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. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. Looking for a flexible role? The positive contribution of Christian missionaries in Ghana can be felt in such areas as education, local language development, stoppage of outmoded cultural practices, agriculture and commerce. 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. During the first half of the 19th century they targeted healthier places, with relatively lower malaria-risk, where European missionaries could survive and train local African missionaries and teachers (Jedwab et al. The missionaries also greatly improved the health services. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! West Africa and Christianity. 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. 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. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. 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. He told me that that amount of money could pay for school fees for five students in secondary school in Ghana.. They were to spread the message of the Gospel, render social services to the people and to assist in the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. Other missionaries opened mission stations in the country. Earlier in 1846, the Rev. 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. The others include the French trading posts at Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), Assinie and Libreville in Gabon. Unsurprisingly, the level of education increased as one moved closer to the missionaries. In the days of Portuguese contacts with Nigeria, Catholic priests had established missionary stations in Benin and the neighbourhood. Besides education, they cared for the sick. 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. which were for females (Graham, 1971). For the West Africans, the acceptance of Christianity meant the total rejection of most of the cherished institutions upon which their society rested. student life The Wesleyan and Basel missionaries established schools in Cape Coast, Accra . Christian converts were indoctrinated to frown upon the use of indigenous first names in favour of Christian ones. Literature This Western education imparted to the Ameru by the Church of Scotland Missionaries, Consolata . Important among these, all in Lagos, were the Baptist Academy in 1855, the C.M.S. 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. They did a lot to impact the social and economic lives of Africans. 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. The practice of inflicting multiple wounds on the bodies of so-called spirit babies now belongs to history. Establishment of Christian Churches In Nigeria. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. The system was devoid of any cohesive national policy. 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. In due course leprosariums and orphanages were built to supplement their medical services. Therefore, whether through their rigid educational polices or lack thereof, colonial governments contributed to the poor education, though there is no denying that missionaries also contributed to the quality of education to a great extent. As happened in parts of Yorubaland in the last century, some of the Christian missionaries often engaged in local politics and took an active part in helping the colonial authorities in their wars of territorial expansion. The first missionaries to come to Ghana were the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 15th century and the Anglican missionaries. Several missionaries died at a youthful age due to the unfriendly tropical climate. past questions Then share it on your favourite social media platform for the benefit of others you care about. Without denying that prior to the introduction of Christianity in West Africa the people had developed their own crafts, one must admit that it was Christian missionaries who introduced modern forms of crafts such as carpentry and masonry. (As at December 2020). government questions crs questions and anwers They were followed by other major missionary bodies, including the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. However, with time, they brought some crops, which they cultivated and which sustained them. Joseph Dunwell. Government & Politics They were closed down in 1852 in favour of schools opened in Lagos which, in 1851, had one time British control. The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Box 2 of the papers relating to the Society's activities in West Africa. 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. Their educational activities helped spread literacy and vocational skills training among Ghanaians. The academic education purposely did not train Africans for the higher level positions of colonial administrations, which were mostly reserved for Europeans (Ayandele 1966:295; Sheffield 1973:42), a practise which created dependency on the colonizers, as without them the colony did not have qualified administrators. Preventive medicine was hardly known; the result was that epidemics of different kinds were frequent. Some progressive Europeans, like the first principal of Achimota College, Rev. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. Required fields are marked *. Another important missionary doctor was J. R. Stephen who for many years headed a missionary hospital at Ilesha. began work in many parts of Africa. Indeed, in some situations the converts were taught to feel that they were absolved from obeying their own traditional rulers and certain laws of the state. It is important for several reasons. His immigrant Irish-born parents instilled faith and a firm work ethic in their sons. In 1902 the Methodists opened a clinic at Igbo-Ora. Meanwhile, the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, had established a reputation in the Cross River area as a nurse. Let's look in-depth into these scholarships. They preferred to hold onto polygamy, even at the cost of illiteracy. skills for his or her future role in the society (Hetherington, 1979; Davidoff, 1980; Aboagye, 1997). These included the Basel Missionary Society, founded in Switzerland, and the Breman Mission formed in Germany. This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. 