Universities' Mission To Central Africa
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The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...
society established by members of the
Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
within the universities of
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,
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, Durham, and
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. It was firmly in the
Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
tradition of the Church, and the first to devolve authority to a bishop in the field rather than to a home committee. Founded in response to a plea by
David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livings ...
, the society established the mission stations that grew to be the bishoprics of
Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
and
Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After ...
(later Malawi), and pioneered the training of black African priests.


Origins

The society's foundation was inspired by lectures that Livingstone gave on his return from Africa in 1857. Though named to reflect its university origins, from the outset it welcomed contributions from wellwishers unaffiliated to those institutions. The society had two major goals: to establish a mission presence in Central Africa, and to actively oppose the slave trade.


First mission

To advance these goals, it sought to send a mission led by a bishop into Central Africa; Charles Mackenzie was duly consecrated in 1860 and led an expedition in 1861 up the
Zambezi The Zambezi (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 half of t ...
into the Shire Highlands. This first expedition was more or less disastrous. The area chosen as a base, near Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi), proved highly
malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
l; Bishop Mackenzie died there of the disease on 31 January 1862, along with many local people and three others among the tiny missionary party. Early conversion efforts from this base yielded little result, and supplies ran out or were destroyed during a period of famine. The mission then withdrew from the area, abandoning the graves of the missionaries who had died there, and, though it established a new presence in Zanzibar, many years passed before it returned to Malawi. Bishop Tozer, Mackenzie's successor, deemed the mission's early years "a miserable failure".


Zanzibar mission

Mackenzie's successor, Bishop Tozer, relocated the society's base to
Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
in 1864. Here they enjoyed much greater success, receiving a cordial welcome from the island's Arab and African residents, and establishing a number of operations, including a mission school, St Andrew's at Kiungani. The mission's early work in Zanzibar substantially involved caring for and schooling children rescued from slavery, and establishing a settlement - Mbweni, founded 1871 - for these released slaves to live in. On Christmas Day, 1873, the foundation stone of Christ Church was laid in the grounds of the former slave market, closed only six months earlier. It was completed in time for Christmas 1880 and a mass celebrated there. Miss Annie Allen came to the Zanzibar Mission in 1878 and later came to consider it home. Here she created a Zenana Mission that served many women and children.


Expansion

In 1874, Tozer was succeeded as bishop by Edward Steere, who pursued the mission's aim of returning to establish a presence at Lake Nyasa. Rather than attempting the arduous river navigation that had doomed the first mission, they set out for Lake Malawi this time overland, developing a network of mission stations toward the lake. Prominent among these were the stations at Magila and Masasi: Magila had been chosen after an initial site the mission had sought at Vuga, the capital of the Kilindi kingdom, was ruled out by the suspicious Kilindi chief. The site for the mission village at Masasi was reportedly chosen by African converts whom the missionaries were attempting to lead back to the homes from which they had been captured by slavers: though sure that the site was not their original home, they said it resembled it enough to settle. Via these routes, two missionaries, Charles Janson and William Percival Johnson, first reached the lake in 1884; Janson died there, but he lent his name to a ship the UMCA commissioned for use in ministering around the lake. which Steere's successor, Charles Alan Smythies, was able to use to travel widely through Africa on mission work. He oversaw the establishment on Likoma Island, in the lake, of a mission station, and then of an entire new diocese with its own bishop and its own cathedral, St Peter's, is still standing in the 21st century. Another of Smythies's commitments was to the principle that Africa be converted and ministered by African priests, and he made many improvements to the arrangements for their teaching at Kiungani, ordaining the first local African priests. The first of these was Cecil Majaliwa, who worked at Chitangali in the Ruvuma Mission for eleven years, and made many converts. Smythies considered making Majaliwa bishop of the Ruvuma district, but his successors William Moore Richardson and John Edward Hine let the idea die. Although Hine was willing to raise African clergy to the rank of archdeacon, when he left this was abandoned too, and the highest rank any African reached in the UMCA missions before independence in 1961 was that of honorary canon. However, Majaliwa's grandson John Ramadhani became a bishop 1980 and the third African Archbishop of the
Anglican Church of Tanzania The Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT; ) is a province of the Anglican Communion based in Dodoma. It consists of 28 dioceses (27 on the Tanzanian mainland, and 1 on Zanzibar) headed by their respective bishops. It seceded from the Province of Ea ...
in 1984. John Ramadhani's nephew Augustino Ramadhani, became Chief Justice of Tanzania from 2007 to 2010. The organisation continued to work out of its bases on Zanzibar, Likoma, and on the Tanzanian mainland until 1910, when it commenced work also in
Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in Southern Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North ...
(now Zambia). It then pursued missionary work in these four areas throughout the first half of the twentieth century, offering medical provision and education as well as religious instruction and services. It played a prominent role in twentieth-century church history, with bishops including Frank Weston and John Edward Hine. Other notable Europeans among its staff included the novelist
Robert Keable Robert Keable (6 March 1887 – 22 December 1927) was a British novelist, formerly a missionary and priest in the Church of England. He resigned his ministry following his experiences in the First World War and caused a scandal with his 1921 no ...
, and bishop Chauncy Maples, who joined the UMCA as an archdeacon and became the second Bishop of Likoma before drowning on the lake. The UMCA later commissioned a boat that bore his name, as they had with Charles Janson before. SS ''Chauncy Maples'', built in 1899, is believed to be the oldest ship in Africa.


Legacy

The society's centenary fell amid a context of
decolonisation Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby Imperialism, imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholar ...
, and at a time when the UMCA was increasingly collaborating with the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organisation (registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Pa ...
. The two organizations merged in 1965. The combined organisation celebrated the UMCA's 150th anniversary by emphasising the continuing importance of global fellowship and mission for its members. Postcolonial historians' analyses of the UMCA have both praised its efforts to raise European humanitarian concern about slavery in East Africa and criticised the paternalistic attitudes toward Africans it continued to perpetuate, especially early in its history.


Further reading

* A.E.M. Anderson-Morshead
''The History of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa 1859-1909''
5th ed. (London: Universities' Mission to Central Africa, 1909). * C. Brad Faught, "Tractarianism on the Zambesi: Bishop Mackenzie and the Beginnings of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa", ''Anglican and Episcopal History'', vol. LXVII, no. 3, (September 1997), pp. 298–323. * Andreana C. Prichard, ''Sisters in Spirit: Christianity, Affect, and Community Building in East Africa, 1860-1970'' (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2017). *James Tengatenga, ''The UMCA in Malawi. A History of the Anglican Church 1861 - 2010'' (Zomba: Kachere, 2010).


See also

*
Anglican Church of Tanzania The Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT; ) is a province of the Anglican Communion based in Dodoma. It consists of 28 dioceses (27 on the Tanzanian mainland, and 1 on Zanzibar) headed by their respective bishops. It seceded from the Province of Ea ...
*
Christianity in Malawi According to the 2018 census, 77.3% of the population is Christian. Denominations include Roman Catholics at 17.2% of the total population, Central Africa Presbyterians at 14.2%, Seventh-day Adventist at 9.4%, Anglicans at 2.3%, Pentecostals at ...
* Chama Cha Mariamu Mtakatifu


References


External links


Historical resources on the Universities' Mission to Central Africa
from
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ...
{{Authority control Anglo-Catholicism Church of England missionary societies UMCA (Universities' Mission to Central Africa) Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom Religious organizations established in 1857 Sultanate of Zanzibar Nyasaland Christian organizations established in the 1850s 1857 establishments in the British Empire