Reading this week:

• A Training School for Elephants by Sophy Roberts

I said it before but as you can see from the titles the framing device for this series of posts is the efforts of the London Missionary Society to extend their Central African Mission into Bemba territory. Despite that being the framing device, I am going to wind up doing a very bad job of explaining the whole saga of said extension because there are large bits of it for which I don’t have scans of the letters. Instead, for the definitive story of this expansion I have to point you to the book Mbeleshi in a History of the London Missionary Society by Rev. Dr. Bwalya S. Chuba, available for your perusal at the Library of Congress.

From that book I can tell you in February of 1900 that Mr. and Mrs. Purves took a trip through Bemba country, visiting Chief Mporokoso and Chief Ponde. This was reported briefly in the June 1900 issue of the Chronicle: “Mr. and Mrs. Purves have been away from their station on a tour of inspection to the Bemba country, where it is hoped soon to begin work.” Based on that success of that “tour,” Mr. W. Govan Robertson then set out in July 1900 to open an out-station at Mporokoso. There he built a house and church-cum-school house, all apparently for the whopping sum of £12.5. To staff the school and do the preaching, Robertson installed one Mr. Joseph Kalulu as head teacher, along with assistants Mr. Kisama and Mr. Kawene, two younger teachers. Robertson himself returned up to Kawimbe.

One more detail necessary to explain the letter below is that around the time this was all going on, Mr. Robert “Miser of Headingley” Arthington offered to give the LMS a cool £10,000 to help with establishing a mission to the Bemba. This is double what he offered for them to put the SS Good News on Lake Tanganyika 25 years prior. This was reported in the Chronicle in September 1900.

Anyways that brings us to the below telegram:

I skipped transcribing it because it is explained with the benefit of punctuation in the below letter from John May to the LMS Foreign Secretary R. Wardlaw Thompson. For those who want more transcription action than I am providing here, this is the same letter quoted from in the March 1901 edition of the Chronicle:

Kawimbe

Nov 8^th 1900

My dear Mr. Thompson,

Though this is an unofficial letter, I may as well take the opportunity of acknowledging your letters to the D.C. of July 14^th, 1900, July 26^th, 1900, & telegram which arrived on Oct 19^th, & gave the liveliest satisfaction.

Our telegram sent on Oct 9^th read as follows – “Missionary, London, Awemba Country open to Society till end December. French Fathers waiting occupy; if we withhold, they enter. Purves ready; has Committee’s confidence. Money available here. Wire instructions. Urgent.”

It had to be long, to enable you to understand clearly our position. I am thankful it was not mutilated. A part of the cost has been borne privately. I think only a very small proportion will fall on the Society.

I think my letter to you written about a year ago will explain the first part of the telegram. Minutes & letter sent last September will explain fully the confidence the D.C. have in Mr. Purves. “Money available here,” means that our industrial work has done so well this year, that we should not have to draw on the funds of the Society for the expenses connected with the preliminary steps proposed.

Mr. & Mrs. Purves left here on Monday, October 22^nd, & we have not heard from them since they left Niamkolo. Mrs. Purves could not put her foot to the ground when she left, without great pain; but she bravely would not delay the journey a day. She was better according to latest news. It is wonderful what pluck she has.

We miss our good friends very much; their hearty good-nature & kindness have endeared them to us. Mr. Purves is a hard worker; & thoroughly in earnest, as Dr. Mather used to tell us before we knew him. We have a high opinion of him; & have seen nothing in him of what he was charged with, during the year we have spent with him.

Mr. Purves was to visit our out-station at Mpolokoso’s [Mporokoso’s], & then pass on to Kazembe’s Town – choose a healthy site on high ground about 7½ miles north of it, build a temporary house, settle down & begin school & evangelist work amongst the people; & return to meet his brethren for devotional purposes & consultation, in January. This will ensure occupation of the country from Johnstone Falls – where the Garanganze Mission have a station, right away east to Mambwe, & all the country north to the Congo Free State boundary, & round the Lake shore as far as Kasanga. This gives us a piece of country about as large as England. We trust nothing will happen to prevent our occupation of it. God has opened the way so far, & we are persuaded He will lead us right into possess the land for Him.

The D.C. are engaged in considering a report to send to the Board, as you ask in your last letter. The question of the best position for a second station cannot be considered until Mr. Purves reports to us early next year. One at any rate must be near Kazembe’s.

We were overjoyed & humbly thankful to get the good news of Mr. Arthington’s splendid offer for the Awemba Mission. We see God’s hand very manifestly, & are greatly encouraged in going forward.

