As adapted from OTONTI NDUKA, PhD, 

Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1976

The scramble for, and the political partitioning of, Africa by European imperial powers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century is a well-known development of immense historical significance. What is not as well recognized, even though of commensurate socioeconomic import, especially in subSaharan Africa, was a parallel, if more subtle, scramble amongst different Christian denominations and their respective missionary bodies for areas of cloistered influence. The opening of Dennis Memorial Grammar School (D.M.G.S.) at Onitsha in 1925 by the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) was, as will be illustrated in the course of this paper, not unconnected with the vicissitudes of that internecine rivalry between the C.M.S. (of the Anglican denomination) and the Society of the Holy Ghost Fathers (a Roman Catholic missionary organization) at Onitsha during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Other factors of greater or less significance must, however, be taken into consideration for a fuller understanding of the circumstances which led to the foundation of the school whose centenary is now at hand. These include the evangelistic and educational aims of the C.M.S., His Majesty’s government’s educational policy, the financial difficulties as well as the internal politics of the Niger Mission, and not least, the visceral reactions of the indigenous Nigerians (Christians and non-Christians alike) to the cultural innovations being introduced by European imperialists and their surrogates. To the whole equation must be added one additional factor, namely, the role of mastery in English language as a central, if not definitive, facet in the system of education introduced into Nigeria at the turn of the last century. It will be shown that, in spite of the protracted negative attitude of the authorities of the Niger Mission to the widespread use and teaching of English, while showing a distinct preference to the widespread use and instruction in the local vernacular language across the majority of their mission-sponsored schools, D.M.G.S.- designed for the advanced study of English, among other things- was eventually dedicated, ironically enough, to the memory of Archdeacon T.J. Dennis, who had almost single-handedly pioneered the study of Igbo, not English, amongst the heathen tribes of the lower Niger.

As many studies have shown, the introduction of Western education into the different parts of Nigeria was generally concomitant to Christian missionary evangelistic activity. With particular reference to the Niger Mission, Rev. J. C. Taylor, who with Rev. (later Bishop) S. A. Crowther laid the foundations of the Niger Mission, recorded in his Diary that a week after his arrival at Onitsha in 1857, twelve children were brought to him by their parents and guardians to be educated. “I looked upon them”, he would comment, “as the commencement of our missionary work. We lost no time but began to teach them the ABCs”. The prime motive behind the early introduction of Western education by the missionaries was the evangelistic imperative of teaching converts and prospective converts to read religious literature (especially the Bible) either in English or, preferably, in their own local language. This evangelistic educational aim had several predictable repercussions, some of which afflict us until this very day.

First, there is the question of the utility of local languages. For mainly religious reasons, missionaries pioneered the study of the various local languages, many of which they reduced to written form for the very first time in history. This was an educational development of the utmost significance, for it made the task of learning to read and write easier and probably more interesting for the indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, ignorance of and prejudice against diverse indigenous cultures, which were therefore daubed heathenish and barbaric, prevented the missionaries and subsequent generations of educationists from exploring and utilizing the educational possibilities of instruction in the various local languages, especially as regards the cultural dimensions of education. It was a strategy that would ultimately co-opt prominent evangelists such as Rev. S. A. Crowther and others who worked on Yoruba language, Hugh Goldie on Efik, Archdeacon T.J. Dennis on Igbo, Dr. Walter Miller on Hausa, and so on. Thus, from the very beginning and for a very long time afterwards, the newly introduced Western education comprised mainly the teaching and learning of the 3 R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) along with a heavy dose of Christian religious instruction, the medium of instruction being either English or the local language, as was found practicable. The emphasis all along was on learning a foreign language (English), foreign customs, values, and above all, Christianity.

For decades thereafter, the local language remained as merely a vehicle for conveying to the children and simple village folk, the substance of exotic religious literature- the Bible, prayer books, catechisms, etc. For most missionaries, as pointed out above, proselytization in this and other forms was the ultimate aim of their educational effort. Indeed, around the turn of the century, in the opinion of most missionary bodies, Catholics and Protestants alike, the vernacular school was the paradigm of the missionary educational institution. Although the missionaries had to teach English and some literary subjects in some of their schools, they preferred to limit the educational horizon of their pupils to the elementary-school level. Even when they essayed to provide education that went beyond the elementary level, their preference was for training institutions, whose highest products would be either teacher-catechists or catechists, pure and simple. In either case, the priesthood would be their ultimate and final ambition. Thus, as late in the day as 1911, the Executive Committee of the Niger Mission in its meeting of January-February of that year, fully endorsed the policy whereby “advanced education (was to) be limited to Training Colleges where candidates accepted for C.M.S. (or Native Pastorate) work were received for preparation as Evangelists, Teachers and Pastors”. This restrictive posture by some, if not most, of the missionary bodies can best be understood as an aspect of a more general worldview, being a fundamental distrust of the suitability of “higher” education, however loosely defined but especially of the secular type, for native Africans. The attitude had, in some cases, overtly racist overtones, being part of the myth of European racial superiority, a central facet of contemporary colonial ideology and an expression of the realities of European imperialism. There were exceptions, of course. Thus, on the one hand, Rev. S. R. Smith, Secretary of the Niger Mission, not only confided to the Home Committee of the C.M.S.: “These people are not suitable for a high mental development”but he also strenuously denied Sir Lugard’s accusation that the Mission was teaching Africans to embrace racial equality. In the view of His Majesty’s representative, racial equality was a veritable passport to chaos and insurrection. On the other hand, some others held the intellectual capacity of the African in high regard. Rev. Hardman, for instance, remarked that, as regards speed in learning, Igbo schoolboys could “put some of our English children to shame.” Father (later Bishop) Shanahan also expressed a similar view: “These good Black boys are intelligent, full of life and good will. It is marvelous how fast they understand.”

