Title: 75 Years of Mission and Development in Nandom
Description: Nandom is in Northern Ghana. The area was evangelized by Catholic Missionaries known as the Missionaries of Africa beginning from around 1932. A mission post was erected there in 1933, the St. Theresa's Parish. In 2008 St. Theresa's Parish, Nandom, founded by the missionaries, celebrated 75 years of evangelization, leading to the elevation, by Pope Benedict XIV of the architechturally unique all-stone church (206ft by 60ft) to the status of a Minor Basilica. The book celebrates 75 years of missionary work and the remarkable advancement of the people of Nandom in all respects, educationally, socially and religiously - from a population that was illiterate and underdeveloped to one that now boasts of a formidable elite, a vibrant and self-sustaining and self-ministering local church - a church which produced the late Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery, and many academics, etc., who now serve in various capacities all over Ghana. The book thus celebrates human achievement through the transforming work of philanthropic and convinced Christian missionaries. It highlights also the cultural values of the Dagara (the people who inhabit the area) which contributed greatly to the highly successful implanation of the Christian religion in Nandom and its environs.
Places: Nandon, Jirapa, Wa, Dissin, Daano, Daffiema
People: Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery, Fr. Remigius McCoy, Bro. Basilide Koot, Fr. Joseph Larocchelle, Fr. Eugene Coutu, Fr. Alfred Richard, Msgr. Francis Baghr
Time periods: 2008-2009