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Top 10 Sensational Facts about Andrew Foster

Also known as the “Father of Deaf Education in Africa”, Andrew Foster was a pioneer deaf educator and missionary abroad. Foster was born on June 27, 1925, in the Enslee area of ​​Birmingham, Alabama, the oldest of four children. His father, Wiley Foster, was a World War I veteran and worked as a coal miner, and his mother, Welyn, was a homemaker.

At the age of 11, he and his younger brother Edward contracted spinal meningitis in 1936 and became permanently deaf. Because of his disability, he attended the Alabama Colored School for the Deaf because the school did not offer a high school program.

Foster moved to Detroit at the age of 17 to find a better job to live with her aunt. After moving, he accepted a call to the Christian life by attending Bethany Pembroke Church.

We can as well delve in and find more facts about him 

1. Fosters Education journey  

Photo by Jared Craig  on

After living in Detroit for a while, Foster decided to continue his education. In 1950 he graduated with honors in Accounting and Business Administration from the Detroit College of Commerce. He also earned a high school diploma through correspondence school and a four-year congressional scholarship to Gallaudet College, a government-funded institution established to educate the deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens of America.

In 1954, Foster received a bachelor’s degree in education from Gallaudet, becoming the first African-American to do so at the university. A year later, he received a master’s degree in deaf education from Michigan State Teachers College, now Eastern Michigan University, and a second bachelor’s degree in Christian missions from Seattle Pacific University in 1956.

2. Foster founded the African Deaf Christian Mission

That same year 1956, Foster founded the African Deaf Christian Mission, later called the Deaf Christian Mission. Soon after, he went to Accra, Ghana, and founded the Accra Missionary School for the Deaf in Accra, Ghana.

This is the first school in Africa. Over the next 30 years, with the help of local schools and churches, we established 31 schools for the deaf in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Togo. , Zaire, Gabon, Congo, Nigeria, Kenya.

He has also developed training programs for people working with the deaf in Ethiopia, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. He presented the concept of total communication using both American Sign Language and Native Sign Language.

3. Foster tied the knot in 1961 

Gold wedding bands. Photo by Sandy Millar on

In 1961, Foster married German deaf-mute Bertha Suter, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. He also assisted several deaf students attending Gallaudet College. During his lifetime he received many awards and prizes. He received an honorary doctorate from his Gallaudet in 1970. Eastern Michigan University Alumni Honor Award. Seattle University Alumni Medallion 1982.

4. His early childhood 

Photo by David Lundgren  on

Foster was born on June 27, 1925, in Annesley, Alabama. When he was 11 years old, he and his brother contracted spinal meningitis and became deaf. During Foster’s childhood, African-American education was limited to the sixth grade.

Foster attended the Alabama School for the Colored Deaf in Talladega because segregation was still in force. To further his education, he moved with his aunt to Flint, Michigan, when he was 17, and entered the eighth grade at the Michigan State School for the Deaf. Foster then worked in car factories and restaurants in Chicago and Detroit while he took evening and correspondence courses.  

5. Bible verse that hit home to Foster

Photo by Aaron Burden  on

Foster’s favorite passage is Isaiah 29:18. “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book.” He realized that in order for a deaf person to receive Christ, they must first understand and read the Bible.

Foster tried to teach the deaf to draw, read and write. He used the concept of holistic communication where learners use all the resources they need to teach. General communication includes American and Native American Sign Language, fingerspelling, writing, phonics reading, and visual aids. In addition to teaching students, Foster educated teachers, communities, and governments about the needs of the deaf.

6. Awards he has achieved 

Andrew Foster won many awards in his lifetime. He received the “Person of the Year” award from Alpha He Sigma He Pi in 1962, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Gallaudet in 1970. In 1975 he received the Edward Miner Gallaudet Award from the Gallaudet College Alumni Association (GCAA). In 1980 he received an honorary alumni award from Eastern Michigan University. In 1982 he received the Seattle University Alumni Medallion.

7.Why Africa, we all wonder?

Sunset tree , sahara Africa. Photo by Damian Patkowski on

Foster’s reason for focusing on Africa is unclear. Despite the disappointment of his contemporaries and his lack of resources, in 1956 he founded a Christian Mission for the deaf in Africa. Some sources suggest that his strong Christian faith led him to missionary work.

Others speak of his childhood desire to visit Africa and his belief in Pan-Africanism. But an important factor in Foster’s motivation was his awareness of the discrimination and lack of opportunity faced by deaf Africans, despite the obstacles he faced as a deaf black man in the United States. 

In the 19th century, Western missionaries established educational centers for the deaf in sub-Saharan Africa. However, their low numbers and location in the center of the city made them difficult to reach for the scattered villagers.

Missionaries also modeled their teaching on the methods used in their own countries. Students were encouraged to communicate verbally rather than through gestures, as many students were hindered by a misunderstanding of the importance of tone in many African languages ​​compared to European languages.

Few understood the cultural significance of the various languages ​​spoken in African countries, as a result of division and colonial rule. When a child learns another language at school rather than at home, it only separates them from their families.

9.Fosters unfortunate Death 

On December 3, 1987, the plane carrying Foster and 11 passengers crashed in Kenya. None survived. He was buried with the other passengers at the crash site. Foster founded more deaf schools than anyone in the history of deaf education. National Advocate for Black Deaf People founded the Andrew Foster Charitable Foundation in 2004.

Gallaudet also created a merit-based Andrew Foster Doctoral Scholarship for students and renamed its auditorium Andrew Foster His Auditorium. The Christian Mission for the Deaf continues Foster’s dream of pursuing deaf education in Africa. Andrew Foster’s legacy lives on in the hundreds of deaf children who were educated and brought into society by his extraordinary efforts.