Abstract
This article documents the narratives of David Julizya Kaunda and Paul Bwembya Mushindo, first and foremost so that their stories will not be lost—that is, to preserve their memory. Secondly, they are told in order to demonstrate the contribution of indigenous Africans to the 19th-and 20th-century missionary enterprise in Africa, particularly Zambia. Thirdly, they are told as stories of resistance to colonial forces that often have sought to diminish the power and status of black Africans. Lastly, their stories represent a possibility to retrieve some of the values on which the United Church of Zambia was founded and that may inform its future missiological vision.
Introduction
Over the years, historians and theologians dealing with the history of Christianity in Africa have paid more attention to “independent churches” and “syncretic” movements than they have done to mission churches to which the majority of Africans still belong (cf. Ranger, 1987, p. 182). More recently, there has also been a focus on “new forms of Christianity” in Africa (Kalu, 2008; Wahrisch-Oblau, 2009).
Generally, three approaches have shaped the history of Christianity in Africa. The first one is the missiological approach, in which the missionaries, Catholic or Protestant, are portrayed as saviours of the heathen Africans (Hinfelaar, 1994b, p.4). The second is the nationalistic approach, which was common in the sixties and seventies when many African countries gained political independence. Historic (mission) churches that were regarded as a colonial device were now contrasted with independent churches that were seen as progressive, liberal and a major force in African nationalism (Hinfelaar, 1994b, p. 4). The third approach is Marxist, and portrays missionaries as imperialists with the Bible in one hand, the gun in the other. Africans claim that the missionaries took land in Africa in exchange for the Bible (Ranger, 1987, p. 182). The three approaches however, remain inconclusive, and do not explain why so many people converted to Christianity.
This article seeks to document stories of indigenous Africans who made a significant contribution to the missionary enterprise in North-Eastern Zambia. The article sets out to entwine three realities: memory, the contribution of indigenous Africans to the missionary enterprise, and resistance to European Imperialism. Remembering and resistance are the two heuristic tools that have been employed to examine the lives of D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo. As Flora Keshkegian (1996, p. 178) cogently asserts: Memory is necessary for identity, both personal and historical. It refers both to people’s awareness of themselves and their pasts and to the corporate nature and history of the religious community. In this sense, memory is expressed dynamically as re-membering, which expresses metaphorically the idea of incorporation into a community or tradition.
Remembering, whether it concerns an anniversary observed by individuals such as birthdays, weddings, and other days of particular significance, or organizations, churches and nations, inevitably involve a review of the past. We look back and review the journey. We tell the story and reflect on our history. We also look into the unknown tomorrow and share our hopes, our visions, and our dreams. In a sense, as McKenna (2010, p. 1) observes, those “who won, who conquered, who survived the killing and the death, who wrote the stories and decided how the present would be remembered”, are honoured. In what follows I present a sketch of the lives and the contributions of D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo to the birth of the United Church of Zambia.
Re-Membering David Julizya Kaunda
David Julizya Kaunda was born in 1878 at Lisali village in Tongaland near Nkhata bay in Nyasaland (now Malawi) (Chisala, 1994, p. 1; MacPherson, 1974, p. 28). His father, Mtepa, died during a tribal war with the Ngoni when David was still young (Mwanakatwe, 1994, p. 1). The name Julizya means “to open”. Soon after his father’s death in 1885 his mother, NyaChirwa, took her children, three girls and a boy, up to Emfeni near the Ngoni village established by King Zwangendaba’s father. It was there thatD. J. Kaunda grew up (Chisala, 1994, p. 1).
In 1881, the Livingstonia mission from Scotland moved from Cape Maclear and settled at Bandawe on the lake shore. Rev. Robert Laws asked Rev. James Stewart, the founder Principal of Lovedale, for a team of evangelists from South Africa to help with evangelism in Nyasaland. One of the evangelists sent was William Koyi, who contributed significantly to the opening of schools and a mission station at Njuyu. As one of the results of the evangelistic outreach of Njuyu D. J. Kaunda was baptized and received the name David (MacPherson, 1974, p. 29). D. J. Kaunda moved after his elementary schooling in the village to Ekwendeni mission for standard II and III. From there, he went for his upper primary schooling and for a course in teaching to Overtoun Institution (Chisala, 1994, p. 1; Mwanakatwe, 1994, pp. 1–2). At Overtoun he met his wife Helen Nyamu Nyirenda in 1900, who was also a student. In 1904 D. J. Kaunda was one of the students who were sent to Bembaland by the Livingstonia mission for evangelism (MacPherson, 1974,p. 32; Snelson, 1974, p. 60).
David Livingstone’s journeys through central Africa and his death at Chitambo on the fringes of the Swamps of Bangweulu in May 1873, had generated a new wave of Christian enterprise. From 1890 onwards, missionaries slowly occupied central Africa. Soon afterwards, colonial rulers occupied the territory (Hinfelaar, 1994,p. 1). This was followed by the introduction of hut tax which forced many people into labour migration. In many parts of central Africa, missionaries arrived before the agents of the BSA Company. The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society’s (PEMS) pioneers team, led by Francois Coillard and his Scottish wife, arrived in Barotseland in 1878, and returned there in 1885 to set up a mission station. The London Missionary Society established a station on the shores of Lake Tanganyika around 1896. On those same shores and further north-west towards the high plateau between the lakes, agents of the Scottish missions established themselves in 1881 (Basil, 1955, p. 60). As a result of the westward expansion of the Livingstonia mission of the Free Church of Scotland, Mwenzo and Chinsali came under the influence of Christian evangelism and education.