We were very glad to have Mr. Draper & Mr. Mackendrick with us; & liked them very much. I think they will prove a tower of strength to the Mission. Soon we hope to hear of further reinforcements – Mr. Stewart Wright, a Doctor, etc. I trust your efforts to obtain a doctor will eventually be successful. Dr. Scott would have been just the man. I wish it might be possible to secure him; as far as our own experiences of him goes he seems almost an ideal medical missionary for Central Africa.

Thinking of how the Livingstonia Mission has run away with medical men you were hoping to get for our Mission – reminds me of the Semi-Jubilee Conference, which was held last month at Livingstonia. We are looking forward to Mr. Robertson’s return, to hear all about it. There were 33 missionaries & wives there & 4 babies!

Our baby grows & flourishes, & is in splendid health; is 8 months old today & has 6 teeth. He does not look like a tropical child, with roses in his cheeks.

Thank you very much for your personal letter to me of June 2^nd, which should have been acknowledged before. I noted carefully what you said about our teacher at Kasanga, & the last time I was there, I found there is no danger of his getting under the influence of the Greek trader there. For one thing, the trader’s goods are so dear, that he prefers getting his cloth etc. at Kawimbe, where he can spend his money to better advantage. But I was very glad of the word of caution you gave me.

Work is going on pretty fairly in the schools in the Saisi Valley, though I cannot get away to visit them till Mr. Robertson returns. One of the 3 centers has been closed for the present, as a few cases of small-pox appeared in 2 of the villages where teaching was carried on. We hope the small-pox will soon disappear, as we do not hear any more of it.

What you said about our industrial work in my letter, Mr. Draper’s instructions, etc., is a complete answer & what I wrote you in June last & gives me great satisfaction. We have heard no complaints of late. My engineering has done better this year & will show pretty good returns I think. Wagon repairing will give the blacksmiths a good deal of work in the future, I think. The best bit of engineering I have had since repairing the “Morning Star” was fitting a new brake on a wagon; & it is working very well.

The number of those who have spoke of their desire to be baptized, here at Kawimbe, is 23 up to the present. At Niamkolo Mr. Mackendrick baptized 4 women in October.

I have both an Enquirer’s & Catechumens’ Class each week. Mrs. May resumed her Women’s Class last Sunday; she had been too unwell to take it for some weeks (after an attack of quinsy). She is very well now, & gets better nights with the baby. Before the Purveses went away, we both had 6 days at a disused school-house, 4 miles from Kawimbe, & were the better for the change. Mrs. Purves took charge of Baby.

We have heard of the fearful heat you had last Summer, & are convinced you would have enjoyed the fresh breeze & bracing air of the Tanganyika Plateau during that sweltering time.

It will be well on in the New Century when you get this letter; & Mrs. May & I are only two of very many who are sending you hearty greetings & all best wishes for the New Year & Century.

That God may richly bless you & your wife is the earnest prayer.

Yours very sincerely, John May

Reading this week:

• Craftland by James Fox

Although the overall framing device for this series of posts (meant mostly to show you things I found in the SOAS archives) is the efforts of the London Missionary Society to extend their Central African Mission into Bemba territory, we continue our detour into the internal tensions and dissensions between the missionaries themselves. The last post was all about people falling apart, but because I am a hopeful kinda guy now here we are pulling them back together.

The first of the two letters in this post is from John May, writing as Secretary of the missionaries’ Tanganyika District Committee to the LMS Foreign Secretary in London, Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson. In Mr. Purves’ letter to Thompson, dated a month prior to the below one and featured in the last post, Purves was defending himself against accusations, it seems like, of drunkenness. In the below letter, May reports the happy news that Purves has been reconciled with Mr. Johnson. It does not say the nature of their dispute. In the last letter, Purves had noted that Johnson was in a position to defend him against accusations of drunkenness, and presumably did so on the committee, so who knows what the below amended dispute was (scans of this letter and next are at the bottom):

Kawimbe,

May 24^th 1900

Dear Mr. Thompson,

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are here with their children, on their way home; they leave probably tomorrow, the 25^th inst.

Mr. Johnson informs me that from the last letter he received from you, he sees his way clear to go home on furlough, in accordance with Resolution c. of the Directors, contained in letter of Dec 9^th 1899.

Yesterday he expressed the wish to meet Mr. Purves and talk matters over with him. I had previously received the enclosed letters from Mr. Purves containing a similar wish to meet Mr. Johnson. So the two gentlemen conferred together in the presence of Mr. Robertson and myself; and after mutual explanations, they were able to come to a good understanding.

Mr. Purves’s letter paved the way for this agreement. I trust the Board will be satisfied with this letter, especially as Mr. Johnson now feels he can work in harmony with Mr. Purves.

We are hoping that soon Dr. Mackay and Mr. Hemans may also be able to come to an understanding with Mr. Purves.

With very kind regards, I am, dear Mr. Thompson, Your respectfully,

John May

Secretary Tanganyika D.C.

It is jumping far ahead in our timeline, but in addition to overcoming whatever the issue was between him and Mr. Johnson, Purves managed to bury the hatchet with Mr. Hemans. Again it is unclear exactly what came between them in the first place (Hemans being the other man named in the exact same sentence as Johnson as someone who could defend Purves against drunkenness charges), but nice they were able to come to terms. So nice how talking to people can help. As for what is going on in the rest of the letter, also very unclear. Some nice words about Rev. George Mackendrick (who would be dead two months after this letter), and then obvious and reasonable offense that his affairs were available for perusal by the other missionaries:

Niamkolo, Tanganyika

Feby. 20, 1901

Dear Mr. Thompson,

I beg to acknowledge your very kind encouraging letter of Sep 15.

To be again reconciled with Mr. Purves has lifted as it were a very great burden off us. After seriously considering the matter, I felt that we should do as the Master would have done if he were here: thus I met Mr. Purves & spoke plainly to him; he then acknowledged his wrongs & apologized for his past action; and our difficulties have been settled most amicably. I am glad to say that we have since been drawn closer than ever to one another & have been laboring shoulder to shoulder.

2. We are highly pleased that Rev. Geo Mackendrick has been sent out & appointed to this station. I felt certain that if he were not here & by God’s goodness, either my wife and I or both of us would have died a few weeks ago. You will be pleased to know that he has been very diligent – striving hard to acquire the native language.

3. I enclose a draft for £100, one hundred pounds, which should have been sent to Rev. Las Watson. [?], but as it is urgent, to save time, I send it to you. Be good enough to see that the amount be forwarded & oblige.

4. While I was lying ill two weeks ago, my accounts came & Mr. Mackendrick informed me that I was congratulated for having paid my debts & having an amount at the Mission House. Nothing of the kind – it appeared thus because my creditors had not sent in this a/c. After the last fire we had, I had to buy things at exorbitant prices out here that are felt greatly. It is simply because I never complained why our difficulties are not known.

I did not agree with the Committee’s proposal that the “carriage allowance be reduced.” The yearly carriage of goods for my wife & me amounts to more than £40. Then, for me to agree to a reduction would be out of the question.

In the days when the Society paid for the carriage of our goods, things were quite different.

My a/c has again come to me from the Local Treasurer. Be good enough to give orders that in future it be put in an envelope & sent to me & the postage to be charged to me. I would prefer that to everyone knowing the details of my private business.

I hope the [?] will arrive safely.

With our united kindest regards, Yours faithfully,

J.H.E. Hemans

I realize it is a bit distasteful to air 125-year-old laundry but these are the human dimensions that shape history, the casual aggressions that indicate how we see each other and how organizations function. I still hold grudges from my Peace Corps days serving in the exact same spots as these guys where I have no recollection what my original complaint was, so I am sympathetic the pressures the conditions put you under. And here, from across the chasm of history is a reminder that the answer is so often to sit down and talk it out. And also to keep your mail private.

Reading this week:

• The Devil That Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna

Last week we covered a letter from James Hemans to the London Missionary Society Foreign Secretary Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson urging him to authorize the Central African Mission to open up a new station in the heart of Bemba-land. We immediately part from that journey with a detour.

There was a good amount of drama and tension within the ranks of the LMS’ Central African Mission. I am still picking up on this, because although I spent a whole bunch of time transcribing the Chronicle they spare their readers any of the interpersonal drama and unsavory things that occurred out there. But to quote a paragraph of Robert Rotberg’s Christian Missionaries and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia:

The Missionaries to Northern Rhodesia… were fiercely independent men and they fought bitterly with one another and with their overseas directors, usually to the detriment of their evangelical objectives. In their individual journals and correspondence, expressions of fractiousness, spitefulness, and jealousy compete with one another for space in numerous letters supposedly written more in sorrow than anger.

