A Mission Divided

David Harold-Barry

Description

ELEVEN JESUITS SET OUT FOR THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AFRICA BY OX-WAGON IN APRIL I 879 ON A MISSION TO PREACH THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO THE PEOPLE BEYOND THE LIMPOPO RIVER; WITHIN A YEAR AND A HALF, THREE OF THEM WERE DEAD.

They shared the same ignorance of Africa as their European contemporaries concerning disease, geography, culture, religion and the political rivalries of the people among whom they came. They also shared a narrow frame of reference towards the continent and the failure of imagination that went with it. Further, as people of their time, they saw - and were seen by - other denominations as rivals, and far from co-operating, the churches indulged in an unseemly competition.

And yet these men were, in their own way, heroic and faced the difficulties eagerly, even joyfully. Their failures and disappointments far outweighed the little progress they appear to have made but they laid the foundations for what was to follow after 1890 when the colony of Southern Rhodesia was established. This event inaugurated a ninety-year period, when relations between church and state waxed and waned. The missionaries welcomed the order - even if it could not be called peace - and the infrastructure the colonisers introduced. The speed of travel, for instance, went from about 15 km a day by ox-wagon, to 30 km an hour by train.

But the Church - and the Jesuits were for long the drivers of what we mean by Church - never managed to decide on a coherent policy vis-a-vis the white government until it was too late. They were divided; the majority of Jesuits worked with blacks but there was a sizeable number who worked exclusively with whites. So, while we can document the enormous and fruitful work that was done over the decades after 1890, we have to acknowledge the failure to give a united witness in confronting the nakedly racialist policies of the state. If we had been able to do this in the 1920s and '30s we might have contributed to the evolution of a more harmonious society and avoided the terrible bloodshed of subsequent years.

Introduction

1. The Mise en Scène

2. Ox-wagons and Mosquitoes 1878-89

3. Putting down Roots

4. Growth and Questions

5. Reaching the Zambezi

6. Urban Tensions

7. Mission and Culture

8. A 'Dual Mission'?

9. Education for Development

10. Justice and War

11. 'And there was much else...'

12. Into the Future ...

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Missions
• Christian Ministry
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Religión
• África
• Minister (Christianity)
• Southern Rhodesia
• General officer
• South
• History of Africa
• General
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Weaver Press
• Date de parution: 29 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781779224125
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

