CHRISTIAN IMPACT/SERVICES IN EAST AFRICA

Missionary/church education in East Africa

Education refers to the imparting of knowledge, skills and values into the learners. It can be both formal and informal.

Informal education is the African Traditional type of education which was imparted by the elders with no classrooms; no trained teachers, no time table, no syllabus, no credentials, and no assignments at the end of it.

Formal education is the western type of education involves reading and writing and learners are given academic credentials at the end of it.

Formal education was introduced in East Africa by missionaries and later it was offered by the colonial government to the people of East Africa.

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Characteristics of missionary education/ formal education

The missionary type of education is still going on in East Africa and its characterized by the following:

It is formal in that teachers teach learners how to read and write

It is conducted in the established schools with good infrastructures like kings college Buddo, Gayaza high school etc.

This type of education is carried out in classrooms and classes are classified according to the age of learners.

Missionary education requires trained teachers to teach learners at different institutional levels.

Learners in this education are given certificates/ academic credentials at the end of each level of education.

It has a teaching time table which explains at a certain time when to teach and evaluate the learners.

This education system is not compulsory to everybody but it is attained by those who are lucky and those who can afford in terms of paying school fees.

It’s regarded as an investment because of being so expensive and people expect wealth after attaining it.

Church type of education creates classes in society based on the levels of education one has attained.

The missionary type of education is characterized by the formative evolution of learners termly or per semester to find out the academic achievements or failures of the learners.

Learners in this type of education expect white color jobs after completing. They also expect being paid big salaries.

This education involves awarding of academic credentials like certificates diplomas, degrees, masters etc to all those who have successfully undergo a given level.

In this education system, there are teaching syllabi to cater for all those in different classes.

It involves a lot of research in order to find out new things that motivate human learning and development.

It is gender-sensitive in that both boys and girls are taught together and it aims at bringing women at the same level with men in society.

This education is very theoretical and neo-colonial and its major graduates are mainly job seekers.

The missionary type of education teaches against African culture and it emphasizes so much European culture and that’s why its graduates so much want to go to Europe instead of serving Africa.

Roles of missionaries in the provision of education in East Africa

They established academic schools from where they taught their education to Africans e.g. Alliance High school in Kenya established in 1926, Namilyango college in 1902, kings college Buddo.

They set up technical farm schools for agriculture, carpentry and building. E.g. at Bagamoyo established by Catholics.

They set up theological training colleges where religious education and theology were taught to learner’se.g. Limuru theological college.

They set up medical centers from where they provided practical western education to the medical students. E.g. Mengo medical school in Uganda established in 1917.

They provided financial support for the smooth running of education in East Africa e.g. they paid the teaching staff and financed all academic programs.

They provided scholastic materials such as books, pens and other stationary to the learners hence motivating them to love the education.

They translated the English books into local languages a factor that facilitated easy learning of western education in East Africa

Christian missionaries further provided the teaching staffs from among themselves who were good teachers who taught the east Africans. E.g. Alexander Mackey.

They introduced and designed the curriculum and syllabi some of them are being used in primary and secondary schools of East Africa up to date.

They introduced formative and summative examinations in order to evaluate the academic achievements and the failures of the learners.

Missionaries also started the class best education that’s why primary and secondary schools today are based on classes.

They introduced academic credentials in form of certificates, diplomas, degrees etc and these motivated learners to learn to be awarded.

Missionaries gave out white color jobs to people who had been taught as Bishops, catechists hence motivating more people to join the school.

Missionaries taught some Africans as teachers and later recruited them to teach in their schools which motivated more Africans to start studying.

They also decompaigned and taught against African informal education calling it useless and primitive. This made Africans to join formal education.

Missionaries solicited for funds foreign nations which boosted their education to the extent that they were able to buy printing machines.

Strength of the church/missionary education

Missionary education provides direct and indirect employment to professionals like teachers, doctors, secretaries etc.

It equips workers with knowledge, skills and experience hence increasing the efficiency of labour.

