The Role of 19th Century Missionaries in South Africa: Benign Philanthropists or Agents of Colonialism?

By Churchill Odhiambo Introduction As early as 1737, missionaries began to arrive in the newly conquered South Africa. They came with the vision to spread the word of God and rid the Africans of their sinful cultures and help liberate them through conversion to Christianity and teaching them the European ways of life. Arriving in their hundreds, they did manage to achieve part of their vision, especially conversion and socialization of the Africans to European culture, though many a question has arisen as to whether they managed or even indeed intended to liberate their converts. The final result of apartheid is one of the biggest bases to such questions and this essay shall examine in depth the role that missionaries played in South Africas turbulent history. Whether they did liberate their converts or not, it is without a doubt that the missionaries had a role to play in the whole colonization process and the extent of this role shall be purveyed in this essay. The arrival of the Missionaries In 1799, the London Missionary Society (LMS) landed in the Cape, represented by Dr. J. T van der Kemp and Dr. J. Read, where the two were given land by the governor at the time, Jan W. Janssens. The first mission, however, had been the Moravian Mission George Schmidt in 1737. Van der Kemp and Read quickly built a centre where they began to educate the indigenous labourers from nearby settler farms in what the colonialists thought to be means by which the labourers might improve their chances to fight freedom. Not to be left out of an ensuing argument, the missionaries accused the colonialists of mistreating the labourers with the plight of their argument listened to at a hearing in the circuit courts established in 1811. Despite the hearing, however, no action was taken as the court declared the evidence provided by the missionaries as circumstantial. As a result of this slight altercation, the LMS and Boers never saw eye to eye again. Thus, the missionaries seemed to have begun their quest to liberate the indigenous people through education and socialization. One of their greatest concerns was the traditional ways the Khoikhoi and other tribes led their lives, which to them were sinful, especially in their taking many wives. This view of the black communities in early South Africa was their basis for conversion and, in some cases, baptism. Conversion: Religious and Cultural Converting the indigenous people was not restricted only to the religious sphere. Indeed, the early missionaries, having read about the Khoikhois ways of life, came with a vision to convert and civilize them. The LMS however, seemed to have derived their mission ambitions from the stories of African oppression by the

colonialists and saw this as a form of compensation for the evils of slave trade. It would then be intuitively deduced that the missionaries deemed the Khoikhoi as passive victims in need of salvation which they wanted to provide and earn themselves the label of hero. With such a mindset, they arrived at the Cape and begun conversion in earnest. Though scientific writes such as Andres Sparrman who had been to the Cape earlier had written about the emptiness of the Khoikhoi minds and expressed their doubt that anyone would want to convert them for reasons other than political, the LMS spread the Gospel for what they termed spiritual well-being. Some would convert in order to be able to wear the same clothing as the missionaries did. In the cases that the Khoikhoi did take up Christianity, they ran their own missions, which later became a source of tension between them and the missionaries as in the case of one Cupido Kakkerlak. These armed confrontations were just a stage in the whole process of complete colonization. Having arrived as missionaries, the British would then make agreements with the tribal chiefs where the British offer protection from the tribes enemies. However, these self-proclaimed protectors would then be involved in tussles with tribes which would end in the signing of a treaty that would typically end in the tribe being subjugated by the British. Divide and Rule To be able to complete the process of colonization, the British had to first of all remove all the tribes head and this is where the missionaries played a role. This was done indirectly through the doctrine the missionaries taught the chiefs subjects which were all filled with ideas which intended to support the British rule over the chiefs. Another was through moving would be converts to the mission station, which signalled a readiness to follow the missionarys directions in place of the chiefs and this was done over a long period of time to avoid detection by the said chief. Since chief conversion was a rarity, they still depended, reluctantly, on the missionary for mediation and interpretation. This meant that despite the chief feeling a sense of betrayal, he knew that in order to keep his place in his community, he would need to cooperate with the missionary as much as he did not want to. Being in more contact with the various tribes than any other factions of the government, then, the missionaries can be termed to have had better knowledge of them but only due to their position as informants to the governments. Their success, therefore, at this final stage of divide and rule was quite crucial if complete colonization was to take place. One of the means by which the chiefs authority was undermined was the placing of a resident agent, a European who would rule alongside the chief who by this time was being paid in currency. This resident agent would gain more power than the chief in a gradual process that included him taking up a magistrate role in the community and when it finally did happen, the position would be taken up by a trusty missionary. Reversion to Philanthropy

By the 1820s, the missionaries had insinuated themselves into far reaches of the Cape Colony. As such, they were able to see the wrong being done to the indigenous people and once again continued their fight for their rights. It was thus after great campaigning that the missionaries, in particular Dr. John Phillip, managed to secure the passing of Ordinance 50 which declared all non-whites equal before the law with whites and somewhat of an abolition of slavery. The settlers of the time would never have taken kindly to this and in turn drafted a Vagrancy Ordinance which called for the former slaves to remain in apprenticeship for a while, though this was not passed by the British government. Despite these legislations, the indigenous people did not feel much freedom. Having been sent into poverty after losing their land and cattle, the Khoikhoi and other tribes were at a loss at how to overcome their poverty. The only choice, for those who did not want to remain economically dominated by the white man, was to seek refuge at a mission station. They would also have had to move to mission stations since, although they had the right to own land, all of the arable land had been appropriated by the Boers. At the missions, they would be taught skills that would help them acclimatize to colonialism, though the huge numbers living on the stations meant that some would inevitably have to sell their labour to farmers outside of the missions. It is with this final act of taking the indigenous folk under their wing that the missionaries are majorly remembered apart from their role in Christianization of the African people. Conclusion Undoubtedly, the missionaries played a somewhat significant role in the colonization process. First as Bible carriers, they taught Africans European ways of life and tried to rid them of their culture. By then becoming intermediaries between the indigenous people and the early colonial government, they further cemented their role in South Africas past. With Dr. J Phillip as an example, their philanthropic role was fulfilled while their more subtle role as agents of colonialism can be seen in the parts they played in getting to know the ways of the indigenous people.