Purchase a license below to view the full collection. The expansion of the missionary movement into Africa was part of the growing conception of Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. C.M.S. The Basel Mission. These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. 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. 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. The Methodists founded Mfantsipim (1876) for boys and Wesley Girls High School (1884). 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. Joseph Dunwell. Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. 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). Thus, despite what the images of suffering African children on websites such as that of Compassion Canada might lead one to believe, it is time for Africans to educate their own, without any interference. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language, and in 1874 the Rev. PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. Given the fluctuating standards between schools and regions and the lack of qualified teachers in the mission schools which had monopolies in well into the mid-twentieth century, it should come as little surprise that the quality of education continues to be a concern in many former colonies. Economics Some of the missionaries came with them (549 years ago) but many died from the cruel tropical weather of forested West Africa. hbbd```b``vd d"e ] DrI`5 d"(/ I also matched up locations that differed in proximity to the mission stations, but otherwise had similar preconditions for educational development. senior high school government Indeed, most of our early nationalists were all products of mission schools. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. They provided missionaries a way to spread Eurocentric norms and attract new converts. Specifically, it addresses the unique role of Christian missions in. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. Henry Townsend who went from Sierra Leone to Badagry in 1842 in his company was the Rev Ajayi Crowther. 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. Despite the skills and opportunities mission schooling afforded, many Africans were not willing to pay the price. Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone. These Christian converts considered themselves to be holier than their traditional rulers and elders. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). 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). 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 The missionaries condemned African religion, music, art, festivals and customary practices. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. 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. Founded in 1875 by St. Arnold Janssen, we number more than 6,000 missionaries. All rights reserved. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. 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. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Ghana continued to call. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines. Establishment of Christian Churches In The Gambia. Again, the missionaries persuaded Africans to abandon the practice of tribal marks. Required fields are marked *. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into writing. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba, called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? Also, the traditional doctors more often than not could not diagnose illness accurately. Besides, the missionaries had to travel longer distances to inland towns from their southern stations. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. Arnold, 1986. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. There were related organizations that sprang up in Scandinavia, Holland and the USA. A new attempt to spread Christianity was made when the Church Missionary Society (CMS) arrived from Britain in 1821. Its general scope extends to both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant missionaries in relation to education works. A large body of studies show that missionaries had a lasting impact beyond their early years. Baker Pub Group, 1996. By focusing on the African demand for education, I showed that Africans were not just passive recipients of mission schooling. 3 (2002): 555-584. 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. Help those suffering in Turkey and Syria. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! 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. (As at December 2020). Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. Christian missionaries were the first to introduce European-style education in sub-Saharan Africa. For instance, in southern Nigeria, the CMS policy was to teach in the vernacular at the primary level, while the Roman Catholic Missions policy was to teach in English (Bassey 1991:42). The First Missionaries were sent as a result of a request by Major de Richelieu, Governor of Christiansborg. 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. 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. 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 weakening of traditional societies was not simply a consequence of the efforts of missionaries but one of their main objectives, stemming from their belief in the civilizing mission. Supporters of the civilizing mission believed that European colonial enterprises were justified as the Europeans were imparting their superior Western culture and ideas to the ignorant heathens of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia. Within ten years of Father Bergheros visit, the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria had become so well established that it ceased to be under administration from Dahomey. Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. Wm. 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. 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). Learn how your comment data is processed. They worked tirelessly to lay a foundation for formal education The European missionaries established elementary and second-cycle institutions in the country. With the exception of the first two volumes, marked "West Africa", these items are drawn from the volumes Series CWW. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. 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). document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Thus, because of the motive of proselytization, unqualified teachers, and inter-denominational rivalry, missions frequently provided poor education. Called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. 