Brief history of Western Education in The Gambia (PartII)

Introduction
Arguments have been made and evidence given by  students of history of education that Western Education in The Gambia did not start in 1823 by Hanna Killham in Bakau but in 1455 in Foni Kansala by the Portuguese settlers in this part of The Gambia.

The aim of the author in this article therefore is to bring out facts and activities that led to the introduction of Western Education in The Gambia in years 1455-1661.  The second article (part 2) will then follow.

The years 1455-1661
The years 1455-1661 marked the beginning of European activities in The Gambia.  Those activities were concerned in the main, though by no means entirely, with trade.  It was in their quest for wealth - mainly mineral wealth - in The Gambia that some of the Europeans made attempts to establish settlements and Christianity or Western Education for that matter in the country.  However, they found it an extremely difficult task to sow the seeds of their western culture in The Gambia.

The Portuguese - 1455-1588
The Portuguese were the first European nation to start Christian and Western Education in The Gambia.  There were a series of organised expeditions to the River Gambia in the 15th Century and finally in 1455 they found settlement in The Gambia.  It has been reported that they settled some twenty miles up the Bintang Bolong, closed to the modern village of Foni Kansala.  It was here that they built their first Church School in The Gambia.

Evidence is given that some Portuguese missionaries from Portugal and Cape Verde Island occasionally came to this settlement and taught the settlers and their descendants in this Church School to read and, write so as to plant the seeds of Christianity in them.

This is evidenced by the fact that a Spanish who was at Foni Kansala in 1686 reported that most of the original Portuguese settlers were the descendants of Jews who had been driven away from Portugal or fled to The Gambia to avoid the attentions of the inquisition.  Others said that they were banished men or fugitives who committed serious incestuous acts.  For many years the missionaries made several attempts to preserve their nationality and bring them once more in touch with Europe and Christianity.

Yet it is doubtful whether the indigenous people were taught to read and write in Western Education.  At any rate, we are told that they learnt a great deal of boat-craft and seamanship from the Portuguese who were the leading navigators of the world.  It is also reported that the indigenous people acquired a lot of skills of making weapons, cooking pots (iron pots) form the Portuguese.

Also the Portuguese imported may useful economic crops into the land including orange, lime and paw-paw from Brazil. They also introduced the cultivation of groundnuts into the country which is the present day most staple product and principal source of revenue in The Gambia.

The foregoing information has some implications for th process of technical and agricultural education ran by the Portuguese in The Gambia during this period.  One can say without doubt that the Portuguese (during this period) not only attempted to establish Christian eduction in The Gambia but also attempted to introduce technical and agricultural education as well.

The Portuguese missionaries did not find their task easy at all in The Gambia.  It should be noted  that when the Portuguese left The Gambia in 1529 for the Gold Coast, the school was closed and that ended their educational activities in The Gambia.

The British 1580-1622
Next, came the British.  A Portuguese refugee named Francisco Ferreira piloted the English ships to The Gambia.  They returned in 1588 with a good cargo of hides and ivory.  Another expedition was sent under Chevalieu de Briqueville in 1612 with a number of ships to erect a fort on the river banks to establish a colony.  Unfortunately, a large number died from sickness and the remaining ones returned home.  In 1621, Richard Jobson was sent to The Gambia.  When he reached most of his people died from sickness.

Thus, the British interest was killed in The Gambia. In all these expeditions, they, unlike the Portuguese, never attempted to establish missionary education in The Gambia.

The Courlanders 1622-1661
By 1622 there came the Courlanders into The Gambia who attempted to establish Christian education in the country.  The Duke of Courland was interested to hold a land in The Gambia.  He then purchased Andrew’s Island from the King of Essau.  He also purchased another plot of land at Juffureh.  He purchased Banjul Island from the King of Kombo.  He also obtained another plot of land up the river at Gassani.

It is said that the Duke's intention was not only to trade in The Gambia but also to establish a permanent settlement of his own subjects on St Andrews Island.  For that matter he sent married people there with a pastor to look after their spiritual needs.  He was instructed by the Duke to see that their souls were brought to a true and a right understanding of God.

Thus, the Courlanders were the second Europeans to send missionaries to The Gambia to establish Christian education there.  Thus was the coming of the Orthodox Church missionaries to The Gambia.  They built a small church outside the fort where reading and writing were taught.

The Courlanders'’ attempt in The Gambia was a failure.  Sickness and death among the settlers as well as the mutinous character of the crew retarded the prosperity of the settlement.  The activities of the courlanders were further arrested by the arrival of the English again in The Gambia.  The Courlanders were therefore forced to leave the country.  Thus their church school was closed.

