Lovedale was founded by the Glasgow Missionary Society as an eduational centre for Africans. Education was to be adapted to the lives of the Africans which would be a departure from the English classical tradition. This meant that emphasis was placed on vocational training and that academic education focussed on the study of English rather than the Classics. But the importance of mother-tongue education was also stressed. The missionaries placed emphasis on village education, whereby the African would be taught skills and crafts that would be useful to him in life. Education, they argued, should also aim at character-training and at spreading the Christian message. They also wanted to see co-operation between the Church and the State in the education of the African. Vocational education was designed to create African artisans who would be able to compete with Whites; but it also aimed at emphasizing the importance of industry in building up character. The Lovedale Press illustrates vocational training in progress, dealing with the difficulties that arose