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 . Grammar School for Boys in 1859, St Gregorys College opened by the Catholics in 1876, Methodist Boys High School 1878 and Methodist Girls High School 1879. These included the Basel Missionary Society, founded in Switzerland, and the Breman Mission formed in Germany. Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. It is important to emphasize that the modern history of the Christian Mission in Africa started from the late Eighteenth Century, the Catholics had been there earlier in the first centuries of the Christian era especially during the first Portuguese adventures. New missionary societies (the LMS, the CMS, the Holy Ghost Fathers, the White Fathers, etc.) Alignment is the degree of congruence between your teaching philosophy and your institution's mission. Following agitation by the people in 1934, the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally. Hope Waddell started pioneering work, in 1846, in Calabar. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. We must not lose sight of the fact that the colonial government in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa relied on the activities of the missionaries to help them achieve the objectives of colonial rule. 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. Secondary Schools in the Protectorate started later, following the establishment of Bo Government Secondary School in 1906. One is led to ask, why this sudden development? The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. Africa Christian Press, 1996. To supplement these missionary efforts in the field of higher education, the government opened its own secondary school in Lagos in 1909, this was Kings College. The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. Soon after the Methodist experiment, the church Missionary Society set up their own school at Badagry. senior high school economics 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. 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. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in 1904. B. et al. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. Africa and the Winder World 3. Isichei, Elizabeth. Buchi Emecheta Amma Darko which were for females (Graham, 1971). Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba. This conditioning was focused on norms that missionaries deemed incompatible with a Christian way of life. Father Burke was preceded in death by his parents and his brother John. Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bremen, Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM), Universitt Bremen. The late Eighteenth Century witnessed the rise of Christian groups in Europe that resorted to the evangelization of Africa. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. There were no Bibles in local languages, likewise grammar books were scant, so the missionaries had to spend time learning local languages, and translated the Bible and wrote series of grammar books. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in 1855. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. In the field of education, however, the missionaries had to adjust their programmes to fit in with the policy of assimilation. 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. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. Discipleship and leadership development are needed in order to support local churches and their growth in Ghana. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. others adopted a system of education varied from one and the other hence, lacking consistency in the educational sector [3]. As happened in Ghana, the development of training colleges in Nigeria was slower than secondary schools, though the C. M. S. had opened the first training college at Abeokuta as far back as 1849. 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). 2 (1983): 116-143. (with Examples), Top 20 Topics in English for Academic Purposes, 7 Rules of Referencing and Citation in Academic Writing, 10 Importance of Referencing and Citation in Academic Writing, How to Get a Degree Without Going to High School, Joseph Rhodes Dunwell Methodist Missionary, 1835, Thomas Birch Freeman Methodist Missionary, 1838, Thomas Thompson Society for the Propagation of the Gospel/Anglican, 1752, Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast Methodist missionaries, Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast Methodist, Adisadel College, Cape Coast Anglican Missionaries, Holy Child School, Cape Coast Roman Catholic, St Augustines College, Cape Coast Roman Catholic, Archbishop Potter Girls School, Takoradi, Aburi Girls Secondary School Presbyterian, St Monicas High School, Mampong Anglican. Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Study for free with our range of university lectures! He moved to Techny in 2016. 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. This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . No plagiarism, guaranteed! A short history of education in British West Africa. Brief History. student life 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. However, the early missionaries established medical centres, at first at their mission posts, and later far and wide, to attend to the sick. In addition to studying the impact of these struggles on education, we also need to understand how they influenced gender inequality. In addition to contributing to fluctuating educational standards across the colony, inter-denominational rivalry caused a disparity in access to education. Hope Waddell of the Church of Scotland had opened a school at Duke Town, Calabar. The Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. independent learning Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. Schools were deemed important. 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. A history of African Christianity 1950-1975. 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. 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. The struggle over polygamy is well-known to historians and anthropologists. Prominent among the early Christian missionaries to come to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Basel, Bremen and Anglican missions. New team members can be part of establishing a biblical foundation for the next generation of believers, the growth of nationally-led churches, and church planting in Ghana. 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). In line with this, formal education in Ghana was started by the western traders and the missionaries by the 15th century through the 18th century respectively. WhatsApp : +233204700052 He was very simple in dress and in the use of modern technology, Father Tetteh said. 