THE MISSIONARIES ACTIVITIES IN ZIMBABWE [1850-1900]

Aims of missionaries in Zimbabwe

-They wanted to spread Christianity to Africans. The African continent was considered to be lacking in
religion. The missionaries therefore believed that they had a spiritual duty to convert the Africans.

-They wanted to open up Africa to commerce by the introduction of legitimate commerce. Legitimate
trade is the trade in raw materials. They thought that European commerce was a weapon against both
slave trade and the traditional African society, both of which would need to be destroyed if missionary
work was to have a hope of real success.

-They wanted to spread European culture throughout much of Africa. They assumed the superiority of
European culture and Christianity would unavoidably go hand in glove in a civilising mission.

-They wanted to make Africans literary [to educate Africans], that is, through teaching them to read,
write and to do arithmetic. This would enable them to follow and carry out basic instructions and to be
able to read the bible.

-They wanted to spread western civilisation. It was believed that Africa was a ‘dark continent’. So they
wanted to enlighten Africans.

-They wanted to pave way for European colonisation. This meant that they wanted to prepare Africans
for European imperialism. However, this is debatable.

-They wanted to introduce medical technology in Africa.

-They wanted to end slave trade.

-They wanted to replace ‘barbaric African customs’ [vices], for instance, killing of twins [infanticide],
human sacrifices, raiding, polygamy, witchcraft, ancestral worship and even the names of people.

-They wanted to develop an indigenous middle class to maintain church staff.

-They wanted to introduce new agricultural methods, for example, to turn subsistence farming into
commercial farming.

-They wanted to introduce new crops in the area.

-They wanted to introduce new skills such as carpentry and needle work.

-They wanted to promote equality of mankind.

-They wanted to open up mission stations, mission schools, mission hospitals and clinics.

-They wanted to treat the sick people and inoculate livestock.

Missionary activities in Matabeleland

befriended Robert Moffat who was stationed at Kuruman in Botswana. Mzilikazi hoped that through this
friendship, he could get firearms.

-After the Ndebele settled in Zimbabwe, Robert Moffat paid them visits in 1854 and 1857. These visits
made Mzilikazi to agree to Robert Moffat’s request that the London Missionary Society settle and work
in Matabeleland.

-In 1859 Robert Moffat left Kuruman for Matabeleland with some missionaries. This expedition included
John Smith Moffat [his son], Daniel Carnegie and Thomas Morgan Thomas, Charles Helm, William Sykes
and their wives. Thus the missionaries of London Missionary Society became permanently established in
Matabeleland.

-The missionaries were made use of by the Ndebele in various ways. For instance, they were used to
mend guns, to inoculate cattle and give medical treatment to men, to write letters and to interpret.

-The Ndebele however, had no intention of allowing the missionaries to achieve influence. Both
Mzilikazi and Lobengula saw clearly that their teaching would undermine the basis of the Ndebele state
which mainly depended upon raiding and the caste system. So these two kings restricted missionary
activities. The missionaries’ attacks on raiding were inexcusable. It was believed that these teachings
could eventually undermine and destroy the Ndebele socio-political and economic organisation.

-The two kings did not feel the need for literacy since the administration of the state was efficient
without it. The Ndebele were thus different from Lewanika of the Lozi who wanted literacy to improve
the elaborate bureaucracy and who wanted to develop trade.

-Lobengula was not happy when missionaries attacked polygamy which was widely practiced in
Matabeleland.

-Lobengula did not admire the teaching of the missionaries which advocate “putting everything on Christ
that he would bear our sins for us”. For Lobengula, such a doctrine was suitable only for white men,
since he had noticed that “whenever they did anything wrong they always wanted to throw the blame
on the others”. So missionaries were kept in a sort of quarantine for thirty years. They made zero
converts and anyone who showed signs of becoming friendly to them was removed and sent to another
area.

-In 1859 Robert Moffat was allowed by Mzilikazi to open up a mission station at Inyati which is a few
kilometers north of present day Bulawayo.

