![The National Archives UK - CO 1069-214-41-Derivative-01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/The_National_Archives_UK_-_CO_1069-214-41-Derivative-01.jpg)
Lovedale, also known as the Lovedale Missionary Institute was a mission station and educational institute in the Victoria
East division of the Cape Province,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
(now in
Eastern Cape Province
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 199 ...
). It lies above sea level on the banks of the
Tyhume River
The Tyhume River is a river in Amathole District Municipality in the central part of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
It springs in the forested mountains of Hogsback, part of the Amatola Mountains, and runs down the Tyhume River Valle ...
, a tributary of the
Keiskamma River
The Keiskamma River ( af, Keiskammarivier) is a river in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The river flows into the Indian Ocean in the Keiskamma Estuary, located by Hamburg Nature Reserve, near Hamburg, midway between East London and P ...
, some north of
Alice.
Foundation
The station was founded in 1824 by the
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
Society (GMS) and was named after Dr
John Love, one of the leading members of, and at the time secretary to, the society. The site first chosen was in the
Ncera valley, but in 1834 the mission buildings were destroyed during the
6th Frontier War. On rebuilding, the station was removed somewhat farther north to the banks of the Tyhume river.
John Bennie was one of the founding fathers of the mission station, which was established among the Xhosas. In 1846 the work at Lovedale was again interrupted, this time by the
War of the Axe
The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. T ...
. On this occasion the buildings were converted into a fort and garrisoned by regular troops. In 1850, the Xhosa government threatened Lovedale and made an attack on the neighbouring
Fort Hare
Fort Hare was an 1835 British-built fort on a rocky outcrop at the foothills of the Amatola Mountains; close to the present day town of Alice, Eastern Cape in South Africa.
History
Originally, Fort Hare was a British fort in the wars between t ...
, built during the previous war.
Until 1841 the missionaries had devoted themselves almost entirely to
evangelistic
In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.
Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are ...
work; in that year the Lovedale Missionary Institute was founded by William Govan, who, save for brief intervals, continued at its head until 1870. He was then succeeded by
Dr. James Stewart (1831-1905), who had joined the mission in 1867, having previously (1861-1863), and partly in company with
David Livingstone
David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...
, explored the
Zambezi
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
regions.
Jane Elizabeth Waterston, a Scottish teacher, was given the job of creating a facility for girls at the mission. She arrived in South Africa in January 1867 to work for Dr James Stewart. The Lovedale Girls' Institution opened on 23 August 1868.
Denomination
Until 1837 the mother institution back in Scotland, the GMS, was not attached to any church. The crisis that would lead to the
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
began brewing in the 1830s, and in 1837 the GMS split in two--those who continued to support the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
and those who disagreed with the Church's official policy, which allowed the church to appoint a pastor even against the wish of the congregation. Lovedale and some other missions went with the Church of Scotland, but others attached themselves to the Glasgow South African Missionary Society, which was associated with the
Relief Church
The Relief Church (or Presbytery of Relief) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination founded in 1761. In 1847 it united with the United Secession Church to form the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
In relation to the history of the Church ...
; after the 1843 disruption all of the stations allied with the Church of Scotland, including Lovedale, were transferred to the
Free Church of Scotland.
Native education
![Indaba Cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Indaba_Cover.jpg)
The institute, in addition to its purely church work — in which no sectarian tests were allowed — provided for the education of Africans of both sexes in nearly all branches of learning (Stewart discontinued the teaching of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, adopting
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
as the classic); it also took European (white) scholars, no racial distinction being allowed in any department of the work (indeed; until it became part of the new
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
in 1910, the laws of the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
were "colour-blind"). The institute gave technical training in many subjects and maintained various industries, including such diverse enterprises as farming and printing-works. Eventually it included a primary school, high school, technical school, a teacher training college, a theological college and a hospital.
The school buildings rivalled in accommodation and completeness those of the schools in large British cities. The educational and industrial methods initiated at Lovedale were widely adopted by other missionary bodies.
Lovedale later became a branch of the work of the
United Free Church of Scotland
The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...
