Christianity in Zambia - Colonial Era

Colonial Era

During the period of colonial rule in Zambia, up until independence in 1964, the church attempted to straddle the gulf between ministering to the needs of the local population without antagonising the colonial administration and bringing the local population to a point of passive acceptance of colonial rule. The administration viewed church activity as a possibly practical tool of indoctrination, but at times a vehicle for dissent against colonial rule too.

The traditional view of the Church during this period was to provide social welfare. Churches became primarily involved in education and healthcare. Other initiatives such as orphanages, skills training and agricultural extension were also evident in the development of Zambia during this period. Though at times its role extended into advocacy and the formulation of law and the penal code. mathias

In the matter of healthcare the churches saw the provision of affordable healthcare as vital to a population that could not afford private medical treatment. Even in current-day Zambia, the Catholic Church alone is running 15 hospitals, 28 health centres, 54 home based care institutions. The provision of healthcare had a twofold motivation. Firstly, there was the concern driven by Biblical principles of care for the incapacitated. Examples include the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37, then Jesus' encouragement in Matthew 25:36 "I was sick and you looked after me, " and the Old Testament reprimand to the leaders of Israel, "you have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured," Ezk 34:4, Secondly, it was driven by a perception that the only alternative medical care available to the local population involved traditional healers and their use of, in colonial eyes, unscientific and crude methods as well as possible appeals to animistic or ancestral powers. These latter elements were of particular concern in ecclesiastical circles as, the Church has generally tried to change or discourage cultural practices that are contrary to Christian teaching. Christian missions were at the forefront of social change in Zambia. On the question of traditional penal codes, that were either considered too lenient or too harsh depending on the change the missions wished to see imposed, as opposed to a legal code more in line with that in Britain the Church was instrumental in pushing through reform. The involvement of missionaries was "more than providing correctives – spiritual or otherwise… their real ambition was power". Generally though healthcare had impact on indigenous society it was seen as a reasonably neutral activity by the colonial authorities.

Education on the other hand would prove to be a little more of a double edged sword for the colonial administration. Paradoxically, as the state sought to control education policy by taking out of the hands of the churches so the clamour for the demise of colonial rule, from a mission educated local population, rose. Schools were often found associated with the mission stations. The prime focus of education was on rural areas and the schools themselves retained the flavour of the particular denomination that had established them. Though the PAG report notes, "the exception was to be found on the Copperbelt where the formation of the United Missions in the Copperbelt in the 1930s ushered in inter-denominational schools." The schools usually offered a rudimentary education in basic reading, Bible study and practical subjects beyond this it was felt the local population would have little use for higher education as it could lead to isolation from their communities.

Once more the Bible provided a precedent for missionaries to involve themselves in education, "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it," Proverbs 22:6. For the missionaries the practical outworking of this exhortation in Zambia was threefold:

1. As a means to evangelism. The Evangelical churches in particular saw the personal study of the Bible as a vital part of the discipleship of converts to Christianity. Therefore, the ability to read was vital to this concept (It also meant that the Church was at the forefront of recording African aural languages so as to produce translated scriptures). All denominations though perceived that giving the children a Biblical education would draw them away from the traditional instruction in the village.
2. Education was also seen as a method by which European values and culture could be instilled into the population.
3. Formal education would also provide skilled workers for the mission station. Church workers, construction workers, teachers etc. Later they would also provide skilled labour for commerce, government and the mines.

The concept of providing only basic education, as was the case with many mission schools, was called into question following a revolt in Malawi in 1918 in which mission trained teachers and former students played a part. The colonial authorities felt that education needed a more formal basis, to be under closer scrutiny and to provide greater openings for the more apt pupils. "The government introduced a proclamation which demanded the registration of schools … empowered magistrates and Native Commissioners to inspect schools." By 1922 the General Missionary Conference passed a resolution calling for the "establishment of one or more government colleges or institutions to provide instruction in agriculture, forestry, pedagogy and the duties of chiefs." Further to this the "institution to be under the management of a joint council of the nominees or the Administration and representatives of the missions", setting the precedent for partnership between the state and church in education.

