This week in Christian history: English Jesuit martyred, pope deposed, missionary travels to South Africa
Daniel Lindley departs for Africa – Dec. 3, 1834
This week marks the anniversary of when Daniel Lindley, a missionary known for his work among Boer and Zulu populations in Africa, departed Boston, Massachusetts, for South Africa.
A native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, Lindley studied at Union Theological Seminary of Richmond, Virginia, before being appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to go to South Africa.
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Once there, Lindley and other missionaries set up efforts to evangelize the local population, oftentimes facing complications from the ongoing conflict between whites and blacks.
“… in 1839 Lindley reoccupied his station, opened a school for the Boers’ children, and in 1842 agreed to be predikant (pastor) of their scattered settlements, believing that the aggressive Dutch needed Christianizing as much as the Zulus,” explained the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.
“In 1847 Lindley established a station at Inanda, centering his efforts on the Zulus and helping set aside large ‘native locations’ to protect them from land-hungry settlers. At the Lindleys’ retirement in 1873, Zulus and Boers expressed deep regard.”
