Malihambe

This is a collection of profiles of 30 African church leaders from different denominations. The first missionaries, the Moravians, established a mission station in South Africa as early as 1737, but it was only after 1800 that work by various missionary societies and denominations really began. Although the missionaries were dedicated to the task of spreading the Gospel, the Christian church would not have been planted so successfully without the help of indigenous South African converts who were familiar with the language and culture of the people to whom they preached. These men and women were every bit as dedicated to spreading the Gospel as the missionaries, but little is known about their work. In official documents they were sometimes referred to as 'evangelists'. There are also only a few profiles of women in this collection because so little information has been recorded about them. This publication is an attempt to set the record straight. These early African evangelists were missionaries in their own right. They 'Africanised' the message so that the people could understand the Gospel and through their commitment the Word was spread throughout Southern Africa.