An important undertaking was the building of a road between Windhoek and Walvis Bay, as the transport of supplies from Cape Town by ox-wagon was too laborious. In 1849 Otjimbingwe, an intermediate station, was established on the Swakop River. It developed into a mission colony where German artisans and colonists trained the blacks in handicrafts. The Augustineum, a training school for teachers and evangelists, was opened in Otjimbingwe in 1866. Education took place under the leadership of the Missionary F.W. Viehe from
39 lW. de Vries. Mission and Colonialism in Namibia. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
1978. p. 85.
40 Peter H. Katjavivi. A History of Resistance in Namibia. Paris: UNESCO Press.
1988. p. 6.
Menninghufen, Westfale province in Germany.41 The teaching was in German and was very elementary, focusing more on German language and culture and on Bible study, than anything else.42 It was a deliberate attempt by the missionaries to give elementary education to the blacks, in order to exclude them from any leadership position and decision making. Early missionary records claim that missionary education constituted the foundation of a higher civilisation. On the contrary, it was tailor-made to produce subservient leaders. The main objective of their training was to indoctrinate the blacks, claiming that the German culture was superior to theirs, and also to make them good helpers and obedient interpreters. The German missionaries were very suspicious of everything that was happening around them.
The German missionaries wanted to block the black surge for independence. Anxiety increased in the Rhenish Mission Society. It caused havoc, because the white missionaries did not fully understand the black people.
The most disturbing factor at that time, was the point that the blacks did not have any platform in terms of which they could assert their aspirations. I am of the opinion that the Rhenish missionaries knew the strengths and weaknesses of the black people. It was vital for them to win the trust and faith of the people. In most instances the local chiefs of Namibia fell into the trap of missionaries requesting the allocation of land for mission stations. The most significant aspect is that the Africans were God fearing people, who would heartily welcome everybody who came with the good news.
The missionary doctrines of heavenly rewards, whatever suffering on earth might be, were misleading. This was a matter of deliberate policy. Very late the indigenous people realised the danger and consequences they faced - they became poor and landless.
Herero Chief Frederick Maharero described the German attitudes towards African education as follows :
41 H. Vedder. Die Voorgeskiedenis van Suidwes-Afrika. Windhoek: John Meinert Drolckery. 1937. p. 538.
42 Peter H. Katjavivi. A History of Resistance in Namibia. Paris: UNESCO Press.
1988. p. 27.
The Germans fought us and took away our land, that is why they do not want to see any good in us. They converted us to Christianity but did not want to give us any education or to help us to advance. They only preached to us. The Hereros did not learn anything from them except the word 'God'. The Germans were afraid of the Herero people. They did not want them to learn and to become civilized as we want today. I was taken to Germany with the others to be shown to the Kaizer because he did not know his black subjects, and also to be taught.... we were there one year (about 1894). We were not taught anything. Only we rode on horses and dressed and drilled as soldiers.43
The entire method used in missionary work based on the spoken words, particularly the sermons held in the services and devotional gatherings were a failure. The handicraft mission, which should teach handicraft skills to the Africans and so prepare them for a Christian community, proved to be unrealistic and was soon abandoned. In education the emphasis was on its practical usefulness. In the Herero schools German was introduced as a school subject after 1905.
The reason behind this policy was to produce many interpreters for the German missionaries. The German missionaries experienced difficulties with the black languages, and in particular with the click languages. When talking to the less acculturated, they heavily relied on interpreters. Even when a missionary was present, far more of the actual work of evangelization would have been carried out by the indigenous helpers in the earliest days than was the case later on.
The Rhenish schools were the first schools for the indigenous people in the central and the southern parts of Namibia. Elfriede Strassberger, a well-known authority on the Rhenish Mission Society in South Africa claims that the Rhenish missionaries attached great value to their educational work.44 I strongly disagree, with Strassberger. For the few Africans in schools the standard of education was very low, up to standard ill (it is equivalent of five years of basic schooling). The missionaries maintained this education level deliberately. Their strategy was to exclude the indigenous people from leadership roles. Leadership
43 Peter H. Katjavivi. A History of Resistance in Namibia. Paris: UNESCO Press.
1988. p. 11.
44 Elfriede Strassberger. The Rhenish Mission Society in South Africa 1830-1950.
Cape Town: Rustica Press. 1969. p. 96.
responsibility was only for the missionaries. By contrast, in the neighbouring country South Africa, Tiyo Soga was the first ordained African minister in South Africa in 1856, after his return from studies in Scotland.45 Tiyo Soga was from the Presbyterian Church and served in the Eastern Cape till his untimely death in 1871. During this period in Namibia, there was no training for indigenous pastors - to take leadership roles in the church.
Hugo Hahn, the father of missionary work in Namibia, realised that the Northern part of Namibia was too large for him. The northern part was largely inhabited by the Ovambo people. Hahn invited the Finnish Missionary Society to join him there, which it did in 1870.
The early Finnish missionaries were undoubtedly severely puritanical, but they had no colonial interest in Namibia. From Cape Town the Finns travelled by ship to Walvis Bay, where they landed on 14th February 1869. From there they continued to Hahn's mission station in Otjimbingwe. At this station, the group stayed for a year to study languages:
Herero, Dutch and English and practical missionary work. Herero, which is a Bantu language like Ovambo, was hoped to be a bridge to familiarization with the Ovambo dialects.
Early, the activities of the Finnish Missionary Society were very closely linked to the Rhenish Missionary Society and particularly with the person of missionary Hugo Hahn. On 17th October 1867 the Board of the Finnish Mission Society had accepted an agreement to cooperate with the Rhenish Mission Society. In it they had also agreed to the division of labour in such a way that they will work among different peoples.
