6 - The Mzimba Secession, 1898: A South African ‘Disruption’

Summary

Introduction

A significant stimulus to the formation of an autonomous church whose roots were in the Scottish mission was the rise of resistance to mission domination in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This was an African continental phenomenon and took the form of Ethiopian-type churches whose origin and development were a paradoxical phenomenon in the history of Christianity in South Africa. They expressed the success of missionary work which had prepared African leadership through providing a thorough education which resulted in the twin, but opposing responses, of conformity and resistance. The organisers of what became Ethiopian-type churches were resisters, although some appeared to be conformists. On the other hand, the missionaries lamented their rise because they undermined their power and authority and suggested that they had outgrown their missionary purpose with the developing maturity of their scions. The missionaries had seriously underestimated the option of rejection of their mentorship in whole, or in part as they reached spiritual and other forms of maturity. Missionaries believed that their subjects were not yet fully equipped for the responsibility some were taking upon themselves, but could give no reasonable estimate regarding when that state of ‘readiness’ would occur. History has not been kind to this interpretation as several such churches arose and many have survived the dismal prediction that they would not stand the test of time.

Prelude to Secession

One such example is the Presbyterian Church of Africa which came into being when Rev. Pambani J. Mzimba, an experienced minister and one of the first blacks to be ordained by the Free Church of Scotland Mission in South Africa, seceded from the mission in 1898. Mzimba had been minister of the Free Church of Scotland Mission at Lovedale adjacent to the historic Lovedale Missionary Institution since his ordination in 1875. He had received his education and had worked at Lovedale, before his ordination. In 1893, he was sent to Scotland to attend the jubilee celebrations of the Free Church of Scotland as a representative of the Mission. While there, Mzimba raised a large sum of money for a building fund in his congregation supported by Dr James Stewart, his mentor and Principal of Lovedale Missionary Institution (Burchell 1979: 120).