contribution of missionaries to education in ghana

Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. This special relationship continued until 1960 when Fourah Bay became a college of the newly reconstituted University of Sierra Leone; the other constituent college located at Njala developed from a training college founded in 1920. famous poems which were for females (Graham, 1971). Other difficulties the early Christians 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. About the same time, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) headed by the Rev. Another important Catholic missionary in this area was the Irishman, Bishop Shanahan. This study simply offers systematic, long-term evidence of it. Containing 9,566 pages belonging to 77 documents housed in 6 volumes As outlined in the short history entitled. These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. 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). Free resources to assist you with your university studies! We shall begin with the positive contribution of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. self help To apply, students simply fill out a quick form. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect their decisions. The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. 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. churches were firmly established in several important towns, such as Abeokuta (1846), Lagos (1851), Ibadan (1853), and Oyo (1856). And thats why I decided to look deeply into this issue. The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . This company promoted the import and export trade in Ghana. In Fanteland, the Methodists and Roman Catholics pioneered similar works. 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. Agricultural school graduates did not compete with European industries or European farmers, as they mainly grew crops that could not be grown in European climates. Four volumes of incoming correspondence marked "West Africa" on the spine. Establishment of Christian Churches In Ghana. 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. 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. In 1827 it grew into Fourah Bay College. 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 resulting atmosphere of disunity enabled the European colonialists to easily achieve their goal of economic exploitation. The Basel Mission. This thesis discusses and assesses contribution of Christian Missionaries to education in Meru from 1908 to 1963. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. 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. 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. Although the aim of the traders was to practice commerce As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. Please read our privacy policy to find out more. 1991. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in 1904. senior high school English Introduction, spread and effects, 6: Christian Missionary Activities in West Africa, 7: Scramble for and Partition of West Africa, 9: Problems of Independent West African States, 10: West Africa and International Organizations, 11: Women and Authority in West African History, 12: The Environment in West African History. In Ghana, missions strategically weighted costs and benefits when choosing where to establish their churches and schools. Father Vincent Burke SVD, 83, recipient of Ghanas Officer of the Order of Volta Award, passed away at Techny, Ill., on Sept. 21. The foreign exchange earnings helped to develop Ghanas infrastructure. Its general scope extends to both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant missionaries in relation to education works. 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. 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. A special memorial Mass was celebrated at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 9. Today, local communities and ethnic groups that were more exposed to mission schools, still achieve higher levels of education, when compared to communities where there were no schools. J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. There were several reasons for this poor education, some intentional and some not. Copyright 2023 ABWE. Also the missionaries set up model farms where scientific agriculture was taught and new crops were introduced for the people, to go alongside longstanding indigenous production. Young Vincent began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word at Divine Word Seminary at Miramar in Massachusetts in 1947. 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. 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. The people received the message with indifference. Looking for a flexible role? opened, in Freetown, the first boys secondary school in the country and another for girls in 1849, later renamed the Annie Walsh Memorial School. The struggle over polygamy is well-known to historians and anthropologists. 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). Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. Among the first missionaries was the Rev. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. These commercial activities, therefore, made an important contribution to the economic development of Ghana. However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. 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. 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). He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The governor had observed the bad moral life of the Europeans in the fort. Wed love to get to know you and discuss how God is calling you. The missionary impact on education would have far-reaching consequences, as their creation of a weak basis of education would slow down the political and educational development of many former colonies in Africa. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, France encouraged Roman Catholic missionaries right from the start of her colonial activities in West Africa. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? DISCLOSURE. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. People all around the world are searching for hope, but many dont have someone to tell them about the hope found in Jesus. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). The study examines the historical foundations of Western education in Meru and factors that influenced its development. Under the Basel Missions Salem system, converts were separated from the traditional society. The problems created by the white missionaries themselves arose largely from a misconception of what Africa represented. The early success of the missionaries included areas like Freetown and surrounding villages. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. In 1858 the Rev. Clarke, Peter Bernard. 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. As founder and director at CEGAST, he has successfully coached thousands of students in English, Literature, and related subjects for major international examinations. 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. Among other things the regulations required that all teachers should be registered, and a minimum salary was fixed. 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. 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. 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. 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. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. past questions Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. Hope Waddell started pioneering work, in 1846, in Calabar. university courses Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. As happened in other West African countries, many more mission-sponsored hospitals were founded in the course of the twentieth century. For example, they made our people view polygamy and puberty rites as pagan practices. Ghana continued to call. Missionaries and the intellectual history of Africa: a historical survey. Itinerario 7, no. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. 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 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. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. wassce literature questions. Ralph teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) online. He was very simple in dress and in the use of modern technology, Father Tetteh said. Third, rivalry between the various Christian denominations also contributed to the poor standards of education. He is survived by two brothers, Walter and Kevin Burke. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The traditions and values of the community, as well as the meaning of life, were taught to the child. 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. It is one of the oldest continuously published periodicals by and about Black people. All rights reserved. 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. Efforts to change these norms were often aimed at women. It is possible to hear the tune of this missionary hymn. 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. They had to speak through few interpreters who did not have sufficient education to interpret correctly. For the West Africans, the acceptance of Christianity meant the total rejection of most of the cherished institutions upon which their society rested. Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. Box 2 of the papers relating to the Society's activities in West Africa. Ekechi, Felix K. Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 19001915. The Journal of African History 12, no. Another reason why the Europeans came to spread the Christian religion in Ghana was to pave their own way into eternal glory. Thus, as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. In spite of the division, the parent Methodist missionary church played an important role in the history of Christianity in Sierra Leone. Brief History. Already have a license? The CMS began to work in the freed slave villages in Sierra Leone in 1804 and the Methodist in 1811. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. Sign in to view the collection. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. Christian Missionaries. This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. ASSESS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA. His request to the Danish Crown for missionaries was forwarded to . This conditioning was focused on norms that missionaries deemed incompatible with a Christian way of life. horse property for rent decatur, tx, coyote hunting tournament rules, why do we make an ahh'' sound after drinking,