Missionary education in West Africa: a study of pedagogical ambition
The history of the North German Mission Society (established 1836 in Hamburg) and its activity on the West African coast (from 1847 onwards among the Ewe, in what is now Ghana and Togo where it was and still is known as the ‘Bremen Mission’) mirrors neatly the various phases of the idea of ‘mission’...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2011
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| In: |
Journal of beliefs and values
Year: 2011, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Pages: 235-246 |
| Further subjects: | B
Inculturation
B Education B West Africa B Franz Michael Zahn B Mission (international law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The history of the North German Mission Society (established 1836 in Hamburg) and its activity on the West African coast (from 1847 onwards among the Ewe, in what is now Ghana and Togo where it was and still is known as the ‘Bremen Mission’) mirrors neatly the various phases of the idea of ‘mission’: its composite motivation (Enlightenment, humanism and Pietism); the rejection of a narrow denominationalism (though the management of the mission was from 1850 onwards in the hands of the society’s Bremen branch which belonged to the Reformed tradition); the entanglement of mission and overseas trade; the ambivalent attitude towards imperialism; the shaping of the missionary process as a profoundly educational one; the growing independence of the African church when the German missionaries were imprisoned (World War I) and prevented from returning to their posts (one of the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles); the mission’s eventual loss of usefulness to the African church after 1945, its attempt at re-inventing itself as an agency for development and inter-church aid; and, finally, the Pentecostal rebellion of African Christians (church schisms) against the new theological orthodoxy of inculturation and Africanisation. The focus of the present article is on only one of the facets of this complex narrative - the remarkable attempt of the Bremen Mission actively to transform Africans, through a highly distinctive process of educational intervention, into African Christians. The design of this intervention was drafted by Franz Michael Zahn, the mission’s Director from 1862 to 1900. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9362 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of beliefs and values
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13617672.2011.600821 |