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CRL Resources on 19th-Century Christian Missionary Work in Africa | CRL - 4 views

www.crl.edu/6696

Nonjabulo xaba 222145034'' History 2A

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  • Missionary work in central and southern Africa began in the early 19th century, before Europeans had colonized those regions. Missionaries were among the earliest explorers of central and southern Africa. The London Missionary Society sent David Livingstone to South Africa in 1840, where he became one of the first Europeans to traverse the continent. When Europeans began to colonize central and southern Africa toward the end of the century, international coordination featured prominently in both missionary and colonial projects.
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Early in the 19th century, before Europeans had colonized those areas, missionary work was started in central and southern Africa. The earliest travelers to central and southern Africa were missionaries. David Livingstone was one of the first Europeans to cross the continent when the London Missionary Society despatched him to South Africa in 1840. International coordination played a significant role in missionary and colonial initiatives when Europeans started to occupy central and southern Africa around the turn of the century.
  • Missionary work in central and southern Africa began in the early 19th century, before Europeans had colonized those regions. Missionaries were among the earliest explorers of central and southern Africa. The London Missionary Society sent David Livingstone to South Africa in 1840, where he became one of the first Europeans to traverse the continent. When Europeans began to colonize central and southern Africa toward the end of the century, international coordination featured prominently in both missionary and colonial projects.
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Early in the 19th century, before Europeans had colonized those areas, missionary work was started in central and southern Africa. The earliest travelers to central and southern Africa were missionaries. David Livingstone was one of the first Europeans to cross the continent when the London Missionary Society despatched him to South Africa in 1840. International coordination played a significant role in missionary and colonial initiatives when Europeans started to occupy central and southern Africa around the turn of the century.
nonjabulorsxabar

Nyasa Leaders, Christianity and African Internationalism in 1920s Johannesburg.pdf - 1 views

