Youth in Mission: History of Youth Ministry in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana PDF

# YOUTH in MISSION ## About the Author Martin Knispel was born in 1961 in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his training as a teacher in Religious Education and served in different schools in Germany. From 1993-1996, he worked with Akrofi-Christaller Center at Akropong and since 2001 at the Head of...

# YOUTH in MISSION ## About the Author Martin Knispel was born in 1961 in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his training as a teacher in Religious Education and served in different schools in Germany. From 1993-1996, he worked with Akrofi-Christaller Center at Akropong and since 2001 at the Head office of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in Accra. His main focus is training of youth leaders, pastors and writing of training material. He is also currently the Pastor of the German Speaking Church in Ghana. ## HISTORY OF YOUTH MINISTRY IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GHANA ### FROM BASEL MISSION TO MODERN TIMES Martin Knispel Designed & Printed by Door-Tii Press. Tel:020-820 81 45 ## Year 1983 - The newly developed operational branches of the present youth work. - Chapter five gives an overview of the biblical theological foundation of the Presbyterian youth work. - As well as the historical and present day religious influences from the Ghanaian context. ## In The Closing Chapter of the Summary - The question as to what extent the church has lived up to its responsibility as far the youth are concerned. - What has been achieved so far and what could still be done to be able to still take better care of the youth in the future. - I shall summarize in the closing thesis the results of my investigations. Martin Knispel November 2004 ## Chapter 1 The Basel Mission and Support of the Youth ### 1.1 The Beginnings: Evangelism comes to the Gold Coast. - The PCG originated from the work of the work of the Basel Mission. - At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the missionary societies rushed in their numbers to the African continent to get a foothold there for the purpose of evangelizing. - However, it was not through the work of the Basel Mission that Christianity was initiated into West Africa. - Lamin Sanneh classified the contact of Christianity with the West African culture into three epochs, whereby it was only during the last one that the Mission chalked a decisive success. - The Trade posts had been in existence for a long time already all over along coasts and it was in these places that the European influence was felt most. - The Europeans, of the then Danish Gold Coast colony - which later passed into the possession of the British - were interested above all in economic trade and the exploitation of the resources of the country. - The colonization prepared the work for the missionary work: - In the first place, both colonial administrators and missionaries shared the same world view and they both originated from the same culture. - Secondly - the colonial administration was favorably disposed to the work of the missionaries and often subsidized mission schools (Boahen 1985: 221). ### In the year 1730 Dr. J. A. Urlsberger established the German Christian Society in Basel out of which the Basel Mission developed. - The first missionaries were sent to the Gold Coast in 1828 but all of them died within a short time. It was not until 1832 that Andreas Riis, who was the only one among the missionaries to survive a protracted illness and to settle in Akropong, arrived: - He wanted to come into direct contact with the pagans and learn the Akan language, which was of importance for the widespread mission work of the Basel Missionaries (Debrunner 1967:99). - Riis learnt the Twi language fluently. There were no conversions until a settlement of a group of former black slaves from Jamaica in Akropong was established. - The first Christians got baptized only twelve years after the arrival of Riis. ### 1.2 The Mission Stations - The missionaries lived in the so-called mission stations together with several families and unmarried missionaries. - As a rule - they themselves generally built their houses. - They fell upon the young people from the neighborhood as house-helps. - They also developed a home school system, where girls were taught the domestic sciences by the wives of the missionaries (Clarke 1986:59). - Here - we have, presumably - the first pedagogical attempt of the missionaries, to teach the youth practical skills. - Right from the beginning - a small school was also attached to the mission stations. The first one was opened in Christianborg in 1843. - The academic demands of the missionaries were astonishing - considering the fact that they themselves had indeed come from rather rural backgrounds. - There was also a small seminary at the Akropong main station since 1848 - with which the Christianborg Seminary was united in the year 1858. - The mission stations concept was effective, but equally time consuming. - A ring of congregations formed around every station and they were in the course of the years taken care of by the trained natives. - In this way, a constant systematic growth was fostered. - In 1869 there were already eight mission districts with twenty-four congregations in existence and a membership number of 1,851 congregation members (Sanneh 1983:115). - Apart from the schooling aspect - the mission station also played an economic role in the development of the local agriculture. - Mission stations developed plantations in many parts of Africa, and in addition to growing local foodstuffs and introducing new crops - they helped in the diffusion of commercial crops like cocoa, tobacco, cotton and sugar cane (Boahene 1985: 222). ###This demand of the missionaries for holistic development was based on an ambivalent outlook. - Rennstich refers to the following causes: 1. To bring to the Africans charitable civilization - by transferring western conception of life to Africans. - To evangelise means now to civilize, how Josenhans, the Basel Mission Inspector expressed it. 2. To ameliorate their living conditions - by promoting financial independence through systematic agriculture. 