South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

2.1 Setting the Scene: Early Mission Work in the North-Eastern Seaboard Regions of South Mrica 41
Nevertheless, some Nguni chiefs did request missionaries, for three main reasons. First, they
hoped that linking with missionaries would strengthen their position in relation to powerful
neighbours. Second, in addition to this protection, the chiefs hoped to improve their relations with
the white authorities, since missionaries were used as intermediaries. Third, the missionaries were
expected to perform certain welfare and technical services. 22 The most important of these functions
was that of the missionary as 'protector': "[t]he greater the real or imagined threat from African
neighbours was, the more vehement a call for missionaries was likely to be".23 The chiefs, however,
were destined to be disappointed because the missionaries generally avoided any involvement in
inter-tribal disputes. But when it came to dealings with white authorities, the missionaries willingly
offered their services to the chiefs.
The declared aim of missionaries in the nineteenth century was twofold - to produce Christians
and to create civilised people. They emphasised that the only route to true civilisation was through
Christianity. J-W Colenso, for example, wrote: "Christianity and civilization are twin sisters, and are
always found in company, especially when the former leads the way. Sometimes the latter may be
found without the former, but she never is so happy, and seems to sit disconsolate, sighing for her
. ,,24
natural comparuon.
We will later see how those who chose to follow the doctrine of the missionaries constructed a
new identity that centred on these two attributes. It is important to note that even though this identity
has changed somewhat, these attributes characterise amakwC!Ja groups up to the present day.
Figure 2.5: Amakholwa community at Edendale Training Institution,
ca. 1900 (NatalArchives, Pietermaritzburg).
Nguni resistance and the social pressures that they exerted on the converts placed rigid
limitations on the kinds of communities that missionaries could set up on their stations. As a
consequence, during the first decades of mission activity in the north-eastern seaboard regions of
22 The services rendered other than diplomatic errands included the practice of amateur medicine. Other esteemed
secular skills demanded from the missionaries were carpentry and construction. Apart from that, prospects of trade
appear to have attracted many people to mission stations. "Possibly such visible secular benefits prompted many Zulu
notables to ask for missionaries." (N. Etherington, 1978): 79.
23 Ibid.: 49.
24 J. \XI: Colenso, "Visit to a Modern Missionary Station at Edendale, Natal, South Africa". NatalJournal, Voll, no 4,
1857; quoted in S. Meintjes, Aspects of Ideological Formation Amongst the Kholwa of Edendale in Nineteenth Century Natal, African
Seffi11lar (Cape Town: Centre for African Studies, 1988): 5.