3. Introduction
3.3 The arrival of the Scottish Mission from Malawi
they increased the number by bringing in more missionaries, doctors and technicians.175 Even after the Scottish Mission Society took over the mission fields, the Africans were still the main agents who were used to evangelise the Hehe people.
In 1919, Pastor A. Melville Anderson toured the Southern Highlands mission stations. A crowd of Bena welcomed him. In the course of visiting twenty stations in the Ubena-Uhehe area, Anderson baptised 250 people and administered communion to 700 people.176 Among the baptized were converts from Uhehe: Abrahamu Munyi, Lazaro Kidibule, Yesaya Kivelege, Zakaria Mwaduma, Siwonekage Mponzi and Yohana Kidibule.l77 The above converts, even though they were ready, had to wait for some years for their baptism, due to a shortage of pastors.
Anderson was the only pastor who took over the whole of Uhehe for all pastoral services. Following Anderson's experience, one can argue that although all the German missionaries had been sent home, the indigenous agents had carried forward the missionary work of taking care of the people spiritually. Indigenous agents, including walimu and church elders did pastoral care and guidance. After evangelistic campaigns people began to attend church services. The local Christians responded qUickly and carried the practice into their own hinterlands.
On another tour, in 1920, Pastor Anderson noted that the conditions of the mission bUildings left much to be desired. There was decay because they were left unattended. The Scottish Mission embarked on the reconstruction of the mission stations, although its major focus was on education, helper training and formal measures of increased
175 Dayosisi ya Kusini, Miaka 100 ya Injili, Kumbukumbu, p. 13, (Evangelical Lutheran Church in TanzaniaL, Southern diocese).
176 Marcia Wright, German Missions in Tanganyika, p. 148.
177 Interview with Muhuvile Nyanganani, 16 August 1999, Iringa.
congregational self-government.178 It was important to focus on helper training because without well-trained and educated personnel, there were going to be difficulties for missionary work, due to the shortage of evangelists. The primary means of re-establishing contact with teachers and evangelists was a refresher course. At the end of 1921, Anderson organized a six-week course for 44 Bena teachers and from that time more and more of the prominent teachers made known their willingness to work under his leadership. Although there was a revival in the mission staff, the demand for village church schools was big.
From Iringa there was a request to Anderson from local chiefs for schools.179
In 1925, Pastor A. Melville Anderson reported that the condition of stations was very frustrating.180 In Kidugala the British soldiers had demolished the house of the pastor and the cost of renovating it was very expensive. However, they managed to renovate the church tower by putting on a new roof and painting the whole church. Another house was built, as well as huts for animals. Facilities, which belonged to the dispensary and seminary, were all stolen except for the medicine cupboard. In the process of renovating the bUildings, they started by building huts of grass for the sick and prepared furniture.
The printing machine was found in the bush. Milling machines were all out of order, while platforms for the church were all stolen. Very few books were found in Ilembula and Lupembe, while all the facilities and animals were stolen. However, all the church bells were not stolen.181 I1embula area had a different situation. There were 216 Christians, and this motivated missionary H.S. Watson to reopen the mission station.
Christians, who had been scattered as a result of the war, eventually
178 Marcia Wright, German Missions in Tanganyika 1891-1941, p. 149.
179 Ibid.
180Ibid.
came back to their former mission stations and decided to rebuild their houses once again.
The period between the two World Wars, 1919-1938, was a peaceful one in Tanzania. As a result of this peace, German missionaries requested the British Government to allow them to return to their former mission fields. The British Government agreed, and in 1925 German missionaries started coming back to Tanzania. Pastor Martin Priebusch went back to Magoye, from where he supervised the whole mission work in Ubena-Konde. In 1927 he was transferred to Kidugala and the following year he took over from Anderson the leadership task of supervising all the mission stations of Ubena-Uhehe. In 1928, Pastor Herman Neuberg the son of Wilhelm Neuberg came back to Tanganyika from German and assisted Priebusch in Uhehe at the Pommern mission.182 In 1930 Neuberg was put in charge of the whole Bena/ Hehe and Ulanga area. His station was at Pommern, 50 kilometers from Iringa town. During this time very little was done in Uheheland by the Lutheran church. Missionaries concentrated more on the Udzungwa highlands where the Kibena language was used as a medium of evangelisation and instruction.
