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The American Zulu Mission in the Nineteenth Century: Clash over Customs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Myra Dinnerstein
Myra Dinnerstein
Affiliation:
Director of women's studies in theUniversity of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
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Extract

In the 1860s the controversy over the widespread revival of such African customs as “lobolo” (bridewealth) and the development of concubinage among the Christian converts almost destroyed the American Board Mission (AZM), which had been founded in 1835. Suddenly—or so it seemed to the American missionaries—the obedient converts of the previous decades began to defend customs that, from the beginning of the mission, had been denounced as “heathen” by the missionaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 235 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1976

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References

1. “Lobolo” is the custom among Bantu-speaking tribes of South Africa in which the prospective bridegroom gives cattle to the bride's family. The American missionaries viewed it incorrectly as a purchase of chattel that entitled the husband to total control over his wife. Wilder, Report of Umtwalumi Mission Station, 7 June 1854, American Board Collection (hereafter ABC), Houghton Library, Harvard University: 15.4, vol. 5, no. 251.

2. Called in South Africa the American Zulu Mission, or AZM.

3. On the American Board see Tracy, Joseph, “History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,” in History of American Missions to the Heathen, ed. Tracy, Joseph (Worcester, Massachusetts: Spooner & lowland, 1840)Google Scholar; and Phillips, Clifton Jackson, Protestant America and the Pagan World: The First Half Century of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810–1860 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, East Asian Research Center, 1969).Google Scholar

4. Champion to Anderson, Ginani, 21 April 1837, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 102.

5. Journal of Henry Venable, 25 July 1837, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 102.

6. For a detailed account of the mission's early efforts see Dinnerstein, Myra, “The American Board Mission to the Zulu, 1835–1900 (Ph.D. diss.: Columbia University, 1971).Google Scholar

7. Omer-Cooper, J. C., The Zulu Aftermath (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1966), pp. 29–36.Google Scholar

8. A somewhat similar attempt to bring non-Christian children into their own families had been made in the American Board mission in Bombay, India but had failed, because of lack of recruits. In the American Board mission in Ceylon, however, the plan had met with great success and the American Board supported the idea. Phillips, , Protestant America, p. 43Google Scholar; Ninth Annual Report, 1818 of the American Boara of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (hereafter ABCFM), pp. 181–182.

9. Adams to Anderson, Umlazi River, 15 April 1837, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 108.

10. Copies of these contracts are found in the American Board Mission Collection, Pietermaritzburg Archives, Natal (hereafter PMA), ease no. 8, vol. 11/2/1.

11. South African Mission to Anderson, 12 November 1849, ABC: 15.4, v. 4, no. 19.

12. Lindley and Adams to Anderson, Port Elizabeth, 15 May 1839, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 8.

13. Smith, Edwin W., The Life and Times of Daniel Lindley (London: The Epworth Press, 1949), p. 56Google Scholar; Lindley to Anderson, Port Natal, 17 July 1939, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 85; Venable to Anderson, Cape Town, 14 November 1338, v. 2, no. 95.

14. A copy of the letter of Adams to the Boer assembly asking for a land title is in PMA, ease no. 8, vol. 11/2/1.

15. Adams to Anderson, Umlazi, 29 November 1840, ABC: 15.4, v. 2, no. 117.

16. The factors shaping the decision are examined by Galbraith, John S. in Reluctant Empire: British Policy on the South African Frontier, 1831–1854 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963).Google Scholar

17. A. Grout to Anderson, Umvoti, 30 November 1855, ABC: 15.4, v. 4, no. 117.

18. A glebe, in ecclesiastical law, is land belonging to a particular church.

19. The size of the reserves at each station were: Umtwalume, 12,922 acres; Ifafa, 6,209; Aniahlongwa, 6,965; Ifume, 7,498; Umvoti, 6,207; Table Mountain, 5,623; Mapumulo, 8,196; Amanzimtote, 8,077; Umaunduze, 5,595; Esidumbini, 5,500; Inanda, 11,500; Itafamasi, 5,500. Smith, , Daniel Lindley, p. 309.Google Scholar

20. Report of the Natal Lands Commission, 1902, pp. 58–67.

21. Goodenough, Secretary of Reserve Trust Board to unnamed addressee, Groutville, 7 Desember 1891, American Zulu Mission Oollection, Inanda Seminary, Natal, undassified.

