Skip to main content

Home/ University of Johannesburg History 2A 2023/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by adonisi19

Contents contributed and discussions participated by adonisi19

adonisi19

The Reverend Charles New Nineteenth Century Missionary and Explorer in Eastern Equatori... - 1 views

  • Charles New is little-mentioned in exploration literature, yet during his short life (1840–75), this self-educated Methodist evangelist became, in August 1871, the first European to reach the snow line of Mount Kilimanjaro.
  • He was a vocal opponent of the slave trade in Britain, and for his geographical exploits was honored by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in April 1874.
  • During his years as Revd Thomas Wakefield’s equal partner at their coastal Kenya mission, they made an excursion to Southern Oromo (also known as Galla) country in eastern Kenya in 1866–67.
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • Despite his short life, New provided geographical insights about eastern Kenya and the region around Mount Kilimanjaro
  • Hildegard Binder Johnson in her seminal article on missionaries as explorers cogently provided a useful overview of the role they played in helping western society understand new and unknown places in Africa
  • New and Wakefield were equal partners at their fever-ridden Methodist mission at Ribe in Kenya
  • Ribe is located a few miles from Rabai, the site of Johann Ludwig Krapf’s mission.
  • The word “Galla” actually is the name one sees for the Southern Oromo in much of the literature as well as on maps, and will be used throughout this article.
  • New arrived in Kenya on 1 May 1863, and when he first met Thomas Wakefield, his initial, whimsical words were “Mr Wakefield, I presume.” 9 Within a short time, Krapf saw that the two young missionaries were settled at Ribe, a short distance inland from Mombasa, and long-term plans were made to travel to eastern Kenya to visit the Galla.
  • treacherous,
    • adonisi19
       
      This word means guilty of or involving betrayal and deception.
  • Finally, in October 1866, New and Wakefield, with church sanction, began their reconnaissance of Galla country, a journey that lasted little more than three months.
  • Their itinerary took them by boat northwards from Mombasa to Malindi and Mambria. After wandering inland to places in the Tana River region called Mana Mvoko, Gubisu, and Golbanti near Lake Ashaka, they journeyed east to Lamu island, from where they then sailed by dhow to Malindi (see Figure 2). They returned to Mombasa in February 1867. New and Wakefield were fortunate to survive.
  • On occasion, they almost starved.
    • adonisi19
       
      Missionaries put their lives at risk just spread the word of God this shows how dedicated they were.
  • eir shoes disintegrated, they were constantly plagued by mosquitoes, and they were endangered by flooded rivers
  • To add insult to injury, they found that the Galla had no interest in the gospel once they learned that the young missionaries could not protect them from the ever-raiding Masai. Because the evangelical results of their journey were quite disappointing, R. Elliott Kendall concluded that this visit to Galla country by the two young missionaries was “an objective which turned out to be a chimera.” 13
  • Charles New, Map of Equatorial Africa. Detail of route followed by Charles New and Thomas Wakefi eld from Mombasa to Galla Country in coastal Kenya in 1866–67. Ribe is located on this map just north of Mombasa. From Charles New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa, 3rd edn (London, 1971).
  • Another important result of this short exploration was that New came to dislike the Galla and he was convinced that they were a “forlorn hope”; thus, they would never be converted to Christianity.
  • Wakefield and Krapf did not agree with him; Wakefield attempted without success to convert the Galla right up to the time he left Africa in 1887.
  • His last effort to establish a mission at Golbanti on the Tana River ended in tragic disaster when Masai warriors (not Galla tribesmen) attacked the compound and murdered all of the European occupants.
  • New was convinced that the Galla were too recalcitrant to be converted by Christian missionaries, and, in addition, he was not at all enamored with the mission site at Ribe. He called it the “hapless Mombas mission.” He believed it was too unhealthy a place for Europeans to survive.
  • Charles New wanted to establish a mission in a more salubrious location,
  • New’s first trip to the land of the Chagga was a notable success. He established good relations with the Chagga, and he gained permission to travel almost everywhere. Clearly, this was a good place to relocate.
  • In other words, for this Christian missionary, the Chagga were ripe for evangelizing.
  • This was wishful thinking because, as it turned
  • out, New had no better success with the Chagga than he did with the Mijikenda at Ribe or with the Galla. 19
  • While at Kilimanjaro, New had some difficulties with Mangi Rindi, also known as Mandara, the powerful Chagga ruler at Moshi. New focused on Moshi because Mandara had close relations with Swahili traders from the coast. These problems with Mandara were to continue when New returned to Kilimanjaro in 1875. 2
  • On his way back to England to commence his leave in July 1872, New first sailed to the town of Victoria in the Seychelles to wait for a mail boat to take him to England. While there, he stayed at a hotel that also housed Henry Stanley as a patron. It is presumed that during their stay in the Seychelles New and Stanley discussed their dispute.
  • he was seriously ill throughout this journey, which lasted only from early December 1874 to 14 February 1875, the day he died from exhaustion and dysentery while returning to Ribe from Kilimanjaro.
  • He did not go to East Africa to be an explorer, but when he once was asked whether he wanted to be respected only for his geographical accomplishments he emphatically responded that “Let me never think of merging the missionary into the traveler.
  • Charles New was convinced that he helped alleviate human misery during his limited years of evangelizing in East Africa, even though he admitted that he preached to people whom he said “would not listen.” He was fervently opposed to slavery, yet, like most Europeans of his day, he was a benevolent racist who disparaged Africans, especially the Mijikenda tribesmen who resided in the Ribe area and whom he knew well. 31
  • Charles New’s missionary work in Kenya should not be minimized. Success as an evangelist was limited mainly because he admitted that his words fell on deaf ears; nonetheless, his activities were vital to the survival of the Methodist mission in Ribe (he is touted as being the founder of the first formal school in East Africa), and he continually worked to gain support in Britain.
adonisi19