diigo.com/0set6e

Nonjabulo xaba 222145034'' History 2A

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  • Over the decade of the 1920s, four Christian men from colonial Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) stood at the forefront of urban South African society, reimagining Africa’s past and future in cosmopolitan, internationalist terms. They each, however, envisaged very different transformational processes and very different new dispensations. These differences were, above all, grounded in their divergent Christian beliefs. Clements Kadalie and George Wellington Kampara on the one hand were both Ethiopianist Christians, who believed that humanity had an obligation to usher in a ‘truly’ Christian and democratic society in the here and now. If necessary, this would mean toppling secular colonial authorities. On the other hand, John G. Phillips and J.R. Albert Ankhoma, as Zionist and Pentecostal Christians, believed that earthly society was fundamentally doomed until Christ’s eventual return. They closely aligned themselves with Britain’s ‘god-sanctioned’ imperial project in their pursuit of spiritual self-perfection and theocratic rule.
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Four Christian men from Nyasaland in the 1920s reimagined Africa's past and future in cosmopolitan terms, but each had divergent Christian beliefs. Clements Kadalie and GeorgeWellington Kampara believed humanity had an obligation to create a Christian and democratic society, while John G. Phillips and J.R. Albert Ankhoma believed earthly society was doomed until Christ's return
  • themselves within 1920s Johannesburg, but their Christian-informed beliefs meant their different visions of the future were diametrically opposed. While Kampara no doubt followed UNIA doctrine to herald Marcus Garvey as his modern-day Moses, anticipating that, either by boat or plane, ‘the Americans were coming!’, Ankhoma declared that the leader of his ‘British Israeli’ Pentecostal church was the world’s ‘Moses of the day’. 4 R ejecting Pentecostalism and Garveyism, Kadalie in contrast believed ‘that the salvation of the Africans in this country will be brought about through their own sweat and labour’. Adopting the Swahili name for Moses as his pen-name, he became Clements ‘Musa’ Kadalie. 5 Working through the intellectual biographies of these Nyasa men, this article demonstrates that whereas Phillips and Ankhoma worked within, and endorsed, existing logics of empire because of their Christian beliefs, Kampara and Kadalie rejected ‘ethnic’ and ‘nativist’ national identities to position themselves at the forefront of a future ‘New Africa’. In many ways, it is innately conservative to frame these men as ‘Nyasas’. All four men were born in the state that became Malawi in 1964, and each contested colonial categories in important ways. 6 Despite their common Tonga parentage, however, being a Nyasa was crucial to how these men were understood in 1920s Johannesburg. And, more importantly, it was central to how they consolidated and radically transcended state-based modes of identification. Each brief biography sets out who these Nyasas were, how they reimagined Africa’s past to integrate the continent within world history, and how their differing understandings of the international and the imperial influenced their politics of the future. Central Africans have generally been marginalised in the historiographies of black South African nationalism and black internationalism.
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      The four Nyasa men, Kampara, Ankhoma, and Kadalie, were born in Malawi in 1964 and contested colonial categories in important ways. Despite their common Tonga parentage, being a Nyasa was crucial to how these men were understood in 1920s Johannesburg and how they consolidated and transcended state-based modes of identification. Their differing understandings of the international and imperial influenced their politics of the future. Central Africans have been marginalised in historiographies of black South African nationalism and black internationalism.
  • A New Babylon at the forefront of modernity in Southern Africa, 1920s Johannesburg was a motley metropolis of international immigrants and transnational Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu networks. 8 Large numbers of Afrikaners, Zulu, Xhosa, Eastern European Jews, Britons, Basotho, Americans, Mozambicans, Chinese and Indians were already living and working in the city from the 1890s, and by the mid1920s mission-educated Nyasas were increasingly prominent as clerks, medicine men and domestic servants. In 1927, the Chamber of Mines-sponsored newspaper Umteteli wa Bantu complained that Nyasas had monopolised the city’s domestic service industry – a lucrative sector previously dominated by Zulu and Pedi. 9 In addition to well-known Nyasa leaders in black trade unions, Garveyite associations, and Ethiopianist, Zionist and Pentecostal churches, ‘[a]ll adherents’ of Johannesburg’s Watch Tower movement were also ‘from Nyasaland, Rhodesia and Northern Transvaal’– though, in marked contrast to the movement in Central Africa, the church in urban South Africa did little to trouble government officials. 10
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Johannesburg was a city of international immigrants and transnational Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu networks, with mission-educated Nyasas increasingly prominent as clerks, medicine men and domestic servants. All adherents of Johannesburg's Watch Tower movement were from Nyasaland, Rhodesia and Northern Transvaal.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Pentecostal missionaries – directly influenced both by Zion City and the 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles – also moved into Johannesburg during the first decade of the twentieth century, travelling through existing circuits of Ethiopianism, Zionism and older forms of nonconformity. They first formed the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and, later, established branches of the ‘British Israeli’-influenced Apostolic Faith Church (AFC). 15 Based out of the Central Tabernacle in Bree Street, Johannesburg, from September 1908 and replicating the initial multi-racial and inter-denominational character of the Azusa Street Revival, the Pentecostal AFM looked to renew the entire Christian church, building on revivals within South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church and attracting considerable numbers of Zionist converts through numerous divine healings, as well as other ‘gifts of the spirit’, such as speaking in tongues and rainmaking. During the 1920s, biblical imagery infused the street politics of ICU leaders, Communist revolutionaries, Garveyites and radical members of the ANC – as well Pentecostal and Zionist street preachers – who all promised different versions of a millennial new age. 16 All four Nyasa men were thus part of a broader shift in the religious and political landscape of Johannesburg, as South Africa became markedly more Christian, and black South African Christians became increasingly fragmented between mainline, Ethiopianist, Nazarite, Pentecostal and Zionist strands of Christianity. While in 1921 only 32% of rural black South Africans defined themselves as Christian and only 50,000 of some 1,300,000
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Pentecostal missionaries moved into Johannesburg during the first decade of the twentieth century, forming the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and later the Apostolic Faith Church (AFC). They sought to renew the Christian church and attract Zionist converts through divine healings and other 'gifts of the spirit'. During the 1920s, biblical imagery infused the street politics of ICU leaders, Communist revolutionaries, Garveyites and radical members of the ANC.
  • By contrast, Beinart and Bundy have presented Kadalie, only a year later, in the aftermath of the original ICU’s fragmentation, as espousing a radical Afrocentric Christianity aligned with Ethiopianist churches. 51 While Kadalie was criticised for being erratic and anti-Christian by his numerous opponents, his relationship with Christianity points to very real tensions and contradictions in 1920s Southern Africa. He was certainly very critical of white missionaries, Pentecostal Christians, and ‘pie-in-the-sky’ theology, but this did not amount to agnosticism or outright atheism. In the same Lovedale speech cited above, Kadalie struck out at those accusing the ICU ‘of being anti-religious. On what facts this charge is based I do not even pretend to know’, and he consistently employed biblical images and motifs in his rhetoric – even going as far as to say that ‘I stood for God the Father, C for God the Son, and U for God the Holy Ghost’. 52 Like many contemporary Ethiopianist Christians, Kadalie continued to follow Presbyterian traditions at the same time as arguing for the existence of black angels and against the hypocrisy of white missionaries. Seeing Christianity as important means of recruiting members, he later regretted that given ‘the great mass of the Africans are religiously minded [...] many of our members did not approve of the behaviour of the secretaries’. 53
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Kadalie was a radical Afrocentric Christian aligned with Ethiopianist churches in 1920s Southern Africa. He was critical of white missionaries, Pentecostal Christians, and 'pie-in-the-sky' theology, but this did not amount to agnosticism or outright atheism. He continued to follow Presbyterian traditions while arguing for the existence of black angels.
nonjabulorsxabar