By 1870 the Finnish Mission Society was established in Ovamboland.46 The Finnish made a great effort to translate the New Testament into the Ovambo language in 1903, and by 1954 the Bible was completed. The church was independent by 1954, when it was recognised by the government. The Finnish started with training for pastors and evangelists in 1922 at Oniipa, northern Namibia. The first ordination of the local pastors, who constituted the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambokavango Church took place in 1925. In the real sense of the
45 Phillipe Denis. The Making of an Indigenous Clergy in Southern Africa.
Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications. 1994. p. 42.
46 G.L. Buys and J.J. Kritzinger (eds). Salig die Vredemakers. Pretoria: Universiteit van Pretoria. 1989. p. 117.
word, the Finnish empowered the indigenous people of Northern Namibia. In 1911, the first hospital was built in Onandjokwe, and since 1913 the church has had its own printing press at Oniipa.47 Since 1963 the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambokavango Church was under the leadership of the late Bishop Leonard Auala, with their headquarters at Oniipa.
During that time, more than half of the population of Namibia, some 200 000 were Ovambos.
Special mention is made of Martti Rautanen who in his life-long work of 57 years also translated the Oshindonga Bible. In 1928 work started in the Okavango areas and in the late thirties a futile attempt was made to enter Angola. At first, progress was slow, but during the first half of the 20th Century rapid progress was recorded. In 1913 the first training school was opened at Oniipa and until 1945 the Finnish Mission piloted the whole educational programme. At Oniipa the Finnish Mission erected its printing press where school books and the church paper, Omukuetu (One of us) was published. After World War I the work of the Rhenish Mission Society among the Oukuanjama was taken over and in 1925 the first seven black pastors were ordained. Pastors were trained at Elim and evangelists, Sunday School teachers and others at Engela. After the independence of Evangelical Lutheran churches in South West Africa the training of pastors was coordinated and merged at the Paulinum. The Ovambokavango Lutheran church was one of the first Lutheran Churches to become autonomous and to have an African bishop.48
In my assessment, there was such a great difference between the Finnish Missionary approach and the Rhenish Missionary approach. The Rhenish Mission Society's policy was to enslave the indigenous people among whom they laboured. The Rhenish Missionaries did not think of recruiting local people for ordained ministry. Their unwillingness to recruit indigenous clergy to ordained ministry was also based on the prejudices typical of those days - that blacks were not ready for responsible positions. In fact, the Rhenish missionaries purposely delayed the ordination of the indigenous people. It was generally believed by missionaries that the indigenous people were to be civilised and evangelized. This is because the culture of the
47 Shekutaamba Nambala. History of the Church in Namibia. New Jersey:
Collingswood Publishers. 1994. p. 87.
48 G.L. Buys and J.1. Kritzinger. Salig die Vredemakers. Pretoria: Universiteit van Pretoria. 1989. p. 161.
people in missionary territory was considered to be inferior. The Rhenish missionaries failed dismally in improving the quality of life of the people. They made the indigenous people dependent on the Mission Society. The people have been indoctrinated that only the missionaries from Europe have the right to preach and administer sacraments.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in South West Africa, arising from the work of the Rhenish Mission Society was founded in 1957. It was under the missionary leadership of Rev. K.H.
Diehl. The theological Seminary Paulinum at Otjimbingwe was established in 1963 to train pastors and evangelists. After Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990, the Synod changed the name to the present name, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. This is the second largest church in Namibia, with an estimated membership of250 000. As counter reaction to the African Methodist Episcopal Church Schism of 1946, the Rhenish Mission Society ordained its first indigenous pastors in 1949. This was not a voluntary act on the side of the missionaries, but ascribed to the pressure and breakaway of the Nama people in the south of Namibia, from the Rhenish Mission Society. The Rhenish Mission Society only handed over leadership to indigenous people in 1967. Dr. Johannes Lukas de Vries, a graduate of the Brussels University became the first black leader of the church graced with the title Prases.49 Dr. de Vries was the second indigenous clergy with a doctorate. In many circles his research topic was regarded as an outstanding academic work.
As a result of the schism and the consequences of the exodus of members of the Rhenish Mission Church into the African Methodist Episcopal Church, very few black pastors have been ordained by the Rhenish Mission Society. The Rhenish Mission Society was very reluctant to ordain the indigenous people. They thought that something needed to be done, to restore the trust in them, of the local people. The Rhenish missionaries, although witnessing the consequences of their education, still persisted in treating Africans as minors, not capable of receiving a fully fledged education conducive to the full development of the self and leading to self government and political independence.
49 Hendrik R. Tjibeba. The Episcopacy and its Implications for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia 1985-1993. Unpublished B.Th dissertation.
Pietermaritzburg: UNP. 1995. p.7. Prases is a title equivalent to Bishop which is used by the Rhenish Mission in the Rhineland, Germany.
In 1963 there were 68 schools with 4 439 boys, 4 659 girls and 238 teachers. These schools were under the Rhenish Mission Society, although it was partially subsidised by the government. The colonial authorities allied with the missionaries by giving grants in aid for the improvement of education. The so-called education of missionaries and the government was below the average curriculum standard of any educational system in the world. There is no traceable record during this period for an African in Namibia, who matriculated. Even today, Namibia remains one of the most educationally disadvantaged countries in Africa. The Rhenish Mission Society and the colonial government did not know that their oppressive school system contributed to the emergence of African nationalism.