3. Reparation - The injustice done to the Africans by the exploitation of their lands through the Europeans should be compensated to some extent through missionary work. 4. The mission was also considered from Basel as part of the anti-slavery movement. - The new converts were also bought free and integrated into the new form of life of the "Salems," a form which will be explained further in more details in the following. ###The Mission station was the core of the mission work of the Basel Mission in all mission countries. - The mission expanded in a concentrated manner - whereby regular evangelization travels led more and more to newer and newer preaching places and later to the setting up of new mission stations. - How were the neophytes treated? What form of life was befitting for them? ### 1.2.1 The Assembly Of The New Christians In Salem - Being a missionary also meant being an educator (Reindorf, Johnson 1998:85). - It was the concern of the missionary to protect the neophytes from the influence of their pagan environment. - The new Christian way - created conflicts with the traditional people. Polygamy and ancestral sacrifices were major arrears of conflicts. - In order to lessen these conflicts - the Christians were urged to construct their own quarters. - The Salems, as the Christian settlements were called, continue to exist today (Raaflaub, 1978:13). - The native Christians were brought together in these Salems - and instructed. - Debrunner states that the Akropong parish bought land for the respective branch parishes and thus made the construction of the new settlements possible. - Besides the need for protecting the young Christians from the negative influences - a distinct educational element was highlighted. - It was not only the wish that Christians be given time to mature and grow spiritually but also given time to learn to read and write. - However - there were also other motives that may time and time again be perceived about the missionaries of the colonial time. - They resided above all in their then view of life and which tended to justify a certain superiority thinking vis-a-vis the Africans.¹ ### Salem became the place for life shaping and education in the Christian life style in the sense of European pre-industrial characteristic features. - The teaching of the missionaries had paternalistic feature and was not secured against misuse. - One must therefore agree with Boahen when he concludes that - being a Christian - was to be equated with the Europeanization of the Africa. - Nevertheless, Salem was a form of living that was basically not alien to the African. - Every newly established quarter was traditionally subordinate of a spirit that the quarter had to serve. - With Salems - the missionaries got linked up to a traditional village system that placed new settlements within a village under the protective care of a spirit and an elder. - Both were present in the then view of Salem. - The function of the protecting spirit - was assumed by God in the form of the Holy Spirit. - The missionaries, and later the natives themselves, assumed the role of the elders (Knispel 2001:44) - Zimmermann established in Odumase in the Kroboland - the first village with six hundred people, the majority of them being the wives of the chief, children, slaves and relatives. - The local chief had unequivocally demanded that of Zimmermann. - He let Zimmermann teach his own son - so high was his trust in the mission work. - The fact that he himself was not converted into the Christian belief only underscores the high esteem the non-Christian chieftains had for the work of the missionaries. ### 1.2.2 The relationship of the missionaries with the local people within the Salems - As much as it was important for Basel that its missionaries lived with the local people should not be exaggerated. - The Mission Committee controlled these relations with the local people. - According to official policy - Basel missionaries were expected to live humbly and in close physical proximity to the natives. - Nevertheless, a person who failed to keep an imperative distance from Africans could be a candidate for dismissal (Miller 1994:123). - There was the risk that the missionaries would degenerate through too close contact with the local people. - At the same time - the hierarchy levels would be undermined through too - close contact with each other. - This was rather not in keeping with the hierarchical style of upbringing of the Basel Mission. - This, on the other hand, was connected with the pietistic background of the Basel devoutness. - “They (the heathens) were struggling in misery precisely because they lacked the redeeming