This post may contain affiliate links. mock tests The original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. During the first half of the 19th century they targeted healthier places, with relatively lower malaria-risk, where European missionaries could survive and train local African missionaries and teachers (Jedwab et al. A special memorial Mass was celebrated at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 9. The Journal of Negro Education, 8 8 The Effect of Western Formal The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. Missionaries and the intellectual history of Africa: a historical survey. Itinerario 7, no. Etherington, Norman. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. 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. In Ghana, for instance, they persuaded their converts to reject polygamy and human sacrifice. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. 1. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. 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. Included on the website is information about the charitys programs, such as their Leadership Development Program in which participants earn a degree in their chosen field of study, and participate in Christian leadership training, enabling them to become a fully developed agent of change in their nation (Compassion Canada 2011). Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. The European Christian missions preached the Gospel, built churches, and seminaries translated the Bible to Ghanaian Languages such as Ewe, Ga, and Twi. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. 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. "Big things have small beginnings"; so is The Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Please click this link to download the chapter. It is interesting to note that this project is not a new concept. All rights reserved. government questions Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. Young Vincent began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word at Divine Word Seminary at Miramar in Massachusetts in 1947. They had to speak through few interpreters who did not have sufficient education to interpret correctly. To their minds, Africans were too backward and needed help to become more civilized. Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. Lake Volta provides a vital venue for aviation evangelism in remote areas. The country has diverse geography, people groups, and languageswith English as the common language, and more than 11 others with state recognition. For instance, on 2nd October 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed followed by the interdenominational London Missionary Society which was established in 1795. Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. Called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. 1991. The Contribution of christian missionaries to education in Meru 1908-1963. past questions Email: henrydonsco@gmail.com 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). Already have a license? 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. In this chapter, we shall examine how Christianity and Western-style education influenced West Africans values, attitudes and life-styles. Mission societies often expanded into territories before colonial powers did, and providing education only cost them a little more. The result is that today, many Africans are alienated from their authentic ways of life. Through hard work and persuasion she succeeded in stopping the practice among the people of killing twins. It also plays an important role in organization of inheritances within matrilineal houses and thus exerts influence from a legal point of view. Indeed, in some situations the converts were taught to feel that they were absolved from obeying their own traditional rulers and certain laws of the state. PDF Educational Reforms in Ghana: Past and Present Samuel Adu-Gyamfi1 James Fieldhouse, produced a Wolof Grammar in 1876. The tropical climatic condition in the country was not favourable to the early missionaries who came to the shores of West Africa. The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. Hildebrandt, Jonathan. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. The history of education in Ghana from the earliest times to the Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. For that matter, they rebelled against their chiefs and elders. Even when governments discouraged domestic industries, graduates of vocational schools contributed to the economy of the colonies -and therefore indirectly the mother countrys as well. 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. The History of Christianity in West Africa. The Basel missionaries, in particular, established experimental farms and plantations in places like Akropong. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. In 1989-90, the government banned the activities of several religious organizations, including the Church. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero. The Methodist Church Ghana came into existence as a result of the missionary activities of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, inaugurated with the arrival of Joseph Rhodes Dunwell to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1835.Like the mother church, the Methodist Church in Ghana was established by people of Anglican background. Lastly, the missionaries were not used to eating our local foods. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Its general scope extends to both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant missionaries in relation to education works. 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. A tiny act of kindness is remembered by a young man in need. Mission Statement In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Consequently, they couldnt do much to promote the cultivation of food crops like maize, cassava, cocoyam and plantain. The First Missionaries were sent as a result of a request by Major de Richelieu, Governor of Christiansborg. For this reason, missionaries believed they were doing their students a favour by discouraging traditional practices and promoting Western ones. His work, however, did not extend much beyond Cape Coast and the neighbouring area. Copyright 2023 ABWE. Thus, as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. These commercial activities, therefore, made an important contribution to the economic development of Ghana. Before we examine the contribution of Christian missionaries in Ghana, we need to identify the missionaries that came to Ghana. The Christian missionaries have been credited with the discontinuation of some obnoxious traditional practices among Ghanaians. These trends occasionally brought kings into conflict with the missionaries and their converts. In fact, the Christian missionaries encouraged Ghanaians to reject African names and choose Christian names instead. Find below a list of mission schools that still exist in Ghana today. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. Another difficulty that the early missionaries faced in the spread of Christianity was insufficient Christian literature at that time. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. 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. Instruction in the Colonial School and the Wesleyan Mission schools at Cape Coast Castle was in English despite the fact that Fanti was the language of the native people. 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). The coming of the Christian missionaries to Ghana had a positive impact on agriculture. Reiterating what teacher education must encapsulate, Adegoke (2003) and Benneh (2006) indi-cated that the mission of Ghana's teacher education is to pro- The resulting atmosphere of disunity enabled the European colonialists to easily achieve their goal of economic exploitation. Required fields are marked *. It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. A short history of education in British West Africa. 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. 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. Other missionaries opened mission stations in the country. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. Not only did mission education strengthen colonial rule, but it also weakened traditional societies and implemented poor standards of Western education. The missionaries seemed to have concentrated much of their effort on the production of export crops. History books tended to exaggerate in achievements of Europeans, making no reference to Africans own great past. 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. In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. The foreign exchange earnings helped to develop Ghanas infrastructure. 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. Joseph Dunwell. Literature Thus as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic Sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. 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). First, I looked at how educational outcomes depended on the distance to historical missions. 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. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines. 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. Catholic Higher Education and Mission in Nigeria: The Contributions of Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. Looking for a flexible role? He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. Despite the skills and opportunities mission schooling afforded, many Africans were not willing to pay the price. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. In due course leprosariums and orphanages were built to supplement their medical services. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. WAEC Babalola, E. O. Christianity in West Africa. Box 2 of the papers relating to the Society's activities in West Africa. In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. The next major Christian missionaries to go out to Sierra Leone were the Roman Catholics. Father Burke, whose students included Father Tetteh and Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, arrived in Ghana, West Africa, in 1963, only four years after the country gained independence from Great Britain. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951 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. 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. Among several others, the native Bishop Ajayi Crowther produced the first translation of the Bible in Yoruba. Senior High School Literature After a time the idea becomes ingrained -it is heathen and unchristian to be an African culturally (Awori cited in Berman 1974:536). 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). 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. For instance, in Nigeria, one of the first groups of missionaries to introduce organised medical services were the Roman Catholics. Then lets begin straightaway. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. 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. life skills Rev. From 1835 to the middle of the nineteenth century the Church was in opposition to traditional religion. hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i 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. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. 2018). Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana - Cegast Academy Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. Christian Missionaries and Education: Presbyterian Educational 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. The Christian religion teaches the doctrine of one supreme God and is opposed to the worship of any other forms of deity. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, France encouraged Roman Catholic missionaries right from the start of her colonial activities in West Africa. A notable example, in Ghana, was the Methodist experimental farm near Cape Coast whose crops included cotton, coffee, black pepper, mango, ginger, cinnamon and olive trees. Mission schools provided a steady stream of educated Africans capable of filling the lower levels of the colonial administration and operated vocational and agricultural schools (Ayandele 1966: 295; Foster 1965: 90-91; Sheffield 1973: 10-11). A history of Christianity in Ghana. 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. Besides education, they cared for the sick. There were related organizations that sprang up in Scandinavia, Holland and the USA. 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 . After completing that assignment, Father Burkes superiors asked him to teach English as a second language (ESL) to Divine Word missionaries who did not know the language. Ghana Missionaries | Learn about Christian missions efforts in Ghana - ABWE Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries came to the Gold Coast from the 15th century. But that increase was greater in monogamous societies. Before 1925, there were only three secondary schools and three teacher training colleges in Ghana. 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. For several years they paid attention to slave trade rather than evangelization and Christianization of the people of West-Africa. In 1954, he became the first Deaf African American to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University, the American university for the Deaf, and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University.He earned a second master's degree from Seattle Pacific Christian . Both the academic and vocational forms of education the missions provided served to strengthen the rule of the colonial powers, so that the native inhabitants were second-class citizens in their own land. 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. In addition to studying the impact of these struggles on education, we also need to understand how they influenced gender inequality. Their luggage and other necessities had to be carried on heads and took a long time before reaching the missionaries. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. They relied very much on their home churches for their funds. This conditioning was focused on norms that missionaries deemed incompatible with a Christian way of life. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. 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. But with colonial conquest and antimalarial drugs, they moved further into the continent. 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. Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. Last, missionaries provided a very poor education, causing their students to be ill-equipped for social or material success, as they believed education to simply be a means for proselytization, were unqualified teachers, and allowed inter-denominational rivalries to interfere. The missionary and colonial education aimed at character training and civilization resulted in cultural annihilation and religious, and linguistic hegemony. According to the Head of the Methodist Church in Ghana, Mmofraturo was established in Kumasi, 'when it dawned on the early Wesleyan Missionaries that when the girl child was educated, she could grow up to face the challenges of the fast-changing world. Because of rivalry, instead of building one common, multi-denominational school in a village that really only needed the one school, missionaries each built a school for their particular denomination and competed for students (Berman 1974:533). The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. Although most people are Presbyterians, they can also go to spirit and other cults, mostly Christian and Pentecostal movements, to find cures for disease and lack of success in this world. The training college later became part of Achimota College. Arnold, 1986. The mission schools trained Africans to be able to work as translators, messengers and office clerks for the colonial government. The Basel Mission. 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. Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. Purchase a license below to view the full collection. The governor had observed the bad moral life of the Europeans in the fort. The Portuguese were the first to introduce the Christian faith into West Africa but following their departure from the West Coast in the mid-seventeenth century, the Christian religion survived only in Upper Guinea where a bishop was maintained in the Cape Verde Islands serving also a part of the mainland. This study simply offers systematic, long-term evidence of it. 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. 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. 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. The Christian missionaries of different missionary societies made a tremendous contribution to education in South Africa. 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. 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. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in 1855, the C.M.S. ASSESS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA. 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. 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. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. Without denying that prior to the introduction of Christianity in West Africa the people had developed their own crafts, one must admit that it was Christian missionaries who introduced modern forms of crafts such as carpentry and masonry. These new movements considered such ventures to be their contribution to Europes reparation for centuries of exploitation of Africans, reparation for the centuries of exploitation which the Trans Atlantic slave trade had caused to African society. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. Of the ten largest congregations for men, the Society of the Divine Word is the fastest growing over the past 50 years. He professed vows in 1953 in Conesus, N.Y., and was ordained to the priesthood in 1961 at Techny, Ill. bible knowledge Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The missionaries believed that in order to stabilize the faith of converts and to assist in character development, it was necessary that they should be able to read the scriptures or other books of religious instruction, translated by the missions.