Meanwhile the dynamics of the British colonial enterprise in Nigeria, which began in earnest in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was consolidated with the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914, considerably affected the pattern and the end-product of the missionary educational enterprise. In the first place, increasing European (mainly British) commercial and administrative activities towards the end of the nineteenth century, necessitated the employment of an ever increasing number of literate personnel (literate in English, of course). Although the indigenous people were generally employed in subordinate positions, they were nevertheless handsomely rewarded. They soon realized the implicit economic advantages of even a superficial, talk less of moderate, degree of literacy such as could be fairly easily acquired in the mission schools, whose horizon was deliberately circumscribed: and the higher the level of literacy, the more economically advantageous it became. Igbo, as anyone with even a passing knowledge of their outlook would tell you, are not known to easily pass up on obvious economic opportunities. Therefore, many individuals and communities began to clamour for more and more of the literary type of education including higher education which, to many missionaries, was a type of “forbidden fruit”. In parts of the country, such as Lagos and Yorubaland, the Western-educated immigrants from Sierra Leone took the initiative in establishing secondary schools. The founding of C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos in 1859 and the Methodist Boys’ High School in 1879, best illustrate this phenomenon. As we shall soon see, a somewhat similar scenario was to play out in the case of the founding of DM.G.S. Government policy at that time, such as it was, reinforced the trend towards the literary type of education. Partly because of the shortage of funds for meeting the ever-increasing financial burden of running mission schools and partly because of the missionaries’ perverse reluctance to give their teachers adequate training with a higher intellectual content, the quality of education in the mission schools either stagnated or began to fall precisely at a time when the requirements of the colonial government and commercial organizations for better educated personnel were rapidly increasing. The tentative steps taken by the administrative authorities of Lagos Colony and the nascent Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in the 1880’s and 1890’s to arrest the situation tended to aggravate the trend towards literary education. Those steps included the giving of financial assistance to missionary bodies in support of their burgeoning educational activities.

Government grants-in-aid were based largely (though not exclusively) on the principle of “payment by results”. According to this principle, the amount of grants varied with the number of pupils in the upper standards of the primary schools who were successful in tests of efficiency in reading, writing and/or arithmetic. These tests or examinations were generally conducted by government inspectors of schools. Proficiency in English was, from the point of view of government requirements for literate personnel, a key factor in the situation. Missionary bodies such as the C.M.S., whose sights were firmly set on the evangelistic dimensions of education and the imagined treasures of the unseen world of Heaven, were seen to play down the role of English in education, in sharp contrast to the realities of the colonial economy. Those mission schools, stood to lose not only in the scramble for Government grants but also in the race for new converts, as their schools became damningly less attractive to prospective clients and future converts in comparison to schools of rival denominations (the Roman Catholics, in particular) that paid more attention to English language. The origins of D.M.G.S. are traceable, at least in part, to the attempt of the C.M.S. authorities of the Niger Mission to escape the social asphyxiation which their previous educational policies had predictably landed them. They thought that the establishment of a grammar school would finally give them an upper hand over their arch rivals – the Roman Catholic Holy Ghost Fathers. The taste of the proverbial pudding would be in the eating. It proved not to be as simple a “recipe” as was originally envisaged.

To understand the developments just mentioned, it is necessary to take a brief look at the political and educational scene in Southern Nigeria at the beginning of the previous century, with particular reference to Igboland. With the revocation of the Charter of the Royal Niger Company in 1899 and the formal establishment of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria in 1900, the whole of Nigeria formally came under British imperial rule. Soon, the urgent work of “pacification” was taken in hand – by Sir Frederick Lugard in the North and Sir Ralph Moor in the South. As far as Igboland was concerned, the most important development was the launching of the Arochukwu Expedition in 1901. Not only was the infamous Long Juju shrine as well as its paraphernalia of coercion completely destroyed, the victorious troops were also subsequently despatched in detachments to different parts of Eastern Nigeria, where they duly impressed the indigenous people and their leaders with a show of the British imperial might. The native Igbo were suitably cowed by the authority of her new rulers. What is indisputable is that this sudden thrust of the British into the hinterland, although it eventually brought about the much vaunted Pax Britannica, also made things fall apart in a multitude of ways, some good, others emphatically not so. One of the most important consequences of the cultural contact of indigenous Nigerian tribes with the Western world, as represented by European (mainly British) imperialist agents, was the demonstrable technological superiority of the Europeans. This would cast an aura of invincibility and effortless superiority upon the white man and his imported cultural nous. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery- as well as the cheapest type of larceny- this foreign ethos was destined for mindless imitation, often uncritically, by the subdued natives. The unspoken but underlying aim of the indigenous people was to learn the “secrets” of the white man’s power by acquiring his techniques. The obvious starting point was Western education, which was not only readily available in the mission schools but was also economically advantageous. The main price the people had to pay for mission education was acceptance of Christianity, which was also, quite coincidentally, the main objective of the missionary education enterprise. All over Igboland the missionaries were bombarded with requests for the opening of stations and, of course, schools. As some of the missionaries themselves realized and admitted, these requests were motivated not so much by a desire for the spiritual aspects of the missionary enterprise, but by a more urgent desire by the itinerant Igbo for the material rewards of Western education. Policy developments within official government circles at about the same time, perfectly dovetailed with those native aspirations described in the last paragaph. Government demand for better educated personnel (clerks, artisans, etc.) dramatically increased as its administrative activities increased in tandem, following the “pacification” of even wider areas of the previously unexplored hinterland. As explained earlier, mission schools lacking either equipment or qualified staff to meet those demands were invariably left in the lurch, as the colonial government was increasingly obliged to recruit literate personnel from “abroad”, in this context, referring mainly to Sierra Leone and West Indies. That exigency would grant fillip to the “Saro” explosion, a full-scale importation of an “overseer” class of privileged Blacks. The doughty Igbo would quickly realize that the defining shibboleth separating the natives from the “Saro”, was some degree of higher Western educational attainment.