social arrangements above all discipline in family, vocation and religion that could be sustained only by internalizing the Christian view of (divine) law and (worldly)order (Miller 1994: 154). ###This life-style of "order must be observed" was considered as imperative to be established in the Salems. - The missionaries therefore had the responsibility as representatives of this "higher pedagogic". - Anyone that opposed the order was immediately reprimanded or expelled from the mission. - Zimmermann was one such candidate who through his marriage with Catherine Mulgrave was almost expelled from the service of the mission. - A missionary that married an African woman had undoubtedly crossed the hierarchy level and posed a problem for the African Missionary conduct. - Besides - Zimmermann opposed the Basel radical condemnation of the house slavery - which he saw as part of an African institution - which granted the slaves at least a certain protection and a role in a community. - This shows that there were missionaries who broke through the sedate frontier and sought a closer relation with the local people and a better understanding of the culture. - Nevertheless, Basel was unequivocal as far as the conduct towards the inhabitants was concerned. - The missionary was the representative of Basel and had the duty to convert the local people. - At the same time - he also represented the higher western civilization - which he was also supposed to bring to Africa - through school education and promotion of skilled trades. - Salem as exclusively the place for teaching and training was downright ideal for the fulfillment of this duty. ###1.3 Salem as the starting point of educational efforts - Christians were offered a piece of land in Salem on which they could construct their houses. - These houses clustered around the church or chapel, and generally around the house of the missionary: - Such an assembly of Christians in communities that we also locally isolated was necessary in Africa in order to sustain a Christian way of life. - Communal morning and evening devotion were held in the chapels. - The Christian villages we placed under the supervision of indigenous fathers and in the older communities the office of elders was introduced who also animated and strengthened the consciousness of the communities. - In this way, the communities got their own representatives who were in charge of affairs. - The administration of the churches and poor-relief funds were later on also entrusted to the Presbyters - who were made up of the missionaries and these elders… - The outstations were over the course of time entrusted to the indigenous catechists. (Eppler 1900:197). - During the day, the natives went to work on their fields. - The missionaries gathered together school children and taught them in various classes. - On the basis of the example of the Akropong main station, I present below the Basel schoolwork. ### 1.4. The Basel triad: "School-Training-Development" ### 1.4.1. The development of the school work up to 1938 - The missionary Dieterle - opened the catechist school - in 1848. - Initially -some of the students consisted merely of the already mentioned house servants. - The merger with the erstwhile Christianborg School in 1856 enlarged the school. - Now there we four classes. - The actual breakthrough came with the Württenberg teacher Gottlieb Auer who entered the Basel Mission work in 1858. - Up to this time - thwe were only the primary school and the Theological Seminary. - The young natives of the primary school were in the beginning not children but juveniles. - At the end of the primary school - they had already attained the age for admission into the Seminary. - After twelve years of operation a shift took place since more and more children were entering the primary school. - Reorganization had become necessary. - Auer, who started as a music teacher, was soon appointed schoolteacher and established a trinomial educational system. - It took the following form: 1. Primary and elementary schools for children. - Two classes were created - starting with English lessons and the normal primary school training. - The primary school was designed to cover six years. 2. Middle school from 14-18 years of age. - Bible knowledge, biblical stories, religious doctrine, arithmetic, geometry, geography, world order and - nature were taught. - Greek was started in the highest class - The students who would later wish to become teachers could at first be taken through a separate preparation in the fourth year. - For the future teachers - educational methods were taught at the same time. 3. Catechist school and seminary - Emphasis was laid here on - theological teaching - which even in the beginning comprised Hebrew. - However, as Eppeler certainly remarked, with little success. - The lesson covered a four-year period. - The future -teachers - were taught - for two years in one of the teacher training schools attached to the Seminary. - The catechists remained in the school for four years. - The following synopsis gives the statistics of the first years: | Middle School | Seminary | |:---:|:---:| | 1863 26 Pupils | 1863 10 Students | | 1868 49 Pupils | 1868 13 Students | | 1878 62 Pupils | 1878 21 Students | - Regular advanced training were offered to the teachers and catechists. - Eppler concluded the report with the following commentary full of pride: "Our parish members are the most instructed and most educated