society. Ramseyer had at first not intended a missionary sojourn in Ashanti. Crampton, Edmund Patrick Thurman. After a time the idea becomes ingrained -it is heathen and unchristian to be an African culturally (Awori cited in Berman 1974:536). Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. He moved to Techny in 2016. The foreign exchange earnings helped to develop Ghanas infrastructure. Who is Mrs. Konrad in Second Class Citizen? Instead of adapting the teachings and practices of the new religion to suit indigenous values, as it did when the same Christian religion adopted Greek, Roman, German and Anglo-Saxon native practices, the early Christian missionaries condemned totally as pagan, and to be avoided by their converts, whatever they considered strange. Hilliard, F.H., 1957. But despite the work of Portuguese missionaries based on the island of Sao Tome and later of Spanish missionaries in Benin, it was not until the nineteenth century that the Christian religion was firmly established in Nigeria. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions For instance, in Ghana, it was in 1858 that Rev. Over time and with the dedication of teachers like Father Burke, the school rose to prominence. 503 0 obj <> endobj Thank you! grammatical name Finally, education affects many other aspects of peoples lives, including economic opportunities and political attitudes. The Journal of Negro Education, 8 8 The Effect of Western Formal In 1989-90, the government banned the activities of several religious organizations, including the Church. Initially, their activities focused on coastal areas. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. 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. This research was funded by the European Research Council. The South African War is not covered in this grouping of letters. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. government questions It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. Your email address will not be published. The academic education purposely did not train Africans for the higher level positions of colonial administrations, which were mostly reserved for Europeans (Ayandele 1966:295; Sheffield 1973:42), a practise which created dependency on the colonizers, as without them the colony did not have qualified administrators. Request Permissions. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd, Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group/Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. English comprehension Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language and translated the entire Bible and a Bible history into Ga. Then in 1874, the Rev. Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below: If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! And thats why I decided to look deeply into this issue. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. Then lets begin straightaway. The others included the Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. T. Nelson. endstream endobj 504 0 obj <>>>/Lang(en)/MarkInfo<>/Metadata 55 0 R/Outlines 135 0 R/Pages 498 0 R/StructTreeRoot 142 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 505 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 499 0 R/Resources<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 506 0 obj <>stream 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. 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. 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. Education (2002), the latest committee to work on education reforms in Ghana, recommended a critical review and approach to making teacher education relevant to the devel-opment of the country. Discipleship and leadership development are needed in order to support local churches and their growth 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. In 2006, Father Burke was appointed lecturer at the newly founded Catholic University College of Ghana in Sunyani. This was because all the ships that came to the coast at that time were owned by trading firms and companies whose interest were basically on trade. For instance, in Nigeria in 2006, approximately only 51.2% of primary school teachers of either gender were trained as teachers, and the enrolment rate in primary education for both genders in 2000 stood at about 62.7%, compared to 99.5% in Canada (UN Data 2010). We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. They relied very much on their home churches for their funds. Their economic activities went beyond the development of agriculture. The home page of Compassion Canada is that of a stereotypical Northern charity: showing pictures of suffering children alternating with those of post-intervention, happy children. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Evangelical Revival began to bring to Africa an influx of missionaries whose laoburs would produce the first fruits of an enduring Christian presence in Sub-Sahara Africa. primarily purposed to outline the contributions of religion and education to national development in Ghana. CUP Archive, 1979. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. others adopted a system of education varied from one and the other hence, lacking consistency in the educational sector [3]. The governor had observed the bad moral life of the Europeans in the fort. 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. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in the name of Father Burke can be made for the care of elderly and infirm missionaries and sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. This box contains: the correspondence of Bishop See thematic groupings of our digital collections, See all of our digital collections in one place, Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951, Copies of letters received, 1890-1927; West Africa, vol. In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. Johann Christaller produced a similar work in Twi. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. Lake Volta provides a vital venue for aviation evangelism in remote areas. As long as the Africans could read the Bible, the missionaries were satisfied that they had had enough academic education. He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. Groundless fears that the converts would become contaminated with paganism led some of the Christian missionaries, notably the Presbyterians, to separate the Christians from the rest of the township. Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher? 