Within ten years the C.M.S had opened twelve more schools in what is today Cross Rivers State. For instance, in southern Nigeria, the CMS policy was to teach in the vernacular at the primary level, while the Roman Catholic Missions policy was to teach in English (Bassey 1991:42). 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. personal development Vol. 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. This chapter traces the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. %PDF-1.7 % Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect . However, the motivation behind teaching Africans basic literacy and mathematics might not have been a cause for concern if not for the fact that the religious motivation curtailed education. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. 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. WhatsApp : +233204700052 The first Europeans arrived at the West-African Coasts at the end of the fifteenth century. For example, they preached against human sacrifice. But Annor (1989) writes that before Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africans had a way of producing artifacts. The struggle over polygamy is well-known to historians and anthropologists. The missions agricultural schools were especially beneficial for colonial governments considering that governments believed that manual labour was a means to prevent discontent and unrest in the tribes (Hansen 1984:232). These Christian converts considered themselves to be holier than their traditional rulers and elders. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. Establishment of Christian Churches In Nigeria. The work of the missionaries also had little success initially. Hilliard, F.H., 1957. This hymn sums up the reasons why the Christian missionaries came to Africa and other parts of the world. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. Because of rivalry, instead of building one common, multi-denominational school in a village that really only needed the one school, missionaries each built a school for their particular denomination and competed for students (Berman 1974:533). station in 1858, it was not until 1889 that the missionaries entered Hausaland, which was predominantly Muslim. 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. Europe in those days looked upon Africa as the Dark Continent with very primitive civilizations, and most Europeans refused to adapt their religion to suit the local situation. Moreover, they introduced new crops into the Ghanaian economy. Preventive medicine was hardly known; the result was that epidemics of different kinds were frequent. In Ghana, for instance, they persuaded their converts to reject polygamy and human sacrifice. Indeed, most of our early nationalists were all products of mission schools. For the West Africans, the acceptance of Christianity meant the total rejection of most of the cherished institutions upon which their society rested. West Africa and Christianity. The early African converts to Christianity, were made to abandon their ancestral culture and way of life as pagan therefore to be shunned. 2018). The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. This conditioning was focused on norms that missionaries deemed incompatible with a Christian way of life. The study traces the his tory of colonial education and the tremendous contributions of missionaries in the establishment of formal education in the region. Purchase a license below to view the full collection. Mission schools were popular because of the new skills and opportunities they offered. Rev. 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. 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. Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. 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). This research was funded by the European Research Council. By focusing on the African demand for education, I showed that Africans were not just passive recipients of mission schooling. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004. They constitute the benefits that the missionaries brought to Africa as a whole. Four volumes of incoming correspondence marked "West Africa" on the spine. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. 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. Lastly, the missionaries were not used to eating our local foods. In such asituation, provisions and other things had to be sent into the country not in large quantities as would have been desired by the missionaries. 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 Christian missionaries have been credited with the discontinuation of some obnoxious traditional practices among Ghanaians. It is obvious that the main reason why the missionaries came to Ghana was to convert the indigenous people to the Christian faith. Your email address will not be published. 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. Over time and with the dedication of teachers like Father Burke, the school rose to prominence. homework help Initially,. As Ayandele points out (1966:285), the ideal of many of the missions was to make their converts live literally as the unlearned and ignorant apostles of old. This ideal, combined with the fact that many missionaries discovered that Africans with only basic education were best at spreading the Gospel, meant that missionaries were reluctant to provide higher primary or secondary education (Ayandele 1966:286). 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. Again, the Wesleyan missionaries established Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast in 1876. Another important German missionary was Wilhelm Johannson, better known by the English version of his name, William Johnson, who is revered in the history of the CMS in West Africa. missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. 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. Being able to speak and write in the colonisers language was considered a privilege. The third, St Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College), was founded by the Anglican Church in 1910. Lewis, Donald M., ed. Church history, history of Christianity, religious history: some reflections on British missionary enterprise since the late eighteenth century. Church History 71, no. Soon after the start of elementary schools, the missionaries started opening higher institutions also. