contribution of missionaries to education in ghana

began work in many parts of Africa. Ayandele (1966:283), writing in the 1960s, says, By their [the missions] efforts the main languages of Nigeria have been preserved as a lasting legacy to the Ibo, Yoruba, Efik, Nupe and Hausa. However, this practice was in fact probably more due to stereotypes of African ignorance than an interest in being culturally respectful: missionaries may have believed that it would take too long to teach a superior European language to the unintelligent natives when the natives souls were in such desperate need of saving. It offered the most direct path towards prestigious jobs in colonial administrations and European enterprises. The achievement of the purpose of these Christian Missions came with some costs. Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. A History of West Africa, Cambridge University Press, 1969, Fynn , J. K and R. Addo-Fening History for Senior Secondary schools. I well remember when he came to live with me in Trenton. The activities of the early Christian missionaries negatively affected the development of African traditional political institutions. That missionaries used the vernacular illustrates the fact that missionaries were principally evangelists, and that they considered their other roles, including their role as educators, as less important. First, missions saw education foremost as a means of conversion (Ayandele 1966: 286; Bassey 1991: 36; Berman 1974:527; Foster 1965:85; Sheffield 1973:11). 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. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. The Rev. PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. The high temperatures coupled with high rainfall patterns in some parts of the country experienced during the daytime, made the missionaries stay indoors, which slowed down their activities. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. Consequently, they couldnt do much to promote the cultivation of food crops like maize, cassava, cocoyam and plantain. Literature Debrunner, Hans Werner. 517 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<2E41B338ACB2B2110A00B08D5A5CFE7F>]/Index[503 20]/Info 502 0 R/Length 86/Prev 357984/Root 504 0 R/Size 523/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream If a government fails to regulate schools at all, they have no right to complain that the education in their colony is poor. 1. The evangelical societies founded in the Americas included the Baptist Missionary Board and the Nova Scotian Methodists, whose members went to work among the Maroons, who had settled mainly in Liberia. African poetry And yet the Asafo provided most of the services which a community needed: protection against military attacks, communal services, etc. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero. 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. 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 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 Further, the missionaries introduced improved methods of farming together with modern farm implements. bible knowledge From 1835 to the middle of the nineteenth century the Church was in opposition to traditional religion. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. 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. History He told me that that amount of money could pay for school fees for five students in secondary school in Ghana.. 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? famous poems hb```,,g@( B(Pi xD r[e}v'$ImK *e()dP#jjTNl=VtN(%!30p0040tt0B GGc2m2@M``a$]x2\YkvIaB1b`h6f` (eAKPU d In 1981, Father Burke was promoted to headmaster and rector of Pope John XXIII Secondary School and Minor Seminary in Koforidua. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. Brief History. 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. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. People all around the world are searching for hope, but many dont have someone to tell them about the hope found in Jesus. 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. These commercial activities, therefore, made an important contribution to the economic development of Ghana. 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. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. Although modern scientific research has confirmed the medicinal properties of these concoctions, traditional medical practice had several shortcomings. The Ghana Education Decentralization Project (GEDP), launched in 2010 and ended in 2012, has increased the influence of local authorities over management . The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. 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. Joseph Dunwell. More women than men attend church, and the more strict churchgoers tend to be wealthier and of higher social status than less churchgoers or non-Presbyterians. This made it difficult for the early missionaries to stay in the country for long. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. In 2006, Father Burke was appointed lecturer at the newly founded Catholic University College of Ghana in Sunyani. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. further studies Finally, education affects many other aspects of peoples lives, including economic opportunities and political attitudes. He moved to Techny in 2016. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. For instance, the Basel Mission established the first teacher training college in Ghana. Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. Mission societies often expanded into territories before colonial powers did, and providing education only cost them a little more. Burns & Oates, 1979. In Ghana, missions strategically weighted costs and benefits when choosing where to establish their churches and schools. 