WESTERN MISSIONARY EDUCATION IN NORTHERN RHODESIA
Missionary education was one of the very first tasks that were undertaken by the first missionaries entered the country. Their first task was to teach reading and writing the vernacular language of the area in which they had opened their mission station. The next step was to start a school and teach the people the elements of reading and writing.
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Before missionaries came to settle permanently in present-day Zambia, they had several abortive attempts to establish mission stations. Nevertheless, they did not tire but continued trying to penetrate the country.
Fredrick Arnot was one of the timely great missionaries of the pioneer period. Born in 1855, Arnot was the first missionary after David Livingstone. Inspired by hearing David Livingstone speak about Africa, he decided to help David Livingstone in his work. At 24 years Arnot came to Africa and his aim was to establish a missionary station along the upper Zambezi River.
He started evangelizing as he was going along the river before he could establish a mission station, he had to seek permission king Lewanika. Though Lewanika did not express excitement over the opening of a school due to the problems he had in his kingdom, he did not refuse Arnot to open a school. Arnot opened his first school in March, 1883 with an enrolment of three pupils all of whom were boys and one untrained teacher, among the Lozi people. He also opened a mission station under the name Christian Mission to Many Lands (CMML).
Despite the difficulties, dangers, hardships and apathy of the African people, the number of missionaries continued to increase. Another missionary after Fredrick Arnot who stayed for a short time stayed in Western province. Arnot was succeeded by Francois Coillard of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) who established his first mission station at Sesheke in 1885 and at Sefula in 1887. Sefula remained the field headquarters for the Paris mission. He worked among the Lozi people and his first teachers were Basuto’s who accompanied him on his long journey from South Africa.
The second missionary society to enter the country from the south were the Primitive Methodists. The group opened a station at Nkala (the ruins of which can now be seen in the Kafue Game Park) in 1893. Later on other mission stations were stations were established on the Kafue and Zambezi rivers. From an educational point of view, the most important station at Kafue which John Fell built and opened was a Teacher Training Institute in 1918.
Another group of missionaries that penetrated into Northern Rhodesia from Tanganyika were successful and opened the first London Missionary Society (LMS) station on the Lakeshore of Tanganyika in 1883. Later they opened up stations among the Mambwe, Bemba and Lunda people. The most important educational centre Mbereshi was founded in 1900. Furthermore, the missionary group decided to call in a lady missionary to take care of the women and girls’ education. The missionary was Mable Shaw who introduced girls’ education in 1915.
There came another group of missionaries from the church of Scotland. The group was led by Robert Laws. Laws built the first church of Scotland mission station on the shores of Lake Nyasa in 1875. Twenty years later, in 1894 he opened the famous Livingstonia Institute at Kondowe. In the same year, a mission station was opened (1894) inside North-Eastern Rhodesia near Fife among the Namwanga people.
At Chitambo where Livingstone died, a mission station was opened in 1907 by Malcom Moffat and Dr Hubert Wilson, a grandson of the great explorer (David Livingstone). On the other hand, an African missionary named David Kaunda, educated at Livingstonia had begun evangelistic work in Chinsali area and his efforts led to the establishment of a mission station at Lubwa. Later in 1922, another mission station was opened at Chasefu among the Tumbuka people of Lundazi district.
Later on, came the White Fathers who opened a mission station at Kayambi in 1895. Under the leadership of Bishop Joseph Dupont, the society expanded its activities. Bishop Dupont was nicknamed moto-moto (great fire) because of his dynamic leadership. After gaining a foothold among the Bemba people, the White Fathers Succeeded in establishing a strong network of station throughout Northern, Eastern and Luapula Provinces.
White Fathers continued to stream into the envy of non-Catholic missionaries who even saw the coming in of lay brothers, a little later White Sister too set up mission stations throughout the eastern half of the country. The other society who were trying to match the White Fathers in numbers were the missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church. Their activities were almost confined to the Eastern province. The Dutch opened their first church in North-Eastern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in Magwero in 1899. Further, a chain of strategically situated stations covered the Fort Jameson (Chipata) and Petauke districts.