It is instrumental in supporting industrial development because it provides skilled labour with ideas necessary for industrial development.

It reduces the need for expatriates and brain drain and at the same time leads to job creation.

It helps in controlling the population because people spend more years in school and when they start producing, they produce few children hence reducing population.

Missionary education helps the people to do away with traditional beliefs like having extended families and producing food for home consumption hence leading to development.

Missionary education has led to employment of many educated people which has reduced income in quality and increased savings.

Missionary formal education has increased people’s levels of income because educated people tend to have good jobs with good salaries.

Attaining missionary education also gives self-satisfaction to the people and therefore it makes them have confidence and high self-esteem in life.

Weaknesses of church/ missionary education

Many of the people who attain this education are white color job seekers who cannot create jobs for themselves hence leading to the high rate of unemployment.

Missionary education is costly in terms of school fees and other scholastic materials and this has made many to drop out because they cannot afford.

It encourages rural-urban migration because its products want to live in urban areas that have good conditions hence leaving villages underdeveloped.

This education is too theoretical and that’s why there are few skilled people which has increased dependency on expatriates who are very expensive.

Graduates of this education have a negative attitude towards agriculture and this has hindered agricultural production in many African countries.

This education system is urban-based i.e. it provides good education standards in urban areas neglecting the rural areas.

Missionary education was not gender sensitive in that it was for only boys until recently when girls started equipping this type of education.

Since it was not gender-sensitive, it became a major factor for income inequalities in society.

Missionary education creates classes in the society i.e. the learned and the unlearned, the superior and the inferior and the rich and the poor hence leading to discrimination.

The curriculum of this education is outward-looking i.e. it produces graduates ready to work in European countries instead of Africa hence hindering African development.

It has led to cultural imperialism because its converts are based on foreign curriculum thus making Africans abuse their own culture and praise European culture.

This education teacher-centered but not learner-centered. Therefore it does not answer the needs of the learners to fit well in the society i.e. it does not give a chance to learners to think for themselves.

At the beginning, it was denominational i.e. it was based on religions and this led to disunity in the society i.e. protestants went to protestant schools and Catholics went to catholic schools.

It caters less for moral rehabilitation of the learners and instead it has increased in moral behaviors among learners in terms of words, thoughts and actions. This is because it emphasizes so much academics.

It encourages individualism as it has killed social and mutual concern among which used to be among Africans. It’s therefore blamed for present attitude like mind your business in the society today.

How missionary education facilitated the spread of Christianity in East Africa

Missionary formal education greatly contributed to the spread of the gospel as shown below

It has led to the creation of a literate society with people who could read and white Christian literature hence leading to the spread of the church.

Missionary education produced African evangelists such as priests and catechists who spread the gospel to fellow Africans.

The schools built by the missionaries attracted Africans to go for education from where they were converted to Christianity.

Missionary schools also became evangelical centers where the gospel was preached to those who went for studies.

Missionary schools also had church that served as worship centers for the purpose of strengthening people’s faith in Christianity.

Missionary schools further included CRE in their education system and this imparted Christian principles into the students making them to convert.

In missionary school, education was only given to those converted to Christianity. This pushed many people to Christianity so as to attain education.

In these schools, jobs to teachers, secretaries, cooks etc were only given to those converted to Christianity and this made people who wanted such jobs to get converted.

In missionary schools catechism and confirmation lessons were offered to the learners who were later baptized and confirmed to Christianity leading to its spread.

Missionary schools stressed Christian practices and doctrines to be practiced by the workers. E.g. they called upon workers to have monogamy marriages thus spreading Christianity among Africans.

The Protestants and catholic missionaries put up very many schools because it was the only way to attain converts who went to attend such schools.

Missionary formal education civilized the Africans and weakened their cultural beliefs hence easily accepting Christianity.

Reasons why the British government took control over education after 1920

At the beginning, missionaries were in charge of providing education in the 3 East African countries. However, when the colonialists came they realized a number of weaknesses in missionary education and thought of taking over.