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND INDEPENDENT AFRICAN CHIEFDOMS IN SOUTH AFRICA IN THE 19TH CENTUR... - 1 views

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Nonjabulo xaba 222145034'' History 2A

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  • Missionary activity amongst the Bantu-speaking people in South Africa started at the beginning of the 19th century. Today, according to census returns, 70%of the African population describe themselves as Christians. There was, however, a good deal of initial resistance to Christianisation on the part of independent African chiefs and their people. It is true that the chiefs generally welcomed missionaries; but this was because of their usefulness in such secular spheres as diplomacy and technology. Their religious and moral teachings necessarily involved an attack on African customs, and so were perceived as subversive of the social order and of chiefl
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Missionary activity among the Bantu-speaking people in South Africa began in the 19th century, but initially faced resistance from independent African chiefs due to their religious and moral teachings.
  • Tswana and Zulu fields.s The first missionary society to establish stations beyond the borders of the Cape Colony was the London Missionary Society (L.M.S.), which commenced operations in 1799. It was followed by the Wesley an Methodist Missionary Society, the Glasgow Missionary Society; and missionaries from France, Germany, Am
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Missionary societies established stations in Tswana and Zulu fields.
  • In many ways the teachings of the missionaries militated against not only the social stability of the tribe, but the power of the chief. The attack on pagan rainmaking ceremonies had this tendency, for the chief was usually the principal rainmaker of the chiefdom, and thus enjoyed a religious reinforcement to his political authority, which, however, would be endangered if his people began to believe the missionaries. Similarly 'smelling-ouť was used as a political weapon against over-mighty subjects. The chief was the richest man of the tribe, and should have the greatest number of wives. Marriage was used by chiefs for diplomatic purposes, and for political purposes within the chiefdom - the chief of the Ngwato, for example, married the daughters of hisheadmen in order to bind the latter more closely to him.30 All this was threatened by the Christian attack on polygyny.
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      The missionaries' teachings threatened the social stability of the tribe and the power of the chief, such as the attack on pagan rainmaking ceremonies and the use of'smelling-ou' as a weapon against over-mighty subjects.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • It is not surprising that - or so Disraeli said - Bishop Colenso was converted by the Zulus; and one can perhaps sympathise with an American missionary in Natal who wrote: 'Native Christians when conversing upon religious topics are I think too apt to let the habit and love of discussion interfere with the simple love to know the truth'.43 In Zululand, which had a strong centralized government, antiChristian measures were not so indirect. By the second half of the 1870s it appears to have been simply illegal for a Zulu to become a Christian. Mnyamana, Cetshwayo's principal adviser, put the Zulu case against missionaries and their work succinctly in a conversation with Frederick Fynney, a British official who visited Zululand in June 1877:
    • nonjabulorsxabar
      nonjabulorsxabar on 26 Apr 23
       
      Bishop Colenso was converted by the Zulus, and it was illegal for a Zulu to become a Christian in Zululand by the second half of the 1870s.
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