Great relief was experienced when the British Government allowed the German missionaries to return to their former mission fields. In 1928, Pastor Herman Neuberg took a missionary role in Uhehe and Ulanga and his congregation was at Pommern. Owing to his strong emphasis on evangelism, many more converts were baptised. Indigenous people, who had been tested, had to travel many miles to the main station to receive baptism. Among those who received baptism were
181 Kobler, Miaka 100 ya Injili, Dayosisi ya Kusini, Kumbukumbu. (Njombe: ELCT, Southern diocese,2000), 100 year of the Gospel, Southern diocese) p. 13
182 ' •
Stephen Z. Mwaduma, Dates and Important Events of Iringa Diocese 1899-1987 (Iringa: Don Bosco Press, 1987), p. 1.
Samwel Makongwa, Hosea Magelenga, Tufuwage Semahudza, Yehoswa Kikoti, Zakaria Kivelege, Hebel Chalale, Samwel Msuva, and
Maritha Magelanga.183
A network of out stations was built and in each station a teacher was responsible for preaching and teaching the catechumen and the students. With no exception, even in the most remote places where conditions seemed adverse for missionaries to endure, indigenous teachers faced the challenge. African teachers like Lupituko Mkemwa, Yotamu Mkemwa, Essau Nyanganani and Mathayo Ngahatilwa, proved themselves more suitable for evangelistic work than their European partners. They moved from one village to another preaching and teaching the Word of God to the Hehe people. The reason was obvious.
They had the advantage of physical adaptation, which enabled them to work without many problems.
The outcome of the increase in converts meant an increase in the mission stations. Therefore, the converts who had grasped reading and the Christian teachings well were recruited to form a band of preachers in the various corners of the Uhehe district. A mission station was a preaching place as well as a school. For example, the building at Pommern served as a classroom during the week, and as a church on Sundays. In order to meet the demand, the missionaries made extensive use of the teachers. They became, so to speak: the real missionaries to their own people.184 They had the task of teaching and indoctrinating the people. As Edward Mnyawami says, they were almost pastors, without pastoral ordination, for they really did pastoral care. They evangelised. They conducted Sunday services in the outstations. They examined the candidates for the sacraments
183 Interview with Edward Mnyawami 23 November2000, Iringa.
184Interview with Edward Mnyawami, 23 November 2000, Iringa.
(Baptism, Holy Communion and Confirmation); they did this as a preliminary to the pastor's "public· examination of the same candidates". They made home visitations in the village to instruct and to baptise those in danger of death. They acted as liason and as public relations officers for the missionary. They interpreted for the pastor when the latter was on a visit to the station. In fact, the local church of the village station grew around the evangelists.185
Following the increasing number of congregations in Pommern, it became necessary to group them into what was called majimbo (districts). Each jimbo had a number of stations. The jimbo was under the supervision of a senior teacher who was chosen by the pastor. The head of the jimbo had a supervisory role over the other teachers. He checked whether teaching and confirmation classes were correctly done. For instance, the Idete congregation had the following districts:
Kipanga supervised by Andrea Mwaduma; Idete, under Isaya Kivelege;
Idunda, under Yehoswa Kikoti; and Ukwega under Samwel Makongwa.
All these supervisors had once been incharge of other teachers. The jimbo worked closely with the pastor and reported to him on the development of evangelism and bush schools in the respective places of influence.18G
In 1928 and 1931 all the mission stations were returned to the Berlin Mission Society. However, most of the missionaries who worked with the Scottish Mission remained in the Southern Highlands. Pastor Anderson continued to work in Iringa until his death and was buried in Iringa town. During this time, the most pressing activities for Julius Oelke in the area were the following: to clear out antagonism and bring reconciliation with the Catholics; to reflect on the relationship
185Interview with Edward Mnyawami, 23 November 2000, Iringa.
