Despite the skills and opportunities mission schooling afforded, many Africans were not willing to pay the price. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. 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). 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. Some observers have argued that the Europeans used the Christian bible to justify the practice of slavery and the slave trade. He is survived by two brothers, Walter and Kevin Burke. In Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. He was followed, three years afterwards, by the Rev. Besides education, they cared for the sick. Contributions of Missionaries Towards Education in India Study for free with our range of university lectures! Early missions conducted by Roman Catholics were short-lived. For several years they paid attention to slave trade rather than evangelization and Christianization of the people of West-Africa. An Alumnus of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, a Journalist, Author and a Philanthropist. 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. This special relationship continued until 1960 when Fourah Bay became a college of the newly reconstituted University of Sierra Leone; the other constituent college located at Njala developed from a training college founded in 1920. Thus by training Africans to fill only the lower levels of the colonial administration and providing skilled workers from the vocational and agricultural schools who contributed to the economy and were less likely to question colonial rule than more educated Africans, mission schools helped to strengthen colonial rule. In the later 19th century, the immense African interior remained the principal object of the Catholic Priests, and from 1867 until his death in November 1892 Cardinal Lavigerie planned the planting of churches in Africa South of the Sahara. Schools were deemed important. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. 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. 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. . 517 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<2E41B338ACB2B2110A00B08D5A5CFE7F>]/Index[503 20]/Info 502 0 R/Length 86/Prev 357984/Root 504 0 R/Size 523/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream Being able to speak and write in the colonisers language was considered a privilege. 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Website design and development by Americaneagle.com, Inc, Society of the Divine Word- Western Province, Society of the Divine Word- Southern Province. 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 They impressed it upon their converts not to have anything to do with these traditional practices. The Presbyterians, also, opened hospitals in several parts of the country, including the one at Agogo in Asante-Akyem. Support earthquake relief and outreach efforts, biblical foundation for the next generation of believers. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. Called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. 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.. The Christian missionaries have been credited with the discontinuation of some obnoxious traditional practices among Ghanaians. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. One of the missions most important contributions to the colonial regimes was their role in educating the native Africans. 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. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. endstream endobj startxref Isichei, Elizabeth. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. Missionaries travelled through dense evergreen forests, crossed rivers and climbed mountains to bring the Gospel to as many Ghanaians as they could. Debate Speech: Religion Has Failed Society, A Speech Outlining the Achievements and Problems of Your School, 7 Factors Accounting for the Shortage of Capital In West Africa, The Resurrection of Jesus According to Marks Gospel. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. Kalu, Ogbu. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. Private Study Wed love to get to know you and discuss how God is calling you. 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. His funeral Mass was Sept. 27, followed by burial at St. Mary Cemetery at Techny. Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. self help 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. 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. Theres still so much to be learned from the history of education in Africa and its long-term consequences. English grammar J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. This comes at no extra cost to you. The original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. 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. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. 2023 Society of the Divine Word. 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. Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. English for life senior high school economics 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. Another reason why the Europeans came to spread the Christian religion in Ghana was to pave their own way into eternal glory. 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. WAEC In 1892, the Church Missionary Society opened the Iyi Enu Hospital in Onitsha which is today a leading hospital in Anambra state. Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951 While it has brought undoubted benefits, it has also harmed the traditional way of life. Thank you! West African Senior School Certificate Examination. 26. They provided missionaries a way to spread Eurocentric norms and attract new converts. Just look at the lyrics of this evangelizing song written in 1819 by Reginald Heber, a prolific English hymnist in the Anglican church. Reiterating what teacher education must encapsulate, Adegoke (2003) and Benneh (2006) indi-cated that the mission of Ghana's teacher education is to pro- A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. In 1845 the C.M.S. Among other missionary hospitals of long standing and reputation are those run by the Methodists at Wenkyi in the Brong-Ahafo Region, and by the Seventh Day Adventists at Kwahu Atibie in the Eastern Region. mock tests In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. Teacher Education in Ghana - SAGE Journals The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. These new movements considered such ventures to be their contribution to Europes reparation for centuries of exploitation of Africans, reparation for the centuries of exploitation which the Trans Atlantic slave trade had caused to African society. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. In 1910, a prominent report of the World Missionary Conference concluded: [T]here can be no question of polygamy. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. No plagiarism, guaranteed! An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in 1855, the C.M.S. They were followed by other major missionary bodies, including the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. Babalola, E. O. Christianity in West Africa. 