Furthermore, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate administration under Sir Ralph Moor had directed that missions should upgrade their schools through the introduction of industrial education and explicit instruction in the English language. The colonial government expressed its willingness to reward the mission schools by increased grant awards, if only they would adopt that directive. Government would go even further in its attempt both to meet its man-power requirements and to raise the prevailing standards of education, which several government inspectors, e.g. Henry Carr and Mr Gordon, had adversely commented upon. First, in association with the commercial firms and local chiefs of Bonny, Opobo and Degema, it saw to the opening of the Bonny Government School. Secondly, it reached an agreement with the Presbyterian Mission whereby the latter would continue to manage and maintain the Hope Waddell Institute at Calabar, and extend her admission blanket to include students from all parts of the Protectorate. In return, the Government undertook to pay grants based on indirect indices of scholastic efficiency and direct comparison of exit-examination results, erecting additional buildings to the tune of £10,000. Both institutions, it should be noted, ended up providing not only the much desired industrial education as government demanded, but also a formal education which quality went beyond that of most mission schools, especially with regards to the teaching of English language. Indeed, Hope Waddel Institute, Calabar, to which a secondary wing was added in 1902, may well be regarded as the first secondary school in Southern Nigeria, east of the Niger. The government followed up on these exercises with Proclamation No. 19 of 1903- the very first educational Code of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

Two of the specific provisions of the 1903 Code which would prove problematic for the Niger Mission, were the requirement that English language should be compulsorily taught in all schools, and conversely, that religious instruction should no longer be compulsory. Furthermore, the Code provided that grants-in-aid were to be paid on the basis of results. The reports of visiting government inspectors’ would form the basis for calculating such grant awards. The provisions of the 1903 Code brought into sharp focus a long-sweltering issue, which had in the preceding three or four years been a risible bone of contention between government and the missionary bodies, namely, the role of secular education in evangelical schools. All the missions, whose raison d’etre was ostensibly the propagation of Christianity, were aghast at the concept of secular education. In the simple arithmetic of the time, a secular education was equivalent to a godless education. Whilst some missions compromised by giving the new Code a trial run, especially as it did not specifically outlaw or otherwise prohibit evangelical activities in their schools, the C.M.S. (especially the Niger Mission), for reasons advanced earlier, stolidly refused to countenance that apparent “outrage”, and in turn, also refused to apply for any government grants. Even at a much later date when the Home Committee urged the Niger Mission to reconsider its stand, it was met with an adamant, even obstinate, refusal on “moral grounds”. The fact that the Yoruba Mission (belonging to the same C.M.S. pedigree as the Niger Mission) had been regularly accessing and thriving under the fiscal support of those same governmental grants-in-aid, was somehow lost on the Niger Mission. That priggish obstinacy would wreak dire and far-reaching consequences on the educational enterprise across all of Igboland. The Niger Mission would, in direct contravention of government directives, continue to provide instruction in the local vernacular at Awka Training Institution, which was founded in 1904 as a training institute for teachers and catechists. Indeed, in its own parochial educational code in 1905 (later revised in 1911), based on church policy between 1905 and 1915, the Niger Mission promulgated three different types of schools under her banner: (i) “bush” schools – the unrecognized (and often unremunerated) efforts of local catechists and lay-preachers; (ii) “village” schools, with formal instruction up to standard II (which was, not coincidentally, the predominant type of educational institution) and (iii) “central” schools, with instruction up to standard VII, representing the apogee of evangelical-sponsored education. It is therefore obvious, that in spite of their innate reluctance, the Niger Mission had made a half-hearted attempt through her inauguration of “central” schools to address the unquenchable demand for formal educational instruction in English. As future events will reveal, that “sop” would ultimately prove insufficient. In a virtuous circle of intellectual aspiration, any fleeting exposure of the natives to the basic rudiments of educational instruction would only trigger increasingly more strident calls for even higher education. It soon became clear that the Anglican Mission had no hope of survival in Igboland without the leaven of education. It was only a matter of time.

