After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the missionaries Chretien Proten, Henrick Huckuff and Jacobus Capitein, the Anglican, Rev. 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. This research was funded by the European Research Council. Father Burke, whose students included Father Tetteh and Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, arrived in Ghana, West Africa, in 1963, only four years after the country gained independence from Great Britain. English However, accustomed to monogamy, few European missionaries were open to such arguments. Similar organizations were formed in several other European countries. Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in 1855, the C.M.S. In the case of Ghana, like other nations, the impact . The role of the Christian missionaries in Ghana and West Africa was not limited to the education and agricultural sectors alone. It is important for several reasons. Longman Publishing Group, 1980. 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. Rather, it denationalized and facilitated the indignity and loss of cultural identity of the Ghanaian. Some observers have argued that the Europeans used the Christian bible to justify the practice of slavery and the slave trade. Although modern scientific research has confirmed the medicinal properties of these concoctions, traditional medical practice had several shortcomings. I also matched up locations that differed in proximity to the mission stations, but otherwise had similar preconditions for educational development. Apart from giving to the converts a new religious faith which they consider is superior to the traditional religions, the Christian missionaries did pioneering work in introducing new crafts, industries, Western education and modern health services. Besides being an online tutor, Ralph is an author and expert digital marketer with proven skills in SEO content writing. Required fields are marked *. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. There were related organizations that sprang up in Scandinavia, Holland and the USA. A large body of studies show that missionaries had a lasting impact beyond their early years. 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). faceless characters Following ordination, he was sent to Washington, D.C., and the Catholic University of America, where he earned a masters degree in English literature. Already have a license? Non-African Poetry It is simply one of the gross evils of heathen society which, like habitual murder or slavery, must at all costs be ended. Waterville Pub. hbbd```b``vd d"e ] DrI`5 d"(/ In the 19thh century, too, Afro-Brazilians returned to Benin and Nigeria with Catholicism. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. others adopted a system of education varied from one and the other hence, lacking consistency in the educational sector [3]. Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. The achievement of the purpose of these Christian Missions came with some costs. 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. I well remember when he came to live with me in Trenton. In spite of the division, the parent Methodist missionary church played an important role in the history of Christianity in Sierra Leone. Up to Guggisbergs time, the church schools did not receive grants from the government. Predominantly Muslim territory, the North received western education later than the South. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Indeed, most of our early nationalists were all products of mission schools. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. The copies of letters received, 1890-1927, mention the plan from 1914 to gain control of future Ashanti Chiefs using education. 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. ASSESS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA. 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. This company promoted the import and export trade in Ghana. 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. Vol. Amma Darko The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. Johannes Zimmermann, for example, produced a Ga dictionary, Ga bible and grammar book. In spite of all this, with the advent of the First World War in 1914 in the Kwaku District there were 21 congregations with a total of over 2500 members. Purchase a license below to view the full collection. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. The third, St Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College), was founded by the Anglican Church in 1910. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. Your email address will not be published. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba, called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. 4; img 109. 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. Christianity reborn: the global expansion of evangelicalism in the twentieth century. In conclusion, the converts tended to look down upon many things in their ancestral culture. To apply, students simply fill out a quick form. These missionaries saw death in the course of their evangelizing work as a means to ascend to heavenly glory. hb```,,g@( B(Pi xD r[e}v'$ImK *e()dP#jjTNl=VtN(%!30p0040tt0B GGc2m2@M``a$]x2\YkvIaB1b`h6f` (eAKPU d In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba. A permanent station was established in Lagos in 1868, soon followed by others at Lokoja, Abeokuta and Ibadan. Africa and the Winder World 3. 3 (2002): 555-584. C.M.S. Containing 9,566 pages belonging to 77 documents housed in 6 volumes As outlined in the short history entitled. No plagiarism, guaranteed! 4>Ofv}TMdQ! In addition to teaching, he served as national spiritual director of the Ghana Sacred Heart Enthronement Centre and spiritual director of the Accra Diocesan Sacred Heart Centre. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. How to Get Involved in Church Missions: The Ultimate Guide, 16 Causes of Crime Essay (with Solutions), Justify the Title of the Novel Second Class Citizen, The Role of Ghana in the Formation of the OAU, Economic Developments in Ghana Before Independence, 11 Causes of the Rise of Nationalism in Africa, Importance of the Odwira Festival in Ghana. Another difficulty that the early missionaries faced in the spread of Christianity was insufficient Christian literature at that time. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. Email: henrydonsco@gmail.com Metadata. It included the opening up of Africa to forces of change namely commerce (legitimate commerce, i.e. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Aligning Your Teaching Philosophy with Your Institution's Mission All work is written to order. Another contribution of missionaries to the development of Ghana was their pioneering role in writing many local languages. 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. It is important to emphasize that the modern history of the Christian Mission in Africa started from the late Eighteenth Century, the Catholics had been there earlier in the first centuries of the Christian era especially during the first Portuguese adventures. 