LIGHT IN DARK AFRICA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20670, 8 March 1937, Page 8

LIGHT IN DARK AFRICA

WORK THE NATIVES BISHOP CHAMBERS SPEAKS The part that the Church is playing In support of the British mandate in Tanganyika which pledged the utmost for the material and moral well-being and social progress of the inhabitants, was told to large congregations at St. John’s and St. Mary's Churches yesterday by the Rt. Rev. G. A. Chambers, Bishop of Central Tanganyika, who made a stirring appeal for support for a work amongst the 6,000,000 people in the country, 95 per cent of whom were non-Christian. Africa was still the “Dark Continent," he said, and help was needed to bring the light of Christianity to the natives there. It had been held that the best way of dealing with the Africans was to leave them alone or exploit them, but the obvious duty of the Church was to uplift them through the Gospel. “Not Discussable” Tanganyika, said Bishop Chambers, had created a great deal of interest of late because of a suggestion that it should be handed back to Germany. It was not likely, however, that the British Government would give Tanganyika over to Germany and so bring two Powers like Italy and Germany so close to her East African protectorates. Germany’s attitude to the Jews seemed to him to make it impossible for her to be trusted with a mandate which required impartiality of treatment to all races. The Africans, were of course, non-Aryan and therefore might be subject to any kind of treatment. The British community in Tanganyika was comforted by the pnonouncement of the British Cabinet that the return of the country to Germany “is not a discussable subject.” The work of the Church in Tanganyika was to establish a chain of missions from lake to lake. When he first went there, said the Bishop, there was not a Christian in the cc untry. The story of Livingstone and Stanley had stirred the world, but the church people at Home had allowed Livingstone’s country to be claimed by Islam. The rush of modern life was swooping down on to the natives of Africa, who were thousands of years behind, and they needed a helping hand to meet those changes. At one time there had been 600 bishoprics L. Northern Africa and now there was only one. That showed that if they did not work for Christianity it would not grow. Ninetyfour per cent, of the natives of Tanganyika were non-Christian. Their religion was a form of ancestor worship but they had no hope of future life. There was no consolation in their religion; no sense of good or evil; only fear. They were fettered by all sorts of superstitions which were fostered by the witch doctors who encouraged the use of charms and would even practise black magic—the sacrifice of human beings. The deliverance of such people had to be approached with care.

Then there was the Moslem problem. Islam had come into Central Africa and had claimed thousands of converts, some places, including Ujiji, being entirely Moslem. When he entered the country, said the Bishop, there was no church where white people could worship. Tire whites were few, but they were in responsible positions, and needed the aid of Christian fellowship. New Zealander iu Field New Zealand’s immediate connection with his diocese, said the Bishop, was Sister Lindsay, of Nelson, who was in charge of a pioneer hospital and medical work in Kilondo, midway between Lake Tanganyika and the Victoria Nyanza. The tribe of the Waha, amc.’.g whom she was working, numbered 177,000. Sleeping sickness had been killing off large numbers of natives, and the Church had been co-operating with the Government in establishing new settlements in areas cleared of scrub in which the fly responsible for the disease lived. Schools and churches had been built in these new areas, and medical work carried on among the people with satisfying results. Sister Lindsay had been in Tanganyika for over five years. Among her labours was the development of maternity and child welfare work. With an infant mortality of 80 per cent, in the country the need for that vzork was apparent A considerable educational effort was being carried on in the diocese, an endeavour being made to train the Africans as teachers of bush schools. There were also boarding schools for African girls. This was an innovation of recent years and so successful had it proved that there was now a waiting list of girls, whereas a few years ago the parents had to be persuaded to send their girls to school. Mainly through education and medical work the church was evangelising the people, thus securing their progress and welfare and enabling them to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of modern life.

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit—the cathedra! of the diocese—was built three years ago at Dodoma, 300 miles from the coast, and it was the gift of a friend of Tanganyika.