3.1 The Historical Background of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
3.1.2 The African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Africa
In 1898 Bishop H.M. Turner visited South Africa. The AME Church first took root in cities - in Marabastad, outside Pretoria, and on the Witwatersrand. Bishop Turner brought literature
4 Shekutaamba Nambala. History of the Church in Namibia. New Jersey:
Collingswood Publishers. 1994. p. 104.
5 Elizabeth Isichei. A History of Christianity in Africa from Antiquity to the Present.
London: SPCK. 1995. p. 165.
6 G.c. Oosthuizen. Post Christianity in Africa. London: C. Hurst & Co. 1968. pp. 32- 33.
on the African Methodist Episcopal Church to South Africa. During his visit Turner ordained sixty-five African ministers.7 The leader of this black congregation, Rev. Mangena Maaka Mokone, declared in his inaugural sermon that the establishment of an African Church is to be understood as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy concerning the final liberation of the African people. Referring to the words of Ps. 68:31 (Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God), he pointed out that Ethiopia has not only a Panafrican connotation, it has also a theological meaning, expressing the hope for liberation of the African people who had been for too long the victims of slavery and white domination.8 Ethiopianism was a direct expression of resistance to the missionaries, white settlers and the colonial government. Obviously, the missionaries, white settlers and the colonial government forces became hostile to the Ethiopian movement. They accused Ethiopianism of a highly organised political agenda, but this could not be proven. Religion and politics are inextricably mixed in all history and Africans are no exception to this rule. Black consciousness among these groups of indigenous people derives from the burning desire that the community might control its own affairs. They were in favour of a black church free from white domination. I believe the white missionaries feared Ethiopianism because it was capable of simultaneously handling the ecclesiastical problem and the power relations between them and the missionary societies.
Missionaries were well aware of the strengths of Ethiopianism, because its aim was to plant a self-supporting, self-governing African Church. Ethiopianism was at this stage mainly a movement of ministers, who were the closest in contact with the needs of their own people.
The missionaries counteracted in the following words: "Africans lacked the capacity to maintain institutional order and standards.,,9
Dwane, a leader of the Ethiopian Church which had left the Wesleyan Church, went as a representative to America to have his Ethiopian Church officially accepted into the Federation of the AMEC. The need for educational opportunities was considered the greatest and most urgent need for Africans. Practical plans were formulated and partially implemented to meet
7 G.c. Oosthuizen. 1968. p. 33.
8 Erhard Kamphausen, "Unknown Heroes .... ", in P. Denis (ed). The Making of an Indigen~us Clergy in Southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications. 1995. p. 88.
James T. Campbell. 1995, p. 141.
this need. While he stayed in the United States of America, Dwane also emphasised the uniqueness of the South African work and its need for African leadership. After his return Dwane succeeded in causing the other Ethiopian Churches to also join the AMEC. The basis of the solid organisation of the AMEC in South Africa was laid by the Black American, Bishop Turner when he visited South Africa in 1898. Because of the inclusion of quite a number of dissatisfied groups from missionary churches, the number of South African members grew to more than 10 000 at the end of his five week visit. Dwane himself was the first to leave the AMEC again in 1900 because they did not appoint him as a bishop, but only as an assistant bishop. He considered this as a humiliation of Africans. In addition, he had suddenly discovered that a connection with the American Negroes would contradict the slogan of the Ethiopians "Africa to the Africans". But his, and many others, leaving the church could not stop the permanent growth of the AMEC in South Africa. 10
In 1900, the AMEC in America sent Bishop Levi Jenkins Coppin as their first bishop to reside in South Africa. In the same year the Wilbeforce Institute was founded in the Transvaal for the training of teachers and pastors. The Cape government acknowledged the AMEC in 1901, and agreements were entered into between the American Bishop Coppin and the Colonial Secretary of the Cape government, that at a given time the number of pastors acknowledged as marriage officers of the AMEC should not exceed 12. In 1909 the number was increased to 16. Being acknowledged by the government was a specific honour as up to 1909 only 3 independent African churches had been acknowledged by government. In 1938, the AMEC had 75 000 members in South Africa, 35 000 of them entitled to receive the Eucharist, and 215 pastors. They owned 279 church buildings. The first annual conference of the AMEC took place in 1897 in Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape. II
The AMEC in South Africa constitutes two districts of the American African Methodist Episcopal Church. One district comprised the Cape, Orange Free State and Namibia. The Vaal river constitutes its northern border. The other district ranges from the Vaal up to the Congo.
Yet, there were hardly any members of the AMEC in Congo. Once every four years the World
10 Katea Schlosser. Eingenborenen Kirchen In Sud und Sudwest Afrika. Kiel.
Germany, 1953. p. Ill.
II N.C. Christiaans. 1957. p. 9.
Conference of the AMEC is held. At these conferences the bishops for the next four years are elected for the respective districts. Between 1950 and 1953 none of the bishops had visited South Africa. Nevertheless, the congregations were growing in numbers.