-From the beginning both Mzilikazi and Lobengula imposed some royal censorship on the activities of
missionaries. The two kings were particularly uncomfortable with the teachings of missionaries
especially with those aspects that stressed on equality of all men and that there was only one king who
was God. Both kings did not welcome concession to Christianity because it would threaten kingship [for
the king was in charge of traditional religion].

-Mzilikazi accepted the missionaries [Abafundisi] as trading agency with South Africa and as a source of
technical skills, for example, repairing guns. Page 62

-The ordinary Ndebele saw no need to accept the new religion and abandoning their old one as this was
believed to anger the Amadlozi. Few people who showed interest were put to death, for example
[Mangeba], Mzilikazi’s trusted Induna and a member of the Umphakathi in May 1862. He had become
so devoted to Christianity to the extent that he denounced some Ndebele religious customs and values.
That outraged Mzilikazi who went on to kill him.

-In 1870 John Smith Moffat was allowed to open another mission station at Hope Fountain. Lobengula
accepted the opening of Hope Fountain with the hope that the missionary would persuade Transvaal
not to invade his kingdom and to prevent the missionaries from supporting the Zwangendava group.

-The Ndebele were annoyed particularly by missionaries who violated some Ndebele customs and
values at will, for example, Thomas Morgan Thomas refused to honour a Ndebele religious holiday
[motontiso] that was to be observed for a week. He decided to work in his garden although word had
been sent to him not to do so.

-Missionaries at Inyati gave refuge to a Ndebele girl who had run away from home for having openly
disrespected some Ndebele customs that she described as pagan. To prevent the missionaries from
contaminating the society further, the imposition of royal sanctions [censorship] to deny the
missionaries freedom of movement was found to be quite necessary. For instance, Mzilikazi allowed
missionaries to preach only to the people whom he occasionally gathered at his capital to listen to the
sermons in his presence. The presence of an anti-missionary faction at the court also limited the degree
of success of missionary work. This faction, without any proof, associated the spread of cattle lung
sickness to the presence of missionaries in the country.

-However, in spite of all these hardships, the London Missionary Society succeeded in engaging
themselves in some commendable activities. When the cattle lung sickness broke out, the missionaries
imported vaccines and inoculated the sick cattle. That saved many cattle that could have succumbed to
the disease.

-The London Missionary Society also tried their best to promote health of the Ndebele people and their
livestock. A number of people including King Lobengula, who was suffering from gout, were treated of
their different ailments.

-Other missionaries repaired guns and wagons.

-On many occasions, Lobengula used some missionaries like Charles Helm as interpreters.

-Missionaries were also called upon to read and write the king’s letters. They however, took advantage
of this privilege to cheat Lobengula and to advance Rhodes’ colonial interests.
-The missionaries failed to make converts. It was only when Thomas Morgan Thomas opened the
independent station at Shiloeh Fountain in 1876 that six Ndebele were converted up to 1893. This was
because he offered them material rewards. The failure of missionaries made them frustrated and
angered missionaries like J S Moffat and C Helm who concluded that the Ndebele political system had to
be overthrown for Christianity to progress. This explains why Page 63

both assisted the BSAC in its colonisation of Zimbabwe. This failure led to the deterioration of Ndebele-
missionary relations from magnanimous hospitality and friendship to deep suspicion, misunderstanding
and outright hatred.

-Missionaries like Thomas and Helm began to believe that success was only possible if king Lobengula
was overthrown and replaced by an administration that was favourable to the spread of the gospel.
These missionaries therefore played a significant role to cheat Lobengula to accept treaties that brought
about the colonisation of Zimbabwe. They also wrote negative reports about the Ndebele. Their aim was
to effect regime change in Matabeleland. To make sure that this happened, they became very active
agents of Cecil John Rhodes.

Missionary activities in Mashonaland

-As for the Shona, missionaries found it difficult to reach them. Lobengula claimed control over all of
Mashonaland hence all missionaries who wanted to work there had to pass via Lobengula’s court to get
clearance.

-Lobengula refused permission for mission stations to be set up in Mashonaland.

-In 1887, Coillard, who later exercised such an influence over Lewanika, tried to set up a mission station
in western Mashonaland at the kraal of chief Mashayamombe. He was however, removed by a force of
Ndebele Amabutho and taken before Lobengula who warned him not to repeat the attempt.