_book_9789004319974_B9789004319974-s004-preview (2).pdf - 1 views

  • It was believed that the African Christians would be able to initiate a different approach and achieve greater success.
  • In 1844 the first two missionaries had arrived at Mombasa, Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf and his wife Rosina.
  • Two years later Krapf had been joined by another German, Johann Rebmann, who was unmarried. Later Rehmann married an English widow who was a missionary in Egypt. Others joined them from time to time, but none Iasted very long, succumbing to the diseases of the coastal area. Two other German missionaries were been posted to India after their health failed in East Africa.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Three others died. Five English missionaries returned to Britain either before reaching Kenya, or soon after their arrival. 1 Krapf hirnself left East Africa because of his health, in 1853.
  • For a nurober of years, then, they were the only missionaries in Kenya. At this stage, no other missionary society, Catho1ic or Protestant, had started work in this part of Africa.
  • In 1873 Sir Bartle Frere found only eight Christians, of whom five had been sent from Bombay. 3 Krapfs grand vision had been that the mission at Rabai, a few miles from Mombasa, would be the start of a 'chain of missions' Stretching across Africa from east to west.
  • Perhaps more significant were their journeys into the inland areas of East Africa, Rehmann into the country of the waChagga araund Mount Kilimanjaro, Krapf to the inland plains and hills of Kenya, to the land of the waKamba. Each made two major journeys inland, being the first Europeans to visit those areas. Krapf s specific purpose was to explore the land for the future founding of mission centres. On the second trip, he stated that his intention was to 'found a missionary station and thus to commence the chain of missions through Africa' . 7
  • Nevertheless, the two missionaries were the first in the field of the study of East African languages and provided a basic knowledge which other Western people could use
  • Krapf compiled a Grammar and Dictionary of the Swahili language and translated the New Testament into that language. He also published a vocabulary of six other languages. 5 Rehmann continued the linguistic work after his colleague's departure, completing dictionaries of three languages. 6
    • adonisi19
       
      I believe that they went through all of this to make sure they recruit a lot of people
  • On this journey, Krapf was travelling with a chief of the waKamba, Kivoi, whom he had met on Kivoi's trading trips to Mombasa, the W aKamba being great traders, moving up and down the path from the coast to the interior. As Krapf and Kivoi journeyed towards Mount Kenya, they were ambushed by bandits and Kivoi was killed.
  • Krapf was blamed for his death, and held prisoner. He escaped and made his way back to the coast after many hardships. He did not go on any further journeys inland.
  • There were, however, deeper reasons for the Iack of conspicuous success of the rnissionaries.
adonisi19

1581287.pdf - 1 views

  • The work of the Church Missionary Society (
  • on the East African coast by Krapf and Rebma
  • that time, the missionaries operated by permissio
  • ...87 more annotations...
  • Zanzibar, the Sultan himself being influenced by t
  • the
  • e. Although the work of the CMS was not d
  • slaves, in time the mission came to realise that the success of its
  • work depended on freed slav
  • Freed slave centres were established on the coast by the CMS with direct assistance from the British navy and consul, who delivered captured slaves to the missions' se
  • tlement
  • Prior to the establishment of freed-slave-Christianity, Missionary work on the coast had made little progre
  • Prior to the establishment of freed-slave-Christianity, M
  • s.
  • It was the diplomatic mission of Sir Bartle Frere in 1873, aimed at persuading the Sultan to put an end to the slave trade which altered the situ
  • tion
  • Before coming to East Africa, Frere had made a tentative agreement with the CMS in London regarding the establishment of a CMS centre for freed slaves on the coast.
  • Prior to the arrival of Frere, the British consul, John Kirk, had directed his attention to the establishment of such centres, but only the Holy Ghost Fathers seem to have benefited much in these early
    • adonisi19
       