By 1668 a new English company was formed known as The Gambia Adventurers.  They took over all the royal adventurers’ forts and ports and established their trade along the river, Kombo, Barra and Gassani.  The Gambia Adventurers made by effective attempts to claim a monopoly of the trade in the country, and the king of Gassani called Magro allowed English, French, Dutch and Portuguese alike to trade in his country (Gambia).
The importance of this open-trade was that the local people would soon come to have a full contact with the Europeans and later would accept some of the European values and culture.

The period (1455-1661) in The Gambia experienced some attempts by some European nations in establishing Christian and western education in The Gambia, but failed in its tasks to make real achievement.  Only few converts could be got, and literacy in the field of western education can be regarded as nil.  There were several factors contributing to this.

Factors contributing to the arrest of the growth of Western Education

One of the factors was the hostility shown by the chiefs coupled with the rising of Islam in the country.  During the period there were a number of Muslim traders in the country who came before the Portuguese, and who were slowly but surely planting the seeds of their faith.  The Christian missionaries therefore found it hard to fight against the rising of Islam.

Most of the chiefs, if not already Muslims, were being introduced to Islam.  It should be noted here that it was not only the moors who were Muslim traders but some Mandingoes as well  who were Islamised in the empire of Mali, and after the fall of the empire a large number of them came to settle in The Gambia and became the dominant tribe in the country.  They even ruled over the indigenous people in some parts of the country.  They therefore saw that Christian missionary education had only come to undermine their Islamic religion.  They won most of the chiefs to their side to fight the efforts of the Christians missionaries.

Another factor was that the Portuguese settlers and their descendants in The Gambia during this period showed very little interest   in Christian faith and at the same time they and their descendants were disappearing during the course of the tribal warfare in the latter part of the 18th century and they ceased to exist in The Gambia as a separate race.
The rivalry between the European nations in The Gambia did not make conditions favourable in the country for the missionary activities during this period. 

The European groups were fighting each other in the country.  For instance, in 1618 Thampson under the British flag left for The Gambia and reached Gassabu where he left his ship, the Catherine, and went further up-stream with a few men.  During his absence a number of Portuguese and their descendants who were being instigated by Hecto Numez, killed all the Englishmen at Gassani.  In 1570, a French Trading Vessel for the first time entered The Gambia. 

When the Portuguese Vessel saw it they swooped down upon it and drove it away with a loss of thirty crew.  We have also seen that in 1661, the British resumed their expeditions to The Gambia with the old memories of the gold mountain in the country, and when they reached the country and met the Courlanders, who had already settled at St Andrews Island they attacked them, took the fort and drove them away.  Thus, the courlanders with their missionaries left the country. We have also noted that when the Dutch arrived in The Gambia they instigated the natives to cooperate with them and fought the newly established English settlement at James Island.  This state of affairs in The Gambia at that time did not at all encourage the establishment of Western or Christian education in the country.

Sickness and death also contributed to the retardation of the establishment of Christian and western education in The Gambia by European nations.  For instance, the Portuguese missionaries could not stay in The Gambia because of the unhealthy condition of the banks of the river.  They stayed at Cape Verde Island and only came to The Gambia as visiting priests.  We also remember Briqueville’s expedition and that of the Courlanders, all became the victims of sickness and death.

The other factor was the lack of interest shown by some of the European nations tradition in The Gambia.  Even the two European nations - Portugal and Courlanders - which attempted to establish Christianity and western education in the country did so only to provide education for their settlers.  They and other European nation came to The Gambia only to trade.  It was this trade that formed the focal point of their interest o activities in the country. 

We have seen that the Portuguese during this period dropped their projects in The Gambia for their new conquest in Brazil and Asia since the reported mineral wealth of The Gambia proved illusory.  The English in 1631 turned their attention from The Gambia to the Gold Coast which proved capable of yielding more immediate and more profitable return than The Gambia.  Yet in 1661, they took up The Gambia trade again because they had heard of the story of the gold mountain at the headwaters of The Gambia.

To close this part 1 of the history of education in The Gambia, the author is tempted to say that except for the Portuguese who left the crumbs of their technical and agricultural education in the country, no other European nation had been induced to make her influence felt in the years 1455-1661 due mainly to their own fantasy in the gold trade in The Gambia.  What should be noted here  is that after the closure of the two church schools in Bintang and St Andrew's Island in The Gambia, the country had to wait for about seven hundred and sixty-four years for the re-birth of western education in The Gambia, (this time in Bakau) in 1823.
Part 2 of this article therefore will be concerning itself with the years 1823-1965.