The
Missionaries
The
Role of Missionaries
"Without doubt it is a far more costly thing to
kill the (indigenous population) than to Christianise them." (Warneck
1888)
European missionaries to southern Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries played a strangely ambiguous role in the history and affairs
of the region. On the one hand they were driven by a strong desire
to genuinely serve humanity and bring about material and social changes
which would improve its quality of life. On the other hand they were
possessed of a moral self-righteousness which led them to make hasty
and uninformed judgements upon indigenous mores, norms and values they
were scarcely equipped to understand. The first manifested itself in
an involvement in local agriculture, irrigation and technology which,
being environmental and hence independent of larger cultural issues,
found a small measure of acceptance in rural society. The second sought
to impose an alien morality and work ethos upon the local people without
realising that these undermined their most basic social and cultural
tenets and were therefore largely resisted. The dichotomy of this approach
was not something which found separate expression in different individuals
but was often incorporated within the same person. Casalis wrote at
Thaba Bosiu, Lesotho, in about 1833, that:
"... we said that, wishing to provide entirely for our own subsistence,
we must have a site where we could build houses and cultivate the ground
according to our own ideas and habits. Our buildings and plantations
would also serve as a model for the Basutos, whom we regretted to see
dwelling in huts, and living in a manner so precarious and so little
worthy of the intelligence with which they were gifted." (1889)
It is not for nothing that the statue of Livingstone in Edinburgh represents
the missionary-traveller with a Bible in one hand and the other resting
upon an axe (Warneck 1888). Ironically enough, in the long run it was
found that changes wrought by missionaries at a practical and economic
level did more to further their spiritual cause than any amount of moralistic
sermonising ever did from the pulpit. Local acceptance of early missionaries
in the eastern Cape hinged more upon their technological ability to introduce
furrow irrigation into an otherwise drought-stricken land than upon their
Christian teachings (Williams 1959). This was also borne out by the experiences
of Moffatt in the northern Cape.
The ability
of missionaries to make converts and hold them on their stations also
seems to have been somewhat in doubt. Etherington (1977)
stated that only 12% of people on mission settlements were there for "spiritual" reasons.
The majority sought either material advantage or psychological security.
Also, although some groups such as the Basotho and the Tswana openly
welcomed missionaries, others like the Pedi, the Zulu and the Pondo vehemently
rejected their presence as a matter of national policy. Despite Campbell's
claim that:
"Missionary stations are surrounded by moral atmospheres, or have
a moral and civilizing influence to a considerable distance around, beyond
which it is extremely hazardous for white men to go." (1815)
they had strong objections to a missionary presence and often took appropriate
action. Whole populations moved away from stations; individuals suspected
of Christian leanings were administered magic and emetics; and converts
were ostracized and quarantined to missionary settlements, thus being
effectively purged from the group's polity and its social functions.
Despite the continuing spread of a missionary presence into southern
Africa during the 19th Century, by the time of the Anglo-Zulu conflict
of 1879 very few converts had been won over to Christianity (Etherington
1977).
Success in making converts also seems to have had little to do with
the liberality, or otherwise, of missionary methods. Etherington (1977)states
that:
"Colenso advertised his willingness to tolerate polygamy and the
exchange of bride wealth but made only a handful of converts during a
long missionary career. Americans who took a hard line on these issues
did considerably better. Berlin and Hermannsburg missionaries who minimized
liturgical spectacles won adherents while the Oblates who staged impressive
ceremonies failed utterly. Itinerant preaching proved to be no more effective
than sedentary station work." (1977)
Ultimately the success of the missionaries in southern Africa appears
to have hinged upon their ability to provide viable agricultural land
for indigenous settlement at a time when Black-owned land was being increasingly
alienated for white usufruct. Residence on mission lands however had
its price. Tyler (1891) reported in 1891 that the church at Nqumba, Natal,
had adopted, among several others, the following rules:
- No
polygamist shall be allowed to become a member of this church.
- He
who sells his daughter or sister treats her like a cow, and cannot
be received into this church.
- No
member of this church shall be permitted to attend a wedding if beer
is drunk there, although he may have been invited to it.
- No
member of this church is allowed to go where there is slaughtering
for the departed spirits."
This was more
or less in line with the "moral" stances taken
by most missionary societies, who generally held that:
"Their bottomless superstitions, their vile habits and heathen
customs - their system of polygamy and witchcraft - their incessant beer-drinks
and heathen dances which are attended by unspeakable abominations - these
present a terrible barrier to the spread of Christianity and civilization." (Wilkinson
1898)
The degree
to which these "vile habits" had been abolished
from local communities was commonly held by missionaries to be a measure
of their success in the field. By the 1880s however they could not have
countenanced the fruits of their labours with too much joy. The United
Missionary Conference reports for 1884 consistently show that all these
practices were still prevalent throughout southern Africa despite a missionary
presence in some areas dating back over four generations (United Missionary
Conference 1889). After Williams had conducted his research in the 1950s
he also concluded that:
"Of the missionary failure in (the Transkei) there is no doubt.
Even today the amaXhosa is not a Christian nation. The fact that abaKweta
(circumcision initiation) ceremonies take place two miles from the University
College of Fort Hare in the year 1959 symbolises the missionary failure
significantly to influence the way of life of the rank and file of the
tribal amaXhosa." (Williams 1959)
A change of heart appears to have occurred from the 1880s onwards when
the initial success of the first trade schools at Morija in 1841 and
Lovedale in 1857 spurred others to follow their example. By 1902 fifteen
such institutions had opened their doors in southern Africa alone, and
fifty-six throughout the African continent, all but seven of the latter
having been founded after 1880 (Dennis 1902). Livingstone's children
had laid aside the Bible and taken up the axe.
next chapte ... A
Direct Material Influence >