This will be a long entry but mostly one of other peoples’ texts, so while I am at it I will include another quote from the same chapter above. Hemans was a Black missionary from Jamaica and there was not a little bit of racism among the LMS ranks. This whole Bembaland story could have taken place back in 1894, when the missionaries sent their first expedition to the area. From Christian Missionaries:

Once, when the Bemba paramount chief wanted specifically to ask Hemans about Christianity, the synod forbade him to visit the chief. They thought that a white missionary should be the first to explain the Society’s principles, and to discuss the possible expansion of the London Mission into Bembaland. For the chief, however, only Hemans would do… But the synod was obstinate. It sent a white missionary, who was refused an audience with the chief, and the White Fathers instead occupied most of the Bemba country.

There will be more as this story unfolds, but for now, a letter from Mr. A.D. Purves to the LMS Foreign Secretary, perhaps written more in anger than sorrow:

L.M.S. Kawimbe

19^th April 1900

Dear Mr. Thompson,

Your letter of 6^th Jan to hand yesterday. I need hardly say its contents were a very painful surprise to me. I can well understand how much this painful business has grieved you. With regard to myself it is knocking the heart out of me. I can conscientiously say that since I entered the services of our Society I have striven to do my duty faithfully, and to live as becometh one set apart for the ministry of the Gospel. The only reason I can give for these calumnies is that perhaps – owing to my genial disposition – I have been a little too free and sociable with the Europeans I met in the country during my first term. This is a terrible country for gossip, and I don’t think there is a man who has been any time in the country but has stories circulated about him, which are detrimental to his character. In most instances there is no malice meant by these stories, but the white men in this country have so little to talk about, that when they meet they usually discuss their neighbors, and these stories as they travel from one to another sometimes get magnified to an enormous extent.

I have no recollection of you ever having mentioned the subject of drink to me, either in writing or at the Mission house. With regard to this matter let me say in the first place that I have nothing to confess. There is no man in this country that has seen me the worse of drink. When I entered this country I was a strong teetotaler, and it was only after a great deal of persuasion on the part of my friends, and those who had had experience in this country, that I brought out with me 2 bottles of brandy and 6 bottles of wine. I may also state that my yearly order during my first term in this country was, 2 bottles of brandy, and 12 bottles of wine, and the most of that was consumed by my friends for I have no love for the stuff.

With regard to when I was at Karonga meeting Mrs. Purves, I cannot understand how any one could say I was the worse of drink then. The fact is if I had been ever so anxious to have it, I could not have got it, for there was none in the district at that time. I am sorry to say that Mr. Blair the A.L.C. [African Lakes Corporation] agent and his assistant are both dead, otherwise they could have verified my statement. There were no other Europeans within four miles of Karonga at that time and therefore there are no other witnesses I could refer to.

Your letter has brought to my recollection a little incident which happened after Mrs. Purves and the Rev. D. Picton Jones arrived, from which some story may have arisen. There was a barrel of Vino Tinto – a light Portuguese Claret – arrived at Karonga for one of the Moravian missionaries, it was too heavy to be removed by native porters. The head of the Mission refused to pay the carriage of it, and therefore it was thrown on the hands of the A.L. Corp’s agent. One evening when the two engineers of the steamer were ashore to dinner, the agent drew off about two quarts of this wine, and put it on the table at dinner, and we all had a little of it. I remember there was some laughing and joking after, about drinking the missionary’s wine. But the Rev. D. Picton Jones was in the company, and he will tell you all about it, if that is the incident you refer to. I am unaware of any other incident from which the story you have heard can have arisen.

I am in a position to state, that when the other charges were brought against me by certain members of this mission, that of drinking was also brought forward, but the evidence was of such a flimsy and untrustworthy nature, that the committee at once refused it. Now it is a significant fact that the Rev. H. Johnson and Mr. Hemans were on that committee. The former was eight months my colleague here, and the latter was over two years beside me at Niamkolo, and neither of these gentlemen could say that they had seen me the worse of drink, or that I was in the habit of taking it. I feel convinced from their present attitude that they would have given evidence against me regarding this matter, if they could have done so.

Let me say in conclusion that on returning to England in 1897 I signed the pledge for the sake of a friend, whom I was anxious should become teetotal. I think it wise always to have it by me in case it be needed, for sometimes out here it is invaluable as a medicine.

With regard to the other charges I have already written you. But it may interest you to know that Pondela – the head man at Niamkolo – who was Mr. Hemans’ principle witness against me, and also against the boy who was punished for setting the store on fire at Niamkolo, was found guilty of false witness in another case and was fine £4 for that offence. He is at present in chains at Abercorn for having stolen cloth from the Societies store during the fire. It was proved that he stole the cloth, but they were not able to prove that he set the store on fire, although the natives maintain it was Pondela or some of his friends who did it, and not the boy who was punished for it.

With kind regards, Yours very truly,

A.D. Purves

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