Meanwhile the desire among the Igbo for Western education continued to spread like the proverbial wild-fire in harmattan and local C.M.S. agents found themselves in an increasingly awkward- and ultimately untenable- position vis-a-vis their Roman Catholic counterparts, as inadequate financial resources and trained personnel prevented the former from meeting pent-up demands for preaching stations and schools. Absent schools translated directly into a rapidly shrinking sphere of ecclesiastical influence. Whilst the C.M.S. spurned government grants, the Roman Catholics embraced those same bequests with rare alacrity. With those grants, the Holy Ghost fathers of Onitsha were able to not only increase their enrollment and raise the standards in their schools through the much desired “English education”, as it was then known as, but were also able to make it free at the same time when pupils attending C.M.S. institutions were being charged school fees. It was an immense advantage, granting the Holy Ghost fathers who were relative latecomers to Igbo evangelism, an irreversible head start that has persisted to this day. Being relieved of some of their financial burdens through these government grants, the Holy Ghost fathers were able to devote the majority of their additional “home” subventions from the Catholic Congregation at Paris, to opening new preaching stations, putting up impressive buildings at Onitsha, and generally illustrating to an often impressionable laity, that the Roman Catholic God always took care of His own, both in this world as well as in the world to come! Indeed, they added another feather to their collective cap by inaugurating a High School at Onitsha in 1901. This excursion into higher education was made in response to Sir Ralph Moor’s clarion call to the Missions to raise educational standards through the provision of industrial education as well as by ratcheting up general academic instruction. It was not, all derisive banter to the contrary, a “well planned” move to diminish the Anglican Communion by being first to introduce secondary education at Onitsha. Whatever the exact motivations behind that seismic undertaking by the Roman Catholics at Onitsha, the end-result was as might be expected: the quality of education given in their schools rose as did their prestige within government circles and among the Igbo around Onitsha, in particular. As the Igbo don’t do impotent “gods”, a signal feature which has been well recognized since antiquity, it came as no surprise that many would-be converts either switched their allegiance from a Protestant (mainly C.M.S.) denomination to the Roman Catholic or transferred their children from Anglican schools to those of the Catholics. Inadvertently, the stage was set for the sectarian strife-by-proxy which would engulf Igboland, as Roman Catholics battled Anglicans for supremacy. Those early developments would lead to near panic among the officials and laity of the Niger Mission, especially at Onitsha, and would exacerbate the rivalry between C.M.S. and Catholic. When in a disparaging mood members of the C.M.S. party were inclined to dismiss some of the obvious Roman Catholic achievements as mere “show” aimed at attracting public attention, as Miss Janet Brandreth succinctly put it: “The Roman Catholic Mission has built some quite good show buildings in Onitsha.” As for the quality of the Roman Catholic schools, a typical view runs thus: “…. if all one hears is true the scholars from the R C. schools behave in a way, very often, that would bring disgrace upon the heathen.” Yet, whether the Roman Catholic buildings were, indeed, all for “show” or not, as Miss Brandreth would urge her brethren: “It would be well for us to have one such”.

Even more significant as part of the background to the foundation of D.M.G.S., Onitsha, was the gradual modification of attitude, on the part of the authorities of the Niger Mission, towards higher education in Igboland. This later modification in attitude, which has been somewhat derisively described in some quarters as akin to a “deathbed confession”, requires closer scrutiny. Swimming very much against the tide of official opinion in C.M.S. circles, Archdeacon T. J. Dennis had, in 1899, advocated the inclusion of English in the school curriculum and even urged that a secondary school wherein English would be the medium of instruction be opened at Onitsha. He advocated these steps as counter measures against the growing popularity of the Roman Catholics based largely on the fact that they were offering better quality education and using English as the medium of instruction, whereas the C.M.S tenaciously clung to their policy of education in the local language. Even as late as 1910, Rev. S. R. Smith, the Secretary of the Niger Mission and one of the opponents of higher education for the African, maintained: “We recognise that it is the duty of the Government to educate the people and we are quite ready to leave them the work of establishing English Schools….. we would prefer to devote ourselves entirely to vernacular education.” Faced with mounting evidence throughout the first decade of the last century of Roman Catholic predominance in the educational field, and sharing with the Catholics the belief that education is the surest means of evangelization, the C.M.S. was forced to re-examine its own stand on higher education and the teaching of English in particular, within their parochial schools. There developed a gradual softening of attitude towards higher education culminating in an almost feverish clamour, orchestrated as it were and recorded in multiple correspondences and minutes of the church’s Executive Committee from 1910 onwards, for the opening of a C.M.S secondary school at Onitsha.

The first significant note of this orchestral performance was struck, appropriately enough, by Bishop H. Tugwell, the then Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa, with jurisdiction over the Niger Mission and other C.M.S. establishments in Nigeria. Indeed, the minutes of the Executive Committee, July 1912, posits that the Onitsha Teachers’ Conference formed “to consider the state of things in Onitsha town from a religious point of view” reported to the Committee that the “Roman Catholics are influencing nine-tenths of the children in the town, our town schools are weak- and the attendance not increasing.” In a long letter addressed to G. T. Basen, the then Acting Secretary of the Niger Mission, and a copy forwarded to Mr. Baylis, the C.M.S Group III (Africa) Secretary, the Bishop reviewed the position of the C.MS, vis-a-vis the Roman Catholics in and around Onitsha. He noted that young people in search of education were flocking to Onitsha from the hinterland. “The Romanists”, he continued, “realized this, and…… are directing all their energies to the interest of Education, striving by all means to direct the stream into their own channels, and apparently with marked success. …There is no denying the fact that at the present moment nearly all the young people of Onitsha Town and Waterside who attend school are to be found in the Roman Schools.” He quoted figures from the reports of Government and mission inspectors of schools to support his conclusions. Furthermore, the Roman Catholics were turning out more pupil and assistant Teachers many of whom “have been drawn in from the interior and in due time will be sent out to the interior towns from which they have come to do aggressive work.” Alarmed at the developing situation which he considered ‘fraught with grave danger to the Native Church of the Future,” he put forward a scheme which, he hoped, might not only be an effective reply to the Roman Catholic onslaught but might also prove to be capable of arresting the decline in the fortunes of the C.M.S. in the scramble for Igboland. The scheme he suggested was the removal to Onitsha of the Awka Training College and the opening at Onitsha “in conjunction with the Training College” of a Secondary School (which materialized fifteen years later as Dennis Memorial Grammar School). Bishop Tugwell’s proposals were tabled and discussed at the subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee held from 30th January to 7th February 1911. The Committee felt that the Bishop’s view of the evangelistic situation was one-sided, as it did not take account of the fact that “whereas the Roman Catholics were concentrating at Onitsha, the C.M.S. has missions flung far and wide all over Igbo Country.” As for his specific proposals, the Committee expressed the view that the students of the Training College if transferred to Onitsha could not render any material assistance at the Central School and prosecute their studies simultaneously. Worse still, the influence of Onitsha upon the students could be anything but good. Other objections based on the expensive nature of the project were raised. In effect the Bishop’s proposal advocating the transfer of the Awka Training College to Onitsha was turned down.