-An Anglican priest from South Africa, W Greenstock in 1876, tried to convert the Shona people.
Greenstock had not obtained royal clearance from Lobengula to work in Mashonaland and was forced to
abandon his work.

-In 1888, another Anglican, George Knight Bruce, tried to convert the Shona people in northern
Mashonaland. Knight Bruce who at that time was the bishop of Bloemfontein obtained clearance from
Lobengula. His major aim was to continue with the work that another Anglican priest, Greenstock, had
started. On arrival in Mashonaland Knight Bruce visited many Shona chiefs. He preached the gospel and
traded with them. It should be noted that Knight Bruce only made some impact during his second visit
after the country was colonised.

-The missionaries due to their failure were therefore praying for a change that would create a grand
opportunity for Christianity. Conquest of the Ndebele was now considered as a prerequisite for
missionary work. A clear example of this change of attitude was seen in the activities of J S Moffat, C
Helm and David Carnegie. J S Moffat and C Helm helped in the signing of the Moffat Treaty and the Rudd
Concession in 1888. Carnegie was also instrumental in encouraging the destruction of the Ndebele state
in the 1893-4 war of dispossession. Father Prestage also gave his blessing to the destruction of the
Ndebele state.

Reasons for failure of missionary activities in the Ndebele state

-The Ndebele were unwilling to accept Christianity because the Ndebele society was self-sufficient.

-The Ndebele had a strong religion and a centralised political system. Page 64

-The suspicion the Ndebele had about intentions of foreigners, especially whites.

-Cultural arrogance of the Ndebele. The Ndebele valued their culture and were generally a closed
society.

-Christianity despised their customs, beliefs and practices such as polygamy, raiding, infanticide and the
caste system.

-Some missionaries were inexperienced and were tactless in dealing with the Ndebele. They did not
know the structure of the Ndebele society.

-Ndebele militarism led to failure of missionaries.

-The conservative nature of Ndebele society led to the failure of missionaries.

Problems experienced by missionaries in Zimbabwe [1850-1900]

-Many missionaries died of diseases, especially malaria and yellow fever. It was not easy for the sick to
access medicines or to develop immunity. This attack by diseases dealt a serious blow to the progress of
missionary work.

-Mission stations were established in places where transport was difficult to access. Missionaries had to
travel long distances usually on foot and risked such hazards as attacks from wild animals and from local
people.

-It was not easy to make converts because communication was difficult. This was due to differences in
language. Missionaries did not understand local languages and so failed to put across their message.

-There was also the problem of poor communication with the mother country.

-There was also literacy problem.

-There was opposition from traditional leaders. Their teaching was disliked by African rulers because it
undermined traditional authority. In the case of the LMS, Lobengula ordered his people to leave
Christian teachings alone. There is evidence that after 20 years of preaching at Inyati, only one convert
was made, a leper who later died. It must be noted that Roman Catholic Church met less resistance
because it tended to accept some cultural practices and included them in the day to day worship.
-The Africans had their own religion which they were not able to easily give up. They believed in the
same God worshipped by the missionaries, but communicated with their God in a different way. Africans
worshipped God through spirit mediums and ancestral spirits.

-The missionaries had a problem of manpower shortage.

-They were distrusted as they preached against customs such as infanticide [killing of twins], polygamy,
raiding and the caste system.

-Association with colonisers created problems.

-They had a problem of lack of supplies of European goods, food, medicines, tools and clothes. Oftenly
they depended on explorers and other white fortune seekers who passed by to get medicine and other
goods. As for food it were the local people who mostly came to their Page 65

rescue, supplying meat, maize meal, vegetable and milk. The lack of supplies was due to the fact that
their stations cut them off the outside world.

-Some local people were hostile towards missionaries.

-There was the problem of killing of converts or exiling them. For instance, Mangeba was killed by
Mzilikazi.

-Warfare and raiding created fear among the missionaries. They feared for their lives as they lacked
security.

-There was also the problem of lack of roads.

-They faced the problem of delays in the granting of permission to operate and were chased away.

-They faced the problem of pressure from political leaders to be involved in colonialism.