Stevenson, a Scottish industrialist, gave the Scottish mission money in order to construct a road between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, then an area of intensive trade. Along this road Mwenzo mission was established in 1894 by Alexander Dewar, who had reached the plateau country of awina-Mwanga people and settled there. Dewar and his successor, Dr. James Chisholm, expressed an interest in extending their work to include the eastern part of the Bemba country. However, the activities of the Roman Catholic missionaries discouraged them. The White Fathers had opened a station at Mambwe in 1896. They later extended their work to Chilubula, Chilonga and Mulilanso mission stations among the Bemba people. Dr. Robert Laws, the head of the mission in Nyasaland and the Edinburgh committee of the Livingstonia mission, resisted the idea of introducing their operations into the Bemba Kingdom, where war between the BSA Company and the Bemba people wasnot unlikely. However, with the collapse of Bemba power in 1898, the idea of extending mission work into Bemba kingdom wasrevived. In 1904, a team of students of the Overtoun Institution at Khondowe, under the direction of the Rev. James Henderson, set out on an evangelistic expedition across the Luangwa River. D. J. Kaunda and his colleagues preached in Chief Chibesakunda and Chief Nkula areas (Chilenje, 1998, p. 22). These outreach attempts resulted in the formation of the Lubwa mission. The beginning of this venture has been recorded in the documents at Overtoun Institution, possibly by D. J. Kaunda himself: In the months of August, September and October, the Livingstonia church sent away some men to the Bembaland to teach and to preach the good news…. I and Samson were teaching and preaching in Chibeza [Chibesakunda] village. The chief of the Bisa people and many people came around our preaching of Jesus the crucified (cited in Ipenburg, 1984, p. 20; Stone, 1968, p. 31).
In his Reminiscences of Livingstonia, Robert Laws (1934) makes a brief reference to mission work among the Bemba people stating that “the Rev. Mr MacMinn at Lubwa began work among these people”. However, MacMinn did not in fact go to Lubwa until 1913. His appointment to Lubwa was made possible only by the celebrations in Scotland of the hundredth birthday of David Livingstone that brought in special offerings for missionary work. What did open Lubwa mission and Chinsali for education purposes was the pioneer work, left unmentioned by Robert Laws, which was begun at the end of 1904 by David Julizya Kaunda, and recorded in an inscription on the wall of the church-building at Lubwa that states: “Kaunda brought the Gospel, 1905”. D. J. Kaunda settled withhis family at Lubwa in 1905 (Mushindo, 1973, p. 20). He became a champion of the local community in difficult circumstances, for example when relations with the BSA company officials soured, and when there was a famine in the area.
David Kaunda was one of the very few Africans to open a mission field in an area where not a single non-African missionary was at work. Kaunda’s decision to open a mission station at Lubwa was in response to an invitation from chief Nkula, sent to Livingstonia through a BSA administer, Robert “Bobo” Young, after Kaunda’s visit there. It seems D. J. Kaundahastened his marriage to Hellen Nyirenda in 1905 in order to move across the LuangwaRiver for missionary work (cf. MacPherson, 1973). D. J. Kaunda carried out his duties as a teacher and minister with vigour, as demonstrated by his nicknames of Chendaluta (“tireless traveler”) and Nkanda Bantu (“he who disciplines people”). Kaunda also fought against injustice and racial discrimination exhibited by the colonial government. He refused, for example, to silence the drum that called the people to worship. The acting District Commissioner, furious that the drum disturbed his wife’s Sunday morning sleep, put Kaunda in wooden stocks hoping to disgrace him in the eyes of the people. Kaunda endured the punishment, only asking for a Bible. He did not compromise the preaching of the Gospel (Macpherson, 1974).
David Kaunda trained teachers to open and run schools. Teachers also became local church leaders. Once a year, the local church leaders went with Kaunda to Mwenzo mission for a “refresher course”, organized by Rev. Dr. Chisholm. It is noted that the first discussions which led to the formation of the Mwenzo Welfare Association in 1912, took place during one of these refresher courses at Mwenzo mission whereby Kaunda shared the leadership with Donald Siwale, Peter Sinkala, and Hezekiah Kawuza, who were teachers at Mwenzo mission (MacPherson, 1974; Cook, 1975, p. 100). Similar bodies emerged in Nyasaland. It seems that Kaunda and Siwale as former students of the Overtoun Institution kept closely in touch with former classmates.
When Rev. R. D. MacMinn arrived at Lubwa in 1913. Kaunda and his family moved to Chief Nkula for two years. The statistics show that forty-one centres of evangelism and education had been created, including schools at the headquarters of the chiefs of the district. There were one hundred village teachers, 2,517 pupils of whom 996 were girls and a church membership of 286 (Macpherson, 1974). This shows Kaunda’s dedication to mission work. Nonetheless, Western authors have mistakenly attributed all these achievements to MacMinn (cf. MacPherson, 1974; Laws, 1934, pp. 189, 201). MacMinn had a negative attitude towards Africans, and so he prevented Kaunda from going to Livingstonia for an ordination course. In 1924, D. J. Kaunda finally went to Livingstonia mission to take a theological course for two years in order to become an ordained minister at Lubwa (Mushindo, 1973, p. 20). In 1931, Kaunda was ordained minister (Mushindo, 1973, p. 26). Even after his ordination, MacMinn continued to refer to him as evangelist and assistant.
