hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. For instance, on 2nd October 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed followed by the interdenominational London Missionary Society which was established in 1795. As churches of the Volta Region begin reproducing, ABWE wants to reach out to Ghanas unreached people groups in its eight other regions. About us | Ghana Education Service - GES While it has brought undoubted benefits, it has also harmed the traditional way of life. Lewis, Donald M., ed. PDF Religion Education and Development in Ghana - EA Journals It offered the most direct path towards prestigious jobs in colonial administrations and European enterprises. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. skills for his or her future role in the society (Hetherington, 1979; Davidoff, 1980; Aboagye, 1997). mock tests 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. (As at December 2020). It is simply one of the gross evils of heathen society which, like habitual murder or slavery, must at all costs be ended. The resulting atmosphere of disunity enabled the European colonialists to easily achieve their goal of economic exploitation. The pastors of the Church Missionary Society, from Badagry and later from Sierra Leone, visited these Christian communities in Abeokuta and other towns. We shall now turn our attention to the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. 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. 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. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. Thus missionaries, by imparting education that promoted dependence on colonial rule, arguably contributed to the political instability that continues in the present day in many former African colonies, such as Kenya and Eritrea. The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . 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. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. From 1870 to 1914 the Basel Mission succeeded in extending its work from the Akwapim Ridge to Kwahu, Akim and Asante and across the Volta as far as Yendi the north in 1913. About the same time, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) headed by the Rev. During this period, difficulties encountered were different from the initial difficulties which will more related to sickness, deaths and the suspicion of indigenous people in accepting the Gospel. The Basel Mission. The common response among traditionally polygamous people is well illustrated by a passage in Jomo Kenyattas famous book on the Gikuyu in colonial Kenya: This [the insistence on monogamy] caused a great confusion, for the African could not understand how he could drive away his wives and children, especially in a community where motherhood is looked upon as a religious duty; the children are regarded as part and parcel, not only of the father, but of the whole clan (mbari), and without them the mbari is lost. 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. Today, human sacrifice is generally frowned upon and considered an abomination. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951 All the three secondary schools in Cape Coast were mission institutions. African poetry Education - Education in British colonies and former colonies The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. The Society of the Divine Word is the world's largest Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work. The tropical climatic condition in the country was not favourable to the early missionaries who came to the shores of West Africa. History of the church in Africa: a survey. Although it can be said that Christian missionaries benefitted Africans by bringing in the more advanced Western education to the European colonies in Africa, it is believed that the mission schools in fact had a negative impact on the native peoples. 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. Literature Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. Missionary Work in Ghana: The Genesis - African Research Christian missions also took a leading role in the campaign to end the slave trade and to suppress slavery. The contents of this tutorial will serve as a guide for a suitable essay on the below WAEC/WASSCE History past question. This was because all the ships that came to the coast at that time were owned by trading firms and companies whose interest were basically on trade. Christianity in Ghana - Wikipedia 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). It was not until the nineteenth century, that the new religion was really established in West Africa. 2006 - 2023 Microform Academic Publishers | Microform Academic Publishers is a division of Microform Imaging Limited (Company registered in England no. It was not until 1909 that the government opened a teacher training college and a technical school in Accra. Sign in to view the collection. 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. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004. Efforts to change these norms were often aimed at women. Meanwhile, the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, had established a reputation in the Cross River area as a nurse. Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. The Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. Just look at the lyrics of this evangelizing song written in 1819 by Reginald Heber, a prolific English hymnist in the Anglican church. Mission education left an uneven legacy: an analysis of 26 African Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. B. et al. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. Among other things the regulations required that all teachers should be registered, and a minimum salary was fixed. 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. English comprehension opened, in Freetown, the first boys secondary school in the country and another for girls in 1849, later renamed the Annie Walsh Memorial School. The Journal of Negro Education, 8 8 The Effect of Western Formal He told me that that amount of money could pay for school fees for five students in secondary school in Ghana.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Johannes Zimmermann, for example, produced a Ga dictionary, Ga bible and grammar book. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. I will earn a commission if you follow a link to purchase a product. senior high school history Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. She succeeded in stopping the killing of twins in the areas where she served. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Unsurprisingly, the level of education increased as one moved closer to the 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. They did a lot to impact the social and economic lives of Africans. Brief History - PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GHANA History books tended to exaggerate in achievements of Europeans, making no reference to Africans own great past. 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. He moved to Techny in 2016. The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. Consequently, they couldnt do much to promote the cultivation of food crops like maize, cassava, cocoyam and plantain. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. For this reason, missionaries believed they were doing their students a favour by discouraging traditional practices and promoting Western ones. The first Europeans arrived at the West-African Coasts at the end of the fifteenth century. Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in 1919. They also introduced vocational education in the country. 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. 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. Technical and vocational education had been emphasized in the education system in Ghana since the colonial era. government questions This hymn sums up the reasons why the Christian missionaries came to Africa and other parts of the world. 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. A large body of studies show that missionaries had a lasting impact beyond their early years. 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. 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). Education in Ghana - Wikipedia endstream endobj 504 0 obj <>>>/Lang(en)/MarkInfo<>/Metadata 55 0 R/Outlines 135 0 R/Pages 498 0 R/StructTreeRoot 142 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 505 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 499 0 R/Resources<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 506 0 obj <>stream 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. The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was very simple in dress and in the use of modern technology, Father Tetteh said. 