      Instead of the freed-slaves benefiting from this venture, the Holy Ghost Fathers benefited much.
  • the Holy Ghost Father
  • ging. Kirk did not receive the CMS missionaries-Sparshott and Chancellor-with any special warmth, and he offered no hope of any slaves being handed over to them, unless their mission proved its ability to take care of the
  • It appears, then, that Frere's promises to the mission were not immediately fulfille
    • adonisi19
       
      What were the reasons for Frere not to immediately fulfill his promises to the mission?
  • ch failures in understanding between the CMS and the British agents over the question of ex-slave centres at the coast continued until the arrival of W. S. Price as superintendent of the mission in late 18
  • Price was lucky in that Kirk, on a visit home in late 1873, had also met with the leaders of the CMS in London, who had persuaded him to agree to co-operate with their mission in East Af
  • return to the coast, Kirk agreed to assist Price to purchase a mission centre and he also agreed to hand over to him as many ex-slaves as Price required
  • in
  • islamic factor was to become a significant is
  • tween the missions and the secular authorities at the coast. The CMS at one point, in an attempt to create harmony with the administrators and better their own position, tried to have one of their men appointed as vice-consul in Mombasa, but the Foreign Office refused.6
  • It was mainly over the issue of the missions' harbouring of runaway slaves that major clashes developed between the missions on the one hand and the British administrators and the Arabs on the oth
  • oncern. On its
  • CMS in London continued to promise the Foreigh Office
  • missionaries would obey and co-operate, but this was n
  • his strained relationship between the mission and the consul over the issue of slavery had not been resolved when the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA) started work in 1888. The situation at the coast was, however, complicated by other factors.
  • the case in the mis
  • One of these factors was the problem of
  • diction. Th
  • of Zanzibar was technically sovereign in the coastal area, although in practice, even before 1888, some of his subjects did not necessarily accept his auth
  • The British consuls represented a government which wished to facilitate the introduction of Christianity and commerce but not at any direct cost and trouble to the British taxpaye
  • . It was therefore difficult for Britain to find an easy answer to the issue of slavery, it being acceptable as an islamic ins
  • Secondly, the major centre of the CMS at Freretown, which accommodated freed slaves, was situated on the mainland just across from Mombasa.
  • exasperated
    • adonisi19
       
      This word means being intensely irritated and frustrated.
  • On the other hand, the slaves who were still in bondage in Mombasa, could easily compare their lot with that of their neighbours in the mission centres like Freretown and become envious.
  • Many of them took the risk of crossing the creek which separated the two places and tried to settle in or near the mission. The risk involved in running away seems to have been ignored by the critics of the missions who regarded them as deliberately receiving and harbouring the slave
  • Also ignored by those critics was the fact that some Arabs raided the mission centres and took many ex-slaves back into slavery, as happened once in Freretown.7
  • n East Africa was not unique in its practice of receiving such fugitives. The Church of Scotland in Blantyre, Nyasaland, had seven villages occupied by such fugitives in the 18
  • On the East coast, moreover, not all fugitives took refuge in the mission ce
  • s. There were large ex-slave communities with no mission connection at Shimba Hills, Malindi, Lamu, Juba, Fulladoyo and an estimated 5000 fugitives at B
  • The above points should be kept in mind in considering the accusation against the CMS mission for harbouring fugitives.
    • adonisi19
       
      These accusations show how missions were not welcome in Arab.
  • In 1880, the slave population near Mombasa planned a revolt against their masters. The missionaries knew of this plot but refused to warn Kirk about
  • A timely raid on the Giriama by the Maasai may have ave
  • crisis, but did not resolve the dispute
  • Streeter declared he would not prevent any fugitive settling near the mission, and made it clear that he would not allow any to be repossessed
  • In reporting the matter to the CMS, Streeter indicated that what East Africa needed was first a 'law-breaker' and then a 'law-make
  • e coast. Kirk also wrote to the Society condemning the mission for harbouring fugitives, but he indicated that the blame lay with Binns not Streeter. In the end the mission was forced to release most of the fugitives, leaving only those who had belonged to the
  • m. In 1879, about 100 Giriama slaves deserted their masters and joined the Rabai mission settlement and when their masters came to demand their return, the resident missionary, H. K. Binns, refuse
    • adonisi19
       