Marja Hinfelaar (1994b, p. 17) has criticized positive portrayals of David Kaunda, insisting that it is a mere reconstruction compiled during the reign of his son Kenneth Kaunda as President of Zambia. Hinfelaar (1994b, p. 17) sees D. J. Kaunda as not strongly opposed to the colonial authorities. However, the letters and periodicals produced by the missionaries of both Livingstonia mission and the Scottish churches in the last decades of the nineteenth century show a vigorous and sustained criticism of colonial rule. For example, Dr. Laws recommends in 1907 to the governor of Nyasaland that there should be an established elected “native council” to participate in the legislative development of the protectorate (MacPherson, 1973,p. xiii). It seems Kaunda was inspired by Dr. Lawsand other missionaries at Livingstonia mission to oppose colonial injustice. Furthermore, Paul Mushindo (1973, p. 20) who was one of D. J. Kaunda’s first students confirms Kaunda’s stance against colonial injustice and European shows of superiority.
D. J. Kaunda died in 1933 at the age of fifty-four. He had gone with a band of church elders to conduct communion services in the Mwalule area and was on his way back to Lubwa when he suddenly fell ill. A rough stretcher was improvised as he was too ill to walk. When the group reached Kaunda’s house, he offered a brief prayer. A short while later he was gone, having died on duty. His death left a huge gap at Lubwa mission where P. B. Mushindo had to take over as minister.
Re-Membering Paul Bwembya Mushindo
Scholars have written on P. B. Mushindo from various perspectives. Fergus MacPherson (1973) and Audrey I. Richards (1976) have based their reminiscences on their encounters with him. All accounts of the life of P. B. Mushindo show him as a powerful man and a force to be reckoned with. A university in Muchinga Province of Zambia has been named Paul Bwembya Mushindo. People have wondered who P. B. Mushindo was and Michael Kaingu, an opposition Member of Parliament for Mwandi Constituency in Zambia, recently sent a wave of laughter through parliament when he inquired who Paul Bwembya Mushindo might be (Lusaka Times, 2014). The same question may be asked by many Christians, particularly in the UCZ, as P. B. Mushindo is little mentioned in the history of the church in Zambia. But this modest man was one of Zambia’s freedom fighters, one of the first Zambian indigenous ministers of the Gospel, a pioneer educationist, a writer and historian as well as a pioneer translator of the Bible from English into Bemba. Can the history of such a person be ignored?
P. B. Mushindo was born around 1896 in King Chitimukulu area in Northern Rhodesia. Both his mother and father were members of the Bemba royal family. His father, Mushindo the first, was a nephew of King Chiti Kafula, one of the important members of the Bemba royal household.P. B. Mushindo moved from Chitimukulu’s area to Mutole village in Chinsali in 1906 (Mushindo, 1973, p. 14). In 1908 he became a school pupil under Benjamin Spade and Robert Chilangwa who had been sent by D. J. Kaunda to opena school at Mutole village (Mushindo, 1973,p. 15). In 1913 he was baptized by Rev. MacMinn at Lubwa mission (Mushindo, 1973, p. 17).P. B. Mushindo married Theresa Mwila Mutunga in 1919 at Lubwa mission. The couple had two children—Kapolyo Mwaba, a girl, and a son, Patrick Mutale Mumba.
In 1920 and 1921 Mushindo passed standard four and five respectively at first class level, which made Rev. MacMinn send him to attend upper school at Livingstonia mission in 1922 (Mushindo, 1973, p. 19). In 1925–1926 he went back to Livingstonia for a teacher’s training course for two years. Mushindo graduated as teacher and taught at the school at Lubwa Mission and at Shiwa Ng’andu where he met Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, a colonial settler who genuinely and steadfastly supported African advancement and emancipation. Mushindo would teach from 7 to 12 in the morning after which he devoted the hours from 13.30 to 17.30 to the translation of the Bible from English into Bemba, together with Rev. MacMinn. The translation took from 1913 till 1966 when the Bible was published by the Bible Society in England (Mushindo, 1973,p. 20). In 1931, when D. J. Kaunda was ordained minister, Mushindo became head teacher of a school at Lubwa (Mushindo, 1973, p. 26).
Mushindo had in many ways the making of a politician. It appears Kaunda and Sir Stewart Gore-Browne inspired P. B. Mushindo to develop an interest in politics. Gore-Brown was one of the whites who supported political independence for Africans (Rotberg, 1977). In 1936, the colonial government opened the Welfare Associations Council in Chinsali and Mushindo was elected as a member. In 1944, Mushindo was appointed member of the Northern Rhodesia African Representative Council for the Northern Province and later became its chairperson. He was also a member of the African Representative Council at national level. During debates in the council, he consistently opposed the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Mushindo, 1973, pp. 32, 35). In 1947, in the African Representative Council, Mushindo disclosed words spoken by Winston Churchill in 1921, that it was British policy to give Africans in Northern Rhodesia the opportunity to qualify for any post of employment that they were capable of fulfilling (Mushindo, 1947, pp. 51–52). In 1948 he advocated for the establishment of a secondary school in Northern Province. In 1950, he joined the chairperson of the African Welfare Societies, Donald Siwale, and Kenneth Kaunda of the African National Congress in speaking out for African rule in Northern Rhodesia. In 1953 he strongly argued against high food prices and in the same year he pleaded for the allocation of more land to local people (Richards, 1976, p. 41). Mushindo thus became a much respected leader.
P. B. Mushindo walked and cycled barefoot for many years. His decision to stop wearing shoes has been interpreted in various ways. Some suggest, that he gave up wearing shoes in 1940 when he discovered that he had, unknowingly, bought stolen shoes sold by a hawker at Mpandala in Shiwang’andu. P. B. Mushindo took off the shoes, handed them back to the owner and vowed never to wear shoes again (Chibulu and Nkamba, 2011). Mushindo had however stopped wearing shoes earlier than 1940. The story of the stolen shoes is probably based on his vehement sermons against stealing such as Nga waiba akaputula kakakuputula umweo, Nga waiba insapato shikakusapulula umweo (If you steal shorts, it will break your spirit, and if you steal shoes, they will desecrate your spirit). It seems that P. B. Mushindo’s decision not to wear shoes was associated with political considerations. It was a protest against Western culture and European imperialism. Mushindo (1973, p. 22) notes: If the African had shoes, he or she had to take them off before coming into the European’s verandah. No European would share his food or tea with an African person. In the church building there were separate seats with cushions on them for Europeans only.
