THE Church did not come to liberate us or take us to Heaven.
It came as a coloniser to take our land and heritage from us, just like Rhodes.
It worked together with Rhodes and got generous grants of money and wealth from our land to build churches and do their colonial work.
A History of Christian Missions in Zimbabwe by CJM Zvobgo tells us that the London Missionary Society (LMS) started their first mission station at Inyati in 1859.
The second was at Hope Fountain in 1870.
Inyati farm was 8 000 acres.
Hope Fountain was 6 000 acres.
They did not have a single convert from 1859 to 1880.
Between 1881 and 1883, they got 12 converts.
When they realised that they could not make converts under Lobengula’s regime, they invited Rhodes to overthrow him to pave the way for Christianity.
“Until the Matabele are put down by brute force, there will never be any progress in missionary work,” wrote Prestage on May 29 1883.
“The crisis should come soon.
“Our failure at Empandeni was not owing to the unwillingness of the natives to become Christians.
“It was due to the overwhelming terror engendered by Lobengula’s pagan system of government.”
When the war started on July 9 1893, Prestage urged Rhodes to “smash up” the Matabele Kingdom as “a system of iniquity and deviltry”.
When Jameson asked him whether the clergy would approve the chastisement of the Ndebele, Prestage said there was just cause for the Company to destroy the Ndebele.
Jameson asked him to telegraph his views to Rhodes.
In the telegraph Prestage said the Ndebele should be punished at once.
“No settlement can be durable or satisfactory which fails to insure security of life and property to whites.
“We must put down the Matabeles and then go on with our work as if nothing had happened.”
In July 1893 Shimmin of the Methodist Church said missionary progress would be severely handicapped as long as the Ndebele question remained unsettled.
The struggle must commence at once.
“On this point the clergy, the farmer, the English and the colonial are at one.”
So, an alliance was established between the missionaries and Rhodes to “smash up” the Ndebele Kingdom.
When the Pioneer Column set off for Mashonaland in 1890, the Jesuit missionary, Fr Andrew Hartmann, accompanied it as Chaplain. Canon Balfour of the Anglican Diocese of Bloemfontein also accompanied the Pioneer Column as Chaplain.
Rhodes gave the Anglicans 600 pounds towards the expenses of Anglican missions in Mashonaland.
Mashonaland was formed into a Diocese in February 1891.
GWH Knight-Bruce advocated the establishment of an English Protectorate over the Shona with him in charge.
He reached Fort Salisbury on September 17 1891 and discussed with Leander Starr Jameson about land for Anglican missions in Mashonaland.
Rhodes granted him, “a right to 3 000 acres of land wherever the Church wished to place a Mission”.
Knight-Bruce celebrated this offer saying, “The movement of the white man northward in Africa seems inevitable.
“It is only a question as to which white men the Company says should move up.”
Night-Bruce later founded St Augustine’s Mission near Penhalonga in 1891.
The pioneer missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa led by Mr A.A. Louw arrived at Mugabe’s mountain on September 9 1891.
They founded Morgenster Mission near Masvingo.
It was named after Mr Louw’s home in Paarl.
In 1892, Mr Louw went to Salisbury to see Dr Jameson about land for the mission.
Jameson granted him a farm of 6 000 morgen.
The pioneer missionaries of the Salvation Army arrived in Salisbury on November 18 1891.
Dr Jameson granted them a farm of 3 000 acres in Mazowe Valley.
The Salvationists subsequently moved from Pearson farm to Nyachuru where they established Howard Institute.
Chishawasha Mission was founded on July 29 1892 by the Jesuits.
The farm which consisted of 12 000 acres beautifully surrounded by hills was given to the Jesuits by Rhodes in recognition of Fr Alphonse Daignault’s service to the Company’s sick.
When the war broke out on October 5 1893, Bishop Knight-Bruce accompanied the BSA Company forces and witnessed the defeat of the Matabele at the Shangani and Bembesi battles and later, the burning of Bulawayo.
David Carnegie of the LMS celebrated the defeat of the Ndebele saying, “We expect great things on our return to our mission station at Hope Fountain.
“The one great obstacle of fear and dread in the way of our progress, the club of Lobengula, has been broken in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
“The people now will not point any more to Bulawayo with their fingers as their final argument to silence their tongue from confessing Christ.
“They will no longer be in fear and dread of that heathen monarch’s tyrannical power to crush their ambition, enterprise and desire for knowledge.
“They will live in security, being able to associate with the white man, to live near him and work for him and enjoy the fruits of their toil.”
In 1895 the LMS got a farm of 24 000 acres at Dombodema for its support of Rhodes in the uprisings.
The Wesleyans were thanked with two plots in Bulawayo in 1894.
The Bulawayo Methodist Church committee purchased a stand near the centre of the town for 900 pounds from Rhodes in 1895.
They opened their first Church on Ninth Avenue on Sunday October 13 1895.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church was granted by Rhodes a farm of 12 000 acres at Solusi in 1894.
The SDA missionaries consisting of Elder and Mrs G.B. Tripp, Mr and Mrs W.H. Anderson and Dr A.S. Carmichael arrived on July 25 1895 to commence the work.
In 1895 missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions established their second mission station at Chikore 18 miles West of Mt Selinda.
The first had been established at Mount Selinda on October 19 1893.
The Jesuits strengthened their work in Mashonaland after the Shona risings.
They baptised their first two Shona converts at Chishawasha on April 13 1895.
They were a schoolboy and a youth of 18 years of age.
One was baptised Gabriel and the other, Joseph.
The Zambezi Mission Record described the event as, “consoling to the Fathers and Brothers who had up to now been on the place for nearly three years and had not seen a single Mashona publicly made a child of God.”
Rhodes and the Church are two sides of the same colonialism.
The decolonisation of Zimbabwe will never be complete without decolonising the Church.