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. A short history of education in British West Africa. It included the opening up of Africa to forces of change namely commerce (legitimate commerce, i.e. Also, the traditional doctors more often than not could not diagnose illness accurately. It started first among the Yoruba recaptives who had embraced the Christian faith while in Sierra Leone (freed from slave trading ships by the British Royal Naval Squadron), and who returned home between 1839 and 1845. Furthermore, missionaries, believing in the civilizing mission, attempted to disintegrate traditional society through education by choosing academic subjects, such as the histories of the Western colonial powers, that illustrated the superiority of the Western culture, as well as by teaching about the superiority of the West in non-academic matters such as hygiene. Among these were the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (commonly known as the Holy Ghost Father), the Society of African Missions (SMA), the Society of Missionaries of Africa, popularly known as the White Fathers because of the white Muslim-like clothing which the Fathers wore, and the society of the Divine Word (SVD, abbreviated from its Latin name). 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. Under the Basel Missions Salem system, converts were separated from the traditional society. However, accustomed to monogamy, few European missionaries were open to such arguments. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba. Reiterating what teacher education must encapsulate, Adegoke (2003) and Benneh (2006) indi-cated that the mission of Ghana's teacher education is to pro- House, 1967. Get full access to all 9,566 pages that make up the Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951 collection. For instance, in Nigeria, one of the first groups of missionaries to introduce organised medical services were the Roman Catholics. It is interesting to note that while in many ways missionaries sought to isolate students from their cultures, missionaries often insisted in teaching in the native languages. Joseph Dunwell. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. churches were firmly established in several important towns, such as Abeokuta (1846), Lagos (1851), Ibadan (1853), and Oyo (1856). Mission Statement Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century, informal education existed in Ghana with the goal of introducing young people into the society. In addition, the contributions of celebrity missionaries, such as Christian Schwartz, William Carey, Alexander Duff, and James . life skills Early missions conducted by Roman Catholics were short-lived. Sign in to view the collection. He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Methodists, known as the Wesleyan Missionaries (after their founder), arrived in Freetown in 1811. Wm. What are the contribution of the missionaries? - Alqatirat The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. Johannes Zimmermann, for example, produced a Ga dictionary, Ga bible and grammar book. In 1858 ten years after the founding of the first college, the Presbyterians opened a sister college at Aburi for the training of women teachers. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . Wm. They need YOU. B. et al. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Vol. Already have a license? They did a lot to impact the social and economic lives of Africans. 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. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in This was the work of the great missionary, Thomas Birch Freeman, who placed two missionaries, Mr and Mrs. de Graft, in charge of the school. He was very simple in dress and in the use of modern technology, Father Tetteh said. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. I also matched up locations that differed in proximity to the mission stations, but otherwise had similar preconditions for educational development. Daystar Press, 1978. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. Other Roman Catholic hospitals were built in all the nine regions of the country; including those at Asikuma and Foso (Central Region), Akyem Swedru (Eastern Region), Berekum (BrongAhafo), Maase (Asante Region) and Anfoega (Volta Region). Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. This decreased the zeal with which people began to accept the Gospel leading to nominal Christianity. Ekechi, Felix K. Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 19001915. The Journal of African History 12, no. 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. essay writing Education in Ghana - Wikipedia Furthermore, they were skilled farmers that could grow cash crops to be consumed back in the mother country, such as cocoa from Ghana (Foster 1965: 153). Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in 1919. The activities of the early Christian missionaries negatively affected the development of African traditional political institutions. The work of the Basel Missionary Society was taken over with the consent of the Basel Mission Home Board by the United Free Church of Scotland whose ecclesiastical organization was Presbyterian. Their luggage and other necessities had to be carried on heads and took a long time before reaching the missionaries. Wed love to get to know you and discuss how God is calling you. 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. 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. What would have happened if missionaries had not insisted on monogamy? 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. This instruction in 1948 developed into the University College in Ibadan. 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. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the missionaries Chretien Proten, Henrick Huckuff and Jacobus Capitein, the Anglican, Rev. church were founded in south-eastern Nigeria, the chief centres being Bonny and Brass. After more than 20 years at Pope John XXIII School, he returned to the United States and served as parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament-Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd in Trenton, N.J., where he lived with Father Tetteh. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. The most momentous discovery in western Africa came in 1471, when Portuguese captains first reached the coast of modern Ghana between the mouths of the Ankobra and Volta rivers. His request to the Danish Crown for missionaries was forwarded to . When he arrived in Nkwatia-Kwahu to teach English at St. Peters Secondary School, the town had yet to benefit from electricity and running water. In spite of all this, with the advent of the First World War in 1914 in the Kwaku District there were 21 congregations with a total of over 2500 members. Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1933, Vincent Burke was the third of Walter and Eleanor (nee McGoff) Burkes four sons. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in the name of Father Burke can be made for the care of elderly and infirm missionaries and sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. Ghana - Statistics and Church Facts | Total Church Membership It is one of the oldest continuously published periodicals by and about Black people. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. Soon after the Methodist experiment, the church Missionary Society set up their own school at Badagry. Find below a list of mission schools that still exist in Ghana today. Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. Moreover, speaking through interpreters is a defective means of communicating ones thoughts to ones audience. His funeral Mass was Sept. 27, followed by burial at St. Mary Cemetery at Techny. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. The Rev. The next major Christian missionaries to go out to Sierra Leone were the Roman Catholics. J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. The Basel Mission, as a result of this phenomenal expansion trained many local personnel to man the new stations. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. It also plays an important role in organization of inheritances within matrilineal houses and thus exerts influence from a legal point of view. Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. In 1892, the Church Missionary Society opened the Iyi Enu Hospital in Onitsha which is today a leading hospital in Anambra state. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. Establishment of Christian Churches In Nigeria. Africa and the Winder World 3. For instance the scholar E.A. The history of education in Ghana from the earliest times to the The Ghana Education Decentralization Project (GEDP), launched in 2010 and ended in 2012, has increased the influence of local authorities over management . Establishment of Christian Churches In Sierra Leone. 1991. Theres still so much to be learned from the history of education in Africa and its long-term consequences. In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. past questions Lastly, the missionaries were not used to eating our local foods. The third, St Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College), was founded by the Anglican Church in 1910. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. It is simply one of the gross evils of heathen society which, like habitual murder or slavery, must at all costs be ended. In 1910, a prominent report of the World Missionary Conference concluded: [T]here can be no question of polygamy. quiz However, the motivation behind teaching Africans basic literacy and mathematics might not have been a cause for concern if not for the fact that the religious motivation curtailed education. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language, and in 1874 the Rev. Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! mock tests began work in many parts of Africa. 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 Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. 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. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero. From 1870 to 1914 the Basel Mission succeeded in extending its work from the Akwapim Ridge to Kwahu, Akim and Asante and across the Volta as far as Yendi the north in 1913. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into writing. These missionary societies laid the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church in West Africa, which lasted through to the independence period when African clergy replaced the white pastors. It is interesting to note that this project is not a new concept. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. Being able to speak and write in the colonisers language was considered a privilege. The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. In my study, I explored how colonial era conflicts and disagreements over marriage norms lastingly affected educational development. 522 0 obj <>stream The Basel Mission. They impressed it upon their converts not to have anything to do with these traditional practices. 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. senior high school economics Prominent among the early Christian missionaries to come to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Basel, Bremen and Anglican missions. The result is that today, many Africans are alienated from their authentic ways of life. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. As one Eritrean student remarks, Our sisters [the Italian Sisters] would have undoubtedly taught better and more, but the Italian government in the colony did not permit Eritreans to get good instruction (T.T. These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Role of Missionaries in Colonial African Education - UKEssays.com cited in Miran 2002:128). The Contribution of christian missionaries to education in Meru 1908-1963. Learn how your comment data is processed. As we help existing churches become healthy through theological education, discipleship, pastoral training, and leadership development, we desire to see church-planting efforts within the local church soon follow. Again, the missionaries helped to pacify Africans while their rich natural resources were being plundered by the colonial government. The people received the message with indifference. 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. Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bremen, Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM), Universitt Bremen. The original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. 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. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. 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. 4; img 109. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. With the exception of the first two volumes, marked "West Africa", these items are drawn from the volumes Series CWW.

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