      Missionaries liberated some slaves.
  • We are Englishmen as well as Christian missionaries and cannot consent to fold our hands and see poor miserable wretches ill-used and put to death for no other crime than running away from savage mast
  • There was less conflict with the missions in the years 1881-2 during which time Price had rejoined the missions as superintendent, replacing Streeter, whose management, especially his method of carrying out discipline, had led the Society to concur with Kirk that he needed to be replaced
  • On arrival at the coast, Price found the problem of fugitives still rampant.
    • adonisi19
       
      The word rampant means spreading or flourishing. This means that the issue of fugitives was widespread.
  • The CMS survey of its work in 1882 concluded that the initial aim of establishing a self-supporting mission at the coast had largely failed, and that Rabai should be made the new centre instead of Freretown
  • Some progress, however, seems to have been made in that in 1878, Bishop Royston of Mauritius, on a visit to Freretown, had confirmed 54 candidates from the mission. In 1879, there were 35 baptisms in Freretown, while in 1883, Royston confirmed another 256 candidates.'1 Among those baptised and confirmed were fugitives.
    • adonisi19
       
      In this way Christianity was spreading.
  • When Price left the mission in June 1882, nothing much had changed
  • When he arrived home, he wrote to the missionaries in East Africa asking them to desist from harbouring fugitives, to cut connections with the native-initiated Fulladoyo ex-slave settlement which harboured fugitives, and to refuse them any asylum at Freretown.
  • st f
    • adonisi19
       
      to desist from means to stop doing something.
  • In East Africa, Binns agreed with Price to sever links with the Fulladoyo settlement, but he allowed many of the residents there, including fugitives, to go and settle at Rabai and Freretown. Streeter agreed with Binns on this matter, and both men decided to ignore Price's advice.
  • his was mainly due to Binns's personal disagreements with Price. Binns deprecated the manner in which Price superintended the mission single-handedly, without consulting the Freretown Finance Committee.
  • t is clear that personal disagreements between missionaries themselves made their task of maintaining a common mission policy on many issues difficult.
  • The departure of Price led to Binns's appointment as Lay Secretary and head of the mission. He immediately found himself in trouble with his colleague, C. W. Lane, whom he accused of misappropriating funds. Lane accused Binns of running the mission single-handedly, like Price before him, and most other mis-
  • sionaries sided with Lane. The situation deteriorated to the extent that Binns wanted to resign rather than work with Lane, while Lane asked for a transfer to Uganda.14 The mission was therefore much unsettled in 1883, and during this time, the influx of fugitives into mission settlements continued.
  • The Society may have thought that the appointment of a bishop for Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1884 would put matters right at the coast, but this did not happen because the first bishop, Hannington, was murdered on his way to Uganda, and his successors had so many problems to tackle in Uganda that .they had little time for the coastal stations. The situation at the coast remained unsettled until Price rejoined the mission for the third and last time in
  • By then, the company was preparing to take over the administration of the area. By then also, the policy of subsidising some missions in their work among ex-slaves was being accepted by the British government in the wake of increasing measures against slave trade and slav
  • The crucial issue of slavery was in the minds of the CMS officials when they sent Price to East Africa in
  • his ambiguity by the Society was expressed by the CMS Committee of Correspondence, which resolved in April 1888 that while the East African missionaries could fight for the just treatment of slaves by their masters, and, if possible, fight for their manumission, they could not "arrogate to themselves any authority in the matter, and are not justified in receiving runaway slaves..."16
  • The complaint laid before Mackenzie by the Arabs was that the CMS, contrary to the laws prevalent on the coast, had knowingly harboured fugitive slaves. In emphasizing their standpoint, the Arabs insisted that should the company support the CMS on this issue, they in turn would follow the example of their fellow Arabs on the German East Africa coast and break into rebellion against the company. The Arabs knew too well that neither the consul nor the company would be ready to risk such developments.
  • istianised and reoriented ex-slaves by the mission was seen as tantamount to breaking up a Christian church.
  • Prior to the arrival of Mackenzie, Admiral Freemantle had reported the presence of 900 fugitives at Rabai, but this had been denied by the missionaries, Jones of Rabai and A. G. Smith of Freretown. When Mackenzie decided to search the stations, Jones agreed that there were fugitives but that: When Mr. Mackenzie and General Mathews bring the Arabs to find their slaves, I shall prove myself a useless servant. I will not and I cannot hand over those poor souls to their cruel and unmerciful masters, after I have been preaching to them the sweet liberty of my Lord and Saviour ... Somebody else will have to do that wicked work ...21
  • The whole transaction was described later by Tucker as the most "memorable act of the Company during its seven years tenure of supreme authority in East Africa"; and by Eugene Stock, the CMS historian, as "this great act of wise policy." Stock added that Buxton, a member of both the CMS and the company, paid ? 1200 towards the compensation, because it was felt that the CMS ought 219 This
  • commercial, and it required peaceful conditions at the coast. The company had to win the friendship of the Arabs who were the backbone of the economy. Both the company and the missionaries relied heavily on them for their caravans and their porters
    • adonisi19
       
