Andrew Foster

Andrew Jackson Foster (1925–1987) was an American pioneer of deaf education in several countries in Africa. In 1954, he became the first Deaf African American to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University, the American university for the Deaf, and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. He earned a second master's degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College (now Seattle Pacific University), also in education. He founded Christian Mission for the Deaf African in 1956 and set out for Accra, Ghana, where he established the first school for the deaf in West Africa.

Early life and education Andrew Foster was born on June 27, 1925, in the small mining town of Ensley, Alabama. In 1936, when Andrew was about 11 years old, both he and his brother contracted spinal meningitis and subsequently became deaf. Following this, Foster was sent to the Alabama School for Colored Deaf in Talladega, where he received up to a sixth grade education. This was largely due to racial segregation still being in effect in Alabama, with Jim Crow laws established that did not allow African Americans to receive more than a sixth grade education. In order to continue his education, Foster moved to Flint, Michigan in 1942, where he lived with his aunt and attended the Michigan School for the Deaf where was able to receive an eighth grade education. He took his high school courses through American Correspondence School while also working in auto factories and restaurants, and attending Detroit Institute of Commerce, where he learned bookkeeping and business administration.

After the war ended, Foster was encouraged by Eric Malzkuhn, a professor at Gallaudet University, to continue his education by applying there.

Contributions to Deaf education in Africa

Foster had felt a calling to be a missionary since he heard a Jamaican missionary at a Sunday school class at Bethany Pembroke, his aunt's church, when he lived with her in Flint, MI. During his time at Gallaudet, he often visited Washington D.C.'s inner-city neighborhoods, where he would seek out young deaf African American children to serve as a prominent role model in their lives. He began his work in 1956 by convincing school officials to let him use their classrooms after hours to teach the deaf.

After going on a series of speaking tours around America to raise funds for his cause, Foster arrived in the capital of newly independent Ghana in 1957. Prior to Foster's mission, there were no records of any programs, schools or teachers for deaf Ghanaians—there was not even a record of a formal signed language before he arrived, although there seem to have been village sign languages. In his initial missionary trip, Foster discovered that the treatment of deaf people in Ghanaian culture (as with disability in general) was so oppressive that parents often hid their deaf children at home or abandoned them altogether. He found a public school in Accra willing to allow him to use their facility after hours, and after some months 53 deaf people joined Foster's makeshift program. This became the Ghana Mission School for the Deaf, the first school for the deaf in West Africa. Foster acted as its director until 1965, expanding the size of the school and training teachers. By the end of Foster's time directing this school, there were 113 students in attendance, with a waiting list of over 300. As the deaf began to become literate, Foster would supplement their education with trade skills and the Gospel. Foster also convinced existing churches and missions to expand their ministry to include the deaf.

The Ghana Mission School for the Deaf was not the only school Foster established. In 1960, the Ibadan Mission School for the Deaf, the first Deaf school in Nigeria, was established, followed by two other schools in Enugu and Kaduna. Overall, Foster established 32 churches and mission schools for the Deaf in thirteen nations across Africa. Specifically, he was able to establish schools in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Chad, Senegal, Benin Republic, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Democratic Republic, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Gabon. He established churches for the Deaf in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Congo and Guinea. He also established a training center in Ghana, which eliminated the need to train teachers overseas and instead promoted local staffing of schools for the Deaf.

Personal life and death In 1961, Foster married Berta Zuther, who was also deaf. The couple had met at the Third World Congress of the Deaf in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1959. Together, they raised five children—Andrew, John, Tim, Dan, and Faith in Ibadan, Nigeria. Foster continued doing fundraising and speaking tours, as well as missionary work, around the world in the latter half of his life. In addition, he established and taught teacher-training courses in both English and French in several countries worldwide. 2004 - Gallaudet University dedicated an auditorium in Andrew Foster's name, calling him the "Father of Deaf Education in Africa".

Media Deaf Mosaic segment - Episode #404 of the Gallaudet University-produced Deaf Mosaic had a tribute to Andrew Foster. Described and Captioned Media Program registration required, physical loan for classroom setting. Gallaudet University Video Library Catalog, online viewing available.