Paul James-Griffiths of Christian Heritage Edinburgh, writes, “As I continue with the miniseries on Scottish missionaries in Africa, we arrive at Lovedale in South Africa. This was a mission base founded by Scottish missionaries, which became a significant model for the whole of Africa because it was based on Christ and a Christian worldview, which had been taught by Dr Thomas Chalmers.”

Lovedale, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 19^th century,

The National Archives UK, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

As was often the case in mission, Dr Thomas Chalmers was the main inspiration behind establishing a base in Xhosaland, South Africa. In 1823/4 Revd John Ross was sent out through the Glasgow Missionary Society (GMS) and he settled in the Ncera valley, pioneering a church and teaching station with Revd John Bennie, calling it Lovedale after Dr John Love, one of the founders of GMS. Ten years later it was destroyed during the Xhosa cattle raids. It was decided that the base should be moved to a better location and in 1841 Revd W. Govan, influenced by Dr Chalmers’ student Alexander Duff of Calcutta and John Wilson of Bombay, set up the Lovedale Missionary Institution. At first there were only eleven African and nine European students in the school, but by 1894, when Dr James Stewart was the principal, there were 800, with a small number of Westerners and a large majority of Africans from fifteen tribes, and over sixty former slaves who had been liberated and raised up out of the ash heap of oppression.

The missionaries found an ally for their Christian worldview in the governor of South Africa, Sir George Grey, who acted as a peacemaker between the colonials, Xhosa people, and other tribal groups. Dr James Stewart of Lovedale wrote:

At the heart of the community was Christ and the Bible, with a multicultural church attached to the ministry. Out of this grew the school, with most being boarders, and an education up to the equivalent of our sixth form. Teachers were trained up and the industrial arm of the ministry provided courses in carpentry, waggon-making, blacksmithing, printing, book-binding, and telegraphing. Surrounding the buildings was a large area of land which was used to train students in agriculture, and to provide a healthy source of food for the college. Besides this there was also the Missionary Association, which trained up and sent out Christian students to reach the locals with the gospel in a ten-mile radius from Lovedale.

In 1894 a report showed the effectiveness of the pilot scheme: of those students who had had a Lovedale education there were fifty native evangelists; over 500 native male and female teachers in African schools; and between 500 and 600 tradesmen, merchants and agriculturalists, although the college was unable to keep a record of most of the other former students. The report stated:

“The mission schools of the country and its frontiers, are entirely taught by natives, supplied from this and similar institutions [which had been modelled on Lovedale] … There are signs that this Combined Method is the right method… for the whole African Continent.”

This model of a Christian worldview had been taught by Dr Chalmers at St Andrews and in Edinburgh. His strategy was to plant native Christ-centred churches, and establish schools, colleges, universities, healthcare and hospitals, equip locals with practical skills for employment, and bring about social reforms. All of these aspects would be rooted in Christ and the Bible. This worldview had been established successfully in India through the missionaries discipled by Chalmers, and now it was being established in Africa. In so doing, Lovedale would become a model for the African continent.