Before taking over, the colonial government ordered the Phelps stokes commission to re-examine the state of education in the 3 East African countries.

The commission investigated and found out many weaknesses in missionary education and issued out report which influenced the British government to take over missionary education.

The following are the reasons why the British took over education from missionaries.

Missionary education was too theoretical which made the government to take over control so as to provide practical education.

The government wanted to check on the curriculum so as to produce graduates who were not against colonialism.

The need to develop a uniform curriculum to be used by all those giving education led to the government take over i.e. initially each denomination had its own curriculum.

The need to provide uniform standards of assessing learners by all schools led to the government take over. This is because each denomination used to set its exams.

The need to develop and award similar standardized academic credentials to all graduates to their schools led to the government to take over.

The government wanted to start funding missionary schools financially in order to improve on service delivery.

The government wanted to train and produce professional teachers of uniform standards to manage the schools and teach uniform content.

The government wanted to use the schools to produce agents of colonialism who would co-operate with the colonialists to extend colonial policies among Africans.

The government wanted to promote the use of English language in East Africa in order to promote British imperialism in their colonies.

It also wanted to use formal education as a British tool of civilizing Africans and make them admire and take on British ways of life.

With colonialism already established, Britain wanted to heal the divisions that had been created by denominational education among Africans

There was a need to develop high education training for the award of diploma and degree courses by the government, hence the University of East Africa.

There was need for the government to permanently supervise and advise on the conduct and offer of education by the missionaries.

The government wanted to improve on school infrastructures and expand education services to all interested Africans.

Wanted to train African officers to work in remote areas where Europeans felt uncomfortable staying.

The desire to produce cheap African labor to exploit and deploy in farms, industries, communication and promote colonial interests.

By supporting missionaries in the offer of education, wanted to promote the rapid spread of the church among Africans.

They wanted to produce educated westernized Africans who would provide market to European produced goods.

Missionary health services in East Africa

The Christian missionaries were the pioneers of health services of East Africa just as they were pioneers of education.

It should be noted that the early missionaries in East Africa considered health services to be very necessary to themselves and to the people of East Africa in order to convert them to Christianity.

Missionary efforts in the provision of medical services in East Africa

They established health-oriented organizations in order to carry on their work e.g. sight by wings.

They also put up health centers inform of clinics, dispensaries and hospitals from where they offered medical services to the East Africans e.g. Bagamoyo hospital, Mengo hospital etc.

They provided the necessary technical personnel inform of doctors and nurses who looked after the patients. E.g. Dr Albert cook at Mengo hospital and his wife nurse Timpson.

Missionaries provided medical facilities in form of medicine, medical beds and other laboratory equipment that were used to offer quality services to the people. E.g. in 1897, Mengo hospital had 28 beds and by 1901 they had increased to 75 beds.

They carried out missionary health journeys by visiting sick people so as to treat them. E.g. Dr. Albert cook went to Ankole from Buganda for that purpose.

They trained some Africans in medical services and put up medical schools for this purpose e.g. by 1958, there were 86 male and female nurses trained by missionaries in Tanganyika.

They carried out research on African diseases such as malaria and leprosy and tried to find the appropriate vaccine to cure such diseases.

Missionaries provided special needs education to the blind i.e.they treated the blind and at the same time taught them. E.g. in Kenya there was 5 primary and 7 secondary schools for the blind by 1972.

The church had a special mobile all-time health service for those needed them in East Africa and this has survived up to date. E.g. sight by wings has got a mobile aircraft that serves Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

They worked with their governments to offer health services in East Africa e.g. with the help of the government, they founded Kilimanjaro Christian medical centre near Moshi in Tanzania in 1971.

Missionary doctors offered charity services to the needy by using their common private resources to save the sick from dying.

They used the church to preach and teach against African herbal medicines some of which were actually dangerous and could cause health complications to the Africans.

They provided western formal education with the major aim of changing the minds of Africans and convince them to start taking western medicine.