on the Gold Coast" - He could therefore be basically be right in his judgment since there were hardly any other trials in this period. - The Basel Mission's educational system became for many years the measure and standard for the Gold Coast. - The management of the schoolwork was always passed on to a General School Inspector - to whom District Inspectors were subordinate. - Every student in the preacher seminary had to perform also practical work in addition to academic work. - Two students taught every morning for two hours in the primary school. - The tutors went out regularly with their students on preaching tours in the surrounding villages. - Twice in the year they visited far-off mission stations and helped the missionaries there in the preaching work. - Every student learnt to play self-built harmoniums. - The students were also instructed in keeping the school and the surroundings of the Salem clean themselves. - The students are still praised today by their teachers after sweeping the school with the following proverbial saying when the work done was good: It is like "Owura Mohr's turom"-like Mr. Mohr's garden. - The "Agricultural Missionary" Joseph Mohr, sent from Basel in 1847 was famous for his painstaking and exemplary farm and garden work.. - He practiced subsistence agriculture and thus fitted very well into the context of Akropong. - He instructed juveniles in practical gardening and fieldwork, and since the Basel missionaries had brought many new types of fruits and vegetables to the Gold Cast thus introducing new crops to the land. - This proverb, still known all over after 150 years, permits the drawing of the following conclusions in view of the pedagogical effect of the missionaries: 1. The way and manner Mohr did his work and instructed the youth - was considered and valued as being exemplary 2. Mohr's way of action was distinctive from what was then known - although the Population depended on farming. 3. The handing down up to our times shows the enduring influence and importance of the pedagogical action of the missionaries. - The missionaries were blamed and continue to be blamed for having contributed to an unplanned, unforeseen Europeanization. - This is not false in principle. - The given example however shows that both societies. - European - and African - were to some extent alike in those days. - The missionaries who often came from handicraft and agricultural background were able to thus provide an impulse with their practical work, which could be quickly and skillfully picked up and transformed. - Nevertheless - a paternalistic fundamental attitude is unmistakable and it appears in almost all mission documents. - The Basel missionaries did not - wish to train only "decent Christians" but also to introduce an educational sytem into a country that up to that time knew no literary language: - True to the Lutheran influence of their beliefs the Baslers were convinced that only autonomous villages patterned on a European, and specially idealized South German, agrarian model would support the vital institutional web of family, church, education, and stable vocation that was necessary for a truly pious life (Miller 1994:15). - Jenkins as a historian established that the result of the long Basel presence in Akropong led to an outstanding educational level. - The pieces of information are not complete; they however show a development in the Mission and schoolwork in the Gold Coast. - The particular development from 1916 has to do with the consequences of the First World War. - The Basel missionaries who frequently originated from Germany had to leave the country. - The United Free Church of Scotland intervened during that time to help and took over the work. - The Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast grew out of that in 1918. - The Basel missionaries were able to restart their work only then in 1926 in co-operation with the present independent local church. ###What conclusion does the statistics permit to be drawn? 1. There is no evidence of steady increase in the numbers between 1845 and 1916 in almost all the areas. - This is true both in the case of the missionaries as well as in the case of the local teachers, the students and the schools. 2. The increase up to 1916 is not erratic but steady. - This is the result of a consistent educational and parish establishment work of the Basel Mission, which counted on time producing results. 3. Right from the beginning, the Basel missionaries depended on the local workforce in the performance of their work. - This holds for training as well as for parish and schoolwork. - Their approach was practice oriented and clearly successful in the context, at least as the figures indicated. 4. The historical break as a result of the First World War is in retrospect seen as positive for the independence of the local church. - It would by themselves have possibly not have been easy for the missionaries to give the Christians their autonomy had they not been forced by the circumstances to do so. - I have up to this point shown how the work of the mission developed as "seen from outside". But statistics are only one side of the picture. - How did the work with the youth look like content-wise? - Which view of the training of children was the basis of the work of the missionaries? - The regulation of 1865 for the evangelical parishes of the Basel mission in the West Indies and West Africa gives an emphatic picture of it. - The following are stated in Article 109 onward under the section “Child Upbringing": 1. The children are to be brought up as God's property in earnestness, faithfulness and discipline of the Lord. 2. Children are not toys and no means of acquiring wealth but rather God's children. 