, becoming part of the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
in 1929 (when the United Free Church united with the Church of Scotland). It was closed in the 1950s under the
Bantu Education Act
The Bantu Education Act 1953 (Act No. 47 of 1953; later renamed the Black Education Act, 1953) was a South African segregation law that legislated for several aspects of the apartheid system. Its major provision enforced racially-separated educati ...
. The last ordained Principal of Lovedale was the Reverend
R. H. W. Shepherd, who became
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland, minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week i ...
in 1959.
Missionary control of the college at Lovedale ended in 1955, passing to the state through the Bantu Education Act of 1952. The Lovedale Bible School continued as a separate Christian institution.
Lovedale Press, in Alice, continues to publish religious and educational material in several languages.
The
Ciskei
Ciskei (, or ) was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people-located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of , almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian O ...
Government closed the college in 1979 but later re-opened it.
The campus at Alice continues today with an emphasis on Agriculture.
Notable alumni
*
David Cranmer Theko Bereng
*
Steve Biko
*
Chris Hani
Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani , was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce ...
*
William Wellington Gqoba
William Wellington Gqoba (August 1840 – 26 April 1888) was a South African Xhosa poet, translator, and journalist. He was a major nineteenth-century Xhosa writer, whose relatively short life saw him working as a wagonmaker, a clerk, a teacher, ...
*
Ellen Kuzwayo
Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (29 June 1914 – 19 April 2006) was a women's rights activist and politician in South Africa, and was a teacher from 1938 to 1952. She was president of the African National Congress Youth League in the 1960s. In 19 ...
*
Z. K. Mathews
*
Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi
Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (S. E. K. Mqhayi, 1 December 1875 – 29 July 1945) was a Xhosa dramatist, essayist, critic, novelist, historian, biographer, translator and poet whose works are regarded as instrumental in standardising the gramm ...
*
Govan Mbeki
Govan Archibald Mvuyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001) was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the son of Chief Sike ...
*
Gladys Mgudlandlu
*
Charles Nqakula
*
Sam Nolutshungu
Samuel Clement Nolutshungu (15 April 1945 – 12 August 1997) was one of the foremost South African scholars, and an internationally acclaimed expert on South African politics.
Born in King William's Town in 1945, he studied first in the Lo ...
*
Enoch Sontonga
Enoch Mankayi Sontonga ( – 18 April 1905) was a South African composer, who is best known for writing the Xhosa hymn "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" (), which, in abbreviated version, has been sung as the first half of the national anthem of South ...
*
King Sobhuza II
Sobhuza II, (; also known as Nkhotfotjeni, Mona; 22 July 1899 – 21 August 1982) was the Paramount Chief and later Ngwenyama of Swaziland for 82 years and 254 days, the longest verifiable reign of any monarch in recorded history. Sobhuza was ...
*
Tiyo Soga
Tiyo Soga (1829 – 12 August 1871) was a Xhosa journalist, minister, translator, missionary evangelist, and composer of hymns. Soga was the first black South African to be ordained and worked to translate the Bible and John Bunyan's classic ...
*
Walter Stanford
Sir Walter Ernest Mortimer Stanford (2 August 1850 – 9 September 1933) was a South African civil servant and politician.
Stanford was born in Alice, South Africa, in 1850 and was educated at the Lovedale Mission School. He left school and b ...
Notable staff
*
Rev Dr James Stewart
*
George McCall Theal
George McCall Theal (11 April 1837, Saint John, New Brunswick – 17 April 1919, Wynberg, Cape Town), was the most prolific and influential South African historian, archivist and genealogist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
...
*
Milner Langa Kabane, who later became principal
*
'Masechele Caroline Ntseliseng Khaketla
*Rev David Duncan Stormont missionary here from 1891
Other
Lovedale is also the name of a house on the island of
Iona
Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...
in Scotland. It is believed that a previous resident of the house had South African links, which explains the naming of the house in an area where Gaelic house names predominate.
Notes and references
*
* The Gov'nor ''Observer Column'' in: ''The Financial Times'', June 14, 2001)
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{official website, http://www.lovedale.edu.za/
category:Eastern Cape
Christian missions in South Africa