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. the role of administrators, chiefs and the missions; first attempts at agricultural and industrial training; girls' education and teacher training before 1850; some chief factors in educational expansion 1850-1900; government official policy in educational expansion 1850-1900; agricultural, industrial and vernacular training 1850-1900 cited in Miran 2002:128). The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . 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. essay writing His viewing and wake service took place on Sept. 26 at the chapel in the Divine Word Residence at Techny. opened, in Freetown, the first boys secondary school in the country and another for girls in 1849, later renamed the Annie Walsh Memorial School. Besides education, they cared for the sick. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. However, as Jonathan Miran (2002) argues in his work on the roles of missionaries and the Italian state in Eritrean education, missionaries should not be held solely accountable for the poor standards of education. Even if secondary education was provided, it was often reserved for the sons of local chiefs (Oliver 1952:212; Beck 1966: 120), an elite the colonial government could then call upon to help rule the colony, a common practice in colonial Africa. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. Hastings, Adrian. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. Are you ready to discover the points for an essay on the contribution of the Christian mission to the social and economic development of Ghana? They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Four volumes of incoming correspondence marked "West Africa" on the spine. While the Evangelical Presbyterian missionaries were the First to develop literature in Ewe, the Roman Catholics were responsible for Nzima literature. Initially,. hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i Indeed, once the souls had been saved and since the students must have been considered clever enough, European languages were almost universally the languages of instruction in the later primary years and in secondary schools (Beck 1966: 120; Foster 1965: 159; Miran 2002:127). Your email address will not be published. wassce literature questions. As a member of the Church of England, it interests me to see echoes of Christian educational efforts by organizations such as Compassion Canada in the educational efforts of the missionary branch of the Anglican Church, the Church Missionary Society, or CMS. 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. While it has brought undoubted benefits, it has also harmed the traditional way of life. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. Required fields are marked *. Father Burke became director of the Divine Word Language and Cultural Centre in Ghana. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially . Who is Mrs. Konrad in Second Class Citizen? In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. For instance, in Nigeria, one of the first groups of missionaries to introduce organised medical services were the Roman Catholics. Mission Statement Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. 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). Please read our privacy policy to find out more. It was difficult for the European missionaries to communicate freely with the local people. One of their scholarships is a drawing for $2,500. Not only did mission education strengthen colonial rule, but it also weakened traditional societies and implemented poor standards of Western education. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. The Ghana Education Decentralization Project (GEDP), launched in 2010 and ended in 2012, has increased the influence of local authorities over management . Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000. %%EOF A tiny act of kindness is remembered by a young man in need. In this essay on the impact of Christian missionary activities on Ghanaian society, we shall examine the role of the missionaries in the development of Ghana and the rest of Africa. The CMS began to work in the freed slave villages in Sierra Leone in 1804 and the Methodist in 1811. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Thank you! This post may contain affiliate links. Christianity in northern Nigeria. hb```,,g@( B(Pi xD r[e}v'$ImK *e()dP#jjTNl=VtN(%!30p0040tt0B GGc2m2@M``a$]x2\YkvIaB1b`h6f` (eAKPU d Now, with the burgeoning Cocoa industry, the expansion of commercial activity, the development of gold mines and the building of roads and railways disturbed the traditional lifestyle. Their activities had both positive and negative effects on Ghanaian society. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. In fact, the Christian missionaries encouraged Ghanaians to reject African names and choose Christian names instead. 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. Next, branches of the C.M.S. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. education was an important means for mission evangelization. However the superficial motivations and ideologies have changed, at the most basic level both contemporary Northern charities and nineteenth century missionaries share the belief that the North must come and save the suffering natives, which in the case of the missionaries, has been proven to have inflicted more harm than provided relief. 2 Longman Group Ltd. London 1974, Ampadu B.K Notes on History of Ghana for Senior High Schools. Missionaries and the intellectual history of Africa: a historical survey. Itinerario 7, no. Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher? 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. Besides being an online tutor, Ralph is an author and expert digital marketer with proven skills in SEO content writing. It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. Ralph teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) online. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in The early European Christian missionaries in West Africa experienced a number of difficulties, some arising from factors outside their control and others of their own making. The practice of inflicting multiple wounds on the bodies of so-called spirit babies now belongs to history. 26. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. But the funds and other needed materials even when available could not reach their station in time. Similar organizations were formed in several other European countries. homework help 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. Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. Besides education, they cared for the sick. This was around the same time that the first Portuguese sailors arrived on the coast of Ghana. In the same year as the Basel missionaries settled in Akuapem 1835 the Wesleyan (later Methodist) Church was established at Cape Coast by the Rev.
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