Bishop Tugwell’s proposal advocating the opening of a secondary school at Onitsha was more favourably received, as it chimed in with the new current of opinion that was beginning to emerge even among the evangelistic stalwarts of the Niger Mission. Faced with the evidence of the almost insatiable demand for English education by the Igbo, most of whom were turning to the Roman Catholics who appeared to meet the demand, the authorities of the Niger Mission not only began to introduce the teaching of English and some other secular subjects in their primary schools but also to think more seriously about the possibility of introducing higher education. Thus, in its meeting of February 1910, the Executive Committee approved the use of the following books in C.M.S schools as from January 1911:

1. Readers:

(1) Indian Readers (to be adapted for use in Africa)

(2) Tropical Readers.

1. English Grammar & Composition:

(1) Davidson & Alcock’s Grammar &

Composition: (2) McDougall’s “Line upon Line”

1. Geography: Lawson’s Geographical Series
2. English History: Ransom’s Elementary English History.
3. Hygiene: Dr. Strachan’s Hygiene.

In the light of the foregoing, it was no surprise that in response to Bishop Tugwell’s suggestion the members of the Executive Committee were unanimous in pressing for the establishment of “a thoroughly equipped Central School at Onitsha with Elementary and Secondary Departments. They earnestly advocated that a European (preferably a university graduate), with experience in educational matters, be sent out to take charge of and develop the School.” Rev. G. T. Basden and Mr. J, N. Cheetham were then asked to work in cooperation with the Secretary to produce plans and estimates for the buildings of the proposed Central School, Onitsha.

The taking of such a momentous decision was only the first step along a long and thorny path. The project encountered many obstacles before it was eventually completed in 1925. The first was that of convincing the Parent Committee of the C.M.S. that the project was a necessary extension of the basic missionary enterprise. The belief that evangelization was the prime purpose of the missionary enterprise was common ground between the Parent Committee and the authorities of the Niger Mission, even if on occasion the latter tended to adopt a more uncompromising attitude (e.g. on the question of the acceptance of government grants-in-aid). In spite of the apparent unanimity in pressing for a “Central School at Onitsha with Elementary and Secondary Departments”, the Mission’s attitude to higher or “advanced” education remained conservative. The suggested plan of operations presented by the Eduational Sub-Committee at the Executive Committee meeting of January-February 1911, included the following suggestions which were approved by the Executive Committee: (i) “That advanced education be limited to Training Colleges where candidates accepted for C.M.Sl. (or Native Pastorate) work (should) be received for preparation as evangelists, Teachers and pastors.” (ii) It was further agreed that should a secondary school be established at Onitsha a hostel would have to be built to accommodate a number of the scholars, (iii) In such a hostel “definite religious instruction (should) be given regularly and the conversion of students to Christianity should be the first object of those in charge thereof.” It is hardly surprising, then, that among the reasons advanced by some of the missionaries to convince the Parent Committee that the project was necessary is that it would “hold and influence those at an impressionable age whom we afterwards hope will be the C.M.S. teachers and clergy.” It is significant that It was precisely at this time when the need for her own advance coupled with the complementary duty of containing the “undesirable” advance of the Roman Catholics, that the parent C.M.S. found her financial position take a dramatic turn for the worse. By 1909, the gap between financial provision and overseas expenditure was such that the Society was forced to reduce by £33,000 the budget for the year 1910-1911. As a historian of the society further reports, “in April 1911, the general committee reluctantly decided to withdraw from the society’s missions, either temporarily or permanently, many missionaries on furlough at the time; to send out no fresh recuit save in exceptional cases .… and to discontinue as far as practicable the further training of candidates not yet accepted as missionaries.” Although the Society’s finances improved soon after the 1913 Swanwick Conference, thus enabling her to survive the privations of the First World War years, post-war inflation and other causes precipitated another crisis. Deficits continued, therefore, to be recorded for a long time to come. Hewitt concludes the survey of the 1910-1924 period by saying: “at no time in this period was the Society able to balance its budget until the second world war.” Some of the measures taken by the Society to meet the deficits included the continuation of the policy of cuts in overseas expenditure, reduction of the budget for training of missionaries, and the “selling (of) some of its overseas property.” The circumstances outlined in the last paragraph provide part of the explanation for the non-implementation for fourteen years of the Executive Committee’s unanimous decision in February 1911 to establish a secondary school at Onitsha. At a time when the C.M.S. missionaries of the Niger Mission were all set for advance at the importunity of various Igbo communities clamouring for education, among other considerations, the Parent Committee were forced by financial considerations to adopt what “their local agents termed a “policy of retrenchment”. With particular reference to the proposed secondary school, the poignant pleas of the missionaries for men and financial support although not exactly falling on deaf ears did not elicit any tangible response from the Parent Committee. True it is that an appeal for £1000 towards the project had been included in the 1913 “Plans for Advance”, as requested by the Executive Committee in its resolution of January, 1912. There is no evidence, however, that this sum was ever made available to the Niger Mission during those critical years, in spite of the fact that the Swanwick appeal target of £100,000 was exceeded by at least <£13,685. Neither was a European recruit sent to open and develop the school- as a partial foil to the overwhelming numerical superiority of Roman Catholic European missionaries. Even when late in 1913 the Roman Catholics came under a cloud in Onitsha following some disagreements between them and the locals, and frantic appeals were made by Archdeacon Dennis and others for resources to enable the C.M.S use the “opportunity for recovering some of the ground we have undoubtedly lost (to the Catholics)”, the Parent Committee was not moved to action. In the circumstances the Executive Committee took a painful decision: “With very great regret, E C. came to the conclusion that there seemed no (viable) alternative but to abandon (the) idea of Onitsha Grammar School, seeing that P.C. give no hope of man to develop it, nor can allocate grants towards its erection.” The missionaries on the spot were bitter at being, so to speak, left in the lurch in the face of advancing Roman Catholic influence. Rev. G. T. Basden spoke for most, when he complained bitterly: “When the natives see a regular supply of men coming out … for the Government, the Traders and the R.Cs, they frankly do not believe us when we tell them the C.M.S. have no men to send out … With three concerns doing well and getting men, then, if the fourth cannot, it is either a fraud or a failure. Our confidence had been rudely shaken also.” As the expectation of financial support from Salisbury Square for the project had turned out to be in vain, another way had to be found for the combined will of the Niger Mission and the Igbo people who were clamouring for higher education. The decision to abandon the project proved to be nothing but a temporary setback. Even before that decision was taken, the local church committees and well-wishers had made donations towards the project. Following its decision of July 1915, the Executive Committee further decided to return all donations to the various sources. As Rev. S R. Smith subsequently explained to the Parent Committee, the effect of the Executive Committee’s latter decision was that of “throwing back the responsibility of erecting a school for present needs upon the Onitsha Parochial Committees. The people have since taken up the matter vigorously and they hope to raise enough money to build one of the wings of the proposed Grammar School: they have already secured an excellent site for the school.” To appreciate the significance of this, it is necessary to take up the story of DMGS from an earlier point in time.