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. History of the church in Africa: a survey. senior high school English The lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown. Among several others, the native Bishop Ajayi Crowther produced the first translation of the Bible in Yoruba. the role of administrators, chiefs and the missions; first attempts at agricultural and industrial training; girls' education and teacher training before 1850; some chief factors in educational expansion 1850-1900; government official policy in educational expansion 1850-1900; agricultural, industrial and vernacular training 1850-1900 Porter, Andrew. These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. Brief History - PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GHANA Other Roman Catholic hospitals were built in all the nine regions of the country; including those at Asikuma and Foso (Central Region), Akyem Swedru (Eastern Region), Berekum (BrongAhafo), Maase (Asante Region) and Anfoega (Volta Region). In traditionally monogamous societies, primary school completion increased by about eight percent, but only four percent in polygamous societies. Andrew Jackson Foster (1925-1987) was an American pioneer of deaf education in several countries in Africa. I wanted to buy a smartphone for him, but when he got to know the price of the cell phone, he humbly declined. Joseph Dunwell. personal development By 1914 there were barely thirty schools in that vast area. Hastings, Adrian. 11 Missionary College Scholarships You Can Apply For The missionary activities in Nigeria, especially their educational programs helped to whip-up the consciousness of a shared identity and helped to train a new set of elite that championed the course of nationalism and constituted a virile leadership for the young nation at independence.Click to see full answer What is missionary education?A mission school or [] English grammar This single problem made the missionary work very difficult. This finding was supported by two types of analysis. African prose Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. Renewed evangelism started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). ]v#5%{,%Y{iKsZ|Cm7NismGmg_zxKYh?>bQ?ni8G.wx:qAm$ eb!^Kr$,.9Qq^|1. 2023 Society of the Divine Word. Their activities had both positive and negative effects on Ghanaian society. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. The early success of the missionaries included areas like Freetown and surrounding villages. It would be wrong, however, to blame all these ills on the Christian missionaries alone. 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A notable example, in Ghana, was the Methodist experimental farm near Cape Coast whose crops included cotton, coffee, black pepper, mango, ginger, cinnamon and olive trees. The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . The activities of the early Christian missionaries negatively affected the development of African traditional political institutions. The Roman Catholic Sisters provided medical care in the Upper and Northern Regions of the country before the government started to provide hospitals and clinics in the regional and district headquarters. ABWE first began work in Ghana with a goal to reach unchurched Ghanaians in the Volta Region with the gospel and then to expand evangelism efforts to other parts of the country. student life These contradictions are surprisingly absent from contemporary research. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. A History of West Africa, Cambridge University Press, 1969, Fynn , J. K and R. Addo-Fening History for Senior Secondary schools. better grades 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Their arrival in South Africa was aimed particularly at spreading the Word of God. Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. Moreover, speaking through interpreters is a defective means of communicating ones thoughts to ones audience. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. 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. Contribution of the Methodist Church to education in Ghana Soon after the Methodist experiment, the church Missionary Society set up their own school at Badagry. Through hard work and persuasion she succeeded in stopping the practice among the people of killing twins. The pastors of the Church Missionary Society, from Badagry and later from Sierra Leone, visited these Christian communities in Abeokuta and other towns. Kalu, Ogbu. As Sir Henry Johnston, a key figure in the Scramble for Africa says, they [the mission stations] strengthen our hold over the country, they spread the use of the English language, they induct natives into the best kind of civilization, and in fact, each mission station is an essay in colonization (Johnston cited in Sheffield 1973:10). In Ghana, for instance, they persuaded their converts to reject polygamy and human sacrifice. Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in 1919. The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. As a member of the Church of England, it interests me to see echoes of Christian educational efforts by organizations such as Compassion Canada in the educational efforts of the missionary branch of the Anglican Church, the Church Missionary Society, or CMS. The Missionary Role on The Gold Coast and In Ashanti: Reverend F.a In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. 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. station in 1858, it was not until 1889 that the missionaries entered Hausaland, which was predominantly Muslim. Two important private schools with strong Christian influence must also be mentioned: Accra High School, founded in 1923 and Accra Academy, established in Some earlier scholarship on mission education has taken this as a positive impact of the missionaries. 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 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. 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. All rights reserved. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. The story of the planting of Christianity in Nigeria would be incomplete without a mention of the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Berghero. 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. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. The vast majority of the people of The Gambia are Moslems; but a sizeable percentage of the population, especially in and around the capital Banjul, are Christians. 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. Also, the traditional doctors more often than not could not diagnose illness accurately. Ghana Missionaries | Learn about Christian missions efforts in Ghana - ABWE In 1845 the C.M.S. The European Christian missions preached the Gospel, built churches, and seminaries translated the Bible to Ghanaian Languages such as Ewe, Ga, and Twi. Hope Waddell was later joined by the Rev. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. The study examines the historical foundations of Western education in Meru and factors that influenced its development. Hilliard, F.H., 1957. Debrunner, Hans Werner. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. Mission societies often expanded into territories before colonial powers did, and providing education only cost them a little more. 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. Today, local communities and ethnic groups that were more exposed to mission schools, still achieve higher levels of education, when compared to communities where there were no schools. One method of discouraging traditional practices was to give students a fully Western education. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. Government & Politics further studies 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.