Crowther's Niger Mission also represents the first sustained missionary engagement with African Islam in modem times. From his early experiences in Sierra Leone, Crowther understood how Islamic practices could merge with traditional views of power. He found a demand for Arabic Bibles, but was cautious about supplying them unless he could be sure they would not be used for charms. His insight was justified later, when the young European missionaries who succeeded him wrote out passages of scripture on request, pleased at such a means of scripture distribution. They stirred up the anger of Muslim clerics - not because they were circulating Christian Scriptures, but because they were giving them free, thus undercutting the trade in Qu'ranic charms.
The best-known aspect of Crowther's later career is also the most controversial: his representation of the indigenous church principle. We have seen that he was the first ordained minister of his church in his place. It was the policy of Henry Venn, then newly at the helm of the CMS, to strengthen the indigenous ministry. More and more Africans were ordained, some for the Yomba mission. And Venn wanted well-educated, well-trained African clergy; such people as Crowther's son Dandeson (who became archdeacon) and his son-in-law T. B. Macaulay (who became principal of Lagos Grammar School) were better educated than many of the homespun English missionaries.
Venn sought self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating churches with a fully indigenous pastorate. In Anglican terms, this meant indigenous bishops. The missionary role was a temporary one; once a church was established, the missionary should move on. The birth of the church brought the euthanasia of the mission. With the growth of the Yoruba church, Venn sought to get these principles applied in Yorubaland.
The story of the later years of the Niger mission has often been told and variously interpreted. It still raises passions and causes bitterness. Questions arose about the lives of some of the missionaries; that European missionaries were brought into the mission, and then took it over, brushing aside the old bishop (he was over eighty years of age) and suspending or dismissing his staff. In 1891 Crowther, a desolate, broken man suffered a stroke; on the last day of the year, he died. A European bishop was appointed to succeed him. The self-governing church and the Indigenization of the episcopate were abandoned.
Contemporary mission accounts all praise Crowther's personal integrity, graciousness, and godliness. In the Yoruba mission, blessed with many strong, not to say prickly, personalities, his influence had been to promote peace. In Britain he was recognized as a cooperative and effective platform speaker. (A CMS official remembered Crowther's being called on to give a conference address on "Mission and Women" and holding his audience spellbound.) Yet the same sources not only declared Crowther "a weak bishop" but drew the moral that "the African race" lacked the capacity to rule.
There were some unexpected legacies even from the last sad days. One section of the Niger mission, that in the Niger Delta, was financially self-supporting. Declining the European takeover, it long maintained a separate existence under Crowther's son, Archdeacon Dandeson Crowther, within the Anglican Communion but outside the CMS. It grew at a phenomenal rate, becoming so self-propagating that it ceased to be self-supporting.
The legacy of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the humble, devout exponent of a Christian faith that was essentially African and essentially missionary, has passed to the whole vast church of Africa and thus to the whole vast church of Christ. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first African to be appointed bishop by the Anglican Church. [viii]
And not forgetting people like:
Yiyo Soga (South Africa) – 1866 ; translated the Pilgrim’s Progress from English to Xhosa. He had worked on the revision of four Gospels by the time of his death. He was only forty-two, having spent his life recklessly for Christ. He proved that early failure can spur final success. [ix]
Bernard Mizeki (Zimbabwe) - 1896
“ Flee. Save your life!" With words such as these, Bernard Mizeki was warned that he had better leave Mashona. Bernard was in danger from fellow blacks because he taught a foreign faith--the Gospel of Christ. With the permission of the Supreme Chief Mangwende, Bernard cut down sacred trees, this angered the local witchdoctors. As far as they were concerned, he had gained too much influence and they seethed with resentment.
But Bernard refused to run. He could not leave the converts who lived on his mission station. He worked only for Jesus. His bold response won him a crown of martyrdom. He became a Christian on March 9, 1886, he was baptised and took the name Bernard. He was about 25 years old.
For five years he studied and worked as a layman church leader. He learned about a dozen languages and helped translate Anglican texts into African languages. Bishop Knight-Bruce assigned Bernard to a post in Zimbabwe, then Southern Rhodesia. Bernard threw himself wholeheartedly into efforts to convert the villagers to Christ.
One of his key endeavours was a school. By showing love to his pupils, he won the hearts of their parents. Bernard adapted Christianity to the Shona culture as much as he could without watering down the gospel. This was possible in part because the Shona already believed in just one God. In a short time, he won many converts.
On Sunday, June 14, 1896, a witch-doctor convinced the Christian converts to stay away from morning church service. They returned that evening. On June 18, 1896 he heard a loud knocking at his door. His enemies had come for him. They dragged him outside and drove a spear through his body. [x]
Kivebulaya – 1933; was known also as Apollo the Ugandan born man who accepted a request to go to Mboga in Congo to teach about Christ. He went, carrying a hoe over his shoulder, because two earlier Ugandan missionaries had been forced out when the people of Mboga refused to sell them food. The people did not appreciate the Church's prohibition on sorcery, polygamy and drunkenness, and made it tough for the evangelists.