The Catholic missionaries came in large numbers as compared to the others. In the south of the country came the Jesuit Fathers. The Jesuits arrived at Chikuni mission under the leadership of Father Joseph Moreau in Monze district and established a mission station in 1905 among the Tonga people. Another mission station was also opened at Kasisi east of Lusaka by Father Jules Torrend in 1906. From these stations other centres were opened largely in the Southern and Central provinces of Zambia.
In the same year 1905, four days before the Jesuits arrived at Chikuni, an American from Indiana, William Anderson a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) church also arrived. He began building a mission station at Rusangu in Monze district. Subsequent expansion of the SDA activities led to the establishment of widely scattered station near Ndola, kawambwa, Kalabo, Chipata and Senanga. Rusangu remained the most important centre because of the education activities.
Another group of missionaries who entered Northern Rhodesia as an extension of their work are the Brethren in Christ Church in 1906. Two American ladies, sisters Annah Davidson and Addah Engle arrived at Macha in Choma district of Southern Province. Due to lack of money and personnel, the Brethren in Christ only opened two other station and could not go beyond that. Bishop Hine of the UMCA opened the first Anglican station at Mapanza in Choma district among the Tonga people in 1911. Another station was opened in Msoro area among the Kunda people in Chipata by an African Priest. However, the UMCA did not give much support to the mission stations as they had done in Uganda. They only gave support to Mapanza because of its significance to educational work which it wanted to develop.
The other society which was the last to enter the country before the 1914-18 war was the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. They opened a station at Chipembi in 1913 under the leadership of Henry Loveness and Douglas Gray. Other stations were opened at Broken Hill, Lusaka and at Keembe in the western part of Lenje reserve. Chipembi was developed as the society’s educational headquarters and led the way in agricultural work and girls’ education. Chipembi girls’ school was opened in 1927.
In 1926, Salvation Army came and established a mission station at Chikankata, they also had a hospital within the vicinity. A further reinforcement of Catholics arrived in 1913. These were the Capuchin Fathers who opened mission stations in Lukulu, Maramba and Mongu which became important educational centre. The Franciscan Fathers starting from Ndola in 1931, opened missions on the Copperbelt mostly important was Ibenga Girls Secondary School as an educational centre. Another small group was the Pilgrim Holiness Church which began its operation in 1933 in Southern province.
To sum up on the arrival of missionaries groups, a mention must be made of two further bodies, the Church bodies such as United Missions on the Copperbelt. This was formed in 1936 when representatives from London Missionary Society, the Church of Scotland, the Universities Missions to Central Africa, the Methodists and South African Baptist put their resources together in support of their work. This was because of the educational problems they faced. The Franciscan and Dutch Reformed Church also provided staff for the venture.
Closely associated with the United Missions on the Copperbelt was the United Society for Christian Literature, it had a small thatched hut in Mindolo, Kitwe. It was the headquarters for educational materials in Northern Rhodesia charged with the responsibility to provide Christian literature on the Copperbelt. It was opened in 1936. Society rapidly became the main source of supply for school textbooks and also played an important part in stimulating the production of local books.
Although the early missionaries were separated by distance and in most cases without contact between them, there was closeness among them in their assessment of the problems they encountered in their missionary work. In view of trying to capture as many African converts as possible, they devised the strategies and tactics of their evangelistic campaigns. The African culture according to missionaries was doomed to spiritual damnation as it was immoral, lazy, drunken, steeped in superstition and witchcraft. According to them the whole culture was rotten and needed to be replaced root and branch.
In view of this, the Primitive Brethren Missionary Frederick Arnot opened the first school, the Barotse National School in 1906, the aim was to educate, evangelize nurture Christian leadership. In the case of PEMS Francois Coillard opened about five schools which were operating in villages. Coillard’s aim of education was to make his students literate and provide higher education for bright pupil’s. For instance, he sent five young men to Basuto land from Sefula to a missionary training school.
The London Missionary Society under the leadership of Bernard Turner trained hundreds of African youths in building, carpentry, metal work and other crafts. On the same station, Mable Shaw pioneered the development of girl’s education in the country teaching various aspects of homecraft at Mbereshi.
Father Joseph Moreau, the Jesuit father at Chikuni taught people how to improve the productivity of their gardens and cattle.
