Next, branches of the C.M.S. First, alignment can help you communicate your . While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana - Cegast Academy ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in 1904. Your email address will not be published. It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. 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. 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. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S. 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. Ghana Missionaries | Learn about Christian missions efforts in Ghana - ABWE These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in 1855. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. In regions where a denomination felt threatened by another denomination, the denominations were more likely to establish more schools in an attempt to gain more converts than their rival, while in regions such as northern Nigeria, where colonial policy prevented too much rivalry, schools were scarce (Bassey 1991:45). The copies of letters received, 1890-1927, mention the plan from 1914 to gain control of future Ashanti Chiefs using education. 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. 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. All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions. Some of these effects are still with us today. Through academic lessons and lessons on Western etiquette and hygiene, mission students were isolated from their traditional cultures, a traumatic experience that would continue to trouble many students for the rest of their lives. Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. After a time the idea becomes ingrained -it is heathen and unchristian to be an African culturally (Awori cited in Berman 1974:536). Development of Education in Sierra Leone. Called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. This comes at no extra cost to you. They were followed by other major missionary bodies, including the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. A short history of education in British West Africa. The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. African prose Learn how your comment data is processed. Then share it on your favourite social media platform for the benefit of others you care about. 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. 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. skills for his or her future role in the society (Hetherington, 1979; Davidoff, 1980; Aboagye, 1997). 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. In 1892, the Church Missionary Society opened the Iyi Enu Hospital in Onitsha which is today a leading hospital in Anambra state. 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. Ekechi, Felix K. Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 19001915. The Journal of African History 12, no. Four volumes of incoming correspondence marked "West Africa" on the spine. However, with time, they brought some crops, which they cultivated and which sustained them. 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. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. 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. I wanted to buy a smartphone for him, but when he got to know the price of the cell phone, he humbly declined. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. Besides education, they cared for the sick. Some observers have argued that the Europeans used the Christian bible to justify the practice of slavery and the slave trade. Father Burke was preceded in death by his parents and his brother John. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. This company promoted the import and export trade in Ghana. CUP Archive, 1979. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Another contribution of missionaries to the development of Ghana was their pioneering role in writing many local languages. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. While missionaries could sometimes clash with colonial governments, for the most part missions were important tools for colonial governments. While living at the Divine Word Residence in Bordentown, N.J., he often visited parishes and schools to talk about missionary work. Series CLS. In my study, I explored how colonial era conflicts and disagreements over marriage norms lastingly affected educational development. All rights reserved. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. Unlike the Portuguese, the French colonial officials encouraged the Christian missionaries in the promotion of formal education and social services, notably health. "Big things have small beginnings"; so is The Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Baker Pub Group, 1996. Being able to speak and write in the colonisers language was considered a privilege. 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. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. It was not until 1909 that the government opened a teacher training college and a technical school in Accra. Soon after, in 1835 they moved up to Akropong on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. 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. He moved to Techny in 2016. 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. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i A special memorial Mass was celebrated at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 9. crs questions and anwers The education and skill development of the people is the highest, most potent agent of national development that the Church imparts to its output of students, scholars, and professionals who perform various precious roles in the various sectors of the national economy for national development,' he stated. House, 1967. Initially,. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. Before 1925, there were only three secondary schools and three teacher training colleges in Ghana. Although the aim of the traders was to practice commerce I found that while educational outcomes are generally better in places that were exposed to Christian missions in the colonial era, traditionally polygamous societies benefited less. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . Governments are also not free from blame even if they had a laissez-faire educational policy, as in Ghana, where until 1944 the registration of schools was not required and no attempt was made to exert detailed control even over the activities of grant-aided [by the government] institutions except for a series of minimal registrations (Foster 1965:114). In short, the impact of teaching in the vernacular was more negative than positive, as it reinforced colonial rule and no doubt did very little to preserve native cultural identities, seeing as missionaries promoted European languages as superior and only used the vernacular because conversion and religious instruction were such high priorities. What are the contribution of the missionaries? - Alqatirat 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. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. The expansion of the missionary movement into Africa was part of the growing conception of Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . Preventive medicine was hardly known; the result was that epidemics of different kinds were frequent. 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). senior high school history 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). There were only bush paths, and no roads in the early times. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? 4>Ofv}TMdQ! Among the early Protestant evangelical societies founded in Great Britain were the Baptist Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Wesleyan Missionary Society and what became known as the Presbyterian Missionary Society of the Church of Scotland. The lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown. And traditionally polygamous societies would have higher educational outcomes today. Full article: Inequality of education in colonial Ghana: European Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. 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). Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951 They were at the forefront during the fight for self-rule in Ghana. They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. The churches opened primary schools both in the capital and in the rural communities. 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. They also prescribed many taboos which, in the light of modern medical science, had no relation whatever with the illness being treated. The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . Christian Missionaries and Education: Presbyterian Educational Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language and translated the entire Bible and a Bible history into Ga. Then in 1874, the Rev. 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. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. 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. Thank you for supporting this project. Etherington, Norman. John G. Christaller (described as the Father of Twi Literature) produced a Twi grammar and dictionary, a collection of Twi proverbs, a Twi translation of the Bible as well as prayers and hymns. 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. 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. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. While colonial administration in colonies such as Kenya attempted to some degree to provide training for Kenyans to fill the high-level positions (Sheffield 1973:86), the attempts in many cases fell short, and when the European administration left, Kenya, for instance, had few sufficiently educated replacements (Sheffield 1973:88). If a government fails to regulate schools at all, they have no right to complain that the education in their colony is poor. The consequences of norm conflicts are likely to manifest beyond educational pursuit. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. Daystar Press, 1978. The agricultural schools the missions ran would have been even more advantageous to the colonial governments considering the discouragement of local industries that might have competed with the motherland. Although modern scientific research has confirmed the medicinal properties of these concoctions, traditional medical practice had several shortcomings. Also, the traditional doctors more often than not could not diagnose illness accurately. The missions agricultural schools were especially beneficial for colonial governments considering that governments believed that manual labour was a means to prevent discontent and unrest in the tribes (Hansen 1984:232). The academic education purposely did not train Africans for the higher level positions of colonial administrations, which were mostly reserved for Europeans (Ayandele 1966:295; Sheffield 1973:42), a practise which created dependency on the colonizers, as without them the colony did not have qualified administrators. Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . They were replaced in Sierra Leone by the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1864, who made converts in large numbers not only among the pagans but also among the members of the then competing Christian churches. African Drama The CMS began to work in the freed slave villages in Sierra Leone in 1804 and the Methodist in 1811. In the case of Ghana, like other nations, the impact . Third, rivalry between the various Christian denominations also contributed to the poor standards of education. Ghana continued to call. university courses Arnold, 1986. For instance, on 2nd October 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed followed by the interdenominational London Missionary Society which was established in 1795. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. 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 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. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. 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. Consequently, they couldnt do much to promote the cultivation of food crops like maize, cassava, cocoyam and plantain. Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in 1855, the C.M.S. 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 In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect . The others include the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, which was tasked with the responsibility of promoting the translation and printing of the Holy Bible.

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