A study of the educational contribution of the Jesuit mission at Chikuni and the Adventist Mission at Rusangu : 1905-1964

Abstract

The dissertation focuses on the work of the Jesuit and the Adventist Missionary Societies in their capacities as educational agencies. The Jesuit Mission at Chikuni and the Adventist Mission at Rusangu, both leading institutions in colonial Zambia, were simultaneously established within a few kilometres of each other on the Tonga Plateau in Southern Zambia in July 1905. These circumstances offer an unusual opportunity for a study of mission educational work, policies and influence in one homogeneous rural community. The dissertation deals with the following eight topics: 1. Introduction: The geography of the Tonga plateau and the Tonga society on the eve of the coming of the missionaries. 2. The Background: The origins of the Jesuit and Adventist Missionary Societies in Central Africa and their initial efforts to penetrate Southern Zambia. 3. An outline of the organization of the Society of Jesus and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an analysis of their denominational and educational philosophies and the methods the two Societies used to win the confidence of the people. 4. The local educational systems developed by the Jesuits and Adventists, which are discussed in two chapters, and their relationship to the growing territorial system shaped by the colonial government. 5. The relationship between the two Societies and the local community, with other mission agencies, with the central administration, and between themselves, with emphasis on the effects of these relationships on the successes and failures of the two Societies. 6. The extent of the impact of the two missions' educational work pn the society and how it influenced the development of indigenous agriculture and the rise of African nationalism. 7. Epilogue: A brief review of the contemporary position of the Jesuit and Adventist missions and their present status in Tonga, society. Archival records held by the National Archives of Zambia, the Jesuit Fathers and the Seventh-day Adventist Church provide the main sources of primary data. Both mission agencies have given complete co-operation and generous use of their records. Secondary data have been obtained from published books and articles and unpublished theses. Field work in Southern Province has been conducted by means of interviews with chiefs and headmen, teachers and mission adherents, among others, as a means to follow up the written data. Missionaries have been interviewed and others who are no longer resident in Zambia have been corresponded with.