Mpande's - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

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Dingane. Mpande was not unfavourably disposed to missionary work.
He gave the American Board of Commissioners, English Wesleyan
Methodist Society, Norwegian Mission, Berlin Mission, Hanoverian
Mission, Church of England and Roman Catholic Mission permission to
settle in KwaZulu to present the Christian gospel to the Zulu people. The
strategy of winning the Zulu nation en masse to Christianity through
Mpande's court did bear positive fruits. The fundamental ethical,
metaphysical and social ideas of the Zulu people were disputed by
doctrines preached by the missionaries. Probably to monitor their
activities, Mpande repeatedly and earnestly requested that at least one
mIssIonary should reside near his headquarters, but this did not
materialise.
During Mpande's reign, the colonial establishments were viewed by the
missionaries as super-exploiters of the Zulu people. The attitude of the
Voortrekkers towards Zulu Christian proselytes (amakholwa) was
negative. This antagonism of the Voortrekkers was prompted by the
political ramifications that evangelization had on them. The proselytes
demanded exemption from the legal liabilities the colonial authority at
Pietermaritzburg had imposed on the Zulu people. These factors,
however, did not deter Mpande's attempts to use missionary connections
to keep colonial threats ofinvasion in check.