History - Abakɔsɛm

All stories have a backdrop, a history of what has gone before. So too does the story of Christianity in Ghana. We will take a look at how Christianity got started in Ghana, some of the major events and movements, and some of the key figures that helped Ghanaian Christianity become what it is today.

Origins

To begin, let us check out how Christianity originated in Africa in the first place. According to "The Story of Africa: Christianity," "Legend has it that Christianity was brought from Jerusalem to Alexandria on the Egyptian coast by Mark, one of the four evangelists, in 60 AD." After Christianity was introduced to Africa, it trickled outward from Alexandria.

The next key event is the formalization of Christianity as the official religion in  Ethiopia by King Ezana during the fourth century. This enabled Christian missionaries to have more freedom as they continued to work further into the continent ("The Story").

Finally, Christianity was first introduced to Ghana in the fifteenth century, with Dutch missionaries playing a fundamental role.

Missions into Ghana

Thomas Birch Freeman

Christianity started to settle into Ghana in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries "through the activities of various missionary societies" (Odotei). Some central missions groups were the "Moravian, Wesleyan and Basel missionaries [...] Notable among these were Philip Kwaku, Andreas Riis, Joseph Dunwell, and Thomas Birch Freeman" (Odotei).

Kwaku, "Quaque," was "the first African missionary," Riis led the first Basel Mission group to Ghana, Dunwell was "the first Wesleyan Methodist missionary to [Ghana], and Freeman "established the Methodist Church" in Ghana (Dictionary).

These men, among many others, brought about the mission work that allowed the "Anglican, Protestant and Catholic churches of Ghana" to blossom ("Ghana" World Council). These denominations felt some resistance at first from the Ghanaian locals because they felt as though the denominations were invasive instead of indigenous; however, as stated just now, the denominations did eventually grow roots.

Reverse Missions

Within the last hundred years or so, Ghanaian Christians have jumped headlong into a "reverse mission, whereby Africa is now sending missionaries to the West" (Shaw 162).

After Ghanaian citizens became disenchanted with their government's failure to adequately provide for the people's needs, they began to look to other places for their security. Many found it in the neo-Pentecostal (Charismatic) movement that was sweeping the nation. This movement eventually brought about a shift in popular denominations. While Protestant and Catholic churches remained relatively prevalent, Charismatic churches propagated rather quickly and soon became, if not the sole, one of the most accepted denominations in Ghana.

Alan Anderson explains the effects of the Pentecostal movement on Ghanaian beliefs and praxis as follows: "Pentecostals in Africa proclaim a pragmatic gospel... [having attained] an authentically indigenous character which enables them to offer answers to some of the fundamental questions..." (qtd. in Shaw 172).

This confidence has pushed Ghanaian believers to "export an Africanized gospel to the African enclaves of urban centers in Europe and beyond,"(Shaw 172). So now, Christianity in Ghana, though still receiving missionary assistance, is now at a stage where believers are also going out into the rest of the world.

What a fitting way to conclude the background of Christianity in Ghana!