scholarly journals Church and Empire: Evangelisation by the OMI among British, Indians, Afrikaners and Indigenous People of Southern Africa (1852–1874)

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Charles Henriques

The British proclaimed the Colony of Natal on 4 May 1843. Therefore, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate entered a British Colony to begin their work among the indigenous people of southern Africa. There was further contact with colonial society during the Basotho Wars (1858–1868), when Blessed Joseph Gerard supported Chief Moshoeshoe. This explains the options taken by the Oblates to work in close collaboration with the indigenous people in their fight to defend their property and sovereignty. The period covered is from 1852 until 1874 when Bishop Allard was in charge of the Vicariate of Natal. This paper deals with why the Oblates were more successful in Lesotho than among the Zulu in Natal. Brief mention is made of Indians in Durban, British missionaries in Natal and Afrikaners during the Lesotho wars. The role of culture in the evangelisation of people is an important theme within missiology and pastoral theology today. There needs to be an investigation why this was not the case in the early stages of evangelisation in South Africa and Lesotho—as being considered within this study. The first steps of evangelisation among the Zulu and Basotho were quite different and indicate growth in awareness and strategy of the Oblate missionaries in the effort to evangelise the indigenous people. The works of Brain, Skhakhane, Levasseur and Zorn were consulted, and archival resources from the Hurley Archives (Missions 1867–1868) investigated. The correspondence of Bishop Allard and his Journal Failure and Vindication was also consulted in the research process.

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo Johannes Modise

This paper focuses on the role of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in the South African society during the past 25 years of its services to God, one another and the world. Firstly, the paper provides a brief history of URCSA within 25 years of its existence. Secondly, the societal situation in democratic South Africa is highlighted in light of Article 4 of the Belhar Confession and the Church Order as a measuring tool for the role of the church. Thirdly, the thermometer-thermostat metaphor is applied in evaluating the role of URCSA in democratic South Africa. Furthermore, the 20 years of URCSA and democracy in South Africa are assessed in terms of Gutierrez’s threefold analysis of liberation. In conclusion, the paper proposes how URCSA can rise above the thermometer approach to the thermostat approach within the next 25 years of four general synods.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (S349) ◽  
pp. 240-247
Author(s):  
Lerothodi L. Leeuw ◽  
Jarita Holbrook

AbstractThe South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), formerly known as the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, will be 200 years old in 2020. Also, South Africa (SA), formerly a British colony known as the Cape of Good Hope, will celebrate her 100-year anniversary as an International Astronomical Union (IAU) member in 2020, following the IAU centenary in 2019 that this IAU Symposium 349 celebrates. In light of all this, particularly in anticipation of the 200-year anniversary of SAAO in 2020, the SA National Research Foundation (NRF) has developed a Roadmap for the History of Astronomy in South Africa. As part of this we are conducting an oral history of astronomers to complement the historical celebrations of the institutions and science relating to astronomy in SA, supported by the SA NRF. Primarily drawing on literature and setting the scene for this work, here we present a snippet of the on-going oral histories, to glean the role of the IAU in astronomy in South Africa and show the potential of the oral histories to inform and complement written history.


1972 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Doxey

This paper falls into two main parts. In Part I an attempt is made to develop a simple framework which can be used for analyzing the role of sanctions, with special reference to international sanctions.1In Part II this framework is used to investigate the status of the United Nations as a sanctioning body and, in particular, the relationship between the UN and Southern Africa where Rhodesia has been subjected to international economic sanctions since 1965 and South Africa has been under threat of similar measures since the early 1960s.2


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Christofides ◽  
Piet G.J. Meiring

The role of the laity is at the cutting edge of Christian missions today. The author conducted a number of interviews and questionnaires to determine the status of the laity across denominations of the Christian faith in South Africa. His findings are in a number of instances startling: The picture of the laity, and what lay Christians in South Africa believe, run against general expectations. Some suggestions and proposals on how to empower the laity in general, and the churches of the Baptist Union in Southern Africa (BUSA) in particular, are made. The underlining motive for the research is to encourage the BUSA churches to become truly missional churches that make a difference in the world in which we live.