In conclusion, it must be mentioned that the largest societies had the capacity to expand their education most rapidly than small societies. Of the two thousand or so schools operating in 1925, more than half were under the control of White Fathers (554), Dutch Reformed Church (448), Church of Scotland (308), London Missionary Society (280) and the management of the remaining 400 schools was divided among the eleven smaller groups. The extraordinary rapid rate of expansion was due to superior resources i.e. personnel and finances.
It should be emphasized that the main motive for educating the people by the missionaries was to make people understand the gospel of Jesus and be able to read the Bible. The Africans were also to spread the gospel in places where missionaries were unable to reach hence the white missionaries needed to train them to preach and read.
The July 1914 Missionary conference was the first to be held among all the others. This conference was held in Livingstone in the Coillard Memorial Hall. It lasted four days and was held with a view to overcoming some challenges that were being faced in education by the different missionary societies. Snelson 1974 advances that the Primitive Methodists were the initiators of the missionary conferences which were to exert considerable influence in the country for a period of not less than thirty years.
Originally, the Primitive Methodists after deciding to translate the New Testament into the Ila language called for representatives from other missionary societies using the language to assist them revise the manuscript. Being impressed with this success at an attempt at co-operation, the missionary societies entertained the thought of having meetings of a similar nature to discuss problems that were common to them all. Among the missionary societies represented were:
Working together, the representatives from the above-mentioned missionary groups with those from the PM unanimously elected a President from amongst themselves whose name Rev Edwin Smith. The July 1914 Missionary conference like any other conference was held with four objectives. The objectives are listed below though not in any order of importance:
As indicated earlier, the conference lasted four days and apart from simply considering ways to meet the set objectives, issues of other educational problems experienced by the missionaries crept in. When you refer to the map of Zambia given in this module you will discover that many schools were set up and by various missionary societies. This implies that before the conferences, each missionary society drew up its own curriculum and school actives were also carried out differently from one group to the other.
The second General Missionary Conference was held from 18-22nd July, in 1919. It was also held in Livingstone under the chairmanship of Rev. Adolphe Jalla of the PEMS. His secretary at the same conference was Rev. John Fell of the PMMS. This conference was held as a result of the Native Schools Proclamation of 1918. The main purpose of the conference was to suggest amendments to the proclamation. The attitude and spirit of intolerance detected in the proclamation were greatly condemned by the conference. The major amendments made at the conference included the following:
In addition to the above, some resolutions concerning education were also passed. The first being that the government should give grants to aid the educational work of the missions. At this same conference a school code drawn up by Fell was also accepted. At the end of the conference, the delegates agreed to extend invitations to missionary societies based in North-Eastern Rhodesia.
This was the third General missionary conference. It was held in Kafue from 17th to 23rd July in 1922.The leadership of this conference was elected as follows:
President: Bishop R D McMinn from the Livingstonia mission
Secretary: Rev John Fell
The delegates from the eleven missionary societies which were represented discussed a good number of issues which included native reserves, objectionable native marriage customs, spheres of influence, native taxation and the need for native ministry.
The issues above were discussed alongside the three papers presented by Coxhead JCC, Dr Loram D T, and Latham G C. The paper for Coxhead, who was the secretary for Native Affairs talked about the need to appoint an expert in agriculture who would advise the mission s on agriculture education.
In his presentation Coxhead added that the Administration was ready to pay one third of the expert’s salary provided the missions could pay the balance. In the second paper Loram, an eminent educationist from Natal advocated that primary education be retained by the missionaries and that though this would be the case, there would still be need for the government to give financial support to the missionaries.
Secondary education, however, would be run by the state. Snelson (1974) further presents that in the same paper it was suggested that the administration should consider setting up a central institution in Northern Rhodesia on the lines of Fort Hare in South Africa. In addition to academic work, training in agriculture and courses for chiefs would also be provided. Chiefs needed to undergo some training because they obstructed development in their areas. Dr Loram concluded his paper by recommending that an advisory board be established to foster close co-operation between the missionaries and the administration.
The third last paper was presented by Latham GC. He was a former district officer. At the time of the conference, he had been appointed to the post of part-time inspector of schools for the country. Latham emphasized the need for co-ordination of effort among the agencies engaged in education. He also added the following:
This was the last conference. It was held in June, 1924 in Kafue. According to Snelson (1974), the main purpose of this conference was for the missionary members to meet the Phelps-Stokes commission, and to make strong recommendations to the new government on an educational policy for the country. This conference was characterised by excitement and optimism and there were addresses by Jones, Aggrey, Vischer, Fell and many others.
