contribution of missionaries to education in ghana contribution of missionaries to education in 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). 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). For the West Africans, the acceptance of Christianity meant the total rejection of most of the cherished institutions upon which their society rested. . They had to speak through few interpreters who did not have sufficient education to interpret correctly. In fact in 1966, Father Burke led students to a victory in a national educational contest called the Ghana TV Cup. 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. Although the aim of the traders was to practice commerce As we help existing churches become healthy through theological education, discipleship, pastoral training, and leadership development, we desire to see church-planting efforts within the local church soon follow. After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the missionaries Chretien Proten, Henrick Huckuff and Jacobus Capitein, the Anglican, Rev. These missions significantly influenced the systematic educational development in the Gold Coast. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. 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. 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. Under the Basel Missions Salem system, converts were separated from the traditional society. These missionaries saw death in the course of their evangelizing work as a means to ascend to heavenly glory. Already have a license? 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. He moved to Techny in 2016. 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. Other difficulties they faced were the problems of the many languages and dialects and their ignorance of the true meaning of the various cultures, beliefs, values and ways of life of the people whom they set out to convert to Christianity. 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. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. The Basel Mission. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. It was only after the Second World War that the colonial governments started to show a real interest in the promotion of formal education in West Africa. Among his pioneering achievements, he arranged for three youths to be sent to England for training as evangelists. 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. JNE sustains a commitment to a threefold mission: first, to stimulate the collection and facilitate the dissemination of facts about the education of Black people; second, to present discussions involving critical appraisals of the proposals and practices relating to the education of Black people; and third, to stimulate and sponsor investigations of issues incident to the education of Black people. However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. 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. 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 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. It included the opening up of Africa to forces of change namely commerce (legitimate commerce, i.e. 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). 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 [] 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. 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. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. The Society of the Divine Word is the world's largest Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work. 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. The achievement of the purpose of these Christian Missions came with some costs. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. This finding was supported by two types of analysis. 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). History of the church in Africa: a survey. 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). While they frowned upon bridewealth, female genital cutting, or matrilineality, they held a special grudge against polygamy. 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. NUUT Co. Ltd. Kumasi, Ghana, 2011, Baarkinado. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially . Of the ten largest congregations for men, the Society of the Divine Word is the fastest growing over the past 50 years. The most momentous discovery in western Africa came in 1471, when Portuguese captains first reached the coast of modern Ghana between the mouths of the Ankobra and Volta rivers. Series CLR. Yes! One of the missions most important contributions to the colonial regimes was their role in educating the native Africans. 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. Alignment is the degree of congruence between your teaching philosophy and your institution's mission. 1 (1971): 103-115. Longman Group Ltd. London and Basingstoke, 1986, Fage, J.D. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i The school, which was established the year of independence in 1957, was a work in progress. He told me that that amount of money could pay for school fees for five students in secondary school in Ghana.. However, the discovery of quinine and other curative medicines in the late 19th century made the history of the missionary work in West Africa a different thing altogether. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. The contents of this tutorial will serve as a guide for a suitable essay on the below WAEC/WASSCE History past question. Let's look in-depth into these scholarships. 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 James Fieldhouse, produced a Wolof Grammar in 1876. 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. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. However, by the turn of the Nineteenth Century there was systematic efforts by churches of Christian Europe, namely: Anglicans, Methodists, and Baptists who were active in Sierra Leone and, with Presbyterians, in Nigeria, while Methodists also set up missions in Ghana, Gambia, and Dahomey. For three years, he taught English and biblical ethics. By focusing on the African demand for education, I showed that Africans were not just passive recipients of mission schooling. 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. His immigrant Irish-born parents instilled faith and a firm work ethic in their sons. These included the Basel Missionary Society, founded in Switzerland, and the Breman Mission formed in Germany.