It will be recalled that at the time the decision to establish a secondary school was being taken in February 1911, a small committee was set up to produce plans and estimates for the buildings of the proposed Central School, Onitsha. The plans drawn up envisaged an initial outlay of £5,000, although it was agreed that £1000 would enable the Committee to make a good start. Meanwhile, as reported to the Executive Committee, “an Upper School consisting of all the children from standard III upwards from the three Onitsha schools had begun in the old printing house in the C.M.S. compound” early in 1912. By June of that same year, it had 85 boys and 9 girls on roll and it was hoped that the secondary wing would be added to it in due course. The missionaries single-mindedly pressed for both personnel and financial help in order to add the secondary wing (which would) carry boys beyond the Vllth standard”. When late in 1913, Mr. McKay (a West Indian missionary and a qualified schoolmaster) joined the Niger Mission, it was decided that pending the arrival of an European, he would “take charge of the Secondary School at Onitsha, or rather, the nucleus of the proposed school … being held in the old compound.” In anticipation of further support from Salisbury Square, the Executive Committee took certain steps aimed at speeding up the project. A lease was taken on a piece of land, with Government approval, which “was to be the site of the new school.” At the Executive Committee meeting of February 1914, the plan of the new building was approved and it was also agreed that the name of the school should be “The Onitsha Grammar School.” Furthermore, the Secretary was asked to “consult the Principals of the other secondary schools on the Coast and elsewhere, and to make suggestions for the curriculum, to be submitted to the next Executive Committee”. Following the receipt of the Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting on February 1914, the Educational Committee of the Parent Committee set up a high-powered subcommittee “to consider and advise upon a curriculum suitable for the proposed school at Onitsha.” At its meeting of 25 June, 1914, the Educational Committee recommended that “proposals 1 to 5 contained in the Report of the subcommittee should be forwarded through the Secretary of Group No. Ill as suggestions for the consideration of the Executive Committee of the Niger Mission.” For our purposes here, proposals 1, 3 and 5 appear to be of special interest. 

#Proposal 1: “Every opportunity (should) be taken to introduce handwork of a type related to the needs of the country, less for its economic than for its educational value as a means of developing mind and character.” 

#Proposal 3: “The principle already in vogue of giving the vernacular a prominent position be maintained.” 

#Proposal 5: The school curriculum was to be as follows, with obligatory subjects offered being: Colloquial English, Reading, Elementary Grammar, Literature, Writing, Dictation and Composition, Arithmetic, Hygiene and Sanitation, Drawing, Shorthand, Geography, History (preferably the normative “General History of the World, rather than English History), Natural Science, Singing, Drilling and Physical Exercise. The optional subjects were Mensuration, Latin, French or German, Algebra, Geometry, and Typewriting.

