The Legacy of Ellen G. White in Africa

Letters to Adventist missionaries in Africa

In 1886 Sabbath-keeping Adventists in South Africa sent a call to US Adventists who were leaders at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Battle Creek, MI. In response to this call, a group of seven missionaries was sent out in July 1887: George Burleigh and R. S. Anthony, who were colporteurs; Miss Carrie Mace, a Bible instructor; and D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd, with their wives. Their task was to establish a Seventh-day Adventist church in Africa.

Before they left for Cape Town, Ellen White, “having become deeply interested in their mission,” handed them a memorable letter, dated June 18, 1887. ⁵ Addressed to all seven missionaries, it expressed White’s commitment to Adventist mission. “We have a great and sacred trust in the elevated truths committed to us,” she wrote, ⁶ meaning that she wanted the missionaries to expose Africans to Adventist beliefs. She warned the missionaries who were sent to Africa to be ready to face hardship. From the General Conference (the governing body of Seventh-day Adventism), they could expect only a paltry remuneration, and thus she wrote, “The men who will give themselves to the great work of teaching the truth are not the men who will be bribed with wealth or frightened by poverty.” ⁷ Each missionary should constantly ask the important questions “What am I?” and “What ought I to be and do?” ⁸ Self-examination was necessary.

In her subsequent letters to specific missionaries and other individuals in Africa, White continued to express her commitment to the planting of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. For this reason, she cautioned the missionaries regarding shortcomings that would be detrimental to their mission. In a letter sent from Stockholm, Sweden, dated June 25, 1887, White addressed a Brother Boyd and a Miss C. L. Boyd, who were about to go to Africa as missionaries. After commending their missionary zeal, she warned them about what to watch out for in the future. She cautioned them about self-exaltation, writing, “As you are to begin work in a new mission, be careful that your defects are not exalted as virtues, and thus retard the work of God.” White was aware that missionary activities were about the sacred exposition of God’s Word and the truth it contains. ⁹ She was not afraid of exposing missionaries to their weaknesses that could hinder the missionary endeavor.

Ellen White also frequently corresponded with A. T. Robinson, another prominent American missionary, who was sent to Africa in 1891. She wrote him letters of encouragement during a visit in Australia. In line with her comments to all Adventist missionaries in Africa, she reiterated that Robinson should not give up to discouragement. “Jesus gave His life for us, that we should not perish, but believe in Him and have everlasting life. And shall we distrust God for one moment, when He has given us such evidence of His love? No, no; my soul cries out for the living water of life that I may refresh others.” ¹⁰ Her message arose out of her commitment for the establishment of Adventism in Africa.

In a letter dated April 27, 1898, she expressed words of consolation to Mary Tripp on the loss of Mary’s husband: “We were distressed as we heard of the death of your husband in the far-off land of Africa, and you may be assured that you have our sympathies.” ¹¹ This tender spirit of White demonstrated her commitment to uplift the spirit of missionaries who went through humanly unbearable sufferings in Africa.

From Maitland, New South Wales, Australia, Ellen White sent a letter to another missionary, W. S. Hyatt, who experienced success in his labors in Africa. She saw Hyatt as an instrument for the furthering of Adventist mission in Africa. She wrote: “It is God’s plan to work through His instrumentalities, His chosen earthen vessels, and men are honoured when He places them as His appointed messengers.” ¹²

Ellen White’s letters were instrumental for the establishment of Adventist mission in Africa. Although she did not live long enough to witness the growth of Adventism in this continent, she was hopeful that Africans would, in large number, embrace the Adventist faith.

Communication with the Wessels family

Among the most prominent individuals with whom Ellen White corresponded between 1887 and 1909 was a South African family, the Wessels. Peter Wessels was a wealthy and generous Dutch man. He used his wealth to help in the spread of Adventist message. He was one of the believers who wrote to the General Conference in 1886 asking that an American missionary be sent to South Africa in order to strengthen the faith of Sabbath-keepers there.

