The missionaries seemed to have concentrated much of their effort on the production of export crops. And traditionally polygamous societies would have higher educational outcomes today. Wm. The coming of the Christian missionaries to Ghana had a positive impact on agriculture. senior high school English The effort of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He also blogs at BloggingtotheMax.com. 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. A History of West Africa, Cambridge University Press, 1969, Fynn , J. K and R. Addo-Fening History for Senior Secondary schools. This study simply offers systematic, long-term evidence of it. In Nigeria, one of the lasting works of the C.M.S. Christianity reborn: the global expansion of evangelicalism in the twentieth century. Literature Andreas Riis, assisted by a team of West Indian evangelists, laid the foundations of the Basel Missionary Church in the country. 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). Christianity in Ghana - Wikipedia Vol. New team members can be part of establishing a biblical foundation for the next generation of believers, the growth of nationally-led churches, and church planting in Ghana. 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. Babalola, E. O. Christianity in West Africa. In 1950 Albert Academy was founded in Freetown; for-a long lime it was the secondary school in the Colony serving largely children from the provinces, among them were the future heads of state, Sir Milton Margai and Dr. Siaka Stevens. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king, Otumfour Nana Kweku Duah I who reigned between 25th August 1834 to 27th April 1867). People all around the world are searching for hope, but many dont have someone to tell them about the hope found in Jesus. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. 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. Some of the missionaries came with them (549 years ago) but many died from the cruel tropical weather of forested West Africa. 2 (1983): 116-143. 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? church were founded in south-eastern Nigeria, the chief centres being Bonny and Brass. Establishment of Christian Churches In Ghana. ASSESS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. 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. They worked to write the bible, dictionaries and textbooks in such Ghanaian Languages as Ewe, Fanti, Ga and Twi. 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. In Ghana the Presbyterians were pioneers in reducing Ga and Twi into . This allowed me to estimate the impact of mission schooling directly. 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. An Alumnus of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, a Journalist, Author and a Philanthropist. 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. Even when governments discouraged domestic industries, graduates of vocational schools contributed to the economy of the colonies -and therefore indirectly the mother countrys as well. 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. As long as the Africans could read the Bible, the missionaries were satisfied that they had had enough academic education. He introduced the Methodist Church in Asante in 1839, and won the support of the Asante king. In December 1868 he went with his wife and child to Anum in the present-day Volta Region of Ghana. The Akim area had about 3400 converts over 32 villages and there were about 900 children distributed in 27 Schools. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. We must not lose sight of the fact that the colonial government in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa relied on the activities of the missionaries to help them achieve the objectives of colonial rule. Soon after, in 1835 they moved up to Akropong on the hills in Akuapem, where the pioneer missionary the Rev. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. The Committee for Women's Work was responsible for the education of native girls. His funeral Mass was Sept. 27, followed by burial at St. Mary Cemetery at Techny. It was not until 1909 that the government opened a teacher training college and a technical school in Accra. The Contribution of christian missionaries to education in Meru 1908-1963. For instance the scholar E.A. This is the famous Presbyterian Teacher Training College founded in 1848 at Akropong-Akwapim. In 1925 the Governor introduced measures which helped the efforts of the missionaries. In 1880, two Roman Catholic priests of the Society of African Missions (S.M.A. Perhaps the greatest service of the missionaries was the promotion of western education and the development of vernacular literature. History books tended to exaggerate in achievements of Europeans, making no reference to Africans own great past. 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. 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! faceless characters Learn how your comment data is processed. Among the Christian missionaries that came to the Gold Coast (Ghana) were the following. Soon after the start of elementary schools, the missionaries started opening higher institutions also. The churches opened primary schools both in the capital and in the rural communities. 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. English comprehension Of the ten largest congregations for men, the Society of the Divine Word is the fastest growing over the past 50 years. Looking for a flexible role? past questions Until almost the end of the colonial period education was still largely in the hands of the churches. Isichei, Elizabeth. However, attending mission schools also meant exposure to colonial indoctrination. Human Zoos: Untold History of Suppression, The Legend of King Ulu (Ancient Thai Folklore), The Kingdom of Saud of The Arabs (Saudi Arabia), The Wesley Brothers of Oxford University (1700s), Razia Sultan of Medieval India (786 Years Ago), The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (The Revelation), Education in Africa: The Impact of Colonialism, Why The Legendary Geneva Bible was Banned. The Christian Connector Scholarship. Some of these new crops were grapes coffee, mango, ginger, and olives. Bamgboye & Company Press, 1976. 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. 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 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. The training college later became part of Achimota College. The Christian Connector is a great resource for Christians and aspiring ministry leaders and missionaries to apply for scholarships. Their records from World War One show their distance from the war and yet that it did affect . 522 0 obj <>stream The effects of work done by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, assisted by the Igbo recaptive the Rev. In many instances, they made their converts rebel against traditional rulers and other spiritual leaders. Following agitation by the people in 1934, the government opened the old Yaba Higher College and Medical School, which awarded diplomas acceptable only locally. Foremost in the contribution of the early Christian missionaries to the development of Ghana is their efforts to bring Western education to Ghanaians. The Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missions all made a major contribution to education in Ghana and Africa as a whole. For instance, in the Salisbury region of Rhodesia, it was reported in 1924 that no male teachers had educational qualifications (Bone 1969:28). This decreased the zeal with which people began to accept the Gospel leading to nominal Christianity. They were followed in turn by the Methodists and the Roman Catholics. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. 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). WAEC 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. personal development missionaries was the development of literature in Yoruba. One is led to ask, why this sudden development? Clarke, Peter Bernard. While living at the Divine Word Residence in Bordentown, N.J., he often visited parishes and schools to talk about missionary work. I also matched up locations that differed in proximity to the mission stations, but otherwise had similar preconditions for educational development. Indeed, once the souls had been saved and since the students must have been considered clever enough, European languages were almost universally the languages of instruction in the later primary years and in secondary schools (Beck 1966: 120; Foster 1965: 159; Miran 2002:127). They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. The vast majority of the people of The Gambia are Moslems; but a sizeable percentage of the population, especially in and around the capital Banjul, are Christians.