To understand the underlying significance of these proposals, one has to relate them to the political and economic circumstances of that period. The amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria having been effected in 1914 under the governor-generalship of Sir Frederick J. D Lugard, gave irritation to His Majesty’s representative by the criticism assailing his government through the educated elite of Lagos, most of whom had been educated in the mission schools scattered across Southern Nigeria. He deprecated the type of education they had received, roundly decrying the products of such education as “lacking in integrity, self control and discipline … (and showing) no respect for (colonial) authority.” Besides, he would conclude, “a large proportion of them were ill-educated”. Yet, Sir Lugard was in dire need of the “products” of the system of education he denigrated: for both his administration and the commercial organizations were desperately short of literate personnel and skilled artisans. The 1916 Education Ordinance which he had promulgated aimed to both “correct” the perceived shortcomings of mission education and simultaneously increase the supply of literate personnel- the more literate, the better for his grand designs for Empire. Thus, the great emphasis which he laid on “character training” was closely tied up with his preference for secular education in preference to sectarian religious instruction. He also tried to liberalize the system of grants-in-aid by paying more attention to the quality of the school in terms of its “tone of instruction” and the provisions made for imparting moral guidance whilst de-emphasizing success at examinations. Reading between the lines, it is obvious that the “proposals” mentioned in the last paragraph were partly an attempt to meet some of Lugard’s criticisms of missionary education, and in part, an attempt to produce literate persons of a presumably higher calibre who were so much in demand by both the Lugard administration and the wider Igbo community.

The response of the Niger Mission to Lugard’s overtures aimed at winning the co-operation of the missionaries in order to achieve his aims was, as reported earlier, to reaffirm its rejection of government’s grants-in-aid. Consequently, as compared to Catholic schools in Onitsha, the C.M.S Upper School did not make much progress, and probably stagnated; this was more so, as the essence of the Grammar School scheme depended upon (the) “appointment of an European Headmaster”- a handicap which persisted until the end of the decade. It is worth noting, however, that in spite of the Executive Committee’s decision of July 1915 “to abandon the idea of Onitsha Grammar School,” the dynamics of the situation were such that in its minutes of 17-25 July, 1918, the same Committee was still able to affirm: “Onitsha Grammar School scheme still had E.C. support.” Meanwhile, the memory of Archdeacon T J Dennis of the Igbo language fame, who had died on 1st August 1917, when his boat was torpedoed by Germans on his return to England on holidays, gave fillip to the resolution by the Executive Committee at its very next meeting: “(1) That a fund be opened with the object of perpetuating the memory of late Archdeacon Dennis; (2) .….The idea that commended itself to the Committee was that the fund should be used for the furtherance of education in the Mission.” 

In the end, with the approval of the Parent Committee, it was decided to dedicate the proposed secondary school to the memory of Archdeacon Dennis. The immediate reaction of the Parent Committee to the Executive Committee’s resolutions quoted above was to suggest that if the necessary funds could be raised, the Grammar School scheme might be launched under the headmastership of Mr. McKay, the West Indian. As for funds, they suggested that the Niger Mission might secure a loan from the C.M.S Building Fund. The Niger Mission, in its wisdom, turned down both suggestions. The question of installing a West Indian as principal of the proposed Grammar School was a non-starter, more so at a time when several of the missionaries (but excluding Bishop Tugwell) were “opposed to the employment of any fresh West Indians.” Rather than apply for a loan, the Secretary of the Niger Mission wrote to the Parent Committee requesting that the Onitsha Grammar School be included in the C.M.S £500,000 Thank-Offering Appeal. The request was that a mere £1,000 of this be allocated to the Grammar School fund. Again, there is no evideñce that this sum was actually ever made available to the Niger Mission. Rather the Parent Committee wrote in April 1920, urging the Executive Committee to “make an application to the Government for a grant-in-aid of the building.” For reasons discussed earlier, this suggestion was also turned down.

Being aware of the true evangelistic situation in eastern Nigeria and appraising correctly the mood of the Igbo in whose country there has developed a burgeoning “Mass Movement… associated with the demand for education,” the Niger Mission proceeded with its own plans for raising funds to execute this school project. Armed with the Executive Committee’s resolution of February 1918 (as sanctioned by the Parent Committee) calling for the opening of a fund in memory of the late Archdeacon Dennis, various Church Councils within the Mission initiated fund-raising activities from 1919. In February of that same year, the Grammar School Building and Business Committee was formally established under the chairmanship of Rev. S R Smith, Secretary of the Niger Mission. From then on, contributions and donations flowed in, regularly and generously from the various Church Councils and sundry individuals. For instance, in 1921, Onitsha District contributed «£100 and Enugwu-Ngwo District added £25 to the Onitsha Grammar School fund. On another occasion the Secretary reported the receipt of various sums amounting to £28:10/-, of which £20 had been sent in by Chief Eze-Okoli of Nnobi, for that same purpose. Not only churches in Igboland but also those under the Niger Delta Pastorate contributed generously towards the building fund. In its determination to make the Grammar School project a success, the Executive Committee decided to tap not only local but also external sources of financial support. In February 1920, while the question of the £1,000 grant from the Victory Thank-Offering Fund still hung in the balance, the Committee decided to launch “an appeal for £5,000 to be published in the Diocesan Magazine, and separately in pamphlet form.” It was further decided that William Watson, Esq., a businessman in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and editor of Western Equatorial Africa Magazine (later the Newsletter of the Niger Diocesan Association) should handle the appeal, which was aimed more directly at well-wishers in Britain. The approval of the Parent Committee having been obtained, Mr. Watson proceeded to print and launch an appeal pamphlet which carried an introductory letter by Bishop H. Tugwell. The appeal was for “funds in support of a Grammar School at Onitsha in the memory of late Archdeacon Dennis and in aid of Igbo people who (were) already helping themselves.” The estimated cost of the school and hostel was put at «£8,000. It was also pointed out that £2,500 had already been contributed or promised towards the project. That this initiative and other fund-raising activities proved successful is shown by the fact that a year later, when Rev. G. Manley, Secretary of Group III Parent Committee, visited the Niger Mission, Archdeacon Smith (the Niger Mission Secretary and Chairman of the Grammar School Building and Business Committee) was able to report as follows: “One half of the 2-storied Building is being finished at a cost of £3,000. More than £2,000 is in hand. Balance will be secured locally.” While the task of fund-raising for the project was gathering momentum from 1919 onwards, with the Church Councils guaranteeing a contribution of at least £1,000, and the chiefs- many of whom were non-Christian, but sensitive to the promise of education- promising £1,000, the Grammar School Building gnd Business Committee pressed on confidently with the problems of land lease and the building plans. With reference to the latter, the enthusiasm generated locally for the project was such that one Mr. C A A Barnes, A.M.I.C.E., a Gold Coast civil engineer then resident in Onitsha, generously offered to draw the plans of the buildings and even “to erect the buildings free of professional charges.” Needless to say, the offer was gratefully accepted and it was basically his plan of the building which was reproduced in the Watson appeal pamphlet of 1921, and which would later take concrete shape in the red-brick storied building which subsequently fascinated multiple generations of Dengramites (a term used in reference to all DMGS students & alumni). No praise is too high for Mr. Barnes’s magnificent contribution to this enterprise. 

