Baptist theological education in Africa, particularly in South Africa: this article will identify some of the central historical and contemporary factors that are having an impact on Baptist theological education in Africa and, specifically, on South Africa

Baptist History and Heritage, Wntr-Spring, 2001 by Louise Kretzschmar

Attention is given to some of the social contexts in which theological education has functioned as well as the ecclesiastical factors that have influenced national Baptist leaders and conventions/unions. Specific attention is given throughout to theological colleges. I close with several analyses and proposals which, I believe, could have a positive and marked impact on theological education in Africa, if they were to receive the attention they deserve.

Setting the Scene: Baptists in South Africa

Baptists did not form part of the early white exploratory, missionary, or immigration patterns in South Africa. The Portuguese (led by Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama) rounded the Cape in the late fifteenth century, and later established slave markets in West Africa and colonies in Angola and Mozambique. The Dutch began to occupy the Cape in 1652, but lost it to the British in 1806, who then proceeded to establish themselves in the Western Cape.

Baptist origins in South Africa.--South African Baptist origins date back to the churches established in the Eastern Cape by the nineteenth-century English and German Baptist settlers. (1) The English Baptist settlers were part of a Wesleyan party led by W. Shaw in 1820. Once in South Africa, a number of English Baptist churches were established, first in the Eastern Cape and, later, in other parts of the country. These churches were established as a result of increased white conquest and occupation of the land for farming purposes or following the mining of diamonds in Kimberley (1870s) and gold on the Witwatersrand (1886). These English Baptist roots are important not only because they established the earlier Baptist churches but also because they located these churches within a colonial and settler paradigm. The land they occupied was given or sold to them by the colonial authorities. In this way, the settlers were used by British government to occupy and control the land that had been conquered, especially in the Eastern Cape, in a relatively cheap manner.

The second wave of settlers (1857-59) into the Eastern Cape was that of German soldiers (originally recruited for the Crimean War by Britain), followed by groups of German civilians. (2) Included in this group were five Baptists, one of whom, Carsten Langhein, was ordained by the English minister Rev. Hay in 1861. By 1892, over twenty-five German Baptist churches were established. In 1867, an Afrikaans (Dutch) farmer by the name of J. D. Odendaal was baptized by the German Baptists. He was ordained by them in 1875 and later became the founder of the Afrikaanse Baptiste Kerk (ABK). In 1877, the Baptist Union was formed, followed by the formation of the South African Baptist Missionary Society in 1892. In 1927, the Bantu Baptist Church (later the Baptist Convention) was formed.

These are identifiable as the facts of these early beginnings. But, facts are never entirely objective items of data. Inevitably they are both selected and interpreted. A traditional approach to the origins of the South African Baptist churches recognizes that this denomination was established as a direct consequence of the 1820 English and 1857-59 German settlers' occupation of land in the Eastern Cape. (3) Less often mentioned, let alone rigorously analyzed, are the implications of these origins for the later institutional growth and theological education of these churches.

The long-term consequences of colonialism and white control.--The nineteenth-century English and German Baptist churches, finding themselves occupying a harsh, wild, and dry land and regularly facing armed retaliation from Xhosa tribes, identified with the ambitions and fears of the settlers and were part and parcel of the colonial occupation of Xhosa land. The settlers identified with the aims, policies, and structures of first, British imperialism and, later, white colonial self government. Further, these settler churches, whether they were Baptist, Methodist, or Anglican, became firmly embedded in the minds of the Xhosa-speaking and other indigenous inhabitants of South Africa as those who had given them the Bible while stealing their land. In this way, the scene was set for the still fully unresolved conflicts between the black and white inhabitants of South and Southern Africa. Therefore, the negative effects that these nineteenth-century roots had on twentieth-century relations in the Baptist Union between different racial groups, and therefore on theological education, cannot be overemphasized.

The momentous events following the release of political exiles in the early 1990s, preeminent among whom was past President Nelson Mandela, and the democratic elections of 1994 and 1999, have significantly clarified the political sphere, but, the socioeconomic future of South Africa is as yet unclear. Recent events in Zimbabwe related to political upheaval, and land occupations have pointedly reminded the citizens and government of South Africa of the urgency of resolving long-standing injustice and anger with respect to land ownership, whilst also maintaining food production and a stable economy. In putting right the wrongs of the past, however, neither unconsidered actions that fail to take into account subsequent land development nor the perpetration of new injustices will serve the interests of our struggling young democracy. These factors cannot, however, be used as an excuse to fail to remedy the injustices of the past.