      Arabs were in charge of the economy.
  • When he arrived, Mackenzie was of the opinion that the missionaries, "by some misguided action (had) raised such a universally bitter feeling that they had not only jeopardized their own existence but that of Europeans throughout the country."23 The only option he found open to him was to convince the Arabs to consider their slaves as lost property, and to accept compensation for them at a rate of ?25 per slave. The Arabs agreed to grant freedom certificates to the slave
  • to bear part of the co
  • Only five days after the emancipation, Mackenzie accused the missionaries of deliberately disobeying orders and continuing to harbour fugitives.
  • It is clear that the missionaries, unlike the company officials, were not ready to co-operate in a programme that accepted slavery.
  • Price left the mission for the last time in March 1889, only three months after the Rabai incid
  • It was the company officials who helped the CMS missionaries to start stations in areas that had previously proved too precarious for the missionaries, such as J
  • The company and the mission cooperated in tackling transport problems and other essential services. On the whole, however, the presence of the company proved more of a disadvantage to the miss
  • The missionaries felt, for example, that the proximity of company centres to mission stations often led to the backsliding of many adherents after their employment by the co
  • o, the ability of the company to pay higher wages than the mission for clerical work led to the departure of many mission agents. In Freretown, all but one of the mission agents took jobs with the comp
  • . Finally, the missionaries detested the character of many of the company officials, whose behaviour was far from Christian.
  • time in
  • The same instructions had been given to Price before, and were repeated to all the other missionaries
  • The Society desired that harmony be maintained with the company officials, but not to the extent of fostering an identity between the two in the eyes of the natives, who were mainly fugitives, freed slaves or slaves. Further, the Society accepted that slavery was evil and should be abolished, but on the other hand the Society did not wish its missionaries to be entangled in the coastal politics of slavery
  • The missionaries' position was also complicated by the fact that they themselves differed to some extent with regard to slavery, not forgetting their individual conflicts with each oth
  • The concern of the missionaries was with the freed and bondaged slaves upon whom the future of their work depended; the concern of the company was peace and order upon which a viable economic growth depended, based upon slavery. The concerns of the mission and of the company, therefore, conflicted radically with regard to the issue of slavery, and it is this issue which more than anything else dominated their relationship.
adonisi19

missionaryII.jpg (420×300) - 7 views

  •  
    The image shows Chritian Missionaries in Africa in the 1800s, in front of a church that they built to educate natives about the word of God.
adonisi19

December 6, 1869 - Document - Nineteenth Century Collections Online - 4 views

  •  
    This letter is written by Edward Hutchinson in 30 November 1869, directed by the Committee of the Church Missionary Society to inform your Lordship about the measure they had in contemplation for the improvement of the condition of slaves captured by Her Majesty's cruisers on the East Coast of Africa. The attention of the Committee was first drawn to the East African Slave Trade in 1867 by the Right Rev. Bishop Ryan (then Bishop of Mauritius) who urged the Committee to take measures to protect East African slaves. The Committee praised the success of the Society's effort to liberate slaves in Sierra Leone during the Atlantic Slave Trade. They also praised the supply of native Ministers and Agents for the Society's Missions in various heathen tribes adjoining the colony. Nearly 120 different tribes of natives were turned into good assembling under the influence of Christian training and civilization. The Committee are encouraged to commence a Mission at the depot of liberated slaves in the Seychelles Islands for the benefit of liberated slaves. The Mission would be chiefly of an educational character. The Committee encouraged by this opinion have therefore instructed the Rev. T. H. Sparshott one of their Missionaries at present stationed at Mombasa on the East Coast of Africa to proceed to Mahe and they authorized him to secure suitable premises with land attached for agricultural purposes, for beginning a school and commencing spiritual ministrations among the liberated Africans.
1 - 2 of 2
Showing 20 items per page