Henry Venn the general of CMS believed in having Africans as the main missionaries. This resulted in the creation of the Niger Missions launch in 1841, staffed mainly by African clergy after Venn’s death in 1873, the idea of an indigenous church gave way to a Church controlled by the Europeans. It was only after the World War II and the decolonization era (1935-1945) that the idea of Venn began to be embraced once again. [xi]
Some of the Africans that can be considered as missionaries would be people like the children Mary Slessor adopted and would do pioneer work with her, such as the work started in Itu and the surrounding remote areas.
William Koyi -1880, a Xhosa-Zulu believer from the Cape went with Scottish Presbyterian missionaries to Malawi to reach the Ngoni. The Ngoni’s reaction was, “God had given the white people the Book and cloth, and has given the Ngoni the shield and spear: each must live his own way.” But the missionaries wouldn’t leave. Through William’s three years of tireless work, translations, patience, and prayers, the Ngoni finally let the missionaries help. Precipitated by a need, the Ngoni let the missionaries preach and then pray for an end to the drought. God answered. Without Koyi, the Ngoni would have continued with their sword and spear, and many may have missed coming into the kingdom. [xii]
Salu Daka – 1975 , from the Ndebele tribe in Zimbabwe, was a student in the YWAM Discipleship Training School in Zimbabwe. After outreach he remained in Mozambique and was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel in a communist country. After tortuous negotiations, he was eventually released. He went on to work with YWAM and pioneered YWAM in Cameroon. [xiii]
God has prepared the African church to follow in the footsteps of these pioneers. We still have our own modern day pioneers, who have given up careers ambition, culture and family comfort in order to take the Gospel to those who have yet to hear.
A lot of the African people, that would and could be considered as missionaries, are not recognised as such because they were not sent by an agency or by their churches. Neither did the European missionaries at that time have the mind-set of multiplication of indigenous missionaries. And this is the legacy that we have as African Christians – something not always recogn
ised, and often only vaguely mentioned. Later, by the half of the 19th Century, African Missionaries were becoming more common.
Chapter 6
Modern Day Missionaries
Hebrews 12:1 -2 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
This scripture is still so true to countless of African missionaries today, who are dedicating their lives for the sake of the call. Their sacrifices are not much different than the early pioneers of missions, whose biographies have challenged many of us.
Joseph Magora sat in the conference and felt his heart beat faster. He had just finished his DTS in Bulawayo and was attending the first YWAM Frontier Missions Conference being held in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Harare, in his native country, Zimbabwe. It was 1999, and at that week- long conference, Joseph received a call to the pygmies of eastern Congo. He prepared with the help of the School of Frontier Missions in Mombasa, Kenya and a Foundations in Community Development School in Jinja, Uganda. He then entered the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where he and others established the first YWAM operating location in Bukavu.
Joseph learned that the Mbuti pygmies maintained their existence by allowing people to take their photographs for money, hunting monkeys, and from the occasional hand-out. When the pygmies realised that Joseph had truly come to help them, they told him he was the first African ever to do so. In his early days amongst the pygmies, he told them that he was committed to them for life. After years have passed with no end in sight, they are realising that those were not empty words. Joseph obtained carpentry tools and sewing machines from Tools With A Mission to help the pygmies start to become self-sufficient.
In the ensuing eight years, Joseph spent nights hiding in the forest avoiding rebel guerrillas, staffed a DTS, married a Congolese YWAMer, become the father of two children, has been hijacked, robbed, and beaten on a bus in Kenya. Like most long term missionaries, lean times, bouts of sickness, and visa and passport hassles, he and his family have endured. His focus on the pygmies has never wavered. He helped them when they were relocated. He has shared the gospel with (and disciple) them - from the three believers he found when he arrived, to the twenty saints now numbered in the clan.
Joseph is currently developing leaders among the pygmies, as he continues to disciple and equip them for economic self-sustainability.
Joseph’s wife, Adolphine, is an accomplished praise and worship vocalist. She has published her first album and has started the first ever praise and worship musical group amongst the pygmies. She provides counselling to the mothers in the clan twice a month. [xiv]
Clever and Passion - The couple make mesmerising presentations to believers about the call of God on Africans to reach the unreached.
Soon after Passion arrived to do her DTS at a location in south-central Africa, the cry “Oh India,” began to ring out over the base. This student, a licensed radiographer first felt a call to India at age thirteen, and she was now taking her first practical step toward getting there. Remaining on base staff after the DTS, she prayed for India, sometimes dressed in the clothes of Indian women, and left no doubt about God’s calling on her life.
