Who is Mrs. Konrad in Second Class Citizen? Father Tetteh also took note of Father Burkes humility and devotion to his students. 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). Following agitation by the people in 1934, the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially . Finally, education affects many other aspects of peoples lives, including economic opportunities and political attitudes. While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. First, alignment can help you communicate your . The Ghana Education Decentralization Project (GEDP), launched in 2010 and ended in 2012, has increased the influence of local authorities over management . (As at December 2020). famous poems further studies The missionaries seemed to have concentrated much of their effort on the production of export crops. CUP Archive, 1979. Then lets begin straightaway. At the time of its inception, however, there was no publication that systematically or comprehensively addressed the enormous problems that characterized the education of Blacks in the United States and elsewhere. began work in many parts of Africa. 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. He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But with colonial conquest and antimalarial drugs, they moved further into the continent. Its general scope extends to both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant missionaries in relation to education works. As founder and director at CEGAST, he has successfully coached thousands of students in English, Literature, and related subjects for major international examinations. J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. Consequently, they couldnt do much to promote the cultivation of food crops like maize, cassava, cocoyam and plantain. 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. By 1914 there were barely thirty schools in that vast area. They often attributed natural ailments to supernatural causes and resorted to mystic cults to appease the unknown spirit, before applying medicine to the sick person. History Discipleship and leadership development are needed in order to support local churches and their growth in Ghana. Textbooks were heavily biased towards western ideas and values. C.M.S. Efforts to change these norms were often aimed at women. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Initially,. In 1845 the C.M.S. Johann Christaller produced a similar work in Twi. In fact, most of the norms opposed by missionaries concerned gender relationships. which were for females (Graham, 1971). Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in 1919. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. The European missionaries believed that European culture was superior to African culture. It is important for several reasons. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. In the 19thh century, too, Afro-Brazilians returned to Benin and Nigeria with Catholicism. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. station in 1858, it was not until 1889 that the missionaries entered Hausaland, which was predominantly Muslim. others adopted a system of education varied from one and the other hence, lacking consistency in the educational sector [3]. 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. 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? Non-African Poetry In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. In fact, Jacobus Capitein, a former Ghanaian slave who became a priest in the Dutch Reformed Church in the 18th century was on record to have defended the practice of slavery. 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. The consequences of norm conflicts are likely to manifest beyond educational pursuit. For example, they preached against human sacrifice. For instance, in Nigeria in 2006, approximately only 51.2% of primary school teachers of either gender were trained as teachers, and the enrolment rate in primary education for both genders in 2000 stood at about 62.7%, compared to 99.5% in Canada (UN Data 2010). We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. Often drumming and the harmless songs and dances of the people were condemned. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. 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). In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. student life The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. This made it difficult for the early missionaries to stay in the country for long. As they could not recruit British missionary volunteers initially, the Church Missionary Society sponsored the services of German missionaries, who were Lutherans, to come out to Sierra Leone. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate. Theres still so much to be learned from the history of education in Africa and its long-term consequences. government questions Metadata. The first Europeans arrived at the West-African Coasts at the end of the fifteenth century. ASSESS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA. English comprehension But the funds and other needed materials even when available could not reach their station in time. It included the opening up of Africa to forces of change namely commerce (legitimate commerce, i.e. This single problem made the missionary work very difficult. 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. Buchi Emecheta For instance, the Basel Mission established the first teacher training college in Ghana. In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. The History of Christianity in West Africa. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. Wed love to get to know you and discuss how God is calling you. In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. Clarke, Peter Bernard. Christian Religious Studies The early Christian missions concentrated their activities not only on religious matters. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. "Big things have small beginnings"; so is The Presbyterian Church of Ghana. 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. 3 (2002): 555-584. As happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the gospel alone. They worked tirelessly to lay a foundation for formal education The European missionaries established elementary and second-cycle institutions in the country. 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. We must not lose sight of the fact that the colonial government in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa relied on the activities of the missionaries to help them achieve the objectives of colonial rule. 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. 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. In addition, the contributions of celebrity missionaries, such as Christian Schwartz, William Carey, Alexander Duff, and James . 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. 