By the time of the conference, the BSA Company had relinquished its administrative responsibilities and all including the missionary societies were happy with that development. The missionaries were optimistic that the new government would strive to correct things and assist them come up with a worthwhile educational system. From the drafted resolutions presented at the conference for its consideration by Jones and Fell, points were taken and combined and a lengthy resolution arrived at.
Snelson (1974) quotes from ‘Proceedings of the General Missionary Conference of Northern Rhodesia,1925’ that in their resolution, the missionaries recognised that though secular education was the duty of the state, they desired to share in the provision of the same to the natives. The resolution further presented that the missionaries believed that co-operation between them and the government would be in the best interest of this education. The resolution stated that the basic principles for all educational work would be that both Primary and Secondary education would be undertaken in mission schools with aid from the state. Higher education was to be undertaken in government schools with mission aid.
The conference also recommended that in order for the principles to be carried out there was a need to appoint a Director of Native Education and a board of Advice on which missions would be represented. The other recommendations put forward were as follows:
If we compare what was discussed in the earlier conferences to what was discussed in this conference, we can conclude that there was a repetition of some demands and just an addition of a few more.
The Phelps strokes commission was set up in New York under the will of Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes to further the education of Negroes in Africa and the United States, (Snelson,1994). The first commission that was set up visited the south, west and equatorial Africa under the leadership of Dr Jones who later wrote a report about the same visit. This report raised a great deal of interest and as such another commission was set up which would this time visit East and Central Africa.
Among the members of the commission were: Dr Jones Aggrey,a distinguished educationist from Gold Coast( presently Ghana); Dr J.H Dillard from the USA who was the President of the Jeans fund, Dr H.L Shantz, agriculturalist and Botanist from the USA; Rev Garfield Williams, education secretary of the church missionary society; Major Hanns Vischer, secretary of the Colonial office advisory committee on native education in tropical Africa, C.T Loram of South Africa and James Dougall from Scotland. The chairman of the commission was Dr Thomas Jesse Jones.
The Phelps Stokes Commission was charged with a threefold task:
Between January and July 1924, members of the commission visited French Somali land,
Abyssinia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa. The commission divided itself so as to cover all the countries indicated above. The party that visited Northern Rhodesia from 8th to 13th was made up of Dr Jones, Aggrey, Vischer and Dougall. This group spent most of its time at the General missionary conference held at Kafue in order to meet the missionaries.
The following were the recommendations of the commission (note that only the recommendations that concerned Northern Rhodesia are discussed below):
Adopted from Snelson (1974)
When was the first time you heard about the British South Africa Company (BSA Company)? Mention some of the major achievements of the BSA Company.
Check if you included any of the following:
The BSA Company gained control over North-Western and North -Eastern Rhodesia in the 1890s.Its task was to administer the two territories mentioned above which were eventually combined in 1911 and later came to be known as Northern Rhodesia. This, the company did on behalf of the British government until 31st March, 1924.
“Although the company achieved considerable success in ending the slave trade, putting a stop to inter-tribal wars, creating an administrative system it’s record in regard to the African education was one of consistent neglect. Development schemes which were not strictly essential- and education for the Africans did not come within the definition- could not be countenanced. For three decades, these somnolent years as Hall dubbed them, the company consistently refused to give financial assistance to missionary educational enterprise in the country and failed lamentably and shamefully to implement the explicit promises regarding education which had been made in the treaties with Lewanika, paramount chief of the Lozi and with other chiefs when the concessions were granted which established the company’s authority” (Snelson 1974: 121)
The BSA company was not really committed to the development and advancement of native education in Northern Rhodesia. In the case of Lewanika treaties were signed in 1890, 1898 and 1900 in which he (Lewanika) was assured that schools would be provided for his people. In addition, there was a promise to aid and assist in the education and civilization of the natives of his land. The provision of the aid and assistance would be facilitated by the establishment, maintenance and endowment of schools and industries. However, the BSA company did not live up to its promise.
