South African Christianity
Cape Folk ("Cape Coloured") Christianity

The modern Cape Folk (Cape Coloured) are most directly descended from the mixed race slave population of South Africa. Dutch Calvinist settlers came to colonize and work the land of the Cape of Good Hope in the middle of the 17th century.

They relied heavily on slave labor, drawn from a mixture of Malay, Malagasy and Khoi people. The Malay came from the Dutch spice islands in South East Asia, the Malagasy were brought from the island of Madagascar and the Khoi were living in South Africa when the Boer farmers arrived. The various groups of slaves intermarried freely, and were augmented by quite a few marriages and informal partnerships with Dutch settlers. Sociologically the Coloured community has been more open than any of the other racially based communities and has welcomed all persons of mixed ancestry.

Slave Christianity

European Christian slaveowners introduced their slaves to Christianity, since, among other things, it made the slaves more tractable and willing workers. However, masters would rarely permit their slaves to be formally baptised into the Christian faith, since Christian slaves could not be sold (Afrikaner Christians took St. PaulÕs letter to Philemon concerning his former slave Onesimus seriously.) In some places Christian slaves even had some claim to be able to gain their freedom.

Many slaves became Muslim in reaction against the EuropeansÕ religion, but a significant number in each generation became Christians in spite of the Europeans.

Griqua Christianity

In 1834 the British, who had controlled South Africa since the beginning of the 19th century, abolished slavery, leading many Afrikaners to migrate north in the "Great Trek." Almost as many of their Khoi or mixed race servants went north as did Afrikaners. These people spoke Dutch and had become westernized. They were indistinguishable from the "Trekboers," their employers, in everything except the colour of their skin. A number of these servants left their employers when they got to the north and formed the nucleus of the Griqua and Oorlam communities, which later fed into the broader coloured community.

One of the leading Christians within the Oorlam community was Afrikaner Jager, who had been a shepherd on a Cape farm. He fled the Cape and gathered a group of people around him. They lived by cattle raiding until Afrikaner became a Christian. He became a close friend of the missionary Robert Moffatt, who wrote of him:

" Éhe became the more bewildered, especially when he thought of the spirit of the Gospel message, ÔGood-will to man.Õ He often wondered whether the book he saw some of the farmers use said anything on the subject; and then he would conclude, that if they worshipped any such being he must be one of a very different character from that God of love to whom the missionaries directed the attention of the Namaquas." (Moffatt p. 130)

Afrikaner Missions to the Coloured Community: The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendings Kerk (NGSK)

Towards the end of the 19th century the South African Dutch Reformed Church (NGK) decided to evangelize the Cape Coloured community. In the process they developed a daughter church, since they were reluctant to welcome non-white people into their own churches. The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendings Kerk (NGSK), founded in 1880 has made a significant impact, not only in South Africa but also in the international Reformed community. Leaders from the NGSK have presided over the Reformed Ecumenical Synod and have had significant contact with other branches of the Reformed community. NGSK leaders also contributed to the development of South African Contextual Theology. (my page)

The Coloured Churches since the end of Apartheid: The Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa (URCSA)

In 1994 the NGSK merged with the NGKA (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid Afrika) to form the Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa (URCSA), which has the stated goal of uniting all the Reformed Churches of South Africa, of whatever racial or ethnic community into a single church. Their name and their logo which includes an incomplete circle), symbolizes that the church has not yet finished uniting.

The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Zuid Afrika (NGKA) was the black Reformed Church, formed in 1963 as an amalgamation of a number of smaller mission churches to various black African communities. From its inception it was a small church, since the Reformed mission to black Africans did not prove very successful.


This page was based on the following sources, which you can consult for more detailed information:

Adrian Hastings, The Church in Africa: 1450-1950. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994 ppn 216-218 

Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa from Antiquity to the Present. London: SPCK, 1995 pp 98-108 

Elizabeth Elbourne and Robert Ross, "Combating Spiritual and Social Bondage: Early Missions in the Cape Colony,:

in Christianity in South Africa, edited by Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997 ch 2 

On Afrikaner Jager see Robert Moffatt, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa. New York: Robert Carter Co, 1842

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