2019 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.P. Malatji ◽  
D.M. Pfukenyi ◽  
S. Mukaratirwa

Abstract A systematic review was conducted focusing on the distribution of Fasciola species and their snail intermediate hosts (IHs) in East and Southern Africa. The reviewed literature showed that both Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica are present in East and Southern Africa, and infect a wide range of domestic and wild ruminants. Fasciola gigantica was reported in six East African and five Southern African countries, where Radix natalensis (found in low altitudes) was reported to be the main IH. Fasciola hepatica was reported in Tanzania and Ethiopia (East Africa), and in South Africa and Zimbabwe (Southern Africa), where Galba truncatula (found in high altitudes) was documented as the IH in all countries except in Zimbabwe. Both Fasciola species were documented in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. An overlap of the two was observed in areas with an intermediate altitude in Ethiopia and South Africa, where Pseudosuccinea columella was widespread and assumed to transmit both species. Pseudosuccinea columella has been reported in South Africa and Namibia, and proven to transmit F. gigantica in South Africa; its role in Namibia in the transmission of Fasciola species has not been reported. Other lymnaeid species such as R. rubiginosa were reported in South Africa, and R. auricularia in South Africa and Botswana; their role in the transmission of Fasciola species has not been proven. Future studies should aim to determine the role of P. columella in the geographical spread of the two species in East and Southern African countries.


1991 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Gregor Cobley

The first generations of black Christians in Southern Africa went through a painful process of critical examination and experiment as they struggled to assimilate new economic, social, and religious values. These values were presented to them mainly by white missionaries and were based largely on European models. It was as part of this dialectical process that an independent black churches movement—quickly labeled by friends and foes the “Ethiopian Movement”—had emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The independent black churches spread and multiplied rapidly in South Africa. By 1919 there were seventy-six recognized sects; however, there were many more which were not officially recognized. A black newspaper reported in 1921 that there were “at least one thousand natives within the municipal boundary of Johannesburg who call themselves ministers, but who are unattached to any recognised chuch, and who live on the offerings of their respective flocks.” Although many members of these churches were active politically, the most pervasive influence of the movement was on the ideology of African nationalism, as the role of the church became a recurring theme in debates on the development of an African national identity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. Duncan

This paper traces the development in terms of its heritage and legacy of a Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, from its beginnings in the Scottish Mission, to the present. It notes the oppressive role of missionary dominated Mission Councils throughout most of its history as well as the formative events of the formation of the PCSA and the Mzimba Secession. This led to the establishment of an independent, albeit not autonomous church in 1923. The RPCSA had a proud record of participation in the ecumenical movement and in socio-political issues, in particular in education.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-88
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Macagno

AbstractThis article consists of a reflection on the ethnographic and political legacy of the protestant missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod. A member of the Swiss Mission, Junod was one of the few missionaries to enjoy the recognition of “professional” anthropologists in his time (among them, Malinowski himself, who praised his pioneering ethnography on the Thonga of southern Africa). But beyond his important ethnographic legacy, his work as a missionary brought him into contact with many perplexities and paradoxes. Besides living and working in the Union of South Africa – present day South Africa – he lived for many years in Mozambique, where at certain times, his presence – and that of the protestant missionaries in general – was not well accepted by Portuguese Colonial Regime. Today, the policies on bilingual education, the process of reinvention of the Shangaan identity, the multicultural dilemmas of post-socialist Mozambique and the role of the Protestant churches in the formation of the civil society, cannot be understood without a systematic and renewed reflection on the legacy of Henri-Alexandre Junod. Cet article propose une réflexion sur l'héritage ethnographique et politique du missionnaire protestant Henri-Alexandre Junod. Membre de la Missions Suisse Romande, Junod fut un des rares missionnaires qui fut reconnu de son vivant par les anthropologues "professionnels" (entre autres Malinowski lui-même qui loua son travail ethnographique sur les Thonga d'Afrique australe). Au-delà son héritage ethnographique, le travail de Junod comme missionnaire l'exposa aussi à plusieurs perplexités et paradoxes. En plus de vivre et travailler dans l'Union d'Afrique du Sud – aujourd'hui Afrique du sud – il vécut durant de nombreuses années au Mozambique où, à certains moments, sa présence – et celle des missionnaires protestants en général – ne fut pas bien acceptée par le régime colonial portugais. Aujourd'hui les politiques d'éducation bilingues, le processus de la réinvention de l'identité Shangaan, les dilemmes multiculturels d'un Mozambique postsocialiste et le rôle des églises Protestantes dans la formation d'une société civile ne peuvent pas être compris sans une réflexion systématique et renouvelée de l'héritage d'Henri-Alexandre Junod.


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