3. Children should not have any social intercourse with pagans and not in anyway be brought under the same paganistic influence. 4. The elders - must be good models for the children and should generally give them - guidance - in schooling, church going - respect and obedience. 5. Cleanliness and orderliness must be observed. 6. Christian parents must also provide a good profession for their children. 7. It is expected from the children to be thankful to their parents and care for them in their old age. - In addition to the expected statements about Christian training, the following statements are striking: on the one hand, the protection of children against exploitation and on the other hand, the laying of emphasis in timeliness, cleanliness, modesty and devoutness. - The missionaries were very much conscious of the situation of the children in their traditional surrounding. - Children were considered as the workforce and had to contribute to the maintenance and feeding of the family. - The pedagogical thought of a childhood with its own rights, requirements and duties was largely unknown. - To teach children in school was in fact a necessity for pagan parents, because they sensed that a new period was dawning and their children, with an education, could look better into the future. - It was a loss on the other hand when the children fell out as workforce. - The attempt - of the missionaries - to protect the children through these church rules - was in those days - very forward-looking. - On the other hand - it is shown in the emphasis on time, devoutness, cleanliness, earnestness and modesty how as a matter of course typical values of those days and practically the pietistic ideals of value were transferred into another culture. - It is too simple to criticize this from the historical perspective. - The missionaries were products of their era and acted generally as a matter of course. - The missionaries controlled with "fatherly discipline", this system organized by Basel. - On the other hand, there were also orders like these: - The parents should themselves, in essence, be good models in all things for children - inculcate in them right at an early age, love and care of children, teach them how to call their Abba (father) in their childish nature, inculcate in them the pleasure in reading the holy scriptures and other good books, to anchor into their memory biblical verses and songs as a treasure for the future lives, to encourage them to be assiduous and regular in school and church and show respect to their parents, teachers, and superiors, to get used to the habit of cleanliness and orderliness, to be truthful in public and private life, generally to obey the commandments of God and laws of society; since all such things are really necessary for the internal and external growth of their children (Regulation governing the Basel Mission Ev. Communities in the Gold Coast 1902). - Most importantly - the emphasis of the parents in the education of the children as models in the acquisition of the basics of Christian life was placed above all other demands. - God, being the great friend of children, represents the Abba, towards whom the children's love should be developed, which among others manifests itself in the pleasure in reading the Holy Scriptures.. - All these disclosed detailed aspects, the instructions from Basel and the realities on the mission field, give an impressive but in no way uniform picture of the pedagogical approach of the Basel Mission in the Gold Coast. ### 1.4.2. Training of the local people and development of the land as the Mission 's Strategy - The list of professions of the first fifty missionaries gives an impressive testimony. - The profile is trade oriented". - This is a reflection of what pertained in the society then in the pre-industrial Wurttemburg. - It is therefore no wonder when Raaflaub concludes as follows: - The efforts of the mission to improve agriculture and to promote handicraft and trade were of great importance (Raaflaub 1978: 14). - The missionaries lived in an environment, which virtually forced them to apply their practical talents. - Riis had moved out of Christianborg to a village environment and ..."built the church in a rural area". - Apart from the congregation and schoolwork, education in the practical domain played a big role to that end. - Craftsmen were trained, who were obviously sought all over West Africa as specialist workers. - There was an agricultural station in Akuapem from 1857 with Missionary Mohr in Charge where plants brought in from the Carribbean were experimented. - One of the most important results was the successful planting of cocoa, which led to an economic revolution in the 20th century. - Agricultural studies, joinery and other practical vocations were taught from the beginning in the practical course at the Akropong Teacher Training College. - However, a special handicraft school was opened in Christianborg in 1857. - It was the first of its kind in the Gold Coast and for a time the only one in West Africa. - In 1860 a blacksmith's shop was opened and a wheel maker trained young men in the production of barrels and carts. - All this had