Teaching in Africa
Deaf Americans see Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet as the founders of deaf education in the U.S., and many deaf Africans look to Andrew Foster in the same way. Before his arrival in Africa in 1957, the continent’s only schools for deaf children were in the politically troubled north and south. In 30 years, Foster established 32 mission schools in countries across central Africa. Having raised funds in Europe, Foster established his first school in Ghana. There and elsewhere, his work was met with skepticism from authorities who questioned whether deaf children could be educated. Undeterred, Foster persisted in his work the rest of his life, in Africa as well as South America and the Caribbean.