Establishment and Development of Educational and Training Institutions in the MCZ

The previous section has discussed how the Wesleyan church was transported and transplanted through missionaries via South Africa to Zimbabwe. This section is premised on the establishment of educational institutions in the MCZ that was pioneered by Owen Watkins and Isaac Shimmin in 1891 from Transvaal in South Africa. Shimmin states that,

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their main hope for building a strong Christian community rested on the children as a result they aimed at providing Christian education to the community (Zvobgo 1991:16). In 1902 Shimmin remarked that, the establishment of a school at Epworth was earmarked to train evangelists and teachers for indigenous people. This idea influenced the establishment of other mission schools where education became an evangelical tool for membership recruitment (Samudzimu 1991:83).

When European settlers arrived in Zimbabwe in 1890, it became easier for missionaries to spread the gospel to the native people. Through Mission schools Africans were able to access formal education; on the other hand white children got their education through government schools. Madhiba argues that when Africans insist for more education, a controlled system on education was introduced by the colonial government to limit missionaries to overeducate Africans (2000:21). The colonial government administrators became suspicious of missionaries in terms of the kind of education they gave to indigenous children. In their thinking whites wanted Africans to get basic education that was practical to enable them to work in agriculture and industry as labourers and not to compete with colonialists.

According to Zvobgo (1991) the missionaries used education as a strategy to convert young Africans as Butler confirms that when one wins children to Jesus, one would have conquered the world for Christ. This idea of targeting young people was based on the reason that young children were not yet contaminated by African epistemologies that may prevent them to adapt to Western culture easily. Thus, the Church made a declaration in 1930 that, although mission schools were difficult to establish they gave an opportunity for the presentation of Christian message that seems ―impossible to raw Africans‖ (1991:86-87). The above statement by Zvobgo proves that for missionaries, establishment of schools gave them an opportunity for the impartation of the religious instruction that was spread to the old as well as young. The presence of schools in each kraal meant a greatest opportunity and a grip as well as a reputation of greater value for evangelism. In this case the school becomes the forerunner of the church as can always be witnessed that when there is no school in a village the church ultimately dies out.

Hapanyengwi is of the view that Africans, were going to school only because of the education they gained. Missionaries became aware that Africans were not truly repenting and converting to Christianity but using this to access education. As a result, ―the processes were

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a win-win state of affairs where, for the Africans, transformation through education took place (2013:22). The importance of education to Africans was witnessed by the inability of missionaries to establish a church in places where they failed to establish a school for example in Mberengwa MCZ failed to make inroads because of absence of an MCZ mission school. The education enterprise was a success story in Zimbabwe because of the role played by African evangelists who worked among local people. It was difficult for missionaries because they could not understand the culture and traditions of the indigenous people. The coming in of African evangelist strengthens the majority belief that ―Africa was to be saved by Africans for mission work to be effective‖. These native evangelists were to work under the supervision of the minister and they become effective missionaries especially in Rhodesia (White 1899: 29).

Morley-Wright who was a clergy saw indigenous teachers cum evangelists as ―the ‗important agent‘ in the education and evangelisation of the indigenous people‖ (Zvobgo 1991:27). The Mission emphasized the point that Europeans were not able to get to the back of the native mind hence the need for the gospel to be presented by Africans witnessing to Africans as an effective mission tool for evangelisation (Wesleyan Methodist Church 1923: 1). In recognition of this call for African evangelists, the Wesleyan Methodist Church brought in several teacher-evangelists including ―Modumedi Moleli, Joseph Ramushu, Mutsualo, Tutani, Mutyuali, Fokasi, Shuku and James Anta‖ (Samudzimu 1991:84) from South Africa who were helped by Zimbabwean trained evangelists. From the vintage point of the MCZ, as acknowledged by Zvobgothat, besides preaching and teaching the foreign and local Africans established the strong foundations for education to Africans (Zvobgo 1991).

Among the local African evangelists, it was Simon Jonas Chihota, one of the first black local evangelists in Zimbabwe, who helped out the Rev John White in translating the New Testament Bible into the Shona New Testament and Rev Avon Walton in preparing the Methodist Shona Hymnbook. This marked the commencement of the translation of the Bible into local languages. This change of the Bible into the lingua franca helped Christians to worship God in their own languages and to remain rooted in their own culture.

The first African teachers cum evangelists were recruited from the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA). Denis (1994) argues that the architects of ―missionary enterprise‖ are the native missionary workers cum catechists, lay preachers, deacons and clergy. Without

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the above it was difficult for the white missionaries to have achieved their mission work. As a result ―Clergy indigenization‖ becomes a process that is to be understood to have ―a starting point, a continuation and possibly a conclusion‖ (1994: 9). It is critical to see the beginnings of the localization of ministry in the MCZ. The reasons for recruitment of indigenous clergy differ from denomination to denomination, but for the MCZ there were ―both intrinsic and extrinsic factors at play‖ (Gondongwe 2011:79). One of the intrinsic factors, Gondongwe points out, was that even though the South African teachers from MCSA who later joined the first missionaries to Zimbabwe were fundamental to carrying out the intention of the missionaries, eventually their limitations became noticeable and this gave rise to the need for Zimbabwean indigenous clergy (:79). The second aspect is that evangelists from South Africa were not familiar with the religious and geographical environment of their new field of operation; as a result, there was a need for people with that indigenous knowledge. Another reason is that they did not speak the language of the majority of the Zimbabwean people, hence it made communication difficult. The white missionaries desperately needed translators. The fourth reason is that although they were Africans from MCSA, the Zimbabwean people regarded them as foreigners as a result; they always suspected them of being accomplices of the whites. Gondongwe further argued that evangelists cum teachers from South African were considered to have an agenda of pacifying local people so that it becomes easy for whites to expropriate land without encountering resistance from indigenous people hence they were equated to be ―sell-outs‖ (: 80).

