Vernon Andy Anderson (August 23, 1896 – 1999) was an American Presbyterian missionary. Posted to the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

in 1921 he was one of the first missionaries to live among the Baluba-lubilashi sub-group of the

Baluba people The Luba people or Baluba are an ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in Katanga, Kasai and Maniema. The Baluba Tribe c ...

. He studied their society and helped to revise an early Tshiluba-English dictionary. Anderson later served as interim General Secretary of the Congo Protestant Council, a legal representative for the American Presbyterian Congo Mission and an inspector of its schools. He returned to the United States in 1959 and became a minister in Texas.

Early life

Vernon Andy Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 23, 1896 but his family moved soon afterwards to Alabama. Anderson graduated from the Alabama Presbyterian College in 1917 and in 1920 received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the

Presbyterian Theological Seminary The Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary was located at 3303 North 21st Place in North Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Opened in 1891 in downtown Omaha, the institution moved to the Kountze Place neighborhood in North Omaha in 1902 and closed i ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

Missionary work

Anderson joined the American Presbyterian Congo Mission after graduation and was posted to the

Kasaï region The Kasai region is a region in the central southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It shares its name with the Kasai River. After the independence of Congo in 1960, Kasai seceded for a while under influence of Belgium and became a ...

of the

. Anderson lived amongst the

from 1921 to 1946, and was one of the first missionaries to work with the Baluba-lubilashi sub-group. During his time with the Baluba Anderson studied their society and, in 1942, received a PhD degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for a dissertation titled ''Witchcraft in Africa: a missionary problem''. In this work he noted that most accused witches were women over the age of 55 and were at risk of being murdered by vigilantes. For seven years Anderson chaired a committee that revised an early edition of a Tshiluba-English dictionary. Anderson afterwards served as interim General Secretary of the Congo Protestant Council in Leopoldville for two years and from 1947 served on the Belgian government's Commission for the Protection of Indigenous People. He also acted as legal representative for the American Presbyterian Congo Mission in 1948. Anderson also served a 10-year term as that mission's inspector of schools from 1949.

Return to the United States

Anderson returned to the United States in 1959. He wrote a book entitled ''Still Led in Triumph'' that was published in Nashville, Tennessee later that year. This was a sequel to ''Led in Triumph'' by Ethel Taylor Wharton. In 1960 Anderson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Davidson College, North Carolina and thereafter served as an associate minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, Texas. He retired in 1966, after which he remained in Texas and died in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Vernon Andy 1896 births 1999 deaths Writers from Chicago American Presbyterian missionaries Presbyterian missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo American centenarians Men centenarians