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. Furthermore, missionaries, believing in the civilizing mission, attempted to disintegrate traditional society through education by choosing academic subjects, such as the histories of the Western colonial powers, that illustrated the superiority of the Western culture, as well as by teaching about the superiority of the West in non-academic matters such as hygiene. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. I compared data on the historical locations of mission stations since 1924, in 26 sub-Saharan countries with recent education data between 2008 and 2018. These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in 1855. There were related organizations that sprang up in Scandinavia, Holland and the USA. 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. In addition, the contributions of celebrity missionaries, such as Christian Schwartz, William Carey, Alexander Duff, and James . 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. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. The Christian missionaries have been credited with the discontinuation of some obnoxious traditional practices among Ghanaians. 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. Among these were the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (commonly known as the Holy Ghost Father), the Society of African Missions (SMA), the Society of Missionaries of Africa, popularly known as the White Fathers because of the white Muslim-like clothing which the Fathers wore, and the society of the Divine Word (SVD, abbreviated from its Latin name). English for life These missionary societies laid the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church in West Africa, which lasted through to the independence period when African clergy replaced the white pastors. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. This decreased the zeal with which people began to accept the Gospel leading to nominal Christianity. This research was funded by the European Research Council. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. homework help In the same year as the Basel missionaries settled in Akuapem in 1835, the Wesleyan (later Methodist) Church was established at Cape Coast by the Rev. opened, in Freetown, the first boys secondary school in the country and another for girls in 1849, later renamed the Annie Walsh Memorial School. hbbd```b``vd d"e ] DrI`5 d"(/ Some early success included the Liberian coast where Afro-Americans and freed slaves were converted. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. While they frowned upon bridewealth, female genital cutting, or matrilineality, they held a special grudge against polygamy. Ghana sits on West Africas coastline along the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by the Ivory Coast and Togo to the west and east and Burkina Faso to the north. 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. 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. 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 . But the funds and other needed materials even when available could not reach their station in time. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Your email address will not be published. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. In many instances, they made their converts rebel against traditional rulers and other spiritual leaders. Notable among these were cocoa and coffee. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. In addition to studying the impact of these struggles on education, we also need to understand how they influenced gender inequality. Ghana continued to call. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. It is important for several reasons. PDF OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION IN GHANA - WikiEducator Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. Series CLR. A large percentage of Ghanas 30 million people are nominally Christian (more than 70% as of the last census), and 28% consider themselves evangelical believers. Looking for a flexible role? For this reason, missionaries believed they were doing their students a favour by discouraging traditional practices and promoting Western ones. As happened in other colonial territories, the government did not show great interest in the provision of education in Ghana until the missionaries had extended their services throughout the country and had set up primary schools and a few secondary schools and training colleges. The country has diverse geography, people groups, and languageswith English as the common language, and more than 11 others with state recognition. By 1885, the church had spread further inland, thanks to Father Joseph Lutz who started work around Onitsha in 1886 and spread the gospel in many parts of the present day Imo and Anambra States. 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. 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. 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). The Journal of Negro Education (JNE), a scholarly refereed journal, was founded at Howard University in 1932. 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. 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. 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. senior high school crs Prominent among the early Christian missionaries to come to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Basel, Bremen and Anglican missions. For that matter, they rebelled against their chiefs and elders. The consequences of norm conflicts are likely to manifest beyond educational pursuit. Education in Ghana - Wikipedia Barely ten years later, after the first missionaries arrived, the Methodists, for example, had started a station as far inland as MacCarthy Island. 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. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Kuhne , his fellow captive and co-author joined him at the mission as a trader in cotton, an activity which was part of, and a means of, financing the mission. 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. In addition, while missionaries did run many academic primary schools, they provided little secondary education, a practice which prevented natives from becoming too educated (Ayandele 1966:286) and potentially subversive. Prior to the advent of western education, Ghana's traditional social structures had inbuilt opportunities for mobility. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana This finding was supported by two types of analysis. 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). 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. Seeing as missions in the British and Italian colonies had monopolies on education for the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, this reluctance meant that there were few secondary schools at all (Ayandele 1966:287; Beck 1966: 120). Andrew Foster (educator) - Wikipedia 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. 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. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. WAEC The Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. For three years, he taught English and biblical ethics. 2 Longman Group Ltd. London 1974, Ampadu B.K Notes on History of Ghana for Senior High Schools. Today almost all of the population is Presbyterian, although the ancestral royal cult and many spirit cults still flourish. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language, and in 1874 the Rev. So why did the European missionaries come to Ghana and other parts of Africa? 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. 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.