Another fundamental reason motivating the missionaries to recruit Zimbabwean indigenous clergy was the rapid growth and development of the church that demanded an increasing number of workers. Gondongwe postulates that the other pushing factor was the famous general missionary motto during that ―period that says Africa must be served by Africans‖ (:80). This idea could have contributed to the recruitment of indigenous clergy in many denominations, including the MCZ. In addition, the failure of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (hereinafter WMMS) to send more missionaries and the resulting scarcity of clergy may have found a solution in the recruitment of local clergy. After the Synod of 1898, the recruitment of indigenous clergy commenced, starting with the recruitment of Zimbabweans as evangelists cum teachers.

Joshua Ramushu and Samuel Tutani, who were among the first evangelists (cum teachers), both from MCSA, were the first black candidates to be accepted for ministry, based on their

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good record as companions of white missionaries. These earliest clergy, such as Ramushu and others, who came as evangelists from South Africa with the pioneer missionaries, never went to theological college because there essentially were none. Their major drawback to the local people was that they were not regarded as important to the activities of the white missionaries; but it was to their advantage because in no time they were promoted to be assistant clergy. Gondongwe (2017) admits that some died as evangelists cum teachers, including the likes of Wellington Belisi who was part of the first group of teachers who could not make it to becoming an ordained clergy. He continued to work as a teacher cum evangelist until the time of his death (Interview 29th March 2017).

This led to the phase of the recruitment of Zimbabwean evangelists that was to be done via the teaching profession. Gondongwe holds that ―it was mandatory that a person who wanted to become a minister had to train as a teacher and evangelist before enrolling as a minister because the ordained African ministry in the Wesleyan Methodist Church was inextricably linked to the teaching profession‖ (2011:82). Methodist teachers and evangelists were trained at Nenguwo, which was later named Waddilove Institution. The District Committee of the Mashonaland and Rhodesia District held at Bulawayo on the 4th of January and adjourned on the 5th and 6thof January 1898, indicates that this institution was established at the behest of the Zimbabwean Methodist Synod of 1898 (District Committee is now Synod). It resolved thus:

We have as yet no training institution: the brethren however are of the opinion that such an institution is urgently needed if our native work is to be carried on satisfactorily and if the missionary committee have no objection we would request brother White to collect funds during his visit in England for the establishment of a training institution in Mashonaland (Rhodesia District Synod 1898:10).

This indicates that the Synod unanimously agreed that an institution to train evangelists and teachers was urgently needed. Funds were mobilised through the permission of ―the Missionary Committee that permitted the Rev John White to collect funds during his furlough in England in order to establish a training institution in Mashonaland‖ (Gondongwe 2011:83). In 1899, the same Synod requested a donation from the Missionary Committee of £800 from the Twentieth Century Fund for the purpose of building Nenguwo training institution. The Nenguwo Training Institute opened its doors in January 1900 as reflected in the minutes of

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the District Synod of the Rhodesian District held in Bulawayo on the 18th day of December 1900 which confirmed that they began the year with six students, three married and three unmarried (Wesleyan Rhodesia District Synod Minutes, 1900).

The focus of the institution was centred on training nurses, industrialists, teachers and evangelists. It became the hub of an African resurgence in the early 20th century. Every profession was made to serve theological interests (Gondongwe 2011). In 1910 the synod recruited candidates for training as evangelists and teachers. Candidates were nominated by their Superintendents from various circuits from which they live. ―To be considered to train as a teacher and evangelist, one had to have attained at least Standard Three, a person with Standard Four was exempted from literary subjects‖, confirmed the Quarterly Review of the Methodist Church (Buckley 1957:79).

This clearly shows that Standard Four was regarded as the minimum required entry point to tertiary level and in terms of education one was considered to be literate. This also helps the reader to understand the social standing of Zimbabwean society in early periods of missionary activity. Teachers and evangelists took three years to complete their studies. Their first year was spent preparing the candidates for a Standard Four examination. The remaining two were devoted to evangelist training. Courses covered for the evangelist training included, among others, Preaching, Bible study, the Gospel of John, Genesis, Ruth, Matthew and field work as stated in the Rules and Regulations for African Work (Wesleyan Rhodesia District Synod 1900:4). Candidates accepted as evangelists and teachers were to be trained free for the work of the church, but they had to do three years of service after leaving the institution. These teachers cum evangelists were instrumental in the emancipation of societies through their services in educational institutions. Some of them later answered their calling into itinerant ministry where they were accepted into ministerial training. This aspect of ministerial training is fully covered in chapter four.

2.4 The MCZ Educational Institutions and the Emancipation of Societies in the Pre and