contribution of missionaries to education in ghana

This comes at no extra cost to you. Operating from Whydah in what is today the Peoples Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey), Father Berghero, in 1860, visited Abeokuta and Lagos where freed Catholic slaves from Brazil welcomed him warmly. Cultural deprivation is what many of us suffer from []. 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. There were only bush paths, and no roads in the early times. The Basel and Methodist Missions, for example, introduced scientific agriculture in Ghana. For example, the missionaries preached against certain aspects of African culture they considered barbaric or satanic or both. 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). 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. Prior to advent of the Christian missionaries and indeed well into the pre-independence period, most sick people depended for cure upon concoction herbs and roots and barks of trees. . It was also terribly hard for a woman to be driven away, and to lose her status in the society where she is respected as a wife and a mother. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. As happened in Ghana, the development of training colleges in Nigeria was slower than secondary schools, though the C. M. S. had opened the first training college at Abeokuta as far back as 1849. Some of the missionaries came with them (549 years ago) but many died from the cruel tropical weather of forested West Africa. 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. Yes! The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of privately owned higher education institutions in Nigeria, including those owned by religious bodies and even by their individual members. 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. Secondary Schools in the Protectorate started later, following the establishment of Bo Government Secondary School in 1906. The Basel missionaries arrived on the shores of the Gold Coast in 1828 and Christianity in West Africa: The Nigerian Story. Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. 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). 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 kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. I have used my expertise to design and implement strategies for major projects including new programme development, global proposals, book launches, international talks, lectures, and executive . S.J. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. The high temperatures coupled with high rainfall patterns in some parts of the country experienced during the daytime, made the missionaries stay indoors, which slowed down their activities. Find below a list of mission schools that still exist in Ghana today. Waterville Pub. They worked tirelessly to lay a foundation for formal education The European missionaries established elementary and second-cycle institutions in the country. For several years they paid attention to slave trade rather than evangelization and Christianization of the people of West-Africa. Christian converts were indoctrinated to frown upon the use of indigenous first names in favour of Christian ones. Mission societies often expanded into territories before colonial powers did, and providing education only cost them a little more. 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. 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. They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. As happened in other West African countries, many more mission-sponsored hospitals were founded in the course of the twentieth century. Lastly, the missionaries were not used to eating our local foods. As happened in parts of Yorubaland in the last century, some of the Christian missionaries often engaged in local politics and took an active part in helping the colonial authorities in their wars of territorial expansion. %%EOF While the Evangelical Presbyterian missionaries were the First to develop literature in Ewe, the Roman Catholics were responsible for Nzima literature. In addition to contributing to fluctuating educational standards across the colony, inter-denominational rivalry caused a disparity in access to education. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. 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. Request Permissions. cited in Miran 2002:128). WAEC 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. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. Through hard work and persuasion she succeeded in stopping the practice among the people of killing twins. Johann Christaller produced a similar work in Twi. This thesis discusses and assesses contribution of Christian Missionaries to education in Meru from 1908 to 1963. 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. Ralph teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) online. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. 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. personal development J. G. Christaller produced a Twi Grammar and Dictionary. Father Burke spent more than half of his lifealmost 50 yearsin Ghana on the West Coast of Africa, said Father Edward Tetteh SVD, pastor of Blessed Sacrament-Our Lady of Divine Shepherd in Trenton, N.J. During his many years in Ghana, since he worked mostly in educational institutions, he produced excellent professionals: teachers, priests, ministers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, journalists and many others who work in different parts of the world.. Etherington, Norman. To their minds, Africans were too backward and needed help to become more civilized. In 1827 it grew into Fourah Bay College. These attempts were traumatic for the students and threatened the survival of unique cultures. senior high school English Vol. 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. 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. Series CLR. On the opposite side, the coming of the Christian missionaries brought in its wake certain negative developments like disregard for African culture and rebellion against traditional authority. Origins, organization and effects in the development of West Africa, 3: Islam in West Africa. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. Another reason why the Europeans came to spread the Christian religion in Ghana was to pave their own way into eternal glory. The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. Economics Thank you for supporting this project. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero. 1931. 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. The achievement of the purpose of these Christian Missions came with some costs. The Basel Mission. Series CLS. 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. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. For instance, in Nigeria, one of the first groups of missionaries to introduce organised medical services were the Roman Catholics. 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). Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. The Christian Connector Scholarship. The training college later became part of Achimota College. Burns & Oates, 1979. They constitute the benefits that the missionaries brought to Africa as a whole. While they frowned upon bridewealth, female genital cutting, or matrilineality, they held a special grudge against polygamy. For example, they preached against human sacrifice. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language, and in 1874 the Rev. Being able to speak and write in the colonisers language was considered a privilege. Their economic activities went beyond the development of agriculture. grammatical name Wm. Perhaps the greatest service of the missionaries was the promotion of western education and the development of vernacular literature. Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. Thank you! church were founded in south-eastern Nigeria, the chief centres being Bonny and Brass. Young Vincent began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word at Divine Word Seminary at Miramar in Massachusetts in 1947. The next major Christian missionaries to go out to Sierra Leone were the Roman Catholics. The country has diverse geography, people groups, and languageswith English as the common language, and more than 11 others with state recognition. student life First, I looked at how educational outcomes depended on the distance to historical missions. Being ignorant of ones history causes one to lose part of ones identity and pride in that identity, and one is therefore more vulnerable to attacks denouncing ones culture as inferior, especially if at the same time one is being taught the noble history of another culture.

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