Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:19:29.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Borders That Divide: Education and Religion in Ghana and Togo Since Colonial Times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2014

Denis Cogneau  and
Alexander Moradi
Denis Cogneau
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, Paris School of Economics - IRD, 48 bd Jourdan, 75014, Paris, France . E-mail: [email protected].
Alexander Moradi
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Arts E511, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9SN, United Kingdom. Research Associate, Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, Stellenbosch, South Africa. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The partition of German Togoland after World War I provides a natural experiment to test the impact of British and French colonization. Using data of recruits to the Ghanaian colonial army 1908–1955, we find that literacy and religious affiliation diverge at the border between the parts of Togoland under British and French control as early as in the 1920s. We partly attribute this to policies towards missionary schools. The divergence is only visible in the South where educational and evangelization efforts were strong. Contemporary survey data show that border effects that began in colonial times still persist today.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 694 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are grateful to the General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, Personnel and Administration and Director and Staff, Military Records for granting us access to records of the Gold Coast Regiment. We thank Moses Awoonor-Williams, Namawu Alhassan, and Joana Acquah for excellent research assistance in Ghana. Invaluable support came from the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, particularly Francis Teal. Data collection was funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant (SG-45045). We furthermore gratefully acknowledge the financial support of ESRC First Grant (RES-061-25-0456), and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).

Earlier versions of this article were presented at seminars in the Paris School of Economics and University of Sussex, at the African Economic History Workshop 2011 (Geneva), at the European Development Network 2011 meeting (Paris), and at the World Economic History Congress 2012 (Stellenbosch). We wish to thank their participants for useful comments, in particular Gareth Austin, Guilhem Cassan, Ewout Frankema, Rémi Jedwab, and Peter Lindert, as well as the editor of this JOURNAL, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and three anonymous referees. Discussions with Yannick Dupraz were invaluable, in particular on the comparison case of Cameroon. The usual disclaimer applies.

