Gospel Work Among the Kafirs of South Africa by I. B. BURTON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1915

Gospel Work Among the Kafirs of South Africa

By I. B. BURTON

I. B. BURTON

“Woe to the land shadowing with wings, in the which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: . . . a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!”

TRULY the prophet here describes Africa in a few brief words, for whether we read the text or margin both are literally true of this great country.

“Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”

These words are a great source of encouragement to those who are laboring in this field to lead poor, lost souls to the Saviour. Of all lands this seems to be shrouded in a darkness that can truly be felt. Sin has cast its dark pall over it, and it can truly be said of this people that they love darkness rather than light. And yet, thank God, he will gather out a remnant from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; and when the great gathering day comes, many from Africa will be there to help swell the glorious throng who will finally stand redeemed in the future kingdom. Ethiopia is stretching out her hands to God, and little lights are peering through the gross darkness, which indicates that the gospel is surely making its way among this people who are sitting in the shadow of death.

The work among the African people began in the year 1799, when Dr. Van der Kemp visited Chief Gika and secured from him the privilege of dwelling among his people. Soon after, a site for a school was obtained about twenty-two miles from King William’s Town, known as Deba Merala. This is in Kafirland, of the Cape province. This good man, who had been sent out by the London Missionary Society, was the first white missionary to visit and labor for this people.

Dr. Van der Kemp’s Kafir name is very significant, denoting the manner in which he arrived among the Kafirs. It is Nyengana, and it is derived from a verb meaning to put down secretly. The natives looked on him as a man who had secretly stolen away from his own people to bring to them the light from above. The spirit that actuated this missionary in his life and work, is well illustrated by a remark that he once made, “I should not fear to offer my life for the least child among them.”

His preaching was of a conversational nature, and the natives say that he told them that there is a God in heaven; that he created all things, the sun, moon, and the stars. Then he told them there is one — Sifuba-Silanzi (the broad-breasted one) — who is the light of all men. His birth was heralded by a star; his feet were wounded for us; his hands were pierced for us; his blood was shed for us. To-day many in Kafirland are rejoicing in the knowledge of that Saviour who in those early days was thus proclaimed to them by this faithful missionary.

Some traces of Dr. Van der Kemp’s home can still be seen, although it is over one hundred years since his decease. He died in Cape Town in 1811, and is buried in the Strand Street Cemetery.

The work he so nobly began was sadly neglected until the year 1816, when the Rev. Joseph Williams settled among this people near what is now Fort Beaufort. He died in 1818, and he, therefore, was the first missionary to labor and die among the Kafirs.

In August this faithful man of God took to his bed. There was no white man nearer than Mr. Hart, of Somerset, East. All the men were at the front, owing to a Kafir war which was then raging, and there were only a few old men left about the station. On the seventeenth of August, 1818, Mr. Williams died, while his faithful wife watched by his bedside.

Then a perplexity arose, as it was a law among the Kafirs that no white man could be buried unless some friend of his was present. They arranged, therefore, to send a messenger to Somerset, East, to call Mr. Hart. On the third day he arrived on horseback, and found Mrs. Williams digging the grave herself, which she had almost completed. “Now,” said these Kafir men, “we can assist in the burial of the missionary, for now a white man has seen that he died a natural death; otherwise we should have been punished by our chief.”

(Concluded next week)