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 . The country has diverse geography, people groups, and languageswith English as the common language, and more than 11 others with state recognition. In December 1868 he went with his wife and child to Anum in the present-day Volta Region of Ghana. Besides, the missionaries had to travel longer distances to inland towns from their southern stations. His viewing and wake service took place on Sept. 26 at the chapel in the Divine Word Residence at Techny. Missionaries were no doubt also aware that Africans came to associate European technological achievement with Western education (Bassey 1991:45) and therefore offered Western education as a means to attract Africans of this belief and then convert them. 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. While they frowned upon bridewealth, female genital cutting, or matrilineality, they held a special grudge against polygamy. And traditionally polygamous societies would have higher educational outcomes today. Their luggage and other necessities had to be carried on heads and took a long time before reaching the missionaries. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. We shall now turn our attention to the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. In 1910, a prominent report of the World Missionary Conference concluded: [T]here can be no question of polygamy. In due course leprosariums and orphanages were built to supplement their medical services. 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. To apply, students simply fill out a quick form. After World War I was declared in 1914, the German missionaries were restricted in their movements by the British in the British colonies. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. endstream endobj startxref The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. The Christian Connector Scholarship. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. 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. 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. 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. Shaw, Mark. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. 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. This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . 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). Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. They provided missionaries a way to spread Eurocentric norms and attract new converts. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. These Christian converts considered themselves to be holier than their traditional rulers and elders. Almost all the missions in West Africa faced financial problems in the early stages of their missionary work. 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. Senior High School Literature If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Instead of needing to import skilled workers such as carpenters, the mission schools provided colonial governments with workers capable of building and maintaining the colonys infrastructure and basic technology, a contribution that kept the colonies running smoothly. opened was the Christian Institute, established in 1814 for the training of teachers, catechists and priests. 1. This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. . Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. No plagiarism, guaranteed! DISCLOSURE. For the next decade, the Church grew in Ghana at an accelerated pace. 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. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king, Otumfour Nana Kweku Duah I who reigned between 25th August 1834 to 27th April 1867). The greatest problem faced by the early European Christian missionaries was, the tropical climate and health Hazards. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. better grades This comes at no extra cost to you. Within ten years the C.M.S had opened twelve more schools in what is today Cross Rivers State. In the Gambia, as happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the Gospel alone. The statistical evidence suggests that education would have spread more evenly. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. Father Jean Marie Coquard, operating in and from Abeokuta for forty years, was renowned among the Egba as a priest and surgeon in the second half of the nineteenth century. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. Longman Publishing Group, 1980. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect their decisions. 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. They had to speak through few interpreters who did not have sufficient education to interpret correctly. Although there were many disagreements between European missionaries and African populations, antagonising polygamy is probably the best-documented norm conflict. 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. Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. 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). 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. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd, Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group/Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. Debrunner, Hans Werner. 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. 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. 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). Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. Of the ten largest congregations for men, the Society of the Divine Word is the fastest growing over the past 50 years. 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. 2023 Society of the Divine Word. Cookies are small, safe and secure text files that sit on your computer which we use to give you a better experience on our site and help us improve the service that we provide to you. 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 . The education provided in schools in early days also tended to place great emphasis on the superiority of western culture. All rights reserved. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Soon after the Methodist experiment, the church Missionary Society set up their own school at Badagry. Vol. 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. The Scottish Missionary Society had been working in Calabar, Nigeria, also a British colony adjacent to the Gold Coast and it was from the Calabar Presbyterian Church in Nigeria that a missionary was sent to take charge of the Presbyterian work in the Gold Coast after the deportations. It was however in the coastal territories filled with mulattos and other European trading communities that Christianity won some of its early success. Call: +233558280780, Your email address will not be published. The next major Christian missionaries to go out to Sierra Leone were the Roman Catholics. 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 lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown. Listen as we explore missions, theology, and practice to help senders and goers alike. Therefore, considering that the impact of mission education continues to have serious repercussions today, one must question whether the First World should continue to interfere in African education.
Craftsman Lathe Serial Number Lookup,
Reza Made In Chelsea Net Worth,
Boronia Heights Crime Rate,
How Long To Wear Compression Garment After Bbl,
Articles C