While at Lubwa, Mushindo received a pair of shoes that a missionary in Scotland had sent him. One day, Mushindo went to MacMinn’s house and left the shoes on the verandah. When MacMinn discovered that Mushindo had the same design of Shoes he was wearing, he became upset and cut the shoes to pieces. This view is also confirmed by Fergus MacPherson who has stated that Rev. MacMinn made Mushindo stop wearing shoes (MacPherson, 1973). Fergus MacPherson knew both Rev. Mushindo and Rev. MacMinn.
P. B. Mushindo gave an address to the Bemba king, Chitimukulu, on his return from London where he had gone to express African opposition to the proposal for a Central African Federation. In 1947 King George of England who visited Northern Rhodesia honoured him for his contribution to society (Mushindo, 1973, p. 39). In 1998 President Frederick Chiluba bought a house for Mrs. Mushindo in Chinsali after she had undergone a hip replacement.
After the death of D. J. Kaunda in 1932, the need arose for an ordained African minister at Lubwa. Mushindo was sent to Livingstonia to do a theological course from 1938 to 1939 (Mushindo, 1973, p. 30) where he was a contemporary of the Rev. Isaac Mutubila. During the holidays, he continued work on the Bible translation and attended political meetings. In 1947, after the death of Rev. Dr. D. M. Brown, P. B. Mushindo and Isaac Mutubila were ordained at Lubwa mission by the Rev. Henry Kasokolo of Mbereshi mission (Mushindo, 1973, p. 31). After his ordination he continued to fulfil his political responsibilities as well as teaching, translating the Bible and chronicling the history of the Bemba people.
P. B. Mushindo made an important contribution to the translation of the Bible into Bemba. The work, led by Rev. Robert McMinn, started in 1913 and was completed in 1966 at Lubwa. Between 1931 and 1934 Mushindo and MacMinn stayed at Mpandala on Shiwang’andu ranch, working on the translation. After his retirement in Lubwa, MacMinn built a house at Mpandala. More schools were opened, from Shiwang’andu to Lwanya River. MacMinn retired in 1936, although he continued working with Mushindo on the Bemba Bible for twelve more years.
In 1930, Lubwa mission became the centre of the Church of Scotland in Northern Rhodesia functioning as an umbrella body for Mwenzo, Chitambo, Chasefu, and Lubwa. A training school was opened and Rev. Robertson and Mushindo were made responsible for the teaching (Mushindo, 1973, p. 23). In the same year, Mushindo also worked as a teacher in Ndola under Rev. A. J. Cross, the senior missionary at the church of the Baptist Mission of South Africa in Lambaland.
Rev. Mushindo retired as Minister in 1965, but volunteered to continue evangelising in order to contribute to the growth of the United Church of Zambia. As a retirement package, he was given a torn blanket by Rev. MacMinn (Mushindo, 1973, p. 48). However, Sir Steward Gore-Brown intervened in the matter until Mushindo was given ten pounds as benefits (Mushindo, 1973, p. 48). Gore-Brown was one of the kind Europeans, and participated in the struggle for Zambia’s independence. He was like Fox-Pitt of Mpika, Rev. Collin Morris of Chingola and Rev. Kenneth MacKenzie of Lubwa. It was for this reason that, when Sir Stewart Gore-Browne died in 1967, Rev. Mushindo was asked to say the closing prayer at the funeral which was attended by the first republican President Kenneth Kaunda.
The influence of the Presbyterian Church polity on Mushindo was evident. For example, a theology student from Kashinda came in 1953 to Lubwa for mission work on behalf of the London Missionary Society. Mushindo harshly rebuked him for offering a benediction at the close of a mid-week service without calling upon an ordained minister to do so. Mushindo also criticized a missionary who, in the course of a sermon, used his arms to illustrate what he was trying to say. In Mushindo’s eyes, preachers of the Gospel should stand solemnly when in the pulpit. Missionaries at Lubwa, particularly MacMinn, insisted on drawing a distinction between ordained ministers and lay members of the church. They also insisted on strict observance of approved practices of religious decorum. It was this background that had conditioned Mushindo’s views. Thus, when between 1953 and 1955 the Lumpa uprising of Alice Mulenga Lenshina took place, he was not ready to accommodate such an event within the framework of the Presbyterian Church polity as he understood it.
Mushindo was a writer and a custodian of Bemba culture. He spent a great deal of his life chronicling the history of the Bemba people (cf. van Velsen, 1973, p. i). His publications include: Imilumbe nenshimi (Riddles and Folktales), Amapinda mulyashi (Proverbs in Conversations), Ulubuto mumfifi (Light in Darkness), A short history of the Bemba (1976) and The life of a Zambian Evangelist: the reminiscences of Reverend Paul Bwembya Mushindo (1973). Paul Mushindo was able to collect the traditions of the Bemba because he spent his childhood in the royal palace of two Chitimukulu, Sampa and Makumba. Mushindo worked with Dr. Audrey Isabel Richards, who was an anthropologist researching Bemba culture. In 1930 and 1931, Richards and Lady (Mana) Gore-Browne undertook a long journey doing anthropological research up the Chambeshi River through the Bangweulu swamps (Richards, 1976, p. xiii). Mushindo was an interpreter for Richards. It is for this reason that Richards (1976, p. xiv) remarked: “I valued his help and companionship very much and realised how deep were his interests in the past”. In 1971, at the accession ceremony for Chitimukulu Bwembya, P. B. Mushindo became the first Christian Minister to be asked to speak at the traditional rites. It was an expression of the great respect of the Bemba royal establishment (Bashilubemba) for his knowledge of Bemba traditions and history.
