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.
Author(s): David Harold-Barry
Publisher: Weaver Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 416
City: Avondale
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
About the Author
Avant-propos
Dedication
Introduction
1. The Mise en Scene
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 1879-89
Goncalo 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 (Magondi), St Rupert’s (1964)
Sipolilo, St Edward’s (1958); Guruve, St Joseph’s (1980)
Chitsungo, St Raphael’s (1964)
Kangaire (1970)
Mutorashanga (St James) (1979)
Alaska (St John the Evangelist) (1973)
Mount Darwin (Kristo Mambo) (1973)
St Joseph’s farm (1965)
St Albert’s Mission (1962)
Abduction of students
Hedrick Mandebvu
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, 1953), Gatooma (Kadoma) (1915, 1964) and Umvuma (Mvuma) (1921, 1946)
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
8. A ‘Dual Mission’?
St George’s College
9. Education for Development
St Ignatius College
St Peter’s Kubatana
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
Theological reflection
Communications
‘Intellectuals’
Liturgy and church d cor
Finance
Archives and libraries
Richartz House
12. Into the Future
Appendix. Jesuit Foundations in Southern Africa 1875-2021
