Religious Education in Malawi and Ghana

Perspectives on Religious Misrepresentation and Misclusion

Yonah Matemba, Richardson Addai-Mununkum, Yonah H Matemba

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000363296
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Religious Education in Malawi and Ghana contributes to the literature on opportunities and complexities of inclusive approaches to Religious Education (RE). It analyses how RE in Malawi and Ghana engages with religious pluralisation and provides a compelling case for the need to re-evaluate current approaches in the conceptualisation, curriculum design and delivery of RE in schools in Malawi and Ghana.

The book explains how a pervasive tradition of selection involving exclusion and inclusion of religion in RE leads to misrepresentation, and in turn to misclusion of non-normative religions, where religion is included but marginalized and misrepresented. The book contributes to wider discourse of RE on opportunities as well as complexities of post-confessional approaches, including the need for RE to avoid perpetuating the continued legitimisation of selected religions, and in the process the delegitimization of the religious 'other' as a consequence of misrepresentation and misclusion. Inspired by Braten's methodology for comparative studies in RE, the book draws on two qualitative studies from Malawi and Ghana to highlight the pervasive problems of religious misclusion in RE.

This book will be of great interest for academics, scholars and post graduate students in the fields of RE, African education, educational policy, international education and comparative education..

Part I

Setting the context

Chapter 1

Religion at school in Malawi and Ghana

The choice of Malawi and Ghana as the focus of the study that informs this monograph stems from both national and supranational factors, in terms of the similarities as well as the differences between the two countries. The two countries are situated in different sub-regions of Africa, Malawi in South-East Central and Ghana in West Africa, and therefore providing unique comparative perspectives regarding how, within its locale, each country has engaged with RE as a school subject. In terms of land size, Ghana (238,533 sq. km.) is about twice the size of Malawi (118,484 sq. km.) and yet the population (in 2018) of Malawi (18,143,315) is comparatively higher than that of Ghana (29,767,108). Ghana’s GDP per capita ($4,700) is almost four times that of Malawi ($1,200) and in Malawi 50.7% of the population live below the poverty line while in Ghana that figure is only 24.2%. The two countries’ annual GDP expenditures on education are comparable with Malawi at 15.78% and Ghana’s at 18.6% (compare World Bank Ghana, 2019a; World Bank Malawi, 2019b).

Although the two countries are not in close geographical proximity, they share a similar history of British colonisation and intense Christian missionary activities, including educational work (see Gallego and Woodberry, 2010). As is the case with most Western countries (see Maussen and Vermeulen, 2014), in both Malawi and Ghana freedom of religion and non-discrimination are both guaranteed in the constitution and protected by law. In terms of religious demography, other striking similarities can be drawn between the two countries. The religious demography in both countries is similar with an almost equal percentage of Christians as the majority and Muslims as the largest minority and most assertive religion. Both countries have a percentage of the ‘nones’; that is, people who do not subscribe to any religion (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1Religious Demography in Malawi and Ghana

Malawi (2018 Figures)		Ghana (2010 Figures)
Christianity Catholic Presbyterian Anglican Baptist Evangelical Seventh-day Adventist	78.5%	Christianity Catholic Methodist Anglican Mennonites Presbyterians Lutherans Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Seventh-day Adventist Pentecostal Baptist Society of Friends	71.2%
Islam Sunni (Qadriya and Sukkutu) Ahmadiyya	13.8%	Islam Ahlussuna Tijanis Ahmadis Shi’a Zetahil	17.6%
Other Religions Buddhism Hinduism Sikhism Baha’ism Judaism Rastafarianism Indigenous Religion	5.6%	Other Religions Hinduism Rastafarianism Shintoism Eckankar Buddhism Baha’ism Judaism Hare Krishna Divine Light Mission Ninchiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai Sri Sathya Sai Baba Sera Sat Sang	0.8%
No religion	2.1%	Indigenous Religion	5.2%
		No Religion	5.2%
Total	100%		100%

Source: Government of Malawi, 2018; Government of Ghana, 2013.

Educationally, in Malawi 37% of all public schools are ‘grant-aided’ (as has been the case since missionary/colonial times), meaning that they are owned and controlled by churches but receive government financial support (from taxes) to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Series editor introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Setting the context
• Part II: Framing the debate
• Part III: Empirical findings
• Final remarks
• Index