Missionaries provided funds/money for the establishment and smooth running of the health services in East Africa.

Today missionaries have established links with the Greek health centers abroad to assist East Africans e.g. sight by wings offers a useful link of obtaining flash eyes from the eye bank in Hayward centre in England.

Problems faced by missionaries in provision of health services in East Africa

They faced a problem of inadequate finances to buy the healthy equipment needed for the provision of quality health services.

They also had a problem of limited number of workers to work as doctors and nurses yet the number of patients was too big.

They faced a challenge of inadequate medical facilities like laboratory equipment which were very few in their health institutions.

They had a shortage of medicine and a delayed supply of medical facilities from Britain.

They had a problem of Africans who strongly believed in their African medicine changing them to take western medicine was a big problem.

Slave raids and its insecurity greatly affected the missionary work of treating sick in East Africa.

They had a problem of tropical diseases like malaria which killed some of them while in East Africa. For example, Dr. Albert cook died of malaria.

There was lack of infrastructures inform of health centers like hospitals which also negatively affected the work of treating the sick.

Many Africans had a negative attitude towards European medicine thinking that it was intended to cause more health problems to them.

Poor roads in remote area were another problem. Missionaries could not reach out to the sick in some areas due to their remoteness.

The strong African cultures, conservation and rigidities among Africans were all challenges to missionary doctors.

The belief in the miraculous healing among African Christians also interfered with the missionary work of providing health services to Africans.

Contributions of the church today in providing medical services in East Africa

The church has established health centers in Uganda e.g. Bishop Kihangire medical centre at Biina.

The church has also recruited professional medical personnel in form of doctors and nurses to treat the sick people in its hospitals.

The church provides free drugs to the sick people e.g. it has given ARVs to the AIDs patients.

The church has promoted immunization programs by calling upon people to immunize their children against the killer diseases.

The church has sponsored many students to study medicine and other health medical courses both with in the country and abroad.

The church has formed the Uganda Christian joint medical council with a major goal of promoting good health in Uganda.

It has solicited for funds from developed countries to support health program in Uganda

The church has jointly worked with the government in providing health services in Uganda e.g. it has offered free HIV testing with the help of the government.

The church institution has carried out health journeys in remote areas treating the people with different illnesses in villages.

The church has constructed big hospitals in Uganda which treat complicated diseases e.g.Catholic Church has expanded lubaga and Nsambya hospitals and Mengo hospital has been expanded by the protestant church.

The church provides free guidance and counseling services especially to people leaving with HIV/AIDS.

The church has established medical schools to train more health workers especially nurses eg Nsambya medical school and Mengo medical school in Uganda.

Some of the church leaders work in hospitals to supplement on the shortage of manpower in hospitals e.g. Nuns in catholic hospitals.

Problems the church in East Africa has faced in the provision of health services

The church has faced a problem of inadequate funds to facilitate them of providing quality health services to the sick.

It has also faced a problem of shortage of manpower of doctors and nurses who are too few to treat the many patients.

Insecurity in some areas with wars has also made it hard for the church to treat the sick in such areas.

Hostile tribes in some parts of East Africa are against the provision of health services due to their conservatism hence limiting church work e.g. the Karamojong.

The church has got limited land to build more health centers and expand the existing ones especially in urban areas like Kampala.

The emergence of new and rare diseases like Ebola, Marburg etc have caused a big challenge to the church medical department.

Some Africans are too confident of their traditional medicine/ herbs and this has interfered with the church provision of modern drugs.

Poor roads in some remote areas have made it hard for the church to carry out its health missionary journeys.

There is rampant corruption among some church leaders who at times misuse the health funds got from the donors.

Some times the government interferes negatively with the church work of providing medical services to the patients

Illiteracy among many people of East Africa is also a problem e.g. some people cannot follow the instructions of taking drugs because of illiteracy.

Low levels of technology have hindered the church effort of providing quality health services to its clients.

Inadequate medical facilities in form of medical machines like x-ray machines, ambulances etc is another obstacle to the church.