When she arrived at the base, one of the base leaders, also from south-central Africa, was a fellow I’m named Clever. Clever, a YWAMer since 1995, had a heart for leadership development and academia. But the influence of Sydney Moyo and Shephen Mbewe, combined with a prophetic word given by Steve Cochrane at a conference in Harare in 1999, began to line up Clever’s vision with that of Passion.
They were married in 2001. In 2002 Clever resigned as base leader, and the couple joined the regional Frontier Missions Centre team as they prepared to launch to India. This time included an exploratory trip to India in 2003, before a permanent move in 2004. Remarkably, they were wholly supported by churches from their home country, despite the legendary devaluation of their currency. The efforts made by the two churches and individuals who helped them accumulate the dollars needed in India was heroic, and Clever and Passion got on the aeroplane with 100% of their support from African believers.
On arrival in India, they continued preparations, completing a School of Frontier Missions, a Hindu studies course for Clever- and living in a Hindu home for cultural, religious, and language learning.
Their focus is church planting. Passion approaches her work by sharing the Good News through language learning (while being a mother for their two children), through building relationships, and living in a Hindu community. Passion’s passion is Indian women, and “seeing them get to know our Guru and realise the beauty He has put in them and walking in that realisation, and in the freedom and peace that He alone can give.”
Clever serves as a church planting coach for several teams in northern India, and leads a Hindu contextualised DTS. Many Hindus are being reached by the teams that Clever is overseeing. These roles have brought Clever back to his first ministry love – leadership development. He had mostly laid this down to go as a missionary to India, but God put him right back in the centre of his passion when he obeyed.
When back in Africa to meet with their churches and supporters every couple of years, the couple make mesmerising presentations to believers about the call of God on Africans to reach the unreached.
When asked about his challenges, Clever responded: “No matter how hard we try to immerse ourselves into the culture, we will always be outsiders. There is nothing one can do about it but just accept it. Secondly, there is an underlying fear of losing or not getting a visa. And until it was recently resolved, I had great concern about nailing down a viable role in the community.”
I asked Passion the question, “What has been the hardest thing for you?” The following list of responses gives us a candid look at the life of an African missionary in India.
Dealing with the way the community here generally judges you according to your colour. I can never quite get over the stares and comments. When I didn’t understand the language it was easier, but now that I do, it can be overwhelming at times.
Struggling with loneliness.
The lack of openness of people to the Good News, even after spending years working on certain relationships. Realising that some ladies I had been teaching are not really ready to commit to following the teachings of our Guru.
Dealing with peoples superstitions and beliefs in astrology (more than being hard for me, this has been heart breaking.)
Hardships that Indian women face in their communities whether they are of low or high caste.
Balancing work and quality family time (a challenge also voiced by Clever).
Clever and Passion don’t currently have an after-India plan. They are in it for the long haul. They plan to continue sharing the Good News with friends whilst living in the community, through friendships and business. [xv]
Vimbiso Kombora’s story
I can't say that I fully remember the first time I became interested in missions. Perhaps it was the year I spent in YWAM in 1997. I know God began to open my eyes in that time. Or maybe it was later when I was at the University of Cape Town and through a Christian group on campus I began to discover more about missions.
I know when I first really wanted to be a missionary. It was in the year 2001, my final year of university, when I found a copy of Open Doors magazine and began to read. I read of Christians in China and other places who risked their lives to worship God, people who would have done anything to have a Bible. I loved that people could love God like that. I wanted somehow to help them. Yet China seemed so remote and unreal. Did black women from Gweru, Zimbabwe become missionaries to Chinese people? I didn't know.
God led me to the Bible Institute of South
Africa and I think it was there during a class on the book of Revelation that God began to plant a love for the universal church. Revelation 7:9-10 especially seemed to come alive in my heart and mind. "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no-one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!"
During that time a question also came into my heart. Many people in my country were emigrating because life was difficult economically and politically. I wondered to myself why it seemed so easy for Christians to move across the world - almost anywhere, and to do almost anything - in order to secure a better life for themselves. Yet few would even consider doing the same for the gospel. So I cannot really say I had a special moment of being "called" - just a growing conviction that there was no better way I could use my life than to go to those who have never heard. Since Asia contained the largest numbers of people who had never heard I began to pray to be sent there.
I began to research mission organisations that I could join but most of the time just hearing the costs involved was enough to discourage me before I even spoke further to them. That coupled with an email from one organisation that made sure to let me know - since I was an African - that they would not give me any money and required me to raise my own support before they told me anything about themselves. So I gave up searching and started praying "Lord I really want to go to Asia, but I haven't got any money - could ‘You please do a miracle?" After Bible College for a while I had been involved with an organisation that worked with college and university students. At that time some friends - mainly African, except for one - after sharing what I would be doing in a newsletter, had offered to support me. That had surprised me because one of my biggest fears regarding missions was raising support. So as I prayed for Asia I felt a bit hopeful, yet also scared because it seemed so impossible.
The Whisper That Echoes Through Africa Page 5