References

REFERENCES

Adotevi, Senyon L. “L'islam au Togo sous domination coloniale.” In Histoire des Togolais - Des origines aux années 1960; tome 4: Le refus de l'ordre colonial, edited by Gayibor, Nicoué, 65–100. Lomé: Karthala, 2011.Google Scholar
Anarfi, John, Stephen, Kwankye, with Ofuso-Mensah, Ababio and Richmond, Tiemoko. “Migration from and to Ghana: A Background Paper.” Working Paper C4, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, University of Sussex, 2003.Google Scholar
Austin, Gareth. “Labour and Land in Ghana, 1879–1939: A Shifting Ratio and an Institutional Revolution.” Australian Economic History Review (47), no. 1 (2007): 95–120.Google Scholar
Austin, Gareth. “The ‘Reversal of Fortune’ Thesis and the Compression of History: Perspectives from African and Comparative Economic History.” Journal of International Development (20), no. 8 (2008): 996–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benavot, Aaron, and Phyllis, Riddle. “The Expansion of Primary Education: 1870–1940.” Sociology of Education (61), no. 3 (1988): 191–210.Google Scholar
Bening, R. Bagulo. A History of Education in Northern Ghana, 1907–1976. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Berman, Edward H. “African Responses to Christian Mission Education.” African Studies Review (17), no. 3 (1974): 527–40.Google Scholar
Bolt, Jutta, and Dirk, Bezemer. “Understanding Long-Run African Growth: Colonial Institutions or Colonial Education?” Journal of Development Studies (45), no. 1 (2009): 24–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, David S. “Democracy, Colonization, and Human Capital in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Studies in Comparative International Development (35), no. 1 (2000): 20–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brownlie, Ian, with the assistance of Ian, R. Burns. African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopaedia. London: Hurst for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1979.Google Scholar
Bunche, Ralph J. “French Educational Policy in Togo and Dahomey.” Journal of Negro Education (3), no. 1 (1934): 69–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cogneau, Denis. “Colonisation, School, and Development in Africa: An Empirical Analysis.” DIAL Working Paper DT/2003/01, 2003.Google Scholar
Cogneau, Denis, Sandrine, Mesplé-Somps, and Gilles, Spielvogel. “Development at the Border: Policies and National Integration in Côte d'Ivoire and Its Neighbors.” World Bank Economic Review, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Cordell, Dennis D. and Joel, W. Gregory. “Labour Reservoirs and Population: French Colonial Strategies in Koudougou, Upper Volta, 1914 to 1939.” Journal of African History (23), no. 2 (1982): 205–24.Google Scholar
Debrunner, Hans W. A Church Between Colonial Powers: A Study of the Church in Togo. London: Lutterworth Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Debrunner, Hans W. A History of Christianity in Ghana. Accra: Waterville Publishing House, 1967.Google Scholar
Dell, Melissa. “The Persistent Effects of Peru's Mining Mita.” Econometrica (78), no. 6 (2010): 1863–903.Google Scholar
Der, Benedict. “Church-State Relations in Northern Ghana, 1906–1940.” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana (15), no. 1 (1974): 41–61.Google Scholar
Dickson, Kwamina B. A Historical Geography of Ghana. London: Cambridge University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Dupraz, Yannick. “British and French Colonial Education in Africa: A Spatial Discontinuity Analysis at the Border Between French-Speaking and English-Speaking Cameroon.” Mimeo: Paris School of Economics, 2013.Google Scholar
Durlauf, Steven N. Johnson, Paul A. and Temple, Jonathan R. W. “Growth Econometrics.” In Handbook of Economic Growth, edited by Aghion, Philippe and Durlauf, Steven N. 555–677. Amsterdam; London: Elsevier, 2005.Google Scholar
Ekechi, F. K. “Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 1900–1915.” The Journal of African History (12), no. 1 (1971): 103–15.Google Scholar
Englebert, Pierre, Stacy, Tarango, and Matthew, Carter. “Dismemberment and Suffocation: A Contribution to the Debate on African Boundaries.” Comparative Political Studies (35), no. 10 (2002): 1093–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, Philip J. Education and Social Change in Ghana. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout. “The Origins of Formal Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Was British Rule More Benign?” European Review of Economic History (16), no. 4 (2012): 335–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallego, Francisco A. and Robert, Woodberry. “Christian Missionaries and Education in Former African Colonies: How Competition Mattered.” Journal of African Economies (19), no. 3 (2010): 294–329.Google Scholar
Garnier, Maurice, and Mark, Schafer. “Educational Model and Expansion of Enrollments in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Sociology of Education (79), no. 2 (2006): 153–75.Google Scholar
Gbikpi-Benissan, François. Le système scolaire au Togo sous mandat français. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2011.Google Scholar
Ghana. Living Standard Measurement Survey 4. Available online at http://www.worldbank.org/lsms/, 1998.Google Scholar
Gifford, Prosser, and Timothy, C. Weiskel. “African Education in a Colonial Context: French and British Styles.” In France and Britain in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule, edited by Gifford, Prosser and Louis, William Roger, 663–711. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Goeh-Akue, N'buéké A. and Bammoy, Nabe. “Une économie en transition: l'ère Bonnecarrère.” In Histoire des Togolais - Des origines aux années 1960; tome 3: Le Togo sous administration coloniale, edited by Gayibor, Nicoué, 405–35. Paris: Karthala, 2011.Google Scholar
Gold Coast. Blue Book. Accra: Government Printer, various years-a.Google Scholar
Gold Coast. Education Report. Accra: Government Printer, various years-b.Google Scholar
Gold Coast. Report of the Educationists' Committee 1919/20. Accra: Government Press, 1920.Google Scholar
Gouvernement Français. Rapport annuel du gouvernement francais sur l'administration sous mandat des territoires du Togo. Paris: Imprimerie générale Lahure, various years.Google Scholar
Grier, Robin M. “Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth.” Public Choice 98, no. 3–4 (1999): 317–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, Ieuan. “The Scramble for Africa: Inherited Political Boundaries.” The Geographical Journal (152), no. 2 (1986): 204–16.Google Scholar
