Christianity in Zambia - Establishing Zambia

Establishing Zambia

Livingstone's exploration of the region coincided with an increased interest in missions in the Evangelical churches in Britain, and, despite his complicated motives, Livingstone became the darling of Evangelical expansion. This interest was partly,

"the result of revivalism among Pietists and Methodists and among the Evangelicals of the Anglican church. People wanted to convert others to the same joyous religious experience they had had".

The rise in missionary zeal was heightened with the expansion of European empires, opening up unknown territories and bringing other cultures to the attention of the newly formed mission societies. Yet another element of this increased mission activity was the desire not to see a repeat of the recent Indian Mutiny, that the Evangelicals, like Livingstone, felt was, "as a result of too little mission activity". It is possible the cause of the mutiny was actually of a religious origin with many of the Indians serving in the British Indian Army convinced, "that the British did indeed have plans to Christianize India", and thereby threatening their faith that was in their view indivisible from their vocation as a soldier, whether as a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Livingstone inspired many Evangelicals in his speech at the Senate House in Cambridge University in 1857 in which he stated,

"I consider we made a great mistake when we carried commerce into India, in being ashamed of our Christianity… those two pioneers of civilisation – Christianity and commerce – should ever be inseparable".

He concluded the speech with the call,

"I go back to Africa to make an open path for Commerce and Christianity; do you carry out the work I have begun. I leave it with you".

Following Livingstone's death in 1873, at Ilala by the shores of Lake Bangweulu in North Eastern Zambia, and the subsequent development of preventatives and cures for malaria based on quinine, mission societies stepped in to take up where he had left off by establishing Christianity in Central Africa. In a report on the Church and development in Zambia the London Missionary Society (LMS) was the first organisation to establish a mission station based at Niamikolo close to Lake Tanganyika in 1885 followed by numerous other mission stations throughout the country. Part of the reason for the rapid spread of these stations was their acceptance among some of the smaller tribes of the northern region of Zambia. They perceived that the, "missionaries… would provide effective protection", from attackers, such as the more powerful Bemba tribe. Other mission stations followed the LMS example and established a presence in other regions. Examples include the Paris Evangelical Mission at Lealui 1892, The Primitive Methodists working among the Illa people in Western Zambia in 1892, the Presbyterians at Mwenzo in 1894. After independence in 1965 these four mission societies were to merge their works and become known as the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). Zambia's increased mission activity was not an isolated case though, globally the number of missionaries rose dramatically during this period. "By the end of the century there were as many as 12,000 British missionaries "in the field", representing no less than 360 different societies and other bodies".

In shaping Zambia's Christianity, it is important that the influence of the Roman Catholic Church is noted. The, "Catholic Church by far the most influential denomination," in the nation. Catholic missionaries first established a mission in 1895 among the Bemba tribe. The Bemba tribe had traditionally been hostile to church activity, partly due to the resistance to settlement by Europeans, but also because their presence strengthened the resolve of rival ethnic groups to resist the Bemba. With the death of the Bemba king Chitimukulu Sampa Kapalakasha and his replacement by a less antagonistic king the way was open for the Catholic White Fathers to establish the mission in the area that was to become the Copperbelt Province of Northern Zambia. In Southern Zambia the Catholic mission activity was undertaken by Jesuit Fathers in the early years of the twentieth century along with the Franciscan friars. Zambia still retains the historical divisions of this early Catholic mission activity; the county is still divided into diocese administered by each of these groups.

The first Anglican mission station would not begin until 1911. This was established by Leonard Kamungu, a priest from Malawi, at Msoro. Kamungu perhaps reflects an aspect of Christianity that set it apart from many of the other structures of colonialism that severely limited if not actively restricted the ability of the local population to take a part in their development, becoming isolated and voiceless from the ruling European elite.

"Though white settlers… were able to organize themselves in Formal groups… the colonial authorities provided little space for urban indigenous people to formally organize. Although there was some tolerance of group activity under the umbrella of the church.

Traditional Anglican involvement in Zambia was undertaken by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), which had been founded in Cambridge as a direct result of the fiftieth anniversary of Livingstone's call for African evangelism. Though unlike many of Livingstone's original audience the UMCA held to a less Evangelical and more Anglo-Catholic form of Christian theology. Consequently although highly influential, despite its small numbers, modern day Anglicanism in Zambia does not have the Evangelical fervour that is evident elsewhere in modern-day African nations that were formally British colonial possessions.

Livingstone, though certainly at the vanguard of the colonisers, and in that capacity he spelled the end to traditional Zambian society, he is still held in high regard by many contemporary Zambian's. This perhaps reflects an understanding of Livingstone as less of a coloniser and more as a bringer of the Christian faith that today over seventy five percent, more recent surveys put it as high as eighty-five percent, of the population embrace in one form or another. Christianity is still, "growing at a rate of nearly 4 percent per year", in a nation with an annual average population growth rate of 2.7 percent from 1990-99. Possibly some of this affection is also because Livingstone is perceived as a defender of the traditional societies as he defied the slave traders who were already destroying communities; one of his multiple motives for being in the region was anti-slavery and towards the end of his life a primary drive in his work. Though, as with many interventions of this nature, the possible motives were not as philanthropic as they first appeared to those under threat. Livingstone saw the oppressed communities as a basis for his "potential village preaching centres", to spread the gospel and in so doing provide a stable base for European culture. Like much of what Livingstone undertook the reality is complex and in many of his wanderings he was actually forced to rely on the slave trade's logistical networks. Again Livingstone's legacy lives on in many development initiatives undertaken on the continent both in religious and secular capacities, a seemingly positive intervention, which carries wider motives and implications.