As a teacher, politician, author, custodianof African culture and minister of the Gospel, P. B. Mushindo dedicated his life to the service of the church and his nation and as such was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the formation of the United Church of Zambia. He was consistently on the move and accustomed to cycling for long distances in the course of his pastoral duties. On 22 December 1972, when after the day’s work he was cycling home in Mpika, he was tragically killed by a swerving motor car (van Velsen, 1973, p. ii). Thus, Mushindo also died on duty. He was buried at Lubwa mission alongside other pioneers of the missionstation. Muchinga, Presbytery of the UCZ, honoured him by naming a congregation at Malashi in Mpika after him. He will be long remembered in Zambia, and in the UCZ in particular, as a person of tireless devotion and passionate patriotism.
Vision For A Missiological Paradigm Shift
The stories of D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo provide lessons that are relevant for those active in mission work. The stories refer to aspects of commerce and of civilization, to education, Bible translation, inclusive mission enterprises, resistance, inculturation, an African holistic worldview, and negotiating the forces of the empire.
Commerce and Civilization
The Scottish missionary movement was concerned with the advancement of people through commercial activity. Mission Christianity was intimately linked to civilization (Bond, 1987, p. 55; Hinfelaar, 1994b, p. 14). Hence, in order to boast commerce, the Scottish mission in Nyasaland received money to construct a road from Lake Nyasa to Lake Tanganyika. In many cases however, the resulting commercial activity was of greater benefit to Western countries than to local Africans (cf. Tengatenga, 2013). The principle of bringing civilization was expressed in the advancing of literacy among Africans through Western forms of education.
Education
Providing Africans with education was one of the goals of missionary Christianity. The reading of the Bible was a central concern. Hence missionaries were pioneers of education in Northern Rhodesia. The government joined in the provision of education in 1924 after a conference held in Kafue (Mwanakatwe, 1994; Mushindo, 1973, p. 21). Before this conference every school was a missionary Christian one, and every teacher was an evangelist. Schools and teacher training centres were opened in mission stations. Mwenzo Girls’ Secondary School, Mindolo Secondary School, Lubwa Primary School and a teacher training college in Mindolo are some examples of this initiative.
Translation of the Bible
The Scottish mission at Lubwa embarked on the translation of the Bible into the local language. The translated Bible inspired Africans to fight for their liberation. The Bible represented a source of criticism of all evils, including colonialism and negative elements in African culture. Mushindo’s contribution to the translation of the Bible from English into Bemba is significant because it facilitated the spreading of the Gospel. Firstly, it was easier for other tribes to translate the Bible into their own language from Bemba, rather than from Hebrew, Greek, or English. Secondly, the translation of the Bible helped to preserve the local language. In view of the corruption of the local language, which is happening at a fast rate, the Bible continues to represent a reservoir of authentic local language.
Besides, Mushindo also claimed the right to contextualize the Gospel. He saw translating the Bible as his mission, and undertook the task in cooperation with MacMinn. This is in line with Kwame Bediako’s (1995, p. 109) understanding of Christianity as essentially translatable and as relevant and accessible “to persons in any culture within which the Christian faith is transmitted and assimilated.” Mushindo thus contributed to a new paradigm of mission. It was his ability to translate the Bible into the local language that empowered the church to resist Western missionaries’ hegemony. This way, Mushindo was already sketching the contours of future liberation theology. The notion of liberation was central to his understanding of the Christian faith. Mission was perceived as the liberation from everything that denied black Africans their full humanity. He dared to make sense of the Christian faith within the language and idiom of the Bemba people. This led him to affirm the positions of indigenous Zambian priests and ministers.
Inclusive Mission Enterprise
Planting an inclusive and self-governing church was one of the goals of the Scottish mission. Dr. Robert Laws always insisted on training African leadership in order to make the establishment of a self-governing and self-supporting African church feasible (Cook, 1975,p. 99). But often African leaders failed to manage the affairs of the church. At Mwenzo mission, African leaders such as Yohane Afmwenge embezzled church funds and sold church property (Hinfelaar, 1994b, p. 15; Dewar, 1899).