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. Study for free with our range of university lectures! Notably among these missionaries are the Wesleyan, Basel, and Bremen. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. During this period, difficulties encountered were different from the initial difficulties which will more related to sickness, deaths and the suspicion of indigenous people in accepting the Gospel. 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. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. The activities of the early Christian missionaries negatively affected the development of African traditional political institutions. Please read our privacy policy to find out more. 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. 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. Many Ghanaian communities got divided along religious lines. Are you ready to discover the points for an essay on the contribution of the Christian mission to the social and economic development of Ghana? The Rev. Vol. In the field of education, however, the missionaries had to adjust their programmes to fit in with the policy of assimilation. The lead was followed by other missionaries, notably the Roman Catholic, whose first higher institution was St Edwards Secondary School in Freetown. Another reason why the Europeans came to spread the Christian religion in Ghana was to pave their own way into eternal glory. Private Study Their greatest legacy in the field of education was the foundation which the Methodist laid for what is today the Gambia High school. Some of these effects are still with us today. An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the extent to which these institutions, especially . Christian missionaries were the first to introduce European-style education in sub-Saharan Africa. Chapter by Chapter Summaries of Second Class Citizen, 22 Reading Comprehension Past Questions and Answers, Second Class Citizen Summarized: Plot Summary, Themes & Characters, 50+ List of Characters in Second Class Citizen, Top 7 Reasons for the Colonization of Africa, 90+ Likely Grammatical Name (Past) Questions and Answers, Black Woman Analyzed: Subject Matter, Themes and Poetic Devices, Analysis of Bat: Meaning, Themes and Poetic Devices, 20+ Sample WASSCE English Summary Questions and Answers, Chapter 2 Summary of Second Class Citizen, Bookshop: High School Textbooks for Sale (PDF), English Language Audio Lessons Free (mp3), Download Key WASSCE PDFs, E-Books and More, July 2002 WAEC Economics Questions and Answers, 2001 WAEC Economics Questions and Answers (Nov-Dec), WASSCE 2000 Economics Questions and Answers, WASSCE 2002 Economics Past Questions and Answers, Is It You and Me or You and I? ]v#5%{,%Y{iKsZ|Cm7NismGmg_zxKYh?>bQ?ni8G.wx:qAm$ eb!^Kr$,.9Qq^|1. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. Over time and with the dedication of teachers like Father Burke, the school rose to prominence. Christianity in northern Nigeria. As an institution introduced by agents with radically different values, the Christian religion damaged the culture and traditional beliefs of the people of West Africa. Their arrival in South Africa was aimed particularly at spreading the Word of God. His work, however, did not extend much beyond Cape Coast and the neighbouring area. The work of the Basel Missionary Society was taken over with the consent of the Basel Mission Home Board by the United Free Church of Scotland whose ecclesiastical organization was Presbyterian. CUP Archive, 1979. In spite of the division, the parent Methodist missionary church played an important role in the history of Christianity in Sierra Leone. Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries came to the Gold Coast from the 15th century. Like the Methodists, the Roman Catholic missionaries spread the faith notably in the interior, which later became Protectorate. As churches of the Volta Region begin reproducing, ABWE wants to reach out to Ghanas unreached people groups in its eight other regions. 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. Again, the missionaries helped to pacify Africans while their rich natural resources were being plundered by the colonial government. The original Yaba College in Lagos has grown into a polytechnic. By February 2, 1918, all Basel missionaries had been deported from the Gold Coast. The agricultural schools the missions ran would have been even more advantageous to the colonial governments considering the discouragement of local industries that might have competed with the motherland. Kalu, Ogbu. It happens that some people convert at the end of their life in order to be buried in the prestigious Presbyterian cemetery. In fact, the Christian missionaries encouraged Ghanaians to reject African names and choose Christian names instead. Lack of transport from the coast to the interior parts of West Africa was one of the major difficulties encountered by the missionaries. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. Specifically, it addresses the unique role of Christian missions in. They were followed in turn by the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. Moreover, the Islamic religion was also being introduced to the southern section of the country by Muslim immigrants from the north of the colony. The kingdom of God in Africa: A short history of African Christianity. 