A Mission Divided
A Mission Divided
The Jesuit Presence in Zimbabwe, 1879-2021
David Harold-Barry
Published by Weaver Press, Box A1922, Avondale, Harare. 2022 < www.weaverpresszimbabwe.com >
© The Society of Jesus, PO Box UNZA 46, Lusaka, Zambia., 2022
All except the most recent photographs are taken from the Jesuit Archive, P.O. Box MP 610, Mount Pleasant, Harare. Details of the photographers have been given when these are known.
Photograph on front cover is of Fr Leonard Kennedy who planted orange trees wherever he found himself. Here he rests by ‘Jacob’s well’ as the women draw water. Photograph on the back cover is of Fr Walter O’Connor looking bemused, Silveira House, 1961.
Typeset by Weaver Press Cover by Danes Design, Zimbabwe Maps by Street Savvy, Harare Index by Rita Sephton
The author and the publishers would like to express their gratitude to The Society of Jesus, Province of Southern Africa, for their support of this publication.
All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-77922-411-8 (p/b) ISBN: 978-1-77922-412-5 (e-pub) ISBN: 978-1-77922-413-2 (PDF)
Contents
Introduction
1. The Mise en Scène
White missionaries and white conquerors
A sustained and imaginative commitment
Mechanics or gardeners?
The Jesuits
The Jesuits in Zimbabwe
Occupation or process
A ‘degraded’ people
Dispossessed of their land
A damaged environment
2. Ox-wagons and Mosquitoes 1878-89
Gonçalo da Silveira (1521-61)
Henri Depelchin
Kimberley, May 1879
Shoshong, July 1879
Tati, August 1879
Bulawayo, September 1879
Tati, January 1880
Umzila’s, Tshamatshama, May 1880 - October 1881
Mweemba’s, Zambia, May-October 1880
Mission to the Lozi, Zambia 1881
GuBulawayo
Empandeni
Conclusions
3. Putting down Roots
Chishawasha
Empandeni again
Embakwe
The first Chimurenga : the Ndebele and the Shona rising, 1896/97
The impact of the risings
The railways
Kutama (1912)
Driefontein
Gokomere
Schools
4. Growth and Questions
Musami (1915)
The ‘Jeep’ years
The approach of war
6 February 1977
ZANLA at Musami
The end of the war
Independence
Mhondoro (1925)
Makumbe
Fort Victoria (Masvingo) (Gokomere), Bikita (Silveira), Macheke (Monte Cassino)
Wedza (Hwedza), Gwelo (Gweru), Wankie (Hwange)
Christian villages
Outstations
Mariannhill leaves Mashonaland
All Souls (1930)
Chikwizo, St Martin’s 1960
5. Reaching the Zambezi
Kutama (1912)
Marymount (1949)
Kariba (1957)
Mhangura (1958)
Chinhoyi (1954)
Karoi (1963)
Murombedzi (Gangarahwe, St Kizito’s)(1964)
Banket (1964)
Hurungwe (St Boniface)(1968)
Makonde (St Rupert’s) (1964)
Sipolilo (St Edward’s) (1958); Guruve (St Joseph’s) (1980)
Chitsungu (St Raphaels) (1964)
Kangaire (1970)
Mutorashanga (St James) (1979)
Alaska (St John the Evangelist) (1973)
Mount Darwin (Christo Mambo) (1973)
St Joseph’s farm (1965)
St Albert’s Mission (1962)
Abduction of students
Hedrick Mandebvu
Closing the school
Chinhoyi Rural Training Centre
The Diocese of Chinhoyi (1986)
6. Urban Tensions
Bulawayo
Harari (Mbare) in the early twentieth century
Elizabeth Musodzi
Charles Mzingeli
Mbare in the late twentieth century
Highfield, Dzivarasekwa and Mabvuku
The Cathedral in Salisbury and Campion House
Mount Pleasant, Mabelreign, Marlborough, Braeside and Rhodesville
Enkeldoorn (Chivhu) Umtali (Mutare) and Gwelo
(Gweru), Que Que (KweKwe) (1915), Gatooma (Kadoma) (1915) and Umvuma (Mvuma)(1921)
Marandellas (Marondera) (1952)
Bindura, (1964)
7. Mission and Culture
Local sisters
Local priests
Welcoming communities of Religious
Welcoming local-born Jesuits
A mischief-maker or a prophet?
Charism and culture
Resourcement
8. A ‘Dual Mission’?
St George’s College
9. Education for Development
St Ignatius College
St Peter’s Kubatana
The School of Social Work
Silveira House
Rural credit
10. Justice and War
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
The Zimbabwe Project
Jesuit Refugee Service
‘Healing wounds, healing a nation’
The violent deaths of seven Jesuits
Martin Thomas (1932-77)
John Conway (1920-77)
Christopher Shepherd-Smith (1943-77)
Desmond ‘Gussie’ Donovan (1927-78)
Gregor Richert (1930-78)
Bernhard Lisson (1909-78)
Gerhard Pieper (1940-78)
11. ‘And there was much else…’
Small Christian communities
University chaplain
Prisoners
People living with HIV/AIDS
Young people on the streets
Shingirirayi
People living with disabilities
Abandoned babies
Meteorology, astronomy, entomology, apiculture and archaeology
Retreats
Education Co-ordination
Mukai/Vukani
Theological reflection
Communications
‘Intellectuals’
Liturgy and church décor
Finance
Archives and libraries
Richartz House
12. Into the Future ...
Appendix: Jesuit Foundations in Southern Africa 1875-2021
Acknowledgements
Index
David Harold-Barry is a Jesuit priest from Ireland who has spent fifty-five years in Zimbabwe, the first fourteen in Rhodesia. He spent twenty-five years at Silveira House, a Leadership Training and Development Centre, where he had ample opportunity to witness the frustration of people both before and after independence. The reasons were different, but the underlying structures that caused the frustration were the same.
Besides writing a column in The Zimbabwean and producing two books, one about the Jesuits killed in the war and the other a collection of essays on the situation in Zimbabwe at the turn of the century, he has also been engaged in training young Jesuits, giving retreats, working in prisons and starting a community of l’Arche for people living with intellectual disabilities.
Avant-propos
When Aston Chichester was new in Southern Rhodesia, he was taken for a drive by Henry Seed to see a rural mission. Simon Taonyei, a catechist, was also in the car. They came to a ‘gate’ or barrier across the road for cattle, constructed of branches and bushes. Seed, frustrated as to how to proceed, drove straight through the obstacle saying, ‘they’ll soon rebuild it’. Chichester stopped him and got out of the car and carefully reconstructed the barrier. Seed’s reaction is not recorded but Taoneyi said later, ‘I knew from that moment he was the right man to be our bishop’.
Dedication
To the members of the new Jesuit Province of Southern Africa (established 2021) and all those with whom we work in the evolving task which started in 1879 with the founding of the Zambezi Mission.
1
Introduction
I set out to enter a wood with well-trodden paths, only to discover I was in a forest, dense and sans frontiers. It is the story of a mission, the Zambezi Mission, but what strikes the inquirer is the individual Jesuit. Everywhere you turn you find someone using his initiative and his strength to start a work and push the boundaries. The basic tool of the early Jesuits in the interior of southern Africa was their boots. 1 Constantly exploring the opportunities they had in the first hundred years, they founded eighty works that ranged from mission stations, parishes, schools and colleges to social centres, houses of study, seminaries and even an observatory. Beyond all this, there was a multitude of outstations. Everywhere these works involved building and planting. It is a story of blending the skills of the many Jesuit brothers, 2 in brickwork, stonework, engineering, plumbing, carpentry, ironwork, printing, gardening, agriculture and so forth, with the planning, preaching, teaching and pastoral activities of the Jesuit priests with whom they lived, worked and formed one community. The variety of aptitudes was vast but the cohesiveness of focus was equally impressive. One cannot delve into the boxes in the Jesuit archives or listen to the accounts of older Jesuits without a sense of awe. Jesuits are good at sizing each other up or exasperating each other with their different temperaments, but this does not preclude standing back and thinking about all that was achieved. Irenaeus, in the second century, was in no doubt about who was behind all this.