Carmody, 2004 further adds that for the thirty-four years that the BSA company administered the territory, it established only one school. This being the Barotse National School set up in 1906 at Kanyoyo. This was despite it (BSA co) collecting large sums of money in taxes from the local people. Most of the teachers that were tasked to teach in the few available schools were poorly educated, in addition to not being trained and being very poorly paid. All this bordered on the fact that the BSA company refused to support education though it was eager to control the education system through its 1918 Native Schools Proclamation.
(Adapted from Snelson1974)
A year after taking office from the BSA company, Sir Herbert Stanley (the governor in the colonial office) created a sub-department of Native Education. This sub-department was under the Department of Native Affairs. Geoffrey Chitty Latham was immediately appointed as Director. Snelson 1974 describes Latham as ‘one among the most capable men in government service who had held different posts from the time he joined the administrative service of the company in 1910.
Latham was faced with a mammoth task of ensuring to create a coherent and comprehensive system on education that would suit the needs of the country and its people. At the time of his appointment, there were fifteen missionary stations and almost 2000 schools in which were enrolled almost 100 000 children.
The teachers who taught these children had very humble professional training and the syllabus followed was not in any order while the equipment and learning materials used were inadequate. As such the education system that Latham had to come up with was to be one that would cater for both the large underdeveloped rural areas and the growing townships in the line of rail. Among the people who were to support Latham in his work were:
The people listed above joined Latham between 1928 and 1930. As such Latham worked tirelessly by himself in the first years and laid the foundations of the Educational Administrative System in Northern Rhodesia. The system was to last until independence. He (Latham) retired in 1831 and is referred to in some cases as the father of African education in Northern Rhodesia.
During his six-year tenure in office, Latham contributed greatly to many issues in education. He built up a department that was able to stand on its own by 1930. That is to say, the department stood independent of the Department of Native Affairs. The Department was planted on the site of the Jeanes school at Mazabuka. The other of Latham’s achievements included the following:
During the 1930s Educational development took place on a very modest scale. The 1939-1945 war however transformed the Northern Rhodesia economy and produced the money that was required for the educational system.
There was a lot of demand for raw materials by the allied powers for war. Output from copper mines soared. Production during the six years of the war totalled almost 1,500 000 tons (copper prices which had fallen to £ 25.6 in 1932 rose to £ 66.1 per ton in 1941-46.
At Broken hill mine production of Lead, Zinc and Vanadium were increased and the production of these commodities also rose. The greatest benefactors from this boom in the country’s mining industry were the shareholders in the BSA CO which had appropriated the mineral rights of North-Western Rhodesia half a century earlier.
Nevertheless, the government also shared in the general prosperity through its receipt from taxation. For the first time in the country’s history substantial sums were available for spending on the development of social services. During the period
1939- 1945 government expenditure on African education rose rapidly as follows;
1939 – £ 42 286
1940- £ 55 182
1941 – £ 69 453
1942 – £ 88 483
1943 – £ 99 405
1944 – £ 123 200
1945 – £ 149 450
Adapted from Snelson (1974, p. 236)
The federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is also known as the Central African Federation. It was established on 23 October, 1953 at the instigation of white settlers and against strong opposition from Africans who saw it as marginalizing them and an attempt by white settlers to entrench power in the territory.
Fearing that the two Rhodesians might link up with South Africa, the British government capitulated to the wishes of white settlers.
Northern Rhodesia’s copper industry was the prize the federal government in Salisbury wished to exploit. During the federal period, almost £ 100 000 was transferred in tax from Northern Rhodesia to Salisbury mostly for developments in Southern Rhodesia.
During the federal period, the mining industry was the only part of Northern Rhodesia’s economy that developed. Education during this period was racially segregated. The Northern Rhodesia government was responsible for African education while the federal government was responsible for the education of all other races and for higher education.
There was an unbalanced allocation of resources with the larger share going to educational developments for non-Africans and a relatively small share going to the Northern Rhodesia government for African education. This was in spite of the fact that copper revenues from the North financed most of the educational developments for all races.
In Northern Rhodesia, more secondary schools were opened especially after 1956. Trade schools developed and some technical education was provided at Hodgson Institute in Lusaka. Tentatively early moves in 1952-53 towards the establishment of a university in Lusaka frightened the federal authority in speeding up the development of the university college of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This was opened in Salisbury in March 1957
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