Joseph Dunwell. 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). Metadata. The Methodist Church Ghana came into existence as a result of the missionary activities of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, inaugurated with the arrival of Joseph Rhodes Dunwell to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1835.Like the mother church, the Methodist Church in Ghana was established by people of Anglican background. 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). 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. Thomas Birch Freeman, son of a London-based West Indian father and an English mother. The early missionaries set up craft centres as part of their educational programmes. 2006 - 2023 Microform Academic Publishers | Microform Academic Publishers is a division of Microform Imaging Limited (Company registered in England no. Renewed evangelism started when the Basel (later known as Presbyterian) missionaries started work at Osu (Accra). 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. Not only did mission education strengthen colonial rule, but it also weakened traditional societies and implemented poor standards of Western education. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. And traditionally polygamous societies would have higher educational outcomes today. The first batch, who came out between 1804 and 1806, included pioneer missionaries like Renner and Nylander. Despite their significant contributions to education, local language development, agriculture and the economy as a whole, the missionaries have been criticized severally. Their economic activities went beyond the development of agriculture. Learn how your comment data is processed. Missionary, educator contributed to building independent Ghana. The missionaries seemed to have concentrated much of their effort on the production of export crops.