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S. In this respect the Christian religion therefore differed from the traditional religions of West Africa, which along with an acceptance of one Supreme Being worshipped a hierarchy of gods. Contribution of Christian Missionaries in Ghana, Reasons Why Christian Missionaries Came to Africa, Discontinuation of Outmoded Cultural Practices, Negative Effects of Missionary Activities, Negative Impact on Traditional Authorities, Limited Support for The Production of Local Food Crops. ), Father Auguste Moreau and Father Eugene Murat, arrived at Elmina and revived the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. Operational Christianity started 267 Years ago. They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. A permanent station was established in Lagos in 1868, soon followed by others at Lokoja, Abeokuta and Ibadan. Some of these effects are still with us today. Required fields are marked *. 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 . The missionaries condemned African religion, music, art, festivals and customary practices. The school, which was established the year of independence in 1957, was a work in progress. To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below: If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! Many missionaries died because of the climate and tropical disease. Christian Missionaries. independent learning In the Gambia, as happened in other territories, the Christian missionaries did not confine their work to the spread of the Gospel alone. For the next decade, the Church grew in Ghana at an accelerated pace. For instance, in Nigeria in 2006, approximately only 51.2% of primary school teachers of either gender were trained as teachers, and the enrolment rate in primary education for both genders in 2000 stood at about 62.7%, compared to 99.5% in Canada (UN Data 2010). 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. 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). The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. It is simply one of the gross evils of heathen society which, like habitual murder or slavery, must at all costs be ended. quiz The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. Non-African Poetry One of their scholarships is a drawing for $2,500. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. Soon after secondary schools were opened in other parts of southern Nigeria, including Bonny High School, which was taken over by government in 1904. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. Above, we have described the role that trading companies, missionaries, and the government played for the spread of Western education in the coastal areas from the late sixteenth century onwards. crs questions and anwers The Methodists, known as the Wesleyan Missionaries (after their founder), arrived in Freetown in 1811. non-slave trade), Christianity, Civilization and Colonization. Was this information useful? Father Burke became director of the Divine Word Language and Cultural Centre in Ghana. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines. The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. But with colonial conquest and antimalarial drugs, they moved further into the continent. The practice of inflicting multiple wounds on the bodies of so-called spirit babies now belongs to history. 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. This comes at no extra cost to you. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi And Benjamin Kye Ampadu, Ajayi, J..F.A and Michael Crowder History of West Africa. That there are parallels between contemporary Christian organizations efforts and the missionary efforts of the mid-nineteenth to mid- twentieth centuries is a reason for concern, considering the similar impact of missionaries of all Christian denominations on the education of Africans in the British and Italian colonies in Africa. With the support of the Propagation of the Faith within the Vatican, whose Cardinal Secretary became Pope Gregory XVI, various Roman Catholic missionary societies were founded. Discipleship and leadership development are needed in order to support local churches and their growth in Ghana. Ramseyer had at first not intended a missionary sojourn in Ashanti. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. 'In view of this idea, Mmofraturo, the first girls boarding school in Ashanti was officially . However, the early missionaries established medical centres, at first at their mission posts, and later far and wide, to attend to the sick. Therefore the period for the rise of Christianizing Missions in the late Nineteenth Century has been considered as reprise. 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. 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. But despite the work of Portuguese missionaries based on the island of Sao Tome and later of Spanish missionaries in Benin, it was not until the nineteenth century that the Christian religion was firmly established in Nigeria. Amma Darko 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. THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND VERNACULAR LITERATURE; 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. 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. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. Establishment of Christian Churches In The Gambia. The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. For several years they paid attention to slave trade rather than evangelization and Christianization of the people of West-Africa. Also, Christian missionaries in Ghana were as zealous as their counterparts in Nigeria in pioneering medical services. 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. The Church had its strongest hold in the Senegambia area. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. Johannes Zimmermann, for example, produced a Ga dictionary, Ga bible and grammar book. Already have a license? The Methodists founded Mfantsipim (1876) for boys and Wesley Girls High School (1884). Again, the missionaries persuaded Africans to abandon the practice of tribal marks. endstream endobj startxref Although modern scientific research has confirmed the medicinal properties of these concoctions, traditional medical practice had several shortcomings. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. This study simply offers systematic, long-term evidence of it. For instance, in the Salisbury region of Rhodesia, it was reported in 1924 that no male teachers had educational qualifications (Bone 1969:28). Request Permissions. The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Yet, the relationship between European missionaries and African populations had some contradictions. They were at the forefront during the fight for self-rule in Ghana. 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. hb```,,g@( B(Pi xD r[e}v'$ImK *e()dP#jjTNl=VtN(%!30p0040tt0B GGc2m2@M``a$]x2\YkvIaB1b`h6f` (eAKPU d Henry Townsend who went from Sierra Leone to Badagry in 1842 in his company was the Rev Ajayi Crowther. ]v#5%{,%Y{iKsZ|Cm7NismGmg_zxKYh?>bQ?ni8G.wx:qAm$ eb!^Kr$,.9Qq^|1. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000. Through hard work and persuasion she succeeded in stopping the practice among the people of killing twins. hR]0+^$%K{_"/HevgV+bH6L %)`\ #\E*63Z_TsxlRZj:[/\IL-1b-i Thank you! Etherington, Norman. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. I well remember when he came to live with me in Trenton. 2: Trans-Saharan Trade. This post may contain affiliate links. 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. The South African War is not covered in this grouping of letters. 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. They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. As founder and director at CEGAST, he has successfully coached thousands of students in English, Literature, and related subjects for major international examinations. His immigrant Irish-born parents instilled faith and a firm work ethic in their sons. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. The impact of Christianity on West African society has persisted to this day. 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. Therefore, considering that the impact of mission education continues to have serious repercussions today, one must question whether the First World should continue to interfere in African education. In 1859, the first newspaper in Yoruba, called the Iwe-Irohim, was published by the missionaries. This made it difficult for the early missionaries to stay in the country for long. J. G. Christaller produced a Twi Grammar and Dictionary. Mobility depended on the . The Society of the Divine Word is the world's largest Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work. Call: +233558280780, Your email address will not be published. To apply, students simply fill out a quick form. Again, in West-Africa, the efforts to go beyond the coast to reach those inland with the gospel coincided with the southwards expansion of Islam which posed some threat to the expansion of the work of Christian evangelizing missions. Establishment of Christian Churches In Ghana. Moreover, speaking through interpreters is a defective means of communicating ones thoughts to ones audience. Daystar Press, 1978. The quest for an all-inclusive development model of Ghana and other developing nations, therefore, calls for an insight into the role and responsibilities of religion toward education. Email: henrydonsco@gmail.com They include Sierra Leone 1900-1933; Ghana 1903; Cape Verde 1904-1910; and St Vincent 1907-1912. A new era began with the settlements of Black Christians from Nova Scotia in Sierra Leone in 1787 and the missionary advance inland from Cape Town beginning with the arrival there of J. T. van der Kemp in 1799. 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). 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.. churches were firmly established in several important towns, such as Abeokuta (1846), Lagos (1851), Ibadan (1853), and Oyo (1856). We were expected to accept the European language as the superior one, and this was reinforced throughout my school career (Abu cited in Berman 1974:536). Longman Publishing Group, 1980. James Fieldhouse, produced a Wolof Grammar in 1876. This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. The reservation of high-level positions in the colonial administrations for Europeans and the corresponding mission education that provided education fit only for lower positions meant that the withdrawal of European rule could cause serious political instability in the newly independent colonies. They relied very much on their home churches for their funds. It offered the most direct path towards prestigious jobs in colonial administrations and European enterprises. 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. In conclusion, the educational enterprise of the Christian missionaries in the British and Italian colonies of Africa during the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries was primarily negative for the African pupils. The weakening of traditional societies was not simply a consequence of the efforts of missionaries but one of their main objectives, stemming from their belief in the civilizing mission. Supporters of the civilizing mission believed that European colonial enterprises were justified as the Europeans were imparting their superior Western culture and ideas to the ignorant heathens of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia. Their luggage and other necessities had to be carried on heads and took a long time before reaching the missionaries. West African Senior School Certificate Examination. At the time of its inception, however, there was no publication that systematically or comprehensively addressed the enormous problems that characterized the education of Blacks in the United States and elsewhere. To their minds, Africans were too backward and needed help to become more civilized. 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. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. The contents of this tutorial will serve as a guide for a suitable essay on the below WAEC/WASSCE History past question. He worked zealously as an evangelist and schoolmaster in the Castle School until his death in 1816. In this essay on the impact of Christian missionary activities on Ghanaian society, we shall examine the role of the missionaries in the development of Ghana and the rest of Africa. faceless characters The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. Initially, a majority of the missionary journeys was done with English-Speaking Protestants and later, in the 1820s and 1830s, they were joined by continental Protestantism from Germany, Switzerland and France. 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). J. C. Taylor, in these parts of southern Nigeria can still be seen today. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana.