Reading this week:

• Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy by William Watson
• Ancient Light by Dr. Melanie King

Our series on “things I found in the SOAS archives” continues. These will be some rather lengthy letters and reports, so I will split it up into a few posts. This series of letters (almost) all have to do with the missionaries “opening up” Bemba country, or as they called it Awemba country. Driven by missionary zeal, they of course wanted to get as many converts as possible, and maybe more importantly prevent other denominations from getting converts.

When the London Missionary Society had first arrived on the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika and worked among the Lungu and Mambwe people, the Bemba were considered warlike and unapproachable. The Bemba had apparently softened a bit over the years, I think not least in the face of encroaching British colonial expansion (I wrote that sentence, and then read Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy which tells me “in 1898 the British pacified the Bemba” so there you go). The LMS in turn had attempted to make approaches into Bemba territory, and in 1894 Reverend William Thomas and Alexander Carson went on an expedition down to Bemba country alongside Kalulu and Pondella, the headman of I think Niamkolo village. That trip is reported on in the January 1895 edition of the Chronicle. They were able to see Chief Ponde, though the messages coming from the Chitimukulu (they spell it Kitimkuru) were not welcoming.

Flash forward a bit to 1900 and the picture had changed. It now seemed possible to go and settle and set up missions in Bemba country, and various missionary societies were banging on the door to be let in. Long time readers will recall that I visited Chilubula Mission near Kasama, founded in 1899 by the White Fathers. This is in Bemba territory. The British colonial authorities, I gather, were much more sympathetic to the LMS because we can’t forget that the White Fathers were not only papists, but also French (I want to be clear I have no horse in this race but I am trying to convey what I think were the attitudes of the local authorities). So around this time they were preventing the White Fathers from extending their mission much farther into Bemba territory in order to allow British protestant missionaries to get a foothold first. But there would be only so long they could hold the White Fathers back.

Hence, this letter from James Hemans to the LMS Foreign Secretary Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson:

Niamkolo

Jan 6 1900

Dear Mr. Thompson,

After a conversation with the Resident Magistrate, a day or two ago, I am constrained, so take on myself, to write to you without delay, re Kazembe’s village – the one to which the late A. Carson went in 1894 in view of opening up work there. The whole country is now opened; Kazembe’s village alone has a population of 7,000; & there are other smaller villages near.

It is felt that should a station be not opened there at once, the Society will be losing an opportunity never to be regained.

If I were to wait to bring the matter before the Committee, it would take some time before anything would be decided; & the opportunity may then be lost when you hear of it; thus I write. There is no other village in Central Africa with even half that population. When the late Mr. Carson went to see Kazembe, he was greatly adversed to missionaries or any white man coming to his place, but he is now changed – he is submissive to law & authority. It is, from all accounts, a very populous country, & is expected to be the country of the future.

It is believed that should the coming dry season be passed over, the opportunity will be lost.

With united kindest regards, Believe me, Yours faithfully,

J.H.E. Hemans