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. Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century, informal education existed in Ghana with the goal of introducing young people into the society. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). This decreased the zeal with which people began to accept the Gospel leading to nominal Christianity. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. senior high school crs Not only did mission education strengthen colonial rule, but it also weakened traditional societies and implemented poor standards of Western education. PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. Contributions of Missionaries Towards Education in India He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. Private Study primarily purposed to outline the contributions of religion and education to national development in Ghana. Finally, education affects many other aspects of peoples lives, including economic opportunities and political attitudes. In my study, I explored how colonial era conflicts and disagreements over marriage norms lastingly affected educational development. Then lets begin straightaway. The latter, non-academic form of education provided by the missions has stimulated much interest among scholars, who are particularly interested in the failure of many of these schools and the hypocritical government support for the schools, seeing as the import of cheap goods from the mother countries caused many vocational school graduates, such as seamstresses, to be unemployed (Ayandele 1966:296; Foster 1965:134). It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. This finding was supported by two types of analysis. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. 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 . Furthermore, they were skilled farmers that could grow cash crops to be consumed back in the mother country, such as cocoa from Ghana (Foster 1965: 153). Free resources to assist you with your university studies! The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. 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. West Africa and Christianity. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Johann Christaller produced a similar work in Twi. The missionaries seemed to have concentrated much of their effort on the production of export crops. For instance the scholar E.A. They were followed in turn by the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. This comes at no extra cost to you. This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . This was a bitter pill for the Basel Mission to swallow after 19 years of devoted service in the mission field in the Gold Coast but they were not dismayed when they considered that in education and agriculture and artisan training and in the development of commerce, and medical services and concern for social welfare of the people, the name Basel by the time of expulsion of the mission from the country, had become a treasured word in the minds of the people. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. Box 2 of the papers relating to the Society's activities in West Africa. The impact of Christianity on West African society has persisted to this day. The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. 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. 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. 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. senior high school economics They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. In Ghana, missions strategically weighted costs and benefits when choosing where to establish their churches and schools. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. One Liberian student recalls that we were taught to dress properly, to eat properly, to speak properly. Operational Christianity started 267 Years ago. Edward Berman notes that contemporary critics of the missionaries felt that missionaries were more interested in increasing enrolments in their respective churches than in pooling their resources for the benefit of African education (Berman 1974:533). education was an important means for mission evangelization. Establishment of Christian Churches In Nigeria. 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). Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. In this chapter, we shall examine how Christianity and Western-style education influenced West Africans values, attitudes and life-styles. They provided missionaries a way to spread Eurocentric norms and attract new converts. Human Zoos: Untold History of Suppression, The Legend of King Ulu (Ancient Thai Folklore), The Kingdom of Saud of The Arabs (Saudi Arabia), The Wesley Brothers of Oxford University (1700s), Razia Sultan of Medieval India (786 Years Ago), The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (The Revelation), Education in Africa: The Impact of Colonialism, Why The Legendary Geneva Bible was Banned. While the protestant evangelical movements were gaining ground in West Africa, similar movements were being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. Hope Waddell of the Church of Scotland had opened a school at Duke Town, Calabar. J. G. Christaller produced a Twi Grammar and Dictionary. 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. Andrew Jackson Foster (1925-1987) was an American pioneer of deaf education in several countries in Africa. Europe in those days looked upon Africa as the Dark Continent with very primitive civilizations, and most Europeans refused to adapt their religion to suit the local situation. In addition to promoting a monogamous lifestyle in their schools, missionaries often insisted on divorces before polygamists or their children could even enrol. homework help They need YOU. Following agitation by the people in 1934, the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally. Besides education, they cared for the sick. The contribution of the missionaries to the development of Setswana as The next major Christian missionaries to go out to Sierra Leone were the Roman Catholics. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent 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. West Africa owes to the Christian missionaries not only a new religious faith which has changed the beliefs and life of millions of people, but also the foundation of western education. bible knowledge 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. Evans Brothers, Ltd. London. 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. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. While the Evangelical Presbyterian missionaries were the First to develop literature in Ewe, the Roman Catholics were responsible for Nzima literature. 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. 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). T. Nelson. Although Lokoja had a small C.M.S. The coming of the Christian missionaries to Ghana had a positive impact on agriculture. In such asituation, provisions and other things had to be sent into the country not in large quantities as would have been desired by the missionaries. Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in His immigrant Irish-born parents instilled faith and a firm work ethic in their sons. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. As founder and director at CEGAST, he has successfully coached thousands of students in English, Literature, and related subjects for major international examinations. His viewing and wake service took place on Sept. 26 at the chapel in the Divine Word Residence at Techny. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. WhatsApp : +233204700052 Isichei, Elizabeth. adult education 0 Given the fluctuating standards between schools and regions and the lack of qualified teachers in the mission schools which had monopolies in well into the mid-twentieth century, it should come as little surprise that the quality of education continues to be a concern in many former colonies. Perhaps the greatest service of the missionaries was the promotion of western education and the development of vernacular literature. The blessings which Christianity has brought to West Africa are many. Establishment of Christian Churches In Ghana. Clarke, Peter Bernard. If a government fails to regulate schools at all, they have no right to complain that the education in their colony is poor. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially .
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