The Wessels family, through a painstaking word of advice from Ellen White, invested considerable means into the cause of Adventism in Southern Africa. ¹³ In April 1896 White had written to the Wessels asking that they loan her $5,000 in order to support the building of a school. In one of her letters to them, she wrote, “We must build a school here, where students may be educated to form characters for eternal life, and where they may receive such an education in the Scriptures that they will go out from the school to educate others.” ¹⁴ The Wessels lent her the requested amount, and the foundation of Bethel Hall was laid at 5:30 pm on October 5, 1896. ¹⁵

Unfortunately, it took some few years for Seventh-day Adventism to get established among the black South Africans. It was hindered because early Adventists harbored an imperialist mentality that considered blacks inferior to whites. On January 14, 1893, Philip Wessels, a highly esteemed pioneer of Adventism in South Africa, complained to the prophet: “I do not want my children to associate with the lower classes of coloured people. I will labour for them and teach my children to do so. But I do not want my children to mix with them, for such is detrimental to their moral welfare. Nor do I want my children to think there is no difference in society that they should finally associate and marry into coloured blood.” ¹⁶ Wessels added: “So there is the colour line drawn which is very distinctly drawn here in society. For my part I do not care. I can shake hands with the coloured people and so forth. But our association with them is going to spoil our influence with others who are accustomed to these things. . . . To have any influence with the higher class of people, we must respect these differences.” ¹⁷ Although there was a good intention to preach the gospel to the blacks, the early white converts were engaged in racial discrimination, which was prevalent at that time in South Africa. ¹⁸

The view of white supremacy over blacks in South Africa appalled Ellen White. She remarked in 1895 that “in one place, the proposition was made that a curtain be drawn between the coloured people and the white people. I asked, Would Jesus do that? This grieves the heart of Christ. The colour of the skin is no criterion as to the value of the soul.” ¹⁹ Ellen White clearly had a significant role to play in the establishment of Adventism in Africa.

Ellen White, Adventist missionary enterprise, and Western cultural imperialism

Adventist missionaries were leaders in the fight against racial discrimination. They were abolitionists in their own right, for their views were shaped by their close collaboration with the church’s pioneers and by the progressive acceptance of the writings of Ellen White. She not only advocated for the abolition of slavery in America but also affirmed the equality of all races before God. White believed that slavery was a sin. She wrote, “All heaven beholds with indignation human beings, the workmanship of God, reduced by their fellow men to the lowest depths of degradation and placed on a level with the brute creation. Professed followers of that dear Saviour whose compassion was ever moved at that the sight of human woe, heartily engage in this enormous and grievous sin, and deal in slaves and souls of men.” ²⁰ In 1862 White noted that “God is punishing this nation for the high crime of slavery. He has the destiny of the nation in His hands. He will punish the South for the sin of slavery, and the North for so long suffering its overreaching and overbearing influence.” ²¹

Other Adventist pioneers such as Joseph Bates, James White, and John Loughborough all joined the fight against slavery in America. In reality, discourses in race relations in Adventism can be better understood within the history of race relations in America. American Adventists of the nineteenth century condemned the practice of slavery. In the 1830s, for instance, Joseph Bates, one of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism and a leading Millerite, organized an antislavery society. He affirmed that “duty was clear that I could not be a consistent Christian if I stood on the side of the oppressor, for God was not there. Neither could I claim his promises if I stood on neutral ground. Hence, my only alternative was to plead for the slave, and thus I decided.” ²² Bates wholeheartedly denounced the evil of slavery. He stood with the black people in the South to preach the gospel to them. ²³ Other early Seventh-day Adventist pioneers who were proponents of the abolition of slavery included Joshua V. Himes, Charles Fitch, and George Storrs. Later, John Byington, who later became the first General Conference president of the Seventh-day Adventists, was an abolitionist as well. ²⁴

Adventist apocalyptic understanding and the social currents in nineteenth-century America made the African Adventist missionaries agents in the fight against racial discrimination. They labored in Africa with the sense of urgency of the coming of Christ and the imminence of the destruction of the world, in which the evils of racism and discrimination abounded.