In their abounding enthusiasm the Building Committee proceeded to lay the foundations of the building in September 1920, in advance of the Parent Committee’s approval, arguing that they had been “obliged to make a start with the foundations because a good deal of money was contributed locally on condition that the work should be begun before January 1921.” Besides, “more money will be forth-coming when there is something to be seen.” Retrospective approval was given to the Building Committee’s initiative in this regard. Unfortunately, the initial enthusiasm and subsequent progress of the building programme could not be sustained owing to lack of funds. Work had to be suspended for about a year, but was resumed in earnest in 1922. Early in the same year, Bishop Bertram Lasbrey arrived in Onitsha to assume duties as the Bishop of the newly created Niger Diocese. He rekindled enthusiasm throughout the length and breadth of his See and was instrumental in bringing about more cordial relationships between the two parts of his diocese, viz., the Niger Archdeaconry and the Delta Archdeaconry. It was around this time that the latter made the generous donation referenced above. Sufficient progress seems to have been made in the building programme by 2nd February 1923 to warrant the laying of the Memorial Stone of the School by Col. Moorhouse, the Lieutenant Governor of Nigeria. As further evidence of the infusion of new ideas (probably by Bishop Lasbrey) into the counsel of the Niger Mission, the Executive Committee decided soon thereafter that “an appeal (should) be made to the Government for a building grant to the Dennis Memorial Grammar School”- a specific step which the Parent Committee had previously urged them to take on several occasions in the past without any success. Would that this step had been taken much earlier, not only for the sake of DMGS, but also in the interest of educational development in general! 

As work on the building was nearing completion, certain vital decisions concerning the legal status of the school were taken by the Executive Committee. As regards ownership and management, the recommendations of the Grammar School Sub-Committee were adopted, viz.: “(1) That the CMS be considered trustee for the native church until such time as a synod was formed, (2) That a committee of management be formed to consist of: (a) Four members appointed by the Executive Committee of whom the Bishop and CMS Secretary shall be ex-officio members, (b) Three members appointed by the Church Councils’ Board.”

Between July 1923 and the end of 1924, the Management Committee put finishing touches to the preparations for opening the school.

Suitable candidates were selected. The proposed syllabus was amended by the addition of necessary subjects which would enable the prospective students take the Cambridge Local Examination. Rev. E. H. Taylor was appointed Principal-designate. And so the stage was set for the opening of Dennis Memorial Grammar School, which momentous event took place on 25th January 1925. The first intake consisted of nineteen boarders and forty-six “day” students, on whom was first shed the rays of the proverbial light of a famous institution whose motto is: LUX FIAT. 

As the preceding pages have very clearly shown, Dennis Memorial Grammar School came into existence as a result of the interaction of a number of disparate forces. Among those, we have stressed the factor of missionary rivalry, the dynamics of the extant colonial situation, the evangelistic preoccupations of the C.M.S., and the insatiable demand of the Igbo for Western education. Each of these forces acting in concert with others not specifically mentioned, had at one stage or the other played a dominant role and left its mark on the eventual outcome, viz., the type and quality of the educational institution that materialized. If DMGS has since made its mark as the purveyor par excellence of literary education of an exceptionally high quality, the origins of this orientation are traceable to the circumstances of its foundation. On the other hand, the story of the foundation of DMGS is that of a great chance that was very nearly lost. As the subsequent history of the evangelistic and educational development of Igboland in particular and eastern Nigeria in general has shown, the CMS certainly lost ground, at least to the Roman Catholics, for failing to take bolder steps in their plans for educational advance. The most regrettable aspect of the whole episode was, of course, their prolonged, stubborn resistance to the acceptance of Government grants-in-aid. As a result, the gap between Igboland and, say, Yorubaland, with regard to the wide availability of secondary education was exacerbated during that period. It was this lacuna, together with the consequent gap in higher education, that the Igbo frantically tried to bridge in the 1930s and 1940s- with consequent (and, perhaps, inevitable) escalation of inter-tribal rivalries in the educational, economic and political spheres of Nigeria.

Finally, that the great chance was not lost was due partly to the vision and faith of some of the missionaries of the Niger Mission and partly- perhaps, mainly- to the indomitable will of the Igbo who were hell-bent on having literary education of the higher type. The case of D.M.G.S. epitomizes the role of local politics in the development of Western education in Nigeria.