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). Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S. The Journal of Negro Education, 8 8 The Effect of Western Formal It was difficult for the European missionaries to communicate freely with the local people. Catholic Higher Education and Mission in Nigeria: The Contributions of About the same time, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) headed by the Rev. C.M.S. CUP Archive, 1979. Help those suffering in Turkey and Syria. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. 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). 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. Christianity in northern Nigeria. skills for his or her future role in the society (Hetherington, 1979; Davidoff, 1980; Aboagye, 1997). education was an important means for mission evangelization. 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. The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Now, with the burgeoning Cocoa industry, the expansion of commercial activity, the development of gold mines and the building of roads and railways disturbed the traditional lifestyle. As founder and director at CEGAST, he has successfully coached thousands of students in English, Literature, and related subjects for major international examinations. 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 History of Christianity in West Africa. Christian missions also took a leading role in the campaign to end the slave trade and to suppress slavery. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. This finding was supported by two types of analysis. The problems created by the white missionaries themselves arose largely from a misconception of what Africa represented. Furthermore, each denomination had differing policies on education, so standards in education fluctuated across each colony, depending on what denomination had schools in each area. 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. Some early success included the Liberian coast where Afro-Americans and freed slaves were converted. It included the opening up of Africa to forces of change namely commerce (legitimate commerce, i.e. 2 (1983): 116-143. Establishment of Christian Churches In Sierra Leone. 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). Within ten years the C.M.S had opened twelve more schools in what is today Cross Rivers State. Discipleship and leadership development are needed in order to support local churches and their growth in Ghana. Apart from the extreme south and the Horn, the interior was hardly touched by Europeans before the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. 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. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. A member of the CMS, Henry Venn, boasted that the mission schools of Nigeria would produce an educated African elite that could form an intelligent and influential class of society and become the founders of a Kingdom which shall render incalculable benefits to Africa (Venn cited in Bassey 1991:37). hb```,,g@( B(Pi xD r[e}v'$ImK *e()dP#jjTNl=VtN(%!30p0040tt0B GGc2m2@M``a$]x2\YkvIaB1b`h6f` (eAKPU d Barely ten years later, after the first missionaries arrived, the Methodists, for example, had started a station as far inland as MacCarthy Island. These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in 1855. It also plays an important role in organization of inheritances within matrilineal houses and thus exerts influence from a legal point of view. The lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown. For instance, the Basel Mission established Basel Mission Trading Company (UTC) in 1859. Indeed, most of our early nationalists were all products of mission schools. 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. A large body of studies show that missionaries had a lasting impact beyond their early years. S.J. This post may contain affiliate links. 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. 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. These pioneer mission schools met with a discouraging response. In many instances, they made their converts rebel against traditional rulers and other spiritual leaders. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. We shall begin with the positive contribution of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. The Basel Mission, as a result of this phenomenal expansion trained many local personnel to man the new stations. 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. Your email address will not be published. Renewed evangelisation started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. Daystar Press, 1978. However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. First, I looked at how educational outcomes depended on the distance to historical missions. As happened in other West African countries, many more mission-sponsored hospitals were founded in the course of the twentieth century. %PDF-1.7 % Notable among these were cocoa and coffee. university courses The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. 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. English comprehension 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. B. et al. The struggle over polygamy is well-known to historians and anthropologists. 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. Although the aim of the traders was to practice commerce Missions, Education and Conversion in Colonial Africa In 1981, Father Burke was promoted to headmaster and rector of Pope John XXIII Secondary School and Minor Seminary in Koforidua. 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 . Establishment of Christian Churches In Nigeria. Father Burke was preceded in death by his parents and his brother John. To put it differently, the motive was to gain acceptance in the sight of God so that after death they would be judged kindly by the heavenly father. *You can also browse our support articles here >. The mission schools trained Africans to be able to work as translators, messengers and office clerks for the colonial government. They constitute the benefits that the missionaries brought to Africa as a whole. 11 Missionary College Scholarships You Can Apply For Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1933, Vincent Burke was the third of Walter and Eleanor (nee McGoff) Burkes four sons. The Missionary Factor in Ghana's Development, pp.11 &135 categorically asserted that economic and social changes were brought about by the total effect of the various projects initiated by the. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Over time and with the dedication of teachers like Father Burke, the school rose to prominence. Box 2 of the papers relating to the Society's activities in West Africa. 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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