22. Instructions of the Prudential Committee to Lindley, Venable, Wilson, Champion, Grout, and Adams, Boaton, 22 November 1834, in Kotze, D. J., ed., Letters of the American Missionaries 1835–1838 (Cape Town: The Van Ricbeeck Society, 1950), p. 48.Google Scholar

23. Beyerhaus, Peter and Lefever, Henry, The Responsible Church and the Foreign Mission (London: World Dominion Press, 1964), p. 20.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., p. 11.

25. Anderson's ideas are developed in Outline of Missionary Policy (Boston, 1856)Google Scholar and later in Foreign Missions: Their Relations and Their Claims (New York: Charles Seribner and Company, 1869).Google Scholar

26. L. Grout to Anderson, Umsunduzi, 26 June 1849, ABC: 15.4, V. 5, no. 34; Mission to Anderson, 12 September 1849, V. 4, no. 19; Bryant to Anderson, Humi, 16 May 1849, v. 4, no. 17.

27. Robbins to Clark, 2 June 1870, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 202.

28. Wilder to Clark, 17 January 1872, ABC: 15.4, v. 8, no. 598.

29. McKinney to Anderson, Amanzimtote, 7 May 1862, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 65; Mellen, Report of Inanda and Umsunduzi, 31 May 1863, v. 6, no. 72; Robbins to Anderson, Umzumbe, 12 July 1867, V. 7, no. 198; A. Grout to Clark, Umvoti, 17 February 1869, v. 6, no. 314; A. Grout to Clark, Umvoti, 23 November 1866, v. 6, no. 300; Tyler to Clark, Esidumbini, 14 June 1866, v. 7, no. 119.

30. A. Grout to Clark, Umvoti, 17 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 314.

31. The first reference to a meeting being held is by Adams who mentions it in September 1850, the previous year's meeting. Adams to Anderson, Umlazi, 25 September 1850, ABC: 15.4, v. 4, no. 111.

32. A. Grout to Anderson, Umvoti, 5 July 1859, ABC: 15.4, v. 4, no. 253.

33. Ireland to Anderson, Ifumi, 8 October 1860, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 3.

34. MeKinney to Anderson, Amanzimtote, 7 May 1862, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 65.

35. Report of (Natal) Lands Commission, 1902, pp. 27–28.

36. MeKinney to Anderson, Umvoti, 9 October 1847, ABC: 15.4, v. 4, no. 326.

37. Ireland, Annual Report of the Ifumi Station, 8 June 1853, ABC: 1.4, V. 4, no. 274; Mellen, Annual Report of Umtwalumi, 20 June 1855, v. 5, no. 111; Dohne to Anderson, Table Mt., 30 August 1858, v. 6, no. 216; Bridgman to Anderson, Ifumi, 22 June 1864, v. 6, no. 172; Pixley to Anderson, Amahlongwa, 14 June 1864, v. 7, no. 190.

38. McCall, George, History of South Africa from 1795 to 1871, 4th ed. rev. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1915Google Scholar; facsimile reprint, Cape Town: C. Struik, 1964), p. 259.

39. Vilakazi, Absolom, Zulu Transformations (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of Natal Press, 1965), p. 115.Google Scholar

40. A. Grout to Anderson, Umvoti, 14 August 1860, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 257.

41. Pinkerton to Clark, 28 July 1874, ABC: 15.4, v. 8, no. 408.

42. Clark to Mission, Boston, 8 February 1866; 31 October 1866; Clark to A. Grout, 16 February 1867, ABC: 2.1.1.

43. Mellen to Clark, Durban, 19 May 1870, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 178.

44. Monica Wilson has pointed out that, among the Nguni, some of these differences between the convert and the unconverted are found in ritual. The unconverted retained traditional practices at a wedding while the converts adapted Western customs. The Western ritual of a wedding cake, for example, was adapted by the converts, even though they may have utilized it in a non-Western way. The cake became two cakes and the health and fertility of the bride was thought to depend on the proper division of these cakes among the kin of the bride and groom. Wilson, Monica, “The Wedding Cakes: A. Study of Ritual Change,” in The Interpretson of Ritual, ed. La Fontame, J. S. (London: Tavistock Publications Limited, 1972), p. 188.Google Scholar

45. Natal Mission to Clark, Umvoti, 23 May 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 46.

46. du Plessis, J., A History of Christian Missions in South Africa (Cape Town: C. Struiek, 1965), p. 306Google Scholar; Ireland, W., “Sketch of the Zulu Mission, 1835 to 1885,” in Jubilee of the American Mission in Natal, 1835 to 1885 (Natal: Home Brothers Printers, 1886), p. 48.Google Scholar Two other editions of the New Testament were published in 1872 and 1878. The complete Bible was published in 1883.