become necessary since the successful cocoa cultivation made trade possible. - The Christianborg example set a precedent and similar educational establishments we opened in Akropong and Abokobi: - The Basel missionaries strongly believed in developing practical skills along with theoretical knowledge. - Their aim was to make the population self-sufficient and economically more resilient (Schweizer 2000: 85). - The Basel Mission trading compa..y established in 1859 and later known as UTC, contributed to the expansion of trade. - The development of commercial establishments went hand in hand with the trade. - Apart from the interest in a societal development, this also served self-interest: - The growth of the Mission's work, which continually required new buildings - made the administration recognize that the systematic development of an African handicraft stratum was what was required (Wanner 1959: 161). - The literature gives an insight into an interesting dynamic in which the Basel missionaries were increasingly involved. - Where they had first started the congregation and schoolwork under humble beginnings - they were already in - 1847 - appointed by the then Danish colonial power to take over the whole educational work in the colony (Schweizer 2000:81). - They rejected the offer but played an important role in the future vis-à-vis the school development in Ghana. - Thus, Elias Schrenk engaged himself vehemently for England to remain in the Gold Coast in order to further make the economic and social developinent possible through its presence. - An aspect of the Mission's work, which was already reminiscent of Josenhans, came with Schrenk. - Josenhans had distanced himself clearly from slavery and had considered it to be a cardinal evil. - The missionaries we supposed to clearly show their irreconcilability with the practice, through their distancing themselves, and through their work achieve a kind or reparation. - Schrenk thought in the same direction when he was appealing to the British to stay in the country in order to contribute to the development of the country through an orderly colonial system: The colonial power was supposed to protect that local populace against exploitation and inhumanity. - In the case of trade relationships, the interests of the local people were not supposed to be taken into less consideration than that of the colonial powers. - It was also Livingston's conviction that apart from the Gospel, the "Christian civilization" and trade - were also the best means of totally overcoming the slave trade and as a result heal the inflicted wounds (Raaflaub 1978:27). - Suddenly one was thrown into the educational and political centre of development in the Gold Coast. - In addition to that came now also the economic domain. - The "economy" of Akropong had indeed to be shut down again after the initial successes of 1878 and one should register much under "trial and error". - On the other hand - a decision achieved success and it was announced to all parishes in 1889; every parish had from then on to establish small plantations and introduce rearing of domestic animals in order to secure thereby a source of income. - The propensity of the Missionary in experimenting made again a contribution to the raising of living standards on the local levels! - In 1882 - all commercial activities were handed over to the Basel Mission Trading Company. - Apart from the purpose of training its own handicraft stratum, this company served to support the Missionaries. - At the start of the twentieth century - the trading company stood on stable grounds - and expanded it's activities over the whole country. - Up to the First World War - a total of up to forty people were employed, the company supported itself financially and trained over 160 apprentices between 1887 and 1902. - Apart from congregation-based and school based work - there arose through the influence of the Basel Mission Trading Company an economic branch, which made a valuable contribution to the development of the Gold Coast. - This contribution, originally meant in the first place for the purpose of supporting the mission, had an entirely social influence. - Apart from a powerful handicraft status, healthier living conditions for the local people made their mark as a result of possibly well-conceived buildings. - The good reputation of Basel spread throughout the entire West Africa so that a certain King Bonny from Nigeria asked the Mission to spread itself in his region ."by doing so his subjects could also benefit from the good deeds of their cultural actions” (Wanner 1959: 170). - This good reputation of Basel contributed to the decision - to abstain from trade in, among others - schnapps and gunpowder, which had a disastrous effect on the entire West Africa. Following the First World War, the same fate that had befallen the missionaries is what befell the staff of the trading company. - They were deported and the continuation of the work was only possible through a neutral successor company. - A successor company was thus stablished in 1921 - under the name of Union Trading Company (UTC). - The UTC was legally distinct from the Mission itself and had no built in purpose of financing it (Schweizer 2000:105). - The UTC existed up to - 1997 - and had in its best times 380 shops in Ghana alone. - The management up to that time was always based in Basel - but was since long -separated from the Mission. - The far-streched involvement