P. B. Mushindo and D. J. Kaunda welcomed all to God’s salvation, making their mission of salvation optimally inclusive. However, some scholars have, based on the Lumpa uprising, painted a negative picture, almost a caricature, of Mushindo. The Lumpa uprising was a schismatic movement which took place when Mushindo was one of the ministers at Lubwa. Alice Mulenga Lenshina’s progressive departure from Lubwa orthodoxy raised the problem of her continued membership of the United Church of Central Africa (van Velsen, 1973, p. v). After Rev. Fergus Macpherson to whom Alice Lenshina had narrated her near-death encounter left Lubwa, the Lumpa uprising went to extremes. For example, Lenshina started baptizing members. While some local leaders were against suspending Lenshina, it was difficult for foreign missionaries to allow a woman to baptize and conduct healing sessions. Finally, in 1955, Lenshina’s church membership was suspended. P. B. Mushindo as the only indigenous minister was involved in discussions about the Lumpa uprising. Hudson (1999, p. 19) states that Paul Mushindo’s “attitude toward Lenshina and her movement was quite different.” He asserts that Mushindo’s resentment of Lenshina was due to gender dynamics. According to Hudson, Mushindo could not accept an illiterate woman as a rival “and far more successful church leader.” However, another valid viewpoint is that Paul Mushindo and other leaders at Lubwa felt that Lenshina was defying newly established ways of ministry. The mission at Lubwa was founded on Presbyterian Church polity. Expressions of spirituality by the adherents of the Lumpa church included a denial to participate in politics and a strong emphasis on eschatology which was exhibited in songs such as “going to new Jerusalem”. P. B. Mushindo and missionaries could not accept that Lenshina, who was not an ordained minister, baptized and administered other sacraments. In other words, Mushindo was trying to protect the doctrine and polity of the church as he understood it from a Presbyterian point of view as opposed to the fundamentalist approach exhibited by Lenshina and her followers. While, P. B. Mushindo might have wanted to embrace the flowers of Alice Lenshina, Rev. Robert McMinn and other European missionaries had strong reservations towards Alice Lenshina and her practices. John Hudson describes Robert McMinn as someone who could not “mix with Africans and imposed rigid distinctions between ordained ministers and other church members” (Hudson, 1999, p. 19). MacMinn emphasized class separation between blacks and whites (cf. Hudson, 1999, p. 19). For example, in 1947 he removed the cushions from the chairs when a Scottishnurse invited black medical staff to her housefor tea. Rev. McMinn was seemingly one of those missionaries to whom David Bosch (1991, p. 302) would refer as perceiving themselves as members of a race superior to Africans and, therefore, not to be trusted with the affairs of the church. The interconnectedness of race and class discrimination was manifest in the way MacMinn treated Africans.
Embodiment of resistance
The arrival of European imperialism and Western missionaries in Africa systematically destroyed many of its cultural values. Many missionaries preached that African culture was fetish (Bujo, 1992; Hinfelaar, 1994).Thus religious experience began to be conceptualized and interpreted through the perceptions of Western culture (Kanyoro, 1994, p. 25).P. B. Mushindo’s refusal to wear shoes can be seen from this perspective. Similarly, the formation of the Lumpa Church by Alice Lenshina Mulenga may be considered a response to some of the changes that Christianity brought in Bemba society. According to Hinfelaar (1994, p. 39), it was the exploitation and exclusion of the Christian mission era that inspired Lenshina’s reaction against the Free Church of Scotland mission at Lubwa. This is confirmed by Paul Mushindo (1973, p. 40), who notes: But MacMinn had a strong colour bar as regards Africans. He could not share his food or tea with an African person. No African could use his cup to drink water out of. At Holy communion the Europeans would use the cup first before the Africans used it…. MacMinn’s wife could not shake hands with an African without gloves on her hands.
It would seem that racial injustice on the part of colonialists and some missionaries inspired D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo to join thefight against European imperialism. In this way, D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo embodied resistance on various interconnected levels, political, spiritual and cultural. Van Velsen (1973, p. ii) observes: What appeared to us the main historical value of Mushindo’s story of his life is that it gives an insight into the role, the difficulties and ambivalences of the local Christian evangelists in relation to the foreign missionaries.
The relationship between native ministers and foreign missionaries was generally characterized by an uneasy ambivalence and considerable injustice. Western missionaries often proved harsh in their judgments concerning the activities of native ministers and evangelists. European missionaries, tended to want to retain the initiative in the introduction of Christianity in Africa and thus to maintain a position of seniority in relation to indigenous evangelists and ministers. However, indigenous evangelists and ministers contributed significantly to the work of proselytization. As Ranger (1967, p. 3) has observed, “from the very beginning African catechists and teachers bore the main burden of conversion”. They also provided vital help in bridging the inevitable gaps in understanding between European missionaries and Africans. P. B. Mushindo, in particular, provided help to missionaries and Western anthropologists by interpreting local culture for them (Richards, 1982, 1976).
Some of the missionaries who came to Africa did not even have proper theological training. One of these was Rev. MacMinn. Coming to central Africa in 1893 as a printer, MacMinn had not enjoyed any theological training in Scotland although he was eventually ordained. He only studied Hebrew and Greek to equip him for work on the Bible translation (MacPherson, 1973, p. xxi). Lack of proper theological education may have had a bearing on McMinn’s lack of emphasis on the expansion of the church and his reluctance to support Kaunda for ordination. Kaunda the pioneer was even after ordination in 1930 referred to by MacMinn as evangelist and assistant at Lubwa (MacPherson, 1973, p. xx). Furthermore, he had a pronounced racist attitude towards native ministers and church leaders at Lubwa. His relationship with Kaunda and Mushindo was characterised by racial superiority. MacMinn was always a bwana (master). He was therefore nicknamed Ngungu (aloofness) by the local people (MacPherson, 1973, p. xxii). As Mushindo (1973) notes, no black person including Mushindo, ever entered MacMinn’s house. MacMinn and his wife could eat food or drink tea without sharing it with Mushindo.
In Livingstonia mission in Nyasaland there were some strong-willed Africans who would not succumb to dominance by European missionaries. And so, they had to break away and set up indigenous churches (van Velsen, 1973, p. iv). They included Charles Domingo, Yesaya Zerenji Mwase and Charles Chinula. They protested against European dominance and the disregard of African culture by foreign missionaries. The breakaway churches often had an African face. Native ministers and evangelists sought to apply the Christian message to what they thought was more suitable for Africans in their particular circumstances (Shepperson and Price, 1958, pp. 159–65).