2236624), The beginning of Africanisation : the dawn of the missionary motive in Gold Coast education, Early colonial and missionary records from West Africa, West Indies material in the archives of the USPG, 1710-1950. Porter, Andrew. Its message was that of love and the universal brotherhood of mankind. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, France encouraged Roman Catholic missionaries right from the start of her colonial activities in West Africa. Request Permissions. Another contribution of missionaries to the development of Ghana was their pioneering role in writing many local languages. The missionary and colonial education aimed at character training and civilization resulted in cultural annihilation and religious, and linguistic hegemony. Help those suffering in Turkey and Syria. For instance, in the Salisbury region of Rhodesia, it was reported in 1924 that no male teachers had educational qualifications (Bone 1969:28). Unsurprisingly, the level of education increased as one moved closer to the missionaries. This single problem made the missionary work very difficult. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. He knew me as a boy [in Ghana] who washed his car and went with him when he said Mass at mission stations, yet [as an adult] he treated me as an equal, Father Tetteh said. In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. senior high school government 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. Soon after the start of elementary schools, the missionaries started opening higher institutions also. 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. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Besides being an online tutor, Ralph is an author and expert digital marketer with proven skills in SEO content writing. A permanent station was established in Lagos in 1868, soon followed by others at Lokoja, Abeokuta and Ibadan. Father Burke spent more than half of his lifealmost 50 yearsin Ghana on the West Coast of Africa, said Father Edward Tetteh SVD, pastor of Blessed Sacrament-Our Lady of Divine Shepherd in Trenton, N.J. During his many years in Ghana, since he worked mostly in educational institutions, he produced excellent professionals: teachers, priests, ministers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, journalists and many others who work in different parts of the world.. The government gave grants according to the strength of the staff and the efficiency of the school judged by inspection reports and the results of public examinations. 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. WhatsApp : +233204700052 Upon completing his degree, Father Burke received his first assignment abroad: Ghana, the first Black sub-Saharan country in Africa to gain independence from a colonial power. Later that year, in recognition of his service to the Ghanaian people, President John Dramani Mahama bestowed the honor of Officer of the Order of Volta upon him. 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. Success followed the efforts of the pioneer missionaries. Operational Christianity started 267 Years ago. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . The impact of Christianity on West African society has persisted to this day. This was around the same time that the first Portuguese sailors arrived on the coast of Ghana. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. Efforts to change these norms were often aimed at women. Furthermore, missionaries, believing in the civilizing mission, attempted to disintegrate traditional society through education by choosing academic subjects, such as the histories of the Western colonial powers, that illustrated the superiority of the Western culture, as well as by teaching about the superiority of the West in non-academic matters such as hygiene. English for life Sign in to view the collection. A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate. Some of these effects are still with us today. To put it differently, the motive was to gain acceptance in the sight of God so that after death they would be judged kindly by the heavenly father. But despite the work of Portuguese missionaries based on the island of Sao Tome and later of Spanish missionaries in Benin, it was not until the nineteenth century that the Christian religion was firmly established in Nigeria. 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. A member of the CMS, Henry Venn, boasted that the mission schools of Nigeria would produce an educated African elite that could form an intelligent and influential class of society and become the founders of a Kingdom which shall render incalculable benefits to Africa (Venn cited in Bassey 1991:37). In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in the name of Father Burke can be made for the care of elderly and infirm missionaries and sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Moreover, it was not in the colonial powers interest for the natives to become too educated, as they might become self-reliant and could conceivably demand independence from the colonial power, so encouraging the less intellectual agricultural schools was in the governments interest. All rights reserved. A tiny act of kindness is remembered by a young man in need. 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). The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. In the Gambia, as happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the Gospel alone. Soon after, in 1835 they moved up to Akropong on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. They worked tirelessly to lay a foundation for formal education The European missionaries established elementary and second-cycle institutions in the country. 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. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially . In this chapter, we shall examine how Christianity and Western-style education influenced West Africans values, attitudes and life-styles.

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