CH8.Ewout Frankema.education.pdf

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ut formed a weak basis for the development of higher education, and especially tertiaryeducation. The colonial government in the Dutch East Indies performed weakly inexpanding mass education from a comparative perspective, but I will argue furtherbelow that the public education system developed by the Dutch laid a more solidfoundation for indigenous access to ‘state of the art’ forms of higher education.4. The missionary effort in the CongoThe success of the missionary schooling effort in the Congo cannot be understoodwithout taking into account the presence of an exceptionally large number of Westernmissionaries. Oliver has estimated that the number of Christian missionaries in EastAfrica reached a maximum of 3.500 persons during the interwar years (Oliver, 1962,pp. 231-245). Table 1 shows that the number of foreign missionaries in Belgian Congowas not only higher already before 1940, but also continued to increase thereafter.These foreign missionaries were of course crucial for the rapid spread of missionsschools, but their presence also signals favourable local conditions for conversionpractices, regardless of the high health risks involved (malaria, sleeping sickness,yellow fever).As I have argued elsewhere (Frankema, 2011), the presence of foreign missionaries onlymade sense in areas with revealed local demand for missionary services. This was notself evident. Table 1 shows that the number of foreign missionaries increased with afactor 15, while enrolments rose with a factor 37 between 1908 and 1957. This was onlypossible because of a rapidly increasing involvement of native African missionaries. In1958 there were no less than 6.934 Protestant mission schools in the Congo and circa1.550 foreign Protestant missionaries. The majority of these schools were run byCongolese converts. Local demand for missionary services was a pre-condition for theAfricanization of the missionary effort.Revealed demand for missionary services in combination with the virtual absence ofinstitutional entry barriers created favourable conditions for denominationalcompetition. Belgian Catholic missionary societies became actively engaged in the raceagainst Protestant missions to conquer the ‘high-potential’ areas. The Congo colony wasBelgium’s only overseas possession (together with the official mandate over Ruanda-Urundi granted by the UN after World War I), which meant that the ratio of the colonialover the metropolitan population remained low. Belgian citizens with overseasambitions concentrated their efforts on the Congo colony and this especially appealed tothe large group of Belgian Catholic missionaries. Table 2 demonstrates that themetropolitan capacity, in terms of population size, may indeed have been a factor.Although Indonesia was a similar ‘single big colony’ for the Dutch, the differences indemography equaled the ratio the British were dealing with in the heydays of theirglobal empire.The large carrying capacity of the Belgian labour force, is also reflected in the numberof foreign (i.e. Belgian) administrators. Richens has shown that in a sample of 33African colonies in the late 1930s Belgian Congo counted by far the highest number:728 against an African colonial average of 94! In British Nigeria, with more than twice9
as many inhabitants, the number of administrators was less than half (353) (Richens,2009, pp. 21 & 64-5). These numbers conceal an important feature of Belgian rule inAfrica: they make clear how the Belgians managed to rule the single largest colonialterritory in Africa without depending on high ranked indigenous officials with majoradministrative responsibilities.Table 1: Absolute numbers and indices of missionary presence and studentsenrolled in Belgian Congo, 1908-1957 (1938 = 100)1908 1929 1938 1950 1957Foreign missionaries 500 2,500* 3,732 5,336 7,205Index 13 67 100 143 193School enrolment 46,000 350,000 562,851 970,372 1,718,931Index 8 62 100 172 305Sources: 1908 from (Stengers and Vansina, 1985); 1929 (Depaepe and van Rompaey, 1995); 1938-1957Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique et du Congo Belge 1911-1960.Notes: 1929 number of missionaries is guesstimate based on 1931 figures from Annuaire Statistique de laBelgique et du Congo Belge 1911-1960.Table 2: The ‘population support ratio’ in the British, Dutch and Belgian colonialempires, ca. 1938Metropolitanpopulation (1)(x 1000)Colonialpopulation (2)(x 1000)Populationsupport ratio1938 1938 2/1United Kingdom 47.5 358.1 7.5Netherlands 8.7 68.3 7.8Belgium 8.4 13.9 1.6Source: Statistical Abstract of the British Colonies 1938-1940; Maddison (2010).Nunn (2010) has recently argued in line with Johnson (1967) that the presence ofnavigable waterways, which were scarce in Africa, have had a positive impact on thespread of missions. Johnson has shown that the diffusion of mission stations closelyfollowed the upstream courses of the Congo river and its many tributaries. Watertransport allowed missionaries to travel back and forth in a relatively efficient way andfacilitated the delivery of the necessary supplies (school, medical, food, bibles etc.).African communities were naturally attracted to the river and often economicallydepended on it. The role of such geographical advantages should not be overstated,however, especially in view of the great risks missionaries were willing to take bysettling in the tropics. Moreover, the big population centers in Indonesia were also easyto access for foreign missionaries, but the cultural and institutional constraints wereeventually decisive for their limited settlement.The strength of the missions in spreading education had much to do with theirefficiency and flexibility: short lines of communication, high levels of personalresponsibility entrusted to the people in the field, low levels of labour remuneration and10
Page 1: State and Missions: The comparative
Page 5 and 6: societies (Pakenham, 1992). Althoug
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Page 21: Thee, K. W., 2006. Policies Affecti

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