-Some missionaries were killed by local people, for example, Bernard Mizeki was killed.

Solutions / Methods used by missionaries to solve these problems

-They used sign language and interpreters from South Africa.

-They built clinics for curing tropical diseases.

-They set up mission schools to educate Africans.

-They taught native children to read and write. Learning native languages aided communication

-They assisted in colonialism so that their work to spread Christianity was made easy.

-They created roads.

-They grew their own crops for food.

Failures of missionaries in solving problems

-Very few people were converted to Christianity.

-Not many roads were created.

-There was shortage of drugs.

-Africans were still attached to their traditional religion and culture.

-The Ndebele still cherished the caste and raiding systems.

-Some missionaries were chased out of the country, for example, Coillard.

Effects / Impact of missionary activities in Zimbabwe

Missionary activities among the Ndebele and the Shona had both negative and positive effects.

Benefits / Positive effects of missionary activities in Zimbabwe

-Treatment of the sick people caused happiness to the local people. Most missionaries had medical
knowhow because they had to survive in an environment that was disease prone. They therefore
brought with them medical kits. J S Moffat, for instance, used his kit to treat Lobengula who was
suffering from gout.

-Inoculation of cattle by missionaries was another benefit. When there was a cattle disease around 1860
missionaries were able to source vaccines mainly from South Africa which they Page 66

used to inoculate Ndebele cattle. This served many Ndebele cattle which could have died. Hence the
presence of missionaries in Zimbabwe was a blessing to the Ndebele.

-Missionaries promoted trade in Matabeleland by either bringing the goods for trade themselves or
binging traders. However, not many of them did so. Archaeologists dug out foreign goods like beads,
clothes and so on, obtained through trade with ivory. Examples of traders brought by Robert Moffat [in
Matabeleland] in 1854 included S Edwards and a hunter called Jan Viljoen. These benefits were however
limited in nature.

-Missionaries improved agriculture in Zimbabwe. They brought in new farming equipment. They had to
produce their own food. They were forced to farm and during the process of farming; they introduced
new [modern] farming equipment like ploughs, cultivators and sickles they brought from South Africa.
Later on they introduced the planter. Missionaries also brought new crops like vegetables and foreign
fruits. This improved the diet of the local people.

-There was an improvement in infrastructure. This was through the building of schools, mission stations,
churches, hospitals and clinics.
-The missionaries reduced social ills like infanticide. In the Shona tradition twins had to be killed at birth
[infanticide] because they were considered a bad omen for the living.

-They introduced various trades and skills in Zimbabwe. These included building, carpentry and needle
work. This helped in creating employment and made rural economies viable and self-sustaining. People
therefore started self-help projects.

Non-benefits / Negative effects / Destructive effects of missionary activities in Zimbabwe

-The missionary activities in Zimbabwe led to divisions among the local people. The converted were
given foreign goods so as to attract more. Those converted were also forced to attack their own culture.
This sector looked down upon those who were not converted. The traditionalists [those not converted],
that is, the king and ordinary, like wise looked down upon the few who were converted like Mangeba,
Mzilikazi’s most trusted Induna. The converted were labeled as out casts. Thus the society was
sectorised into two. Thus missionaries created divisions in an otherwise very united state.

-Missionaries attacked African traditional customs. It was very normal for all missionaries to attack
African customs, values and norms as barbaric. This was expressed in many different ways, for example,
any convert was to take a European name. They also attacked traditional customs like Motontiso.
Thomas Morgan Thomas, for instance, influenced the converts not to honour it. The Africans were asked
to adopt white values because they were seen as superior, civilised and were more human than African
ones.

-The missionaries left missionary work to be employed by concession companies. This was the case with
the LMS whose members were in the pay role of the British South Africa Company [BSAC]. Missionaries
thus became accomplices who assisted in the subjugation of the Africans. They worked against the local
people as interpreters and witnesses and misinformed African rulers about the realities of colonisation.
C D Helm and J S Moffat brought the real curse to the Page 67

Ndebele. J S Moffat, for example, took advantage of the traditional family friendship between the
Moffats and the Khumalos to mislead Lobengula to accept signing the Moffat treaty [February 1888]
which excluded concession seekers, hunters and traders from other European nations. This treaty
literally bound Lobengula to the British. It was this treaty that Rhodes was to build to sign the Rudd
concession [October 1888] using C Helm, whose terms were expressed in a language that amounted to
sheer cheating of Lobengula into giving away not only his mineral rights but his country to Rhodes.

