contribution of missionaries to education in ghana

Find below a list of mission schools that still exist in Ghana today. Please read our privacy policy to find out more. Kalu, Ogbu. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. Hugh Goldie and William Anderson. university courses Today almost all of the population is Presbyterian, although the ancestral royal cult and many spirit cults still flourish. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. The First Missionaries were sent as a result of a request by Major de Richelieu, Governor of Christiansborg. He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. 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. There were only bush paths, and no roads in the early times. The Christian missionaries of different missionary societies made a tremendous contribution to education in South Africa. 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. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. 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. Yes! Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. The school, which was established the year of independence in 1957, was a work in progress. For example, they preached against human sacrifice. In such situations, the message sometimes appealed to the local people depending on the efficiency of the interpreter. primarily purposed to outline the contributions of religion and education to national development in Ghana. Thus by training Africans to fill only the lower levels of the colonial administration and providing skilled workers from the vocational and agricultural schools who contributed to the economy and were less likely to question colonial rule than more educated Africans, mission schools helped to strengthen colonial rule. In 1981, Father Burke was promoted to headmaster and rector of Pope John XXIII Secondary School and Minor Seminary in Koforidua. Initially, their activities focused on coastal areas. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. Thus, as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. 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 Henry Townsend who went from Sierra Leone to Badagry in 1842 in his company was the Rev Ajayi Crowther. One Liberian student recalls that we were taught to dress properly, to eat properly, to speak properly. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. 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. The Methodists, known as the Wesleyan Missionaries (after their founder), arrived in Freetown in 1811. 3 (2002): 555-584. For instance the scholar E.A. As Ayandele points out (1966:285), the ideal of many of the missions was to make their converts live literally as the unlearned and ignorant apostles of old. This ideal, combined with the fact that many missionaries discovered that Africans with only basic education were best at spreading the Gospel, meant that missionaries were reluctant to provide higher primary or secondary education (Ayandele 1966:286). This box contains: the correspondence of Bishop See thematic groupings of our digital collections, See all of our digital collections in one place, Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951, Copies of letters received, 1890-1927; West Africa, vol. People all around the world are searching for hope, but many dont have someone to tell them about the hope found in Jesus. This study simply offers systematic, long-term evidence of it. Series CLR. They even considered traditional drumming and African clothing as practices that were not worthy in the sight of the Lord. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. Among several others, the native Bishop Ajayi Crowther produced the first translation of the Bible in Yoruba. They discovered that the holy book did not clearly prescribe monogamy, and contained several examples of renowned Christian polygamists. Isichei, Elizabeth. %%EOF 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. Vol. 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. The pastors of the Church Missionary Society, from Badagry and later from Sierra Leone, visited these Christian communities in Abeokuta and other towns. The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. 1. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. Thank you! West Africa and Christianity. They relied very much on their home churches for their funds. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. 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. Indeed, the quality of the education could be so poor that the colonial governments complained, as in the case of the Nigerian government, which complained that the secondary school graduates provided by the missions were illiterate and ignorant and therefore poorly suited to fill the lower levels of the administration (Ayandele 1966:294-5). Two other training colleges opened by the missionaries, in the early days, were the Wesley College in Kumasi (1922) and the Roman Catholic Training College at Amisano, near Elmina (1931) which in 1936 moved to the campus of the newly founded secondary school, St Augustines College at Cape Coast. I well remember when he came to live with me in Trenton. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. With the arrival of more missions into the country came an explosion in mission schools across southern Ghana. J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. Secondary Schools in the Protectorate started later, following the establishment of Bo Government Secondary School in 1906. One method of discouraging traditional practices was to give students a fully Western education. New missionary societies (the LMS, the CMS, the Holy Ghost Fathers, the White Fathers, etc.) These commercial activities, therefore, made an important contribution to the economic development of Ghana. 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. After an unsuccessful beginning by the society of African Missions (SMA), this missionary body moved into other territories in what is now Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. And yet this was what earlier missionaries in pagan Europe had done when, for example, they had changed the Sabbath to suit the pagan Sun Day (hence Sunday), and had also adopted the dates of the pagan festivals to celebrate Christmas Day and the Easter festival. The coming of the Christian missionaries to Ghana had a positive impact on agriculture. 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. The result is that today, many Africans are alienated from their authentic ways of life. The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. The reservation of high-level positions in the colonial administrations for Europeans and the corresponding mission education that provided education fit only for lower positions meant that the withdrawal of European rule could cause serious political instability in the newly independent colonies. Establishment of Christian Churches In Sierra Leone. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. 2023 Society of the Divine Word. These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. 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. Success followed the efforts of the pioneer missionaries. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. The Basel Mission. Brief History. Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. 503 0 obj <> endobj In due course leprosariums and orphanages were built to supplement their medical services. 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. Schools were deemed important. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. In 2006, Father Burke was appointed lecturer at the newly founded Catholic University College of Ghana in Sunyani. The CMS began to work in the freed slave villages in Sierra Leone in 1804 and the Methodist in 1811. Their converts, for many years, were confined to the people of southern Nigerian extraction resident in the north, and to the-large non-Muslim population of the north. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. Within ten years the C.M.S had opened twelve more schools in what is today Cross Rivers State. In 1858 the Rev. It also talks about all the mission societies from all denominations engaged in educational works. However, with time, they brought some crops, which they cultivated and which sustained them. 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. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. As an institution introduced by agents with radically different values, the Christian religion damaged the culture and traditional beliefs of the people of West Africa. 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. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. WAEC Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect their decisions. Under the Basel Missions Salem system, converts were separated from the traditional society. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. A.G. Frazer, did much to encourage the promotion of indigenous culture, but by and large the colonial authorities contributed to dwindling a good deal of our cultural heritage. The others included the Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. 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. homework help document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. A new era began with the settlements of Black Christians from Nova Scotia in Sierra Leone in 1787 and the missionary advance inland from Cape Town beginning with the arrival there of J. T. van der Kemp in 1799. However, the early missionaries established medical centres, at first at their mission posts, and later far and wide, to attend to the sick. We shall now turn our attention to the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. skills for his or her future role in the society (Hetherington, 1979; Davidoff, 1980; Aboagye, 1997). Was this information useful? 2006 - 2023 Microform Academic Publishers | Microform Academic Publishers is a division of Microform Imaging Limited (Company registered in England no. There were related organizations that sprang up in Scandinavia, Holland and the USA. 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). While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. A short history of education in British West Africa. Frank Ogodo Ogbeche 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. 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. 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. Help those suffering in Turkey and Syria. Other difficulties they 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. The copies of letters received, 1890-1927, mention the plan from 1914 to gain control of future Ashanti Chiefs using education. The work of the missionaries also had little success initially. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. Vol. 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. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, France encouraged Roman Catholic missionaries right from the start of her colonial activities in West Africa. Next, branches of the C.M.S. A history of Christianity in Ghana. His funeral Mass was Sept. 27, followed by burial at St. Mary Cemetery at Techny. Although Lokoja had a small C.M.S. Unlike the Portuguese, the French colonial officials encouraged the Christian missionaries in the promotion of formal education and social services, notably health. First, alignment can help you communicate your . 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. A notable example was the Asafo Company, a purely military and social organisation of the peoples of Ghana, which was condemned by the early missionaries because of its presumed connection with fetish practices. 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. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. 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). Shaw, Mark. 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. "Big things have small beginnings"; so is The Presbyterian Church of Ghana. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. In December 1868 he went with his wife and child to Anum in the present-day Volta Region of Ghana. C.M.S. Some of the missionaries came with them (549 years ago) but many died from the cruel tropical weather of forested West Africa. Among other missionary hospitals of long standing and reputation are those run by the Methodists at Wenkyi in the Brong-Ahafo Region, and by the Seventh Day Adventists at Kwahu Atibie in the Eastern Region. Crampton, Edmund Patrick Thurman. Clarke, Peter Bernard. 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. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. Kalu, Ogbu. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . The first Europeans arrived at the West-African Coasts at the end of the fifteenth century. 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. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Moravian Mission, the Mission of Bremen, the Methodists, and Roman Catholic missionaries all established themselves on the Gold Coast (Ghana) between 1820 and 1881, opening elementary schools for boys and girls . But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. A new attempt to spread Christianity was made when the Church Missionary Society (CMS) arrived from Britain in 1821. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. 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. The Ghana Education Decentralization Project (GEDP), launched in 2010 and ended in 2012, has increased the influence of local authorities over management . Ramseyer had at first not intended a missionary sojourn in Ashanti. In 1858 ten years after the founding of the first college, the Presbyterians opened a sister college at Aburi for the training of women teachers. Being ignorant of the significance of certain institutions and practices of the people of West Africa, and occasionally being misled by their over-zealous followings into wrongly interpreting the peoples heritage, the missionaries compelled pupils in their schools and docile adult converts to shun their own ancestral practices. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. Rev. Father Burke was preceded in death by his parents and his brother John. By February 2, 1918, all Basel missionaries had been deported from the Gold Coast. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). The late Eighteenth Century witnessed the rise of Christian groups in Europe that resorted to the evangelization of Africa. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. The Christian religion teaches the doctrine of one supreme God and is opposed to the worship of any other forms of deity. The training college later became part of Achimota College. 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. 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. Ekechi, Felix K. Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 19001915. The Journal of African History 12, no. Initially,. When he arrived in Nkwatia-Kwahu to teach English at St. Peters Secondary School, the town had yet to benefit from electricity and running water. But with the abolition of slavery, the introduction of cocoa, and the Churchs efficient school system, she gradually became the Church of the social elite. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. 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. 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. (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.

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