Inculturation and an African Holistic Worldview
On the spiritual front, native ministers at Lubwa believed in an African holistic worldview whereby the sick are healed and demons are exorcised. Local testimonies by Macbeth Chibulu and Ronald Nkamba indicate that some native evangelists and ministers at Lubwa such as Rev. Ng’ona had ideas on how to cast out demons using prayers, drumming, singing and sometimes the clients sniffed some local herbs (ukumununsha ichimuti ku myona) (Chibulu and Nkamba, 2011). Western missionaries did not believe in healing the physical body through prayer. They also didn’t believe in the use of local herbs as medicine (Bujo, 1992).
Rosemary Radford Ruether (1985, p. 149) observes that “healing is one of the most ancient aspects of religion. In the New Testament Jesus acts primarily as an exorcist and healer.” However, missionaries at Lubwa such as MacMinn did not believe in the exorcism of demons. This is because Western culture has divided reality into different compartments, giving physical healing over to medical doctors, psychic healing to psychiatrists, spiritual healing to priests while the healing power of local herbs is converted into capsules. While the skills of modern medicine and psychiatry should not be rejected, this division tends to ignore the more holistic perspective of healing exhibited in African culture. It is for this reason that thousands of people left the mission church to join the Lumpa church. I submit that this is also the reason why today many people in Zambia follow the so-called “prophets”. By practicing traditional forms of healing native evangelists and ministers such as D. J. Kaunda andP. B. Mushindo were not only resisting Western teaching in respect of healing, but they were also reclaiming the ancient role of healing as practised by Jesus and his apostles, the significance of which had been eroded by the teachings of Western missionaries. Furthermore, in addition to resisting restrictive elements in Christianity, native evangelists and ministers used the Bible to preach good morals and to challenge harmful cultural practices such as witchcraft, sexual cleansing of widows, and polygamy.
It is evident that native ministers and evangelists recognized the need to develop their own mission paradigm. But the task of inculturating the Gospel was not always easy because Western missionaries were in charge of Lubwa mission. Kaunda’s sudden death in 1932 left MacMinn again as minister-in-charge of the mission. At the same time Rev. Dr. Robert Brown was an individualist who could not foster the independent growth of the church by empowering native leaders for ordination and, thus, Kaunda and Mushindo served a church that, although pioneered by native evangelists, was for many years under direct European control. It was, in other words, governed by a Western leadership that frowned on indigenous singing in worship because it suspected associations with witchcraft, and insisted on ordering worship along the solemn pattern found in nineteenth-century Scottish congregations. Worship services at Lubwa were apparently replicas of church services in Scotland—a sad affair. It needs to be put on record, however, that some white missionaries such as Fergus MacPherson andL. G. Barham of Kalundu mission in Mushota, Kawambwa had a different and more positive attitude, and consistently spoke against racial discrimination.
Mission can be defined as the spreading of the good news that God affirms life over death and that God acts among the marginalized, who are victimized by the forces of the empire in the globalisation of the market economy and left out of decision-making processes (cf. Pui-Lan, 1996, p. 185). Mission involves forming partnerships, building bridges, and strengthening grassroots movements in the struggle for life and justice for all people. The implications of this are that mission is missio Dei, in which the Christian community participates in order to create a just and more inclusive society. It can be said that, in mission, God is not just acting among the exploited and oppressed but that God is working in partnership with them in order to liberate them (cf. Gutiérrez, 1973). In other words, it is a mission from below, meant for all God’s people and for the whole world. This understanding fits well within Bosch’s understanding of a paradigm shift in mission. Bosch declares that Jesus’ inclusive mission embraces all, “the poor and the rich, the oppressed and the oppressor, both the sinners and the devout. His mission is one of dissolving alienation and breaking down walls of hostility, of crossing boundaries between individuals and groups” (Bosch, 1991, p. 302). David Kaunda and Paul Mushindo’s mission paradigm must be perceived as being in its embryonic stage. Yet, it indicates that indigenous Africans were deeply involved in the planting of the Gospel in Africa and that they continuously participated in liberating activities of God in the world. They are called to the mission of God in this world and they are partners with God in the mission of justice.
Negotiating the Forces of the Empire
Characteristics of a more comprehensive view of mission seem evident in D. J. Kaunda’s and P. B. Mushindo’s paradigm. They saw no dichotomy between Christianity’s spiritual concerns and its political and social involvement in the lives of God’s people. This means that mission was not narrowly interpreted as simply the sending of individuals and groups (missionaries) to places in foreign countries or in their homeland for proselytizing (the conversion to Christianity, or from one Christian tradition to another). Rather, mission also involved addressing and resisting structures in society that denied people the fullness of life. This paradigm is in agreement with the contemporary ecumenical paradigms of mission, where forces of globalization and empire are resisted in order to foster holistic salvation—that is, in the “here and now” and in the “eschaton”. The Council for World Mission (2010, p. 4) theology statement states: We speak of Empire, because we discern a coming together of economic, cultural, political and military power in our world today, that constitutes a reality and a spirit of lordless domination, created by humankind yet enslaving simultaneously; an all-encompassing global reality serving, protecting and defending the interests of powerful corporations, nations, elites and privileged people, while imperiously excluding, even sacrificing, humanity and exploiting creation; a pervasive spirit of destructive self-interest, even greed.
