Documentation of Ndebele and missionary history: The role of LMS missionaries

Cultural Heritage

Pathisa Nyathi THE question that some may pose is why devoting so many pages to the history of the London Missionary Society (LMS)? The LMS is one of only two Christian denominations that established mission stations in the Ndebele Kingdom, the LMS being the older of the two. While the LMS was established at Inyathi Mission in 1859, the Catholics, through the Jesuits, set up mission in 1879, after the LMS had, by that time, established their second mission station at Hope Fountain, EMthombothemba.

The choice of Inyathi Mission was on the basis of it being close to the royal capital town of Inyathi at Emhlangeni close to a tributary of Ngwigwizi River. There was perennial water in the small stream which today is dry, a pointer to drier conditions prevailing these days. When King Mzilikazi Khumalo died in 1868 he was succeeded by his son King Lobengula Khumalo who set up his own royal town of Gibixhegu. The LMS followed the seat of power for their own protection and security. Hope Fountain, established by Reverend Boden Thompson in 1870, was close to the new seat of power. The Catholics under Fathers Croonenbergs and Depelchin also chose to locate their first mission station close to the seat for similar reasons.

Being close to the seat of power afforded the missionaries an opportunity to get some glimpse of the goings on at the palace. They witnessed some important national ceremonies such as Inxwala. When King Lobengula Khumalo was crowned in 1870, the LMS missionaries such as the Welshman Reverend Thomas Morgan Thomas were in attendance and documented their observations. Reverend Thomas, uTomasi, penned a book, Eleven Years in Central South Africa (1972). Similarly, the Jesuits also penned their experiences in Journey to Gubulawayo. The former travelled extensively within the region, to the north as far as the Zambezi River and to the Shashe River in the south.

What the early missionaries wrote cannot be ignored. While there may be biases and prejudices, there is all the same, something of value that we can draw from their

writings. Going through the bibliography in Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s book The Ndebele Nation: Reflections on Hegemony, Memory and Historiography, one comes across no less than five books written by early missionaries: Carnegie D ( uKhaneki) Among the Matabele (1984); TM Thomas Eleven Years in Central South Africa (1972); Bryant TA Olden Times in Zululand and Natal 1929; Mackenzie J Ten Years North of the Orange River . .. (1871); Prestage P Some Traditions of Matabeleland in Zambezi Mission Record, I (1898-1901) and Livingstone, D Missionary Travels and Resources in South Africa (1857).

Without doubt, missionary observers have contributed immensely to the Zimbabwean historiography. Some events would have escaped memory through oral tradition. In any case, what we give emphasis to is not what missionaries as foreigners would focus their attention on. What one community considers important historical information may not be so to a people of a different culture. As a result, we have acquired a multi-cultural dimension to the documentation of historical information, its analysis and interpretation. This amounts to a fuller rendition of a community’s history.

Simultaneously, we glean a lot from recorders of the

history of our ancestors. What one writes reflects quite a lot about the writer, his mission, and understanding of issues, prejudices and values. Quite often, what missionaries said to kings and chiefs was not what they proceeded to write in the privacy of their ox wagons or houses. What they wrote, more than what they said, depicted their real attitudes. This is apparent in the writings of Reverend Dr Robert Moffat who feigned love for King Mzilikazi Khumalo and went ahead to describe him as a savage and a pagan. Besides, their writings were selective. For that we may have to go back to the LMS again.

When John Philip was appointed Director or Superintendent of the LMS in South Africa, the Board of Directors were responding to two issues, or rather two crises in the affairs of the LMS in the Cape Colony. The first related to relationships between the LMS and the administration of Lord Charles Somerset. Lord Somerset and his administration felt the LMS missionaries preferred a free hand in matters of their missionary work. The second crisis was sparked by the evident adulterous activities of some of the LMS missionaries, notably Reverend James Read who took charge of the Thlaping mission ahead of Reverend Moffat.

The crises led George Thom to convene a meeting in Cape Town in August 1817. Word about the meeting concerning strained relations and “moral obliquity” got into the ears of the LMS Board of Directors in England. At the time, Reverend Moffat was stationed in Kuruman while Reverend Peter Wright was at Griquatown. One result of strained relations between the church and the Cape administration was the emergence within the missionary fraternity of what was termed the “colonial faction.” Some among the LMS missionaries preferred amicable working relations with the administration while others preferred relative autonomy.

Attitude towards the natives to whom they ministered also differed. The LMS missionaries had mission stations among the BaThlaping, Tswana, Khoi, Sotho, Griqua and Afrikaners, inter alia. There were missionaries who preferred better treatment of these natives and they campaigned against their oppression. Others were of a different mind. They did not want natives to be used as agents in missionary work. It was a question of condescending attitudes inspired by racism which happened to get the better of the white missionaries.

At Inyathi Mission, similar differences emerged. Reverend Thomas Morgan Thomas, who was one of the pioneering missionaries that were led to King Mzilikazi Khumalo, soon fell out of favour with fellow missionaries of English stock. Reverend Thomas was familiar with colonisation as a Welshman. His own country had been conquered in the 13th Century by the Ango-Saxons. Relations deteriorated to a point where he had to leave Inyathi Mission to establish his own mission at Shiloh, south of the Mbembesi River, now along the Ilitshe Road which joins the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo Road near Mahlothuva.

Finally, one of the LMS missionaries at Inyathi from 1888 to 1918 was Reverend Bowen Rees, also a Welshman, the man whose nationality lies behind the names of two prominent politicians Welshman Hadane Mabhena and Welshman Ncube. Reverend Bowen Rees’ oldest son was Aurfryn Maudie whose son was Dr Ioan Rees. The Rees family holds an important archive of both the LMS and Matabeleland. Of course, the major LMS archive is held at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). There is a suggestion that some of the archives were destroyed during World War II when Nazi Germany’s planes bombarded London.

One of Dr Ioan Rees’s children, Non Pierce, will be visiting Zimbabwe at the invitation of my co-author and friend Marieke Faber Clark who always visits during the jacaranda season in September. In the meantime, Marieke and I are penning Reverend Bowen Rees’s experiences at Inyathi Mission from 1888 to 1918. Publication of the book will coincide with the duo’s visit. The Rees family’s archival material used in researching the book will be handed over to the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) for the benefit of Zimbabwean researchers keen to know more about both the LMS and Ndebele histories.

A befitting monument will be designed, constructed and commissioned at Amagugu International Heritage Centre during Non’s visit. She will also visit Inyathi Mission outstations in Nkayi such as Sivalo, Dakamela, Madliwa, Komalinga and Sikhobokhobo. The other place her greatgrandfather visited was Prince Tshakalisa Khumalo’s home on the southern bank of the Shangani River, almost directly opposite Chief Sivalo Mahlangu’s home. Other proposed places that she will visit include Shiloh (Tshayile), Elibeni where the family survived Imfazo II (1896) during which their convert Makhaza Nkala was killed and Umvutshwa where they sought protection from King Lobengula Khumalo when Imfazo I(1893) broke out in October 1893.