God is man’s glory, but it is man who receives the effect of God’s activity, who is the recipient of all God’s wisdom and power. 3
Anthropology and sociology have established themselves as respectable disciplines for academic study but the word ‘missiology’ sounds like a mongrel trying to ingratiate itself into a pack of pure-bred German shepherd dogs. Jesuit Francis Rea quotes S. C. Neill, a former Professor of Missions and Ecumenical Theology at the University of Hamburg, as saying, ‘The study of missions has remained marginal and only grudgingly accepted. In at least one German faculty the professor of missiology is continually re-elected as dean by his colleagues, presumably on the grounds that he has nothing important to do.’ 4 The trouble seems to be that the sources are suspect: they are ‘propaganda’ in the sense of being written to edify the reader and open his wallet, they are composed without reference to the general context of the time and they come from a western point of view that does not interact with the cultures in which the missionaries operated.
Rea, writing in 1970, believed this criticism had some weight, but ‘it shows a surprising oversight of the vast amount of published material dealing with missions in the period following the Reformation’. Among other examples, he refers to the ‘reprinted Jesuit Relations of North America (1611-1791), whose value, wrote Parkman, assuredly no friend to Roman Catholicism, it is impossible to exaggerate’. 5 Probing whether equivalent nineteenth-century sources existed, Rea believes they did: in the journals of the missionaries. These were primarily intended for