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A UMNS Feature
By Stephen Drachler*
5:00 P.M. ET Oct. 20, 2011
Fanuel Tagwira, vice chancellor of Africa University, holds one of
hundreds of historical publications donated to the university by James
and Carolyn Perry, retired United Methodist missionaries. UMNS photos by
Stephen Drachler.
View in Photo Gallery
Documenting the history of The United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe
just became easier, thanks to a gift from James Lane Perry and Carolyn
Shugart Perry, retired United Methodist missionaries.
The couple, who served in Zimbabwe from 1959 to 1964 when it was
Southern Rhodesia under British colonial rule, donated hundreds of
historical magazines, books and other publications from Africa to United Methodist-related Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Their donation was made public last month during the annual Richard E. “Dick” Reeves Legacy Society dinner.
Elaine Jenkins, director of planned giving, and James Salley,
associate vice chancellor for institutional development, presented
several issues of the quarterly newsletter, The Africa Christian
Advocate, to Fanuel Tagwira, university vice chancellor and chief
executive officer.
The newsletter chronicled the active involvement of United
Methodists in the region during the period leading to Zimbabwe’s
independence. Bishop Ralph E. Dodge presided over the area during that
time. His wife, Eunice, edited the quarterly publication.
“As the winds of change were blowing over the continent, Methodists
were not afraid,” Jenkins said. “They were not afraid to take on the
power of the day. They said it was up to Africans to decide their
future.”
When Jenkins first visited the Perry home in Armuchee, Ga., the
Perrys gave her copies of The Africa Christian Advocate and told her
about the important role the newsletter played in Africa half a century
ago.
First black African bishops in Methodist Church
On a later visit, Carolyn Perry pulled magazines and books from a
box that had been in the attic for years. James Perry described each
publication. In addition to the church-related material, several tracts
highlighted the revolutionary movements spreading across the
continent. Among the publications were several 1960s-era road maps of
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which is present-day Malawi.
A copy of The Africa Christian Advocate dating to 1964 is one of the historical publications given to Africa University.
View in Photo Gallery
The Africa Christian Advocate reported on Methodist activity in what
is now Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa,
Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The October-December 1964 issue focused on the first Africans
elected to the episcopacy in the Methodist Church. The magazine cover
shows Bishop John Wesley Shungu, who replaced Bishop Newell S. Booth
during the Africa Central Conference meeting in Mulungwishi, Congo.
Shungu was the second black African elected during that conference.
The first was Bishop Escrivao Zunguze of Mozambique who was not present
when elected. He was consecrated later.
Every issue portrayed the profound political changes occurring throughout southern Africa at that time.
Booth focused on African self-determination in a regular feature, the “Bishop’s Corner.”
“The greatest task which the church in Africa faces today is the
realization of the potential for leadership,” he wrote. “The presence
of the potential within the African people is very evident. … To fail
now to provide more scholarships is to fail to have leaders for the
morrow.”
Emergence of Christian principles
He concluded his article by writing “a young person in the heart of
Africa has as much right to the concern of the Methodist Church as a
whole as one who is living in America.”
In another article, L. Harold DeWolf of Boston University wrote that
the political leaders emerging during that period were nearly all
graduates of mission schools because “there have been no other schools
for Africans. The whole present passion for political freedom is based
on education, so the political resolution is, in one sense, a product
of the church.”
He described the role of churches in the emergence of Christian principles in the political changes taking place.
“Young ministers want to discuss Christian concern … about life …
and attitudes towards politics,” DeWolf wrote. He noted that Joshua
Nkomo was a Methodist local preacher before he emerged as president of
the ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples Union) party as the fever for
independence grew throughout Southern Rhodesia.
Gordon F. Mawere, archivist at the university’s Kent M. Weeks
History and Archives Hall, said the Perry gift significantly adds to
the university’s quest to document the history of The United Methodist
Church in Zimbabwe.
Mawere said the material would enhance the understanding of
“relations between early missionaries and settlers and African peoples,
as well as relationships between church and state during the
Nationalist period.
“We extend our gratitude ... for such a timely and important donation,” he said.
*Drachler is executive director of United Methodist Advocacy in
Pennsylvania and former executive director of public information at
United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
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