186Interview with Samson Mkemwa, 12 December 2000, Iringa.
between the Gospel and culture; to fight against the bad influence of settlers and miners; to nurture indigenous leaders; to educate Christians to take economic responsibilities; and to re-plan the primary school work in spite of the economic hardships.187
The German Lutheran missionaries came to an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church missionaries regarding areas of mission work in Iringa, whereby the Lutherans agreed to proceed eastwards and the Catholics westwards. During this time, some cultural elements were accepted in the church. When the Berlin missionaries again resumed responsibility after the Scottish interlude, Julius Oelke was chosen as Superintendent of the recreated Bena-Hehe Synod. Oelke had worked in Uhehe and Ubena before the war. Oelke believed that God had prepared the Bena to receive the gospel by making the last seven commandments known to them. This was to make baptismal candidates conscious of the fact that Christian and traditional morality had a common base. 188
Starting in October 1934, when accepting 405 candidates at Kidugala for baptismal instruction, they had to pass a test about their knowledge of the last seven of the ten commandments as received in Bena folkhood. He explained to them that what they already knew of God's commandments was good, but that those laws could only become meaningful if they really got to know God. After all, these candidates had to promise to become good Bena or Hehe and it was made part of the ceremony of acceptance for baptismal instruction all over the church. But during the 1939 Synod in Iringa it became obvious that the baptismal candidates felt this promise to be nonsense. Oelke realized that he had missed the mark and so the
187 Kobler, Miaka 100 ya Injili Dayosisi ya Kusini, p. 13.
188 M"IsslonaryCon erence 1934 Lupembe; quarterly report, Kidugala church archivesf 111/34, 26/10/34.
promise was dropped.189 Oelkel alsol worked in close collaboration with the chiefs. He believed that the chief held his office by divine orderl and believedI furtherl that only those whom God had renewedl
namely the Christiansl could only save this divine creation.190 Oelkel
during his time in Germany (1916-1931)1 had come under the influence of Bruno Gutmannl but had already applied his missionary concepts when he started missionary work in Uhehe in 1910.191 In doing SOl Oelke was actually deviating from the old Berlin practicel
imported from South Africal of establishing mission enclaves. Oelke made sure that during his timel all who wanted to settle on the mission would remain the chiefs subjects. They were required to do communal labour for the chief and for the mission.192
This attitude brought about good relationships with the chiefs andl even when Neuberg later carried on Oelke/s workl it gave him a comparative advantage over the numerically much stronger Roman Catholic Church -operating from Tosamaganga. The history of the- Pommern Mission in Uhehe is one of continuous quarrels with Catholic catechists and pastors. Howeverl this thesis does not attempt to judge who was right or wrong. Oelke used the first Bena Hehe SynodI which met under his leadership to project further the new image of the church as an ally of Bena culture and social order. He stressed that no effort should be spared to win the chief/s sympathy and suggested that Christians were allowed to wear the mourning headband and observe the clan taboo (mujilo) in order to build a bridge towards the non- Christian section of the Bena and the Hehe. For the first timel the
189Klaus Fiedler, Christianity & African Culture: Conservative German Protestant Missionaries in Tanzania 1900-1940(New York: EJ. Brill, 1966), 1996), 158.
190 Bena-Hehe Synod Iringa, 1936 at Kidugala church archives.
191 Bena Synod, 1933 at Kidugala church archives.
192Fiedler, Christianity & African Culture, p.159.
meeting was conducted in the Bena language, making a tremendous advance from the meetings under Schuler.193
After the experience of the effects of the First World War on the missionary work, a decision to train indigenous leaders was made and Christians were taught stewardship. Each member of the church was required to give a certain amount in the form of an offering to the church. This offering was called ulezi. There was an increase every year. In 1926 the amount of offering per Christian was Sh. 2.50 per year. The church, also, had a farm which they called "the farm of God". In addition, each member who was baptized or took part in the Holy Communion had to pay a certain amount to the church. These contributions from the Christians supported the administrative work of the church.
3.4 The advent of the Swedish Evangelical Mission and