From the 1920s onwards there was to be a gradual erosion of the church's primacy in education in Zambia. Understanding the need for increased professionalism among its staff the Anglican Church "closed all its schools for 18 months between 1918 and 1920 and brought all their teachers to Msoro for retraining." The Advisory Board devised the Native School Code by 1927 establishing the state as the arbiter of educational standards in Zambia. The state now had the power to deregister schools that did not operate for the prescribed number of days in a year or did not cover adequately the curriculum developed by the Board. The number of registered mission schools declined significantly during this period. "Of the 547 schools run by the White Fathers only 17 qualified as schools under the new conditions." Part of the reason that the Copperbelt Schools were inter-denominational was the pressure from the Board not to allow contending schools to open up in the towns and repeat the rivalry that was prevalent elsewhere leading to small villages with two schools run by competing missions.

Following the Second World War the government opened its own schools in some provinces. This event was to draw the Christian denominations and indigenous authorities together in a consensus on education in an attempt to reinforce their positions. Some Churches saw the government policy as an attempt to secularise education and resisted the move openly. In 1951 Local Education Authorities (LEA) were established to take control of government schools and were also authorised to take control of any mission schools that the indigenous authorities, mission societies or any other voluntary organisation no longer wanted to administer. Many of the Protestant missions handed their schools over. "By 1963 – the dawn of Zambia's independence – 800 of the 2,100 schools were L.E.A while the rest were mainly agency schools 30 per cent of which were operated by the Catholics."

Despite their decline the mission schools had become the place where the aspiration for independence was established and nurtured, as well as promoting colonial structure they had also encouraged critical thinking enabling students to contest the status quo. "It was the mission centres that became the birthplace of post-war African nationalism." In the wider context the churches had also to become advocates for the people who congregated their buildings for worship and populated their parishes. Although an outside agency they were equipped and informed enough and had sufficient influence both in Zambia and back in Britain to intercede for those who had little voice in the colonial political system. It would not be until after independence that indigenous or even international NGOs would have a comparable voice. Phiri states, "since churches remain 'zones of freedom' and in some cases more or less a 'state within a state', they tend to take up the political functions of repressed organizations. This leads to confrontation with the state.

Weller & Linden cite a Catholic missionary who reported that a missionary from the Presbyterian mission was compelled to complain "to the Foreign Office in London about the behaviour of the company's officials in his area. Villages burnt, and chiefs and headmen put in chains, in order to intimidate them into sending their people to do carrier service." In fact one of the briefs of the General Missionary Council was "to watch over the interests of the Native races." Churches were to involve themselves in diverse campaigns such as poll tax reform, the effects on families due to labour migration and issues of racial inequality.

During this period there was a rise in African Indigenous Churches (AICs). These churches were founded and run by Zambian's who either defected from the mission churches dissatisfied with their European bias or their stayed theology or they were founded during the labour migrations of the 1920s into the Copperbelt. "Among the labourers were Africans who had been introduced to Christianity in their home regions and who, upon discovering no church whatsoever in the Copperbelt, decided to start a church themselves – one that was entirely directed and sustained by Africans." also. It was AICs that would be the initial breeding grounds for nationalist sentiments, and it was this fervour that crept over the denominational lines through informal contacts and into the more politically powerful mainline churches.

The imposition of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953 brought some of theses issues to a head. In Zambia it was felt that the Federation exacerbate the issues of racial inequality and economically favoured Zimbabwe over Zambia and Malawi. The Christian Council of Northern Rhodesia, that had replaced the General Missionary Conference in 1944, stated its position clearly when it wrote:

"Under normal circumstances the Church is bound to support the State and the forces aimed as preserving law and order, but this obligation is qualified by the Church's higher loyalty to the law of God. Where the State is misusing its Stewardship of power; where it is not adequately fulfilling its function of protecting the God-given freedom of all its citizens; where it is favouring one section of the community to the detriment of the others, then a Christian is called to protest ad to take whatever action is compatible with the Christian Gospel."

The imposition of the Federation was a response by Britain to shore up an empire it could no longer maintain after the war. In its attempts to preserve its power the colonial government alienated the churches as some of the most powerful civil society groups in the nation, prompting open opposition to its policies. It would not be long before this rift allied with an educated Zambian elite would bring about calls for Zambian independence. It was a lesson that would not be lost on future governments.