WHILE the age profile of the Orange Order in Ulster increases, the controversial movement is enjoying a revival among young people in Africa.

A University of Ulster study has found that membership of Orange lodges in West Africa is increasing dramatically as people seek an outlet to the western world and biblical study.

Rachel Naylor, a sociologist who spent three months doing field research, discovered more than 300 junior Orange members in Togo and Ghana. This represents a resurgence from the 1980s when the institution nearly disappeared in Africa.

Naylor said: “In my survey, which covered members of all ages in both countries, 37% stated that the main reason they joined the Orange Order was to learn more about the Bible.

“It also became clear that many had an interest in Orangeism because they have an international outlook. Young people had not developed personal links with young Orange members abroad but expressed the desire to make such links through penpal friendships.”

Lodges in Australia are funding scholarships for young members in Ghana.

Although a large number of junior lodges, which cater for children between the ages of seven to 16, continue to operate in Northern Ireland, internal surveys indicate an increasingly rural and ageing membership among the order’s 100,000 members.

A spokesman said: “We did a survey in 2002 and numbers are almost the same as in 1902.

“The order is going through a period of change. The membership has been getting older, largely because of the changing outlook of society. The order is now the largest Protestant community organisation concerned with cultural matters and less clearly politically tied in these increasing secular times.”

International Orangeism has a long history. Lodges were established by Irish and Scottish immigrants in Canada, Australia, America, South Africa and New Zealand. In Canada the institution was particularly strong, even having native Indian Mohawk lodges. In recent years there has been interest expressed in Poland and Argentina.

As with their Northern Irish counterparts, the African lodges’ most important day is July 12, when they celebrate King William’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 with a church service and parades.

The marches resemble those of their Ulster brethren, with banners donated from abroad. Most members speak English but some in Togo conduct business in French, and others in Ewe, a local language.

With many Orange members having relatives who are Catholic or other religions, there is no social conflict.

Naylor’s study found little appetite for Ulster politics among African members.

She said: “There is really a very limited knowledge of the Northern Ireland political situation, although members would be aware that there have been problems with violence in the past. Generally, the issue is understood as a religious conflict, not a political one.”

The first Orange lodge in West Africa was founded in Nigeria at at the end of the 19th century. The order spread to neighbouring Togo at the start of the first world war, apparently through contact with British regiments.

At the end of the war, RE Sharley, a Ghanaian post office worker, formed his own lodge, Pride of Keta, in Ghana.

While the Orange Order in Nigeria died out in the early 1960s, those in Ghana and Togo thrived. By the beginning of the 1980s the Ghana Orange Lodge had more than 1,000 members and over 25 branches.

However the lodges came under pressure after Jerry Rawlings, a renegade airforce lieutenant, seized power in a 1981 coup. Rawlings’ regime denounced lodges as secretive and seditious. Membership was proscribed for civil servants, and parades were banned.

By 1988, Ghana lodges had resumed meetings in church and school halls and the Orangemen resumed their parades. By the 1990s, the Ghana lodges’ membership was down to about 300 but now it is growing.

The issues raised by Naylor’s study are to form an element of a new sociology course at the University of Ulster in the next academic year.

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