However, Adventist missionaries had their own humanness and limitations. In the South African context, true brotherhood and sisterhood were restricted to Westerners; in most cases, a sense of true equality between Africans and Westerners was barely visible. Western imperial mentality was observable in almost all Western missionaries who came to Africa between the 1880s and the 1970s. “African humanity was not part of universal humanity. Therefore, Africans could be treated like creatures less than human. They could be deprived of privileges, of power and of the right to decision-making. They had to be receptacles of the gospel, not its dispensers.” ²⁵

A close evaluation of the writings of Adventist historian Arthur Spalding showcases the spirit of imperialism and American hegemony that illustrates the struggles among Adventist whites of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spalding described various missionary activities of Western Adventist missionaries in Africa. He referred to Africans as “barbaric,” people of a lower class. Spalding demonstrated popular prejudices of his time toward blacks. He viewed their innate capacities as inferior to those of the whites. At times, he used words that would be offensive to modern sensibilities, including “negro,” “nigger,” and similar words reflecting the racial prejudices of his time. ²⁶ The writings of Spalding reveal an inner struggle within the conscience of some white Adventists. This racism was evident in several areas of church policy, such as pay inequality for the same job within the same structure and separate dining areas for black people. For instance, not until the 1950s were black people given the privilege of eating in the Adventist Review and Herald Cafeteria with their white colleagues in Takoma Park, MD. And especially after the 1890s, blacks and whites were segregated in worship; also, blacks were unable to gain admissions to Adventist hospitals. ²⁷

Thus, it is difficult to separate American or even European cultural and racial hegemony from the nineteenth-century Christian missionary enterprise. Winthrop Hudson noted that nineteenth-century American missionary activities were enwrapped within the political interests of American expansionism across the world. ²⁸ During the presidency of William McKinley (1897–1901), the United States linked American imperial and cultural interest with the missionary interests. America viewed itself at that time as the major world power and the chief evangelizer of the world. As American missionaries traveled to the Pacific, the Philippines and Africa, they conveyed a master-servant mentality, which reflected their sense of cultural hegemony.

Ellen White thus requested Adventist missionaries in Africa to behave differently by exalting Christ and loving their black brethren. She later noted: “Many who have been looked upon as hopeless will become educators of their [black] race. Through the grace of God, the race that the enemy has for generations oppressed may rise to the dignity of God-given manhood and womanhood.” ²⁹ She rejected the rampant evil of racial discrimination and condemned its practice among Seventh-day Adventists. She affirmed, “The fact that their skin is dark does not prove that they are sinners above the white race.” ³⁰

Although white Adventist missionaries struck a certain balance between imperialism and gospel ministry, the fact that they were brought up in societies that regarded whites as superior blinded their thinking about the equality of races. When they came to Africa, they avoided interfering with governmental affairs that supported racism. In South Africa, the social realities were far more complex, given the context of apartheid. White missionaries were viewed as accomplices of the government, which maintained and promoted social inequality and racial segregation. ³¹ We cannot conclude that white missionaries openly supported segregationally oriented policies, but neither did they pledge public support for the cause of marginalized South Africans.

In her general message to Adventist missionaries, Ellen White stated, “Whatever may be the nationality or colour, whatever may be the social condition, the missionary for God will look upon all men as the purchased of the blood of Christ, and will understand that there is no caste with God. No one is to be looked upon with indifference, or to be regarded as unimportant; for every soul has been purchased with an infinite price.” ³² She also stated: “The black man’s name is written in the book of life beside the white man’s. All are one in Christ. Birth, station, nationality, or colour cannot elevate or degrade men. The character makes man. If . . . an African gives his heart to God in obedience and faith, Jesus loves him nonetheless for his colour. He calls him His well-beloved brother.” ³³

Conclusion

Ellen White has become a household name in Africa today. As affirmed by George R. Knight, “It is good to be a living prophet. But it may be better to be a dead one.” ³⁴ Ellen White was little known in Africa at the time of her death, but she became very popular in Africa long after her death among Seventh-day Adventists because of her writings. This appreciation of Ellen White has a deep historical foundation, for she supported the emancipation of blacks and called on white missionaries to treat the Africans as their own brethren. Her love for Africans was immense at a time when most whites denigrated the blacks. She remains a social activist who spoke in favor of blacks.