Moravians in the Eastern Cape

1828–1928

Edited by F.R Baudert and T. Keegan ISBN: 0-9584522-2-9 Shiloh Mission Station

The translator, Friedrich Rudolf Baudert, is of thoroughgoing Moravian missionary stock. Trained at Natal University College, he himself became a mathematics teacher in Pietermaritzburg, and later worked for the Institute of Mathematical Research at the CSIR in Pretoria. He brings to this volume a deep personal knowledge of Moravian mission history and a first-language fluency in German. Dr Timothy Keegan is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of a number of books on the rural history of the highveld in the era of industrialisation, and the nineteenth-century Cape Colony. He has written widely for academic journals in South Africa and overseas.

The four missionary texts which make up this volume reveal the little-known range of Moravian missionary work in the Eastern Cape, from its inception in 1828 to 1928. Vivid and subjective in character, they illuminate this field of Moravian mission activity in South Africa, which extended to the Xhosa the pioneering work done at Genadendal and its family of stations in the Western Cape. The narratives paint a graphic picture of the commitment of the missionaries and their families, the success and failure of their evangelical mission work and also provide rare insights into the thinking and conduct of those who converted to Christianity. As such,

A singing class, Tabase, 1914

they offer a window onto cultural and social interaction in South Africa's longest-enduring and most volatile frontier zone, adding richly to an understanding of how this process played out on the ground at both a personal and institutional level.

could be trusted. Meyer writes: ‘Words fail me when I want to tell you what a relief it was for us when, after two years of complete solitude, we could again hear human voices nearby, and in the evening see two or three fires showing that living beings similar to ourselves were not far away. For this we thank God, and trust that, after having struggled when we sowed the seed under stress, we shall now be able to reap a rich harvest of souls saved.’

These hopes were fulfilled. First separate individuals came to be baptised; these were later followed by whole groups arriving on horseback. Meyer wrote happily: ‘Once again we have souls to look after, children in the school, and manual workers to help us!’ On Saturdays numbers of pagans arrived to stay overnight as guests of members of the growing Emtumasi congregation, in order to attend Divine Service the next day. Crowds came to morning prayers early on Sunday mornings and then stayed on for all the services. Quite without being prompted, the pagans no longer appeared attired in traditional garb including faces decorated with red ochre; instead, they wore clean clothes. Meyer was kept occupied all day in his paltry little study. Mrs Meyer writes: ‘We’ll be eternally thankful for these blessed times. We couldn’t cope with all the demands on our time; my husband seemed hardly to be able to spare the time to be at home, as he travelled from kraal to kraal, often quite far apart.’

As an illustration of Meyer’s enthusiastic devotion to duty and perseverance, the following may be mentioned.

When candidates for baptism from the Hlubi tribe were receiving instruction, and flooding by the Kinira River threatened to disrupt this, Meyer was nevertheless determined to go to them: twice when crossing the river his horse stumbled on the slippery rocky bed in midstream, and he fell into the water.

One day a woman, one of her husband’s wives, came to Meyer, begging him to baptise her. Meyer asked her: ‘Does your husband know why you have come here?’ ‘No, he is not at home.’ ‘But when he comes back he will assault you; this has happened to others, you know.’ ‘I will bear it,’ she replied, ‘when I remind myself that Jesus was scourged because he loved sinners and also loves me.’

As the number of converted increased, Meyer realised the time had come to consider building a small church. A beginning was made after the family had travelled into the Cape Colony, where they had to take leave of their small daughter, Mathilde, who had to be educated in Germany. Two previous attempts to erect a church in Emtumasi had had to be abandoned as a result of the war. This time, however, the Christians living nearby helped with enthusiasm, although it must be recorded that at first, at least, no assistance was forthcoming from Zibi and believers who had settled further off.