Material relating to Zambia missions

Papers relating to missionary work in Zambia (northern Rhodesia), comprising a printed edition of Bemba hymns (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1933), including introduction by A R Godfrey, with manuscript scores added; two undated notebooks containing manuscript scores, one belonging to A R Godfrey and containing songs in African languages [1930s]; undated manuscript account of the history of the Tonga tribe, written for educational use [1930s]. In English, Bemba, and other African Languages.

Following the advances of the British South Africa Company (incorporated in 1889), northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) because a territory of the British Crown in 1894. Missionary work in northern Rhodesia, a remote and thinly settled region, was pioneered in the last decades of the 19th century.

The donor of these manuscripts, the Rev Canon James Smith Robertson (b 1917), served the UMCA (Universities Mission to Central Africa) in northern Rhodesia, 1945-1950, and worked in Mapanza, 1950-1955, and Lusaka, 1955-1965.

Open

Presented by the Rev Canon James Robertson in 1990.

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