The implication is that for the UCZ to be relevant, there is a need to challenge the forces of the empire that include the Gospel of consumerism, an insatiable desire to acquire wealth at the expense of the weak in society, socio-political injustices and a contemptuous disregard for the dignity of life for all inhabitants of God’s house (oikos), both human and non-human. Bosch (1980) suggests that the “evangelical” approach to mission may lead to a “narrowing down” of the scope of the Gospel, whereas the “ecumenical” approach may lead to a “watering down” of the Gospel. While Bosch, writing in 1980, identifies the need for the scope of the witness of the church (marturia) to include proclamation (kerugma), fellowship (koinonia) and service (diakonia), P. B. Mushindo and D. J. Kaunda actually exhibited these elements of mission in their ministry. Therefore, the UCZ needs to retrieve the tenets on which it was founded. This includes the embracing of evangelism as well as the quest for justice and liberation in its missiological approach (cf. Bosch, 1991). The Zambian context has enormous challenges. These include poverty, unemployment, malnutrition and hunger, gender-based violence, the abuse of children, ethnic and tribal violence, poor governance, disease and poor health facilities. The notion of holistic salvation implies that the presence of the church in the social and political arenas should be felt. This can be done by integrating the concerns of evangelism, development, economic growth and good governance. It is this vision that motivated Kaunda and Mushindo to speak out on behalf of the voiceless. Their stories also provide evidence of ways in which some missionaries and white settlers expressed their sense of racial superiority and of the fact that the crumbling of African cultural values had a negative effect on the lives of many Africans (Gann, 1964, p. 108).
Conclusion
The stories of D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo show that the considerable contributions made by indigenous persons to the creation of Zambia as an independent state, and to the establishment of the UCZ, has not received the attention it deserves. Few biographies have so far been published, nor has a concerted effort been made to do so. The stories make clear that Lubwa mission was founded by D. J. Kaunda, an African teacher-evangelist who came from Livingstonia mission in Nyasaland. In the present article I demonstrate, using the heuristic keys of remembering and resistance, that P. B. Mushindo and D. J. Kaunda embodied a paradigm shift away from the mission church of their days. The shift took place at three levels: they were involved in the movement for political independence as an act of resistance against Western imperialism, they endeavoured to contextualise Christian faith within African (Bemba) culture, and they had a comprehensive view of mission. In short, they were inclusive in their missionary endeavour. They envisioned the liberation of humanity in all its aspects. For them, God’s mission was to realize that God’s project is the establishment of the reign of God. This is typically the vision of what mission should look like in the 21st century. Namsoon Kang (2010, p. 128) succinctly captures the vision of the two indigenous missionaries: The primary goal of postcolonial mission is to join in the spirit and work of missio Dei by scrutinizing Christian complicity with various forms of injustice through its colonial mentality. Moreover it is to create a community of resistance, justice, compassion and solidarity in an unjust world.
While Namsoon Kang made this observation in 2010, P. B. Mushindo and D. J. Kaunda were embodying these values before 1960. Such was the visionary power of these remarkable men. As we commemorate fifty years of church union in Zambia, their stories and those of others like them need to be told and retold, inspiring us during our continued journey to justice and peace.
This article attempts to fill a gap in Zambian church history by sketching the lives of P. B. Mushindo and D. J. Kaunda, who played an important part in Zambia’s cultural, political and religious past. As van Velsen (1973) rightly notes, the importance of an individual’s part in the life of a nation and the church does not depend on high social status, or what are conventionally called ‘important jobs’, but rather on an individual’s dedication to a worthwhile goal. What comes to the fore in the present article is that the history of the church has given scant attention to the roles played by indigenous local evangelists without whom few of the nineteenth-century European explorers and missionaries would have been able to get very far, or even to survive, and who functioned as travelling companions, caravan leaders and hosts, assisted by their wives and other local women.It is my hope that the stories of D. J. Kaunda and P. B. Mushindo will motivate the contemporary Zambian Church, particularly the UCZ, toput its efforts into doing mission that is life-giving.
The Return of Incarnation
Brent Waters, This Mortal Flesh: Incarnation and Bioethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009. $21.99. pp. 205. ISBN: 978-1-58743-251-4).
In This Mortal Flesh Brent Waters has proffered Christian bioethicists with a book worthy of its title, one that centres its reflections on a series of challenging topics in medical ethics squarely on a theological commitment to the doctrine of the Incarnation.
The genius of this book is that from the first chapter onwards, a sustained value is assigned to the body that is neither naïve sentimentalism for the flesh nor a superficial appeal to the ‘goodness’ of the body without an understanding of real suffering. Like other books in the long tradition of rich Christian orthodoxy, Waters’ book retains a love for the body, but without blushing at its sheer finitude before the glories of its creator. As he says, ‘Any new world that despises the inherently finite, fragile, and vulnerable character of being an embodied creature because of the severe constraints it places upon self-indulgence cannot be called a good world.’ (p. 32).
In a valuable segment of the book on ‘persons, neighbours and embryos’, Waters draws on Karl Barth in a way that shows the applicability of Barth to ethical problems without falling into an uncritical assumption of his style and method. This, alongside an argument as to the philosophical significance of natality and mortality, illustrates why Christian ethics is always in need of a blend of the personal dimension (Waters often writes in the first person) as well as a clear-eyed understanding of the philosophies that have shaped contemporary society. In this regard, Waters makes a fundamental claim about the world he inhabits and argues that the context in which medical practice is now ordained as a quasi-religion owes much to Friedrich Nietzsche, and so we live in a world of ‘frenzied willing’ which is quite at odds with the world of mutual self-giving opened up in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ (p. 141). Waters, perhaps not always self-consciously, resists the temptation to feel bound to the language of his interlocutors, instead countering the world of ‘willing’ with a Christian language concerned with knowing and following Christ.
NIGEL ZIMMERMANN
University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia
Footnotes
1
Jonathan Kangwa is an ordained Minister in the United Church of Zambia. He is currently serving as Registrar at the United Church of Zambia University College. UCZ University College, Po Box 20429, Kitwe. ZAMBIA.