of the Basel Mission - in the political and economic area - shows something of the horizon of a work that often today is scolded because of its paternalism for the severity and injustices of the committee. - A differentiated picture is however apt in order to - live up to the correct historical effect of the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast. ###1.5. The first tentative transitions from schoolwork to youth work - I have attempted up to this stage to point out that the Basel missionaries have carried out their - mission work not through only parish and school establishment but also through practical assistance in the area of teacher training and handicraft. - To begin with, the youth had no independent offer that would appeal to them individually. - Youth work as we know it today, did not exist at that time in the Basel Mission context. - Nevertheless, there existed first preliminary forms that originated from seminary education. - There was an important desire of the missionaries to establish a practical counterpart to the theoretical learning in the seminary. - Obliging the students to undertake the so-called preaching tours - created this counterpart. - These excursions took place at the weekends. - They visited the surrounding villages, preached and made use of the acquired musical knowledge in the form of playing the harmonium. - These tours were undertaken twice in the year. - To speak about an explicit youth work is not appropriate at this stage. - On the other hand, it remains to be established that both the school and Christian lives were not left restricted to the school form. - The missionaries accompanied their students during their spare time and practiced together with them exemplary missionary parish establishment and development. - Thus, theory and practical went in many cases hand in hand - and the focus of the students was directed towards the parish. ### 1.6. Summary - A framework was created through the establishment of mission stations which made a continual pedagogical action possible. - The mission station was the exit point of the Basel mission work in all mission countries. - It was both the retreat point of the missionaries and the gathering place of the parish. - With the existence of the mission stations a framework was at the same time provided. - Schools and educational establishments were affiliated to the "Salem", - in actual fact they were part of the whole Basel strategy, part of the new Christian life. Should one in retrospect comprehend the creation of the demarcated zones of “Salem” as artificial demarcations, - so it appeared indeed to have been helpful by and large. - Today, Christianity has gained wider foothold and “Salem” has outlived its historical purpose. - As exit point of the Missionary work, “Salem” was however altogether, both under realistic and strategic point of view - an interesting project of the Mission's history. - Within the mission stations, the congregations grew above all through an emphasis on the systematic education of the local people. - The mission station had an aim beyond the common life. - It was the place for learning, for parish life and where a new lifestyle was practiced. - Apart from the chapel, the schoolhouse was above all of significance. - A certain demarcation encouraged in those first years the targeted and concentric development of a core parish with local manpower which indeed could already be deployed soon thereafter. - The approach of the Basel missionaries in the Gold Coast encompassed both spiritual as well as societal needs. - The holistic approach of the Basel mission is clearly supported by documentary evidence. - The Mission had an interest in achieving reparation for the injustice committed through the slave trade - by the Europeans, and the Mission promoted the economic and social development of the country and built the school system up substantially. - The massive employment of personnel by the Basel Mission is an indication of the fact that the Mission was not intent on "winning souls", although this motive was certainly at the bottom of its action. - But it was more than that. - The Basel Mission in Ghana is as a result of this and up to today - a synonym for education, diligence - and discipline. - Although this image appears to be a little too lopsidedly positive - as a European worker of the Church I encounter this conception everywhere. - Conditioned by the construction work - the missionaries focused above all on young people. - In the starting years, children and juveniles were the priority, and the fact that the missionaries stressed on school education and training, it remained so until the forced departure of the missionaries in 1914. - The pedagogical approach was holistic; it encompassed scholarly - and practical - education. - It was certainly also paternalistic, the missionary perceived himself as a father who devoted himself to the children. It was in retrospect however remarkably successful and this is clearly supported by documentary evidence in the form of statistics on the one hand and on the other hand it is proven by the early development of a native, well educated staff. - All that the Basel missionaries did at this time was in relation to the school and education. - Gyang-Duah is certainly right when he concludes: work among children, youth and men as, separate departments of the Church, was not well developed during the Basel Mission era" (Gyang-Duah 1996:43