Christian missions also took a leading role in the campaign to end the slave trade and to suppress slavery. By February 2, 1918, all Basel missionaries had been deported from the Gold Coast. Initially, a majority of the missionary journeys was done with English-Speaking Protestants and later, in the 1820s and 1830s, they were joined by continental Protestantism from Germany, Switzerland and France. The Journal of Negro Education, 2019 Above, we have described the role that trading companies, missionaries, and the government played for the spread of Western education in the coastal areas from the late sixteenth century onwards. In the same year as the Basel missionaries settled in Akuapem in 1835, the Wesleyan (later Methodist) Church was established at Cape Coast by the Rev. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). The others include the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, which was tasked with the responsibility of promoting the translation and printing of the Holy Bible. Being ignorant of ones history causes one to lose part of ones identity and pride in that identity, and one is therefore more vulnerable to attacks denouncing ones culture as inferior, especially if at the same time one is being taught the noble history of another culture. Metadata. After six years at St. Peters, Father Burke was named chaplain and professor of English literature at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Osu, Ghana. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. A second reason for the poor education of the mission schools was that in many cases the teachers in mission schools were unqualified as teachers, but were instead preachers by training. 2023 Society of the Divine Word. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. 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. Initially,. self help The pastors of the Church Missionary Society, from Badagry and later from Sierra Leone, visited these Christian communities in Abeokuta and other towns. It is possible to hear the tune of this missionary hymn. 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. One reason why the Christian missionaries came to Ghana and the rest of Africa was to convert the people to the Christian faith. 2 Longman Group Ltd. London 1974, Ampadu B.K Notes on History of Ghana for Senior High Schools. 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 original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. Another reason why the Europeans came to spread the Christian religion in Ghana was to pave their own way into eternal glory. The Missionary Factor in Ghana's Development, pp.11 &135 categorically asserted that economic and social changes were brought about by the total effect of the various projects initiated by the. Meanwhile, the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, had established a reputation in the Cross River area as a nurse. A large percentage of Ghanas 30 million people are nominally Christian (more than 70% as of the last census), and 28% consider themselves evangelical believers. Volunteers and donors to organizations such as Compassion Canada believe that they are being humanitarian when they build schools in Africa, volunteer as teachers or help in other ways to improve the quality of education in African nations, yet missionaries and colonial governments were similarly lauded as performing a great work of humanity (Beck 1966:117) and likewise believed that they were helping their African pupils. 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 . It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. senior high school economics Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. Containing 9,566 pages belonging to 77 documents housed in 6 volumes As outlined in the short history entitled. 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. churches were firmly established in several important towns, such as Abeokuta (1846), Lagos (1851), Ibadan (1853), and Oyo (1856). In 2011 at age 77, he retired from teaching and returned to the United States. The people received the message with indifference. Again, the missionaries persuaded Africans to abandon the practice of tribal marks. The expansion of the missionary movement into Africa was part of the growing conception of Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. 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 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. One of their scholarships is a drawing for $2,500. In the Gambia, the Methodist missionary and first principal of what later became known as the Gambia High School, the Rev. The quest for an all-inclusive development model of Ghana and other developing nations, therefore, calls for an insight into the role and responsibilities of religion toward education. Renewed evangelism started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). These included the Basel Missionary Society, founded in Switzerland, and the Breman Mission formed in Germany. The third, St Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College), was founded by the Anglican Church in 1910. Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. 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. Moreover, speaking through interpreters is a defective means of communicating ones thoughts to ones audience. As churches of the Volta Region begin reproducing, ABWE wants to reach out to Ghanas unreached people groups in its eight other regions. In the 19thh century, too, Afro-Brazilians returned to Benin and Nigeria with Catholicism. Africa Christian Press, 1996. However, the discovery of quinine and other curative medicines in the late 19th century made the history of the missionary work in West Africa a different thing altogether. Longman Nigeria Plc., 1994, Boahen, A.A. et al Tropics in West Africa History. 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. Rather, it denationalized and facilitated the indignity and loss of cultural identity of the Ghanaian. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. 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. People all around the world are searching for hope, but many dont have someone to tell them about the hope found in Jesus. 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. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! West Africa and Christianity. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone. The resulting atmosphere of disunity enabled the European colonialists to easily achieve their goal of economic exploitation. All rights reserved. hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i Daystar Press, 1978. 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. Christian missionaries were the first to introduce European-style education in sub-Saharan Africa. 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. B. et al. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. For that matter, they rebelled against their chiefs and elders. Private Study While living at the Divine Word Residence in Bordentown, N.J., he often visited parishes and schools to talk about missionary work. