The London Missionary Society in Southern Africa, 1799-1999: Historical Essays in Celebration of the Bicentenary of the LMS in Southern Africa.  John de Gruchy, ed. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2000. 229 pp.

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As the title suggested, The London Missionary Society in Southern Africa, 1799-1999: Historical Essays in Celebration of the Bicentenary of the LMS in Southern Africa is a historical account of the Christian mission work of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in southern Africa for the past two hundred years (1799-1999). It is a recollection, reflection, and review of the lives of both church ministries and political activities around several LMS missionaries whose mission fields included colonial centers of Cape Town, Grahamstown, Natal, and eastern Cape frontier.

John de Gruchy, the editor, is professor of Christian Studies and Director of Religion and Social Change in the University of Cape Town. In the introductory chapter, Remembering a legacy, he characterizes the purpose of this book as follows: “to reconstruct the LMS story as truthfully as possible… to give the reader a useful guide to the way in which the story of the LMS has been told and evaluated.” (4) This is exactly what this book is about.

In chapter two, Looking back: 170 years of historical writing on the LMS in South Africa, Christopher Saunders launches a broad chronological approach of interpreting both earlier literature and recent scholarship on the LMS in southern Africa . Then he concludes that some areas still need further research, for instance, less known LMS missionaries and less known missions stations.

In the next chapter, The alleged political conservatism of Robert Moffat, Steve de Gruchy agrees with the appraisal of Robert Moffat’s son on his father. Both a missionary and a government official, John Moffat said that political intervention on behalf of the natives had mostly ended in failure, but this frustration was not experienced by his father. (35)

The title of chapter four is David Livingstone: the man behind the mask in which Andrew Ross investigates the alleged incompetence of Livingstone as a leader of expeditions and discovers the fact that Livingstone was the second generation of a Gaelic family that immigrated to Scotland. Consequently, he suggests that further research into the family background and theological influences of Livingstone may bring new insights into Livingstone’s faith and life as a missionary.

In chapter five, Cultivation, Christianity and colonialism: towards a new African genesis, John L. Camaroff and Jean Comaroff writes about the mission garden as the master symbol of  civilization and Britishness. Transformation of the land use means food production, an exemplary use of space, and also an icon of colonial evangelism. (63)

In the next chapter, Jane and John Philip: partnership, usefulness & sexuality in the service of God, Natasha Erlank examines the personal lives and roles of Jane and John Philip as a team utilizing gender analysis of history. Therefore, this essay suggests that the private sphere has impact on the public arena.

In chapter seven, ‘Working at the heart’: the London Missionary Society in the Cape Town, 1819-1844, Helen Ludlow concludes that there were two distinct accomplishments by the LMS in Cape Town. First, it was the establishment of the Union Chapel, as an urban church for white worshipping settlers. Second, the mission work of LMS among ex-slaves and their children through the provision of educational opportunities in missions schools.

In the following chapter, Congregations, Missionaries and Grahamstown Schism of 1842-3, Robert Ross recounts the conflicts between the Rev. John Locke, the senior pastor and Nicholas Smit, a native South African, and the congregation of the Union Chapel. These conflicts reveal two relating issues: the relationship of the LMS missionary and the local congregation in terms of authority and the quest for self-expression and self-determination in the colored congregations.

In chapter nine, Whose gospel? Conflict in the LMS in the early 1940s, Elizabeth Elbourne examines the relationships of missionaries within the LMS and the LMS as a religious institution with several African congregations in terms of church government, racial conflicts, and authority relations. 

In chapter ten, The standard of living question in nineteenth-century missions in KwaZulu-Natal, Norman Etherington looks into the issues of inter-racial marriages between the missionaries and with native women, the issues of income inequality among the missionaries from different mission societies, and between the missionaries and the native assistants. 

In the final chapter, American missionaries and the making of African church in colonial Natal, Les Switzer researches into the American Zulu Mission at various levels with concerns of white male domination, racial inequality, and independence, within white missionary circles, between white missionaries and African Christians, and within the African Christian community.

This book is recommended to those who are interested in learning more about mission studies in southern Africa. Although it does not claim to be a complete historical account of all the LMS missionaries and their activities in southern Africa, it has surely retold some significant stories of LMS mission-related and/or other activities for engaging discussions and interpretations. During this process of historical inquiry, certain themes are clarified and conceptualized, for example, distinct theologies of mission held by different missionaries, the Africanization of Christianity, and power struggles in terms of racism, classism, sexism, and local church autonomy.

Alan L. Chan
San Francisco