-The missionaries wrote negative reports about Zimbabwe. Thomas Morgan Thomas, for instance, wrote
a number of articles to the International Press portraying the Ndebele and the monarchy as blood thirsty
and also as objects that retarded the spreading of civilisation and the gospel into the area between
Zambezi and Limpopo. It was such demonisation of the Ndebele which Rhodes used to justify himself for
taking over the Ndebele state.

Role played by missionaries, hunters, traders and concession seekers in the colonisation of Zimbabwe
Missionaries, hunters, traders and concession seekers played a fundamental role in promoting the
colonisation of the Ndebele and the Shona. They came to Matabeleland and Mashonaland between
1850 and 1900.

[a] Robert Moffat paved way for the colonisation of Zimbabwe when he negotiated with Mzilikazi and
opened a mission station at Inyati in 1859. J S Moffat, Robert Moffat’s son was in charge of the new
station. In 1870, Charles Helm was in charge of the new station at Hope Fountain. These mission stations
accommodated those whites who came into the interior.

-The missionaries sent reports to Europeans in Europe and South Africa about the riches in Zimbabwe.

-The missionaries published economic prospects to their mother countries thereby generating interest
in colonial conquest.

-Later on missionaries were used by colonialists as agents of imperialism, for example, as paid agents of
imperialism Charles Helm and J S Moffat were involved in the negotiations and signing of the Moffat
treaty which placed Matabeleland under the British sphere of influence and the Rudd concession which
led to the colonisation of Zimbabwe. They were used as communication links between the ruler and the
concession seekers. They used psychological pressure on Lobengula to sign the Rudd concession by
constantly telling him how terrible the other negotiating groups were, for example, the Boers who
signed the Gobbler treaty with him in 1887.

-The missionaries published pagan practices by Africans which needed the attention of European
governments.

-Missionaries invited their government to destroy the Ndebele state after failing to get converts

-The missionaries invited their government to end slavery.

*All this justifies the phrase, “The flag followed the bible”. Page 68

[b] A number of European hunters came to Zimbabwe. They hunted game, especially elephants for
ivory. These hunters included Martinus Swartz, Henry Hartley, John Lee, Jan Viljoen, Piet Jacobs and
Frederick Courtney Selous. They were mainly interested in ivory, a commodity that was in high demand
in Europe. Hunters such as Selous came into the area to hunt as far as Mt Darwin. They spied on the
territory and sent back reports on how wild game was abundant in the Ndebele and Shona areas.

-Eventually, F C Selous acted as a paid agent of imperialism by guiding Rhodes’ pioneer column into
Mashonaland.

[c] Traders such as George Westbeech, interested in gold also journeyed into the interior as far as
Lewanika’s territory north of the Zambezi River. Some of the traders were Sam Edwards, Joseph
McCabe, George Philips and Karl Mauch who was also a geologist. These traders spread rumours about
the abundance of gold and ivory in the area. This stimulated the interest of people like Rhodes in the
Ndebele and Shona territories.
[d] From the information disseminated by missionaries, hunters and traders, concession seekers came to
Lobengula’s capital in large numbers. These included the likes of Piet Grobbler, Sir Sidney Shippard,
Edward Lippert, Mount, John Swinburne, Thomas Baines and Charles Rudd. All these Europeans entered
the country from South Africa using what came to be called the ‘missionary road to the north’. Their
presence at the king’s capital created confusion. Eventually feeling threatened, Lobengula bowed down
to missionary pressure and signed the Rudd Concession which led to the colonisation of Zimbabwe.

*It should be noted that it were the missionaries, traders, hunters, travelers as well as concession
seekers who popularised the interior. Without them, Zimbabwe could have been hardly known. Most of
these were degradadoes [social misfits at home] and this is why most of their accounts were not fully
authentic [they were not trained].