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. Again, the missionaries helped to pacify Africans while their rich natural resources were being plundered by the colonial government. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Ghana Education Service seeks to create an enabling environment in all educational institutions and management positions that will facilitate effective teaching and learning and efficiency in the management for the attainment of the goals of the Service. Teacher training colleges in Ghana did not expand as fast as the secondary schools. The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. This research was funded by the European Research Council. They worked tirelessly to lay a foundation for formal education The European missionaries established elementary and second-cycle institutions in the country. 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. Again, the Wesleyan missionaries established Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast in 1876. 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. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect their decisions. I also matched up locations that differed in proximity to the mission stations, but otherwise had similar preconditions for educational development. 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. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. 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. His immigrant Irish-born parents instilled faith and a firm work ethic in their sons. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. Operational Christianity started 267 Years ago. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. In Sierra Leone, the Church Missionary Society (CMS), offshoot of the Anglican Church, was the first to become firmly established chiefly among the freed captive and freed slave settlers from Britain, Nova Scotia and other parts of the New World. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. 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. The European missionaries believed that European culture was superior to African culture. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? 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). These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. 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. The latter, non-academic form of education provided by the missions has stimulated much interest among scholars, who are particularly interested in the failure of many of these schools and the hypocritical government support for the schools, seeing as the import of cheap goods from the mother countries caused many vocational school graduates, such as seamstresses, to be unemployed (Ayandele 1966:296; Foster 1965:134). Missionaries were no doubt also aware that Africans came to associate European technological achievement with Western education (Bassey 1991:45) and therefore offered Western education as a means to attract Africans of this belief and then convert them. 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. And thats why I decided to look deeply into this issue. 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. The training college later became part of Achimota College. 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. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. Schools were deemed important. We were expected to accept the European language as the superior one, and this was reinforced throughout my school career (Abu cited in Berman 1974:536). quiz Babalola, E. O. Christianity in West Africa. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. In 1858 the Rev. He told me that that amount of money could pay for school fees for five students in secondary school in Ghana.. A tiny act of kindness is remembered by a young man in need. There were several reasons for this poor education, some intentional and some not. In fact, most of the norms opposed by missionaries concerned gender relationships. The Society of the Divine Word is the world's largest Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work. The three models of Secondary education in Ghana since colonial times are the Mfantsipim School founded by the Church (mission) in 1876, Achimota School in 1927 established by the British Colonial government However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. 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). Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. For example, they made our people view polygamy and puberty rites as pagan practices. 1. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. 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). Among the first missionaries was the Rev. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. But the funds and other needed materials even when available could not reach their station in time. Lewis, Donald M., ed. The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. This conditioning was focused on norms that missionaries deemed incompatible with a Christian way of life. 3 (2002): 555-584. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. He professed vows in 1953 in Conesus, N.Y., and was ordained to the priesthood in 1961 at Techny, Ill. Africa and the Winder World 3. Another important German missionary was Wilhelm Johannson, better known by the English version of his name, William Johnson, who is revered in the history of the CMS in West Africa. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000. 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. 2006 - 2023 Microform Academic Publishers | Microform Academic Publishers is a division of Microform Imaging Limited (Company registered in England no. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. 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. Buchi Emecheta They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. The Christian missionaries have been credited with the discontinuation of some obnoxious traditional practices among Ghanaians. These attempts were traumatic for the students and threatened the survival of unique cultures. They did a lot to impact the social and economic lives of Africans. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. In Ghana, missions strategically weighted costs and benefits when choosing where to establish their churches and schools. 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. By focusing on the African demand for education, I showed that Africans were not just passive recipients of mission schooling. Henry Townsend who went from Sierra Leone to Badagry in 1842 in his company was the Rev Ajayi Crowther. Ralph teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) online. grammatical name hbbd```b``vd d"e ] DrI`5 d"(/ opened was the Christian Institute, established in 1814 for the training of teachers, catechists and priests. To their minds, Africans were too backward and needed help to become more civilized. The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. 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.
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