NEGRO DREAM TO BE REALISED

Shannon News, 16 November 1926, Page 1

NEGRO DREAM TO BE REALISED

+ .■ ALL BLACK VARSITY WILL OPEN ON GOLD COAST ON JANUARY I. LONDON, Sept. 16. January 1 next will be a red-letter day in the history of the Gold Coast, On that day the doors of a college set in an estate of four square miles on a hill overlooking-"the West African city of Accra, will be thrown open to native students. It will be the beginning of the realisation of an ardent negro dream ,a university where the black man will teach his own culture to his own people. The name of Achimoto —the hill where th e college is being built—already echoes like a magic sound wherever educated Africans gather Achimota is to be the mainspring of a peaceful revolution, not just a university, but the keystone of a farseeing Government scheme of education which includes colleges, secondary schools, /elementary schools, and kindergarten throughout the length and breadth, of, the colony. v Everywhere they will be staffed by fWest jAfrican teachers, engrossed in 1 developing a new and higher civilisation for their country. The immediate and practical object of the new university is to produce teachers and leaders for this sublimation of African nationality. For this high purpose the world has been searched for a staff of professors and tutors specially suited to the task. Dr. A. G. Praser, a Scotch professor, who.did sixteen years' hard educational work in , Ceylon, and thoroughly understands the yearnings or coloured peoples, was appointed principal some time ago. The assembling of the staff was placed in his hands, and he has secured the co-operation of Dr. J. E. K. Aggrey, a brilliant native professor who has accepted the post of viceprincipal.

Dr. Aggrey belongs" to a leading Gold Coast' family of the Fanti tribe, and is himself a chief. He has wide academical distinctions and a worldrenown as a negro educationist. For the moment he is the. /only native member of the staff. Dr. Fraser, Dr. Aggrey ,and some twenty-five other professors and teachers are at present hard at work > preparing for the opening of the^ollege. ' ' They are closely studying- native languages and institutions, the T3re 'and customs of the Gold Coast, its history and music, its people's aims and ideals. On their shoulders will fall the vital responsibility of standardising the language and producing the first s natSv*s text-gooks. Their taskf too, will b e to express In educational form the West African's philosophy and outlook on life.

All the advantages of European training ,and civilisation will, be at hand but the essential object is not to Europeanise'the jAfrican, but to assist him to stand on his own feet in the higher realms of life. To this end the English tongue will be "a subject" in the Achimota'curriculum. The students, will be taught" in their own vernacular and not' in English. '....' •■Coincident with the establishment of the university "bush schools," which have sprung up all over Gold Coast with unfortunate results, are to be abolished. Away in the bush, boys and youns? men who have secured a ■ .mere smattering of the English tongue and the "three R's" masquerade as teachers and start native schools. Extracting high fees from ignorant natives, the unqualified "teachers" hand to their students-a little "pidgin English' 'and often mischievous ideas of European life and customs. By January 1 next, however, all teachers in the colony must be registered. 'Bush schools" Avill be illegal, and those attempting to teac% without proper qualifications will be gradually eliminated.