Hahn, Jinyong, Petra, Todd, and Wilbert Van der, Klauuw. “Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design.” Econometrica (69), no. 1 (2001): 201–09.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, J. D. “The Making of the Boundaries: Focus on West Africa.” In Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations Across Africa's International Boundaries, 1884–1984, edited by Asiwaju, A. I. 19–27. London: Hurst, 1985.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey Ira. States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton, NJ; Chichester: Princeton University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, Jonathan. History of the Church in Africa: A Survey. [S.I.]: African Christian Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Killingray, David. “The Colonial Army in the Gold Coast: Official Policy and Local Response, 1890–1947.” Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of London, 1982.Google Scholar
Kolonialamt, . Jahresbericht über die Entwicklung der deutschen Schutzgebiete in Afrika und der Südsee. Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1902/03.Google Scholar
Komlos, John. “How to (and How Not to) Analyze Deficient Height Samples: An Introduction.” Historical Methods (37), no. 4 (2004): 160–73.Google Scholar
Lange, Marie-France. L'école au Togo. Processus de scolarisation et institution de l'école en Afrique. Paris: Karthala, 1998.Google Scholar
Lawrance, Benjamin Nicholas. “Le Togo Britannique De 1920 À 1957.” In Histoire des Togolais - des origines aux années 1960, Tome 3 (Le Togo sous administration coloniale), edited by Gayibor, Nicoué, 283–331. Paris: Karthala, 2011.Google Scholar
Lee, David S. and Thomas, Lemieux. “Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics.” Journal of Economic Literature (48), no. 2 (2010): 281–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. Paul, and SIL International. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2009.Google Scholar
Macro International. Demographic and Health Surveys. Available online at http://www.measuredhs.com.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Paris: Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier zu Selhausen, Felix. “Missionaries and Female Empowerment in Colonial Uganda: New Evidence from Protestant Marriage Registers, 1880–1945.” Economic History of Developing Regions (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Michalopoulos, Stelios, and Elias, Papaioannou. “Pre-Colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development.” Econometrica (81), no. 1 (2013): 113–52.Google Scholar
Moradi, Alexander. “Towards an Objective Account of Nutrition and Health in Colonial Kenya: A Study of Stature in African Army Recruits and Civilians, 1880–1980.” The Journal of Economic History (69), no. 3 (2009): 720–55.Google Scholar
Mumford, William Bryant, and Granville, St. John Orde-Browne. Africans Learn to Be French: A Review of Educational Activities in the Seven Federated Colonies of French West Africa, Based Upon a Tour of French West Africa Undertaken in 1935. London: Evans Brothers, 1937.Google Scholar
Murdock, George Peter. Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History. New York; London: McGraw-Hill, 1959.Google Scholar
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. NGA Geonet Names Server, 2007 (cited August 2007). Available from http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/namefiles.htm.Google Scholar
Newell, Stephanie. Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Nugent, Paul. Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Life of the Borderlands Since 1914. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Nunn, Nathan. “The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades.” Quarterly Journal of Economics (123), no. 1 (2008): 139–76.Google Scholar
Nunn, Nathan. “Religious Conversion in Colonial Africa.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (100), no. 2 (2010): 147–52.Google Scholar
Nunn, Nathan, and Diego, Puga. “Ruggedness: The Blessing of Bad Geography in Africa.” The Review of Economics and Statistics (94), no. 1 (2012): 20–36.Google Scholar
Oliver, Roland Anthony. The Missionary Factor in East Africa. London and New York: Longmans, 1952.Google Scholar
Olson, James Stuart. The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Rachal, John R. “Measuring English and American Historical Literacy: A Review of Methodological Approaches.” International Journal of Lifelong Education (6), no. 3 (1987): 185–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Andrew. Salisbury: Victorian Titan. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999.Google Scholar
Rouch, Jean. “Migrations Au Ghana.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 24 (1957): 33–196.Google Scholar
Samwini, Nathan Iddrisu. “The Muslim Resurgence in Ghana Since 1950 and Its Effects Upon Muslims and Muslim-Christian Relations.” D.Phil., Birmingham, 2003.Google Scholar
Schnee, Heinrich. Deutsches Koloniallexiko. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1920.Google Scholar
Skinner, Kate. “From Pentecostalism to Politics: Mass Literacy and Community Development in Late Colonial Northern Ghana.” Paedagogica Historica 46, no. 3 (2010): 307–23.Google Scholar
Smith, Noel T. The Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1835–1960: A Younger Church in a Changing Society. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H. “Biological Measures of the Standard of Living.” Journal of Economic Perspectives (22), no. 1 (2008): 129–52.Google Scholar
Thomas, Roger G. “Education in Northern Ghana, 1906–1940: A Study in Colonial Paradox.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies (7), no. 3 (1974): 427–67.Google Scholar
Touval, Saadia. “Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa.” Journal of African History (7), no. 2 (1966): 279–93.Google Scholar
Wagner, Daniel A. “Literacy Assessment in the Third World: An Overview and Proposed Schema for Survey Use.” Comparative Education Review 34, no. 1, Special Issue on Adult Literacy (1990): 112–38.Google Scholar
Wantchekon, Leonard, Natalija, Novta, and Marko, Klašnja. “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin.” Working paper presented at the 2013 BREAD conference, 2013.Google Scholar
Ward, Barbara. “Some Notes on Migration from Togoland.” African Affairs (49), no. 195 (1950): 129–35.Google Scholar
Welbourn, F. B. “Missionary Stimulus and African Responses.” In Colonialism in Africa: 1870–1960, edited by Gann, Lewis H. and Duignan, Peter, 310–45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Wesseling, H. L. Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.Google Scholar
White, Bob W. “Talk About School: Education and the Colonial Project in French and British Africa (1860–1960).” Comparative Education (32), no. 1 (1996): 9–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, T. David. “Sir Gordon Guggisberg and Educational Reform in the Gold Coast, 1919–1927.” Comparative Education Review (8), no. 3 (1964): 290–306.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2011 World Development Indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Cogneau and Moradi supplementary material

Appendix

Download Cogneau and Moradi supplementary material(File)
File 746.6 KB