Osu Salem Presbyterian Middle Boys Boarding School
The role of education and religion in the history of colonialism in Ghana
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Osu Salem Presbyterian Boys' Boarding School (1843) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
The Basel Mission School
The Osu Salem Presbyterian Middle Boys’ Boarding School was the first European-style middle boarding school to be established in what is present day Ghana. The boarding school was founded by the Basel Mission of Switzerland in November 1843.
State of the school building
The building was completed around 1857 and although in disrepair, still exists today on Salem Avenue, Kuku Hill, Osu, Accra. It was rehabilitated in 2008 by the Osu Salem Old Boys Association (OSOBA) but is once again in dire need of restorative work.
The original Danish-speaking school
The first pupils came from the Danish speaking Christiansborg Castle School established to educate the offspring of Danish officers of the former slave-trading fort and local African women. Such children were brought up in the Christian faith and prepared by the school to serve the Danish government in administrative roles.
The language of instruction at the Osu Salem School was English because the first missionaries came from Jamaica, where English was spoken and the British had gained ascendancy in the Gold Coast through military expansionism in their quest for colonial domination.
Andreas RiisHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
Jamaican missionaries help Andreas Riis establish the school
In April 1843, Andreas Riis a Basel missionary and former chaplain at the Christiansborg Castle, arrived from Jamaica with 25 formerly enslaved African Christians who helped him establish the Presbyterian Church in Ghana and the Osu Salem Presbyterian Middle Boys’ Boarding School.
George ThompsonHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
Founders of the school
The school was co-founded by George Peter Thompson, Alexander Worthy Clerk and Catherine Mulgrave. Thompson was originally an orphan from Liberia, taken to Switzerland as a child in 1829 and educated at a German boarding school founded on the principles of the Swiss pedagogue Johann Pezzalozzi.
Co-founder George Thompson
Thompson was the first African to be educated by the Basel Mission and ordained a Basel missionary. He accompanied Riis and his wife Anna Wolters to Jamaica where he met and married Catherine Mulgrave.
Zimmermann Mulgrave Family (1872)Heritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
Co-founder Catherine Mulgrave
Catherine had been kidnapped as a 6 year old child from Angola and adopted by the British Governor of Jamaica and his wife after the slave ship she was on was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Jamaica.
The Zimmerman Family
On arrival in the Gold Coast she was initially put in charge of the Christiansborg Castle School. She and George later divorced due to his infidelity and she remarried Johannes Zimmermann a German missionary with whom she had several children.
Alex Clerk with his Family (1861) by Basel Mission ArchivesHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
Co-founder Alexander Worthy Clerk
Alexander Worthy Clerk was a trained Jamaican Moravian Missionary and the descendant of enslaved Africans. Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838. He arrived in the Gold Coast in 1843 at the age of 23.
First deacon of the church in Akropong
He was the first deacon of the Presbyterian church in Akropong and was initially put in charge of teaching the children of the West Indian settlers. He married Pauline Hesse, the granddaughter of Lebrecht Hesse, a Danish physician, in 1848 and they had 12 children, 2 of whom died at birth.
Osu Salem Presbyterian Boys' Boarding School (1843) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
The original building of the school was built in the Southern German architectural style with timber brought from northern Germany to form the timber framed structure which was then filled with local lateritic earth mixed with water.
This red mud which is traditionally used for local construction kept the interior of buildings cool. The facility included dormitories, a classroom block and headmaster’s and staff accommodation organized around a courtyard.
These were complemented with a playground, and a workshop space for skill development in pottery, blacksmithing and brickmaking. The training principle was to nurture the head, the heart, and the hands of the pupils, based on the so-called 3-H educational philosophy, developed in Switzerland by Johann Pestalozzi.
Later schools based on similar principles were developed by Kurt Hahn at Salem Castle School in Germany and Gordonstoun, Scotland and were the basis for the United World Colleges. Hahn's ideas were also adopted globally by the International Baccalaureate programme.
School Courtyard (2020) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
The courtyard was the gathering point for pupils and a place where roll calls happened and pupils were disciplined. The ground floor classroom also doubled up as an assembly hall.
Classroom (2020) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
A multi-purpose classroom
This room holds special significance in the memories of former pupils of Osu Salem School. It is a place associated both with their traditional annual Christmas Carol Service and the draconian punishment received by pupils who did not conform to the school’s strict disciplinary code.
It is recounted by former students that this classroom was where students were punished. They were required to hold the wooden post located in the center of the room whilst receiving cane lashes on their back, a punishment that was carried out in front of their school mates.
School Bell (2020) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
School bell
A large copper bell hangs off a frame on one of the verandas. This bell was donated by a prominent Old Boy of Osu Salem School, to commemorate the achievement of independence from colonial rule by Ghana on 6th March, 1957. It was used to announce the change of lessons and drew the attention of the pupils to time when the school was in session.
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