In the footsteps of their Predecessors: Nigeria South-East Holy Ghost Missionaries’ Involvement in education, 1970-2020

Abstract

For the first half of the 20th century and more, expatriate Catholic Holy Ghost missionaries dominated the education terrain in the then Eastern Nigeria to the point that it was identified as the hallmark of their evangelization in the region. These expatriate missionaries were expelled from the region at the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1970, leaving behand a few indigenous members that had been recruited into their religious Order from Eastern Nigeria. Not a few persons wondered on whether the recruited members from Eastern Nigeria could uphold the educational legacies of their predecessors. This work explored this thought. It employed both qualitative and quantitative methods with critical method of history in the analyses of data, using thematic, chronological, and narrative methods in presenting the work within a framework of Courageous Resistance theory. The findings of the research revealed that the Eastern Nigeria members of the religious Order not only upheld the legacies of their expatriate predecessors, but also went further to improve on such legacies.