The
earliest permanent white residents of Rhodesia were missionaries and when
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army died in 1912, a major newspaper
in England remarked, “The world has lost its greatest missionary evangelist. No
other contemporary had achieved greater success in promoting the cause of
Christianity around the globe. Most notably, he had played the pivotal role in
transforming a fledgling East London mission into an international religious
empire that, at the time of his death, or “promotion to glory,” claimed a
presence in fifty-eight countries and colonies." And a short five decades later the Army's fastest growing territory turn out a march "of Salvationists in Rhodesia where the ordered ranks of fully uniformed men and women soldiers , under the leadership of their own officers, can stretch on either side of the saluting base as far as the eye can see." (No Continuing City, p.128)
But the Army's 1891 pioneer team's success led by Major and Mrs. Pasco was far from assured. "They set out from Kimberly, South Africa in a wagon drawn by 18 oxen, and it took them eighteen months' hard going over untracked territory to reach Fort Salisbury." It took several years before Booth's evangelists gained even a modicum of respect shifting their focus from teaching, ministering to the natives, to demonstrating to the white government that they were capable organizers willing to help deal with the social ills besetting the mining communities.
One early contract netted the fledgling officer social workers 4,000 Pounds. The government appealed to the Army to take over the Destitute British Subjects Camp. "The old men went about town in a deplorable, truly repulsive condition, and were frequently picked up drunk by the police. Even the women's quarters were often the scene of drinking orgies, and the children were growing up under pitiable conditions." (Happy Warriors p. 84)
But the Army's 1891 pioneer team's success led by Major and Mrs. Pasco was far from assured. "They set out from Kimberly, South Africa in a wagon drawn by 18 oxen, and it took them eighteen months' hard going over untracked territory to reach Fort Salisbury." It took several years before Booth's evangelists gained even a modicum of respect shifting their focus from teaching, ministering to the natives, to demonstrating to the white government that they were capable organizers willing to help deal with the social ills besetting the mining communities.
One early contract netted the fledgling officer social workers 4,000 Pounds. The government appealed to the Army to take over the Destitute British Subjects Camp. "The old men went about town in a deplorable, truly repulsive condition, and were frequently picked up drunk by the police. Even the women's quarters were often the scene of drinking orgies, and the children were growing up under pitiable conditions." (Happy Warriors p. 84)
Murdoch's saga is a compelling, detailed account of the early and intervening years of William Booth 's often desperate measures to
advance his missionising endeavours, shuffling his attention from East London's
squalor and depravation to South Africa - Rhodesia. . If he could manoeuvre the
affection of the British people, the British South Africa Company, The British
and Rhodesian (white) governments his life's crowning achievement would be to
establish a "colonialization scheme the most exciting project 'since Moses
led the Israelites out of Egypt'." His Darkest England vision
would move thousands of the country's estimated three million unemployed countrymen to
South Africa-Rhodesia a newly selected SA green and pleasant land. His vision so gripped and obsessed him that it caused him to swerve
from his primary vision. He would instead become entangled in British colonialism
while giving minimal attention to his stated Salvation Army ethos; "the
role of the missionary was simply to lead sinners to Christ to convert people
after the fashion of the apostles.... the salvation of the soul was the
only legitimate goal of foreign missions."
Any
missionary sponsoring organisation would do well by clarifying the
purpose for its pioneering exercises from the very inception of its design on a
people, their culture, spiritual and physical state and possessions. Booth was no longer tied to a specific compass point but thinking continents. Did
Booth's concern to minister to the needs of suffering masses of humanity in
England, India, the USA, Canada and the other ever expanding Army mission
fields cause his Army's ministry focus, the salvation of the soul, to suffer?
By 1908 the seventy-nine year-old Booth was overseeing the work in 53 countries, headed up by 1000 officers, the majority far less educated than their counterparts in other denominations.... But his drive and creativity was on a far different level, with Booth's social gospel decades ahead of other denominations. It was his vision, white populated cities on Africa's SA designated green and pleasant land, with citadels in each, that later almost became the nemesis that divided the SA polity and the loss of the world’s largest Army territory; Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
By 1908 the seventy-nine year-old Booth was overseeing the work in 53 countries, headed up by 1000 officers, the majority far less educated than their counterparts in other denominations.... But his drive and creativity was on a far different level, with Booth's social gospel decades ahead of other denominations. It was his vision, white populated cities on Africa's SA designated green and pleasant land, with citadels in each, that later almost became the nemesis that divided the SA polity and the loss of the world’s largest Army territory; Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
“The
world has lost its greatest missionary evangelist. No other contemporary had
achieved greater success in promoting the cause of Christianity around the
globe."
Sven Ljungholm
Sven Ljungholm
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