47. Barrett, David B., Schism and Renewal in Africa (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1968), pp. 129–134, 268–269.Google Scholar

48. Interview with the Rev. L. Grout by the Prudential Committee of the ABCFM, 18 June 1862, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 119; Mellen to Anderson, Annual Report of Umsunduzi, 15 May 1864, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 73.

49. Lindley to Clark, Inanda, 22 October 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 94.

50. Mrs. K. Lloyd to Mrs. Willard Parker [her mother], n.d., ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 127.

51. Clark to the Natal Mission, 2 June 1868, ABC: 2.1.1.

52. Mrs. Katie Lloyd to Clark, Private, Umvoti, June 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no number.

53. Robbins to Clark, 1876 cited in Chistofersen, Arthur Fridjob, Adventuring with God, ed. Sales, Richard (Durban, Natal: Robinson & Co., 1967), p. 53.Google Scholar

54. Clark to the Members of the churches connected with the American Zulu Mission, Boston, 10 March 1869, ABC: 2.1.1.

55. Tyler to Clark, Esidumbini, 17 September 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 300; Bridgman to Clark, 28 June 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 208; Ireland to Clark, Amanzimtote, 6 August 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 23.

56. Rood to Clark, 17 07 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 7, no. 230.

57. Wilder to Clark, Umtwalume, 24 June 1874, ABC: 15.4, v. 8, no. 16.

58. Pinkerton to Clark, Umtwalume, 5 January 1876, ABC: 15.4, v. 8, no. 416.

59. Pinkerton to Clark, Umtwalumi, 18 April 1876, ABC: 15.4, v. 8, no. 417.

60. A. Grout to Clark, Umvoti, 28 January 1869, ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 313.

61. A. Grout, Umvoti Report, 19 May 1869. ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 95.

62. The rules were:

1. No one who is a polygamist shall be received into any of the Churches connected with the American Zulu Mission, and no one who shall become a polygamist after his or her admission to the Church shall be allowed to remain in the same. Remark—Any man living with more than one wife, or any woman voluntarily living with a man who is the husband of more than one wife, shall be regarded as a polygamist.

2. No member of any of the Churches connected with the American Zulu Mission shall be allowed to lobolisa [verb form of lobolo: ask for cattle as a prerequisite for a marriage]. Remarks—(1) The demanding of cattle or money or goods of any kind, for a daughter or sister or any other female friend, as a condition of marriage, shall be regarded as uklobolisa [lobolo].

3. In no Church connected with the American Zulu Mission shall a man, who is a widower, be allowed to live with any woman, as his wife, before he is formerly married to her; and no woman, who is a widow, shall be allowed to live with any man, as her husband, before she has been formally married to him in a Christian way.

4. No member of any of the Churches connected with the American Zulu Mission shall be allowed to participate in or encourage in any way the making of “beer drinks.” Remark—(1) The calling of a party to drink beer, or the attending a party where beer is drunk, or the furnishing of beer for such a party, shall be regarded as a violation of the above rule. (2) Wedding parties are no exception to the rule.

5. No member of any of the Churches connected with the American Zulu Mission shall be allowed to use, as a beverage, any intoxicating drinks whatever.

6. No member of any of the Churches connected with the American Zulu Mission shall be allowed at any time to smoke the insangu [marijuana or wild hemp]. Ireland, “Sketch of the Zulu Mission,” p. 45.

63. Mrs. Kati Lloyd to Mrs. Willard Parker [her mother], n.d., ABC: 15.4, v. 6, no. 127.

64. Ibid.

65. Clark to Natal Mission, 2 June 1868, ABC: 2.1.1.