1. But with colonial conquest and antimalarial drugs, they moved further into the continent. The first school in Nigeria was started by the Methodist missionaries at Badagry in 1842. Another important Catholic missionary in this area was the Irishman, Bishop Shanahan. Shaw, Mark. These included the Baptist missionaries who under the American evangelist, Thomas Bowen, started work from Ogbomosho in 1855. This made it difficult for the early missionaries to stay in the country for long. The coming of the Christian missionaries to Ghana had a positive impact on agriculture. We shall now turn our attention to the activities of the Christian missionaries in Ghana. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. 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. Today almost all of the population is Presbyterian, although the ancestral royal cult and many spirit cults still flourish. 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. 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. The traditions and values of the community, as well as the meaning of life, were taught to the child. For three years, he taught English and biblical ethics. The Methodists founded Mfantsipim (1876) for boys and Wesley Girls High School (1884). The Roman Catholics established their first secondary school, St Augustines, at Cape Coast in 1936. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. Their personal and family choices influenced the expansion speed of missionary education. This post may contain affiliate links. The others included the Christian responsibility for the regeneration of African peoples. 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. Containing 9,566 pages belonging to 77 documents housed in 6 volumes As outlined in the short history entitled. From the second half of the eighteenth century, a fervent wave of evangelical spirit developed in the United Kingdom, Europe and the New World which inspired men and women with the missionary fervour to found religious societies whose members would go out to Africa and the other lands. 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. In traditionally monogamous societies, primary school completion increased by about eight percent, but only four percent in polygamous societies. Johannes Zimmermann wrote a grammar of the Ga language and translated the entire Bible and a Bible history into Ga. Then in 1874, the Rev. endstream endobj startxref Mission Statement Learn how your comment data is processed. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. Public money was spent only on the small number of government schools, totaling nineteen when Governor Guggisberg assumed office in 1919. Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. Similar developments were carried out by the missionaries in other Nigerian languages, Efik, Kanuri, Igbo, etc. Bamgboye & Company Press, 1976. endstream endobj 504 0 obj <>>>/Lang(en)/MarkInfo<>/Metadata 55 0 R/Outlines 135 0 R/Pages 498 0 R/StructTreeRoot 142 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 505 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 499 0 R/Resources<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 506 0 obj <>stream The original letters from abroad cover West Africa from 1899 to 1933. senior high school government Some of the positive development outcomes of former British colonies are arguably the result of a permissive attitude towards mission schools. Thus, as early as 1823, the Roman Catholic sisters started a clinic for the sick and for children in Banjul. ABWE is also at work in countries that restrict evangelism. After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the missionaries Chretien Proten, Henrick Huckuff and Jacobus Capitein, the Anglican, Rev. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. History of the church in Africa: a survey. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. The missionaries opened schools further inland, and by 1880, the Wesleyan Mission had eighty -three schools. The high temperatures coupled with high rainfall patterns in some parts of the country experienced during the daytime, made the missionaries stay indoors, which slowed down their activities. The government gave grants according to the strength of the staff and the efficiency of the school judged by inspection reports and the results of public examinations. The constant tensions between traditionalists and Christian converts often erupted into all-out conflicts. Among the first missionaries was the Rev. One of them, Philip Quaque, returned in 1765 as an ordained priest. The country has diverse geography, people groups, and languageswith English as the common language, and more than 11 others with state recognition. Governments are also not free from blame even if they had a laissez-faire educational policy, as in Ghana, where until 1944 the registration of schools was not required and no attempt was made to exert detailed control even over the activities of grant-aided [by the government] institutions except for a series of minimal registrations (Foster 1965:114). DISCLOSURE. %PDF-1.7 % Isichei, Elizabeth. 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. 2 (1983): 116-143. Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast in 1752. A history of Christianity in Africa: From antiquity to the present. Thank you for supporting this project. 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 Sierra Leone, among the earliest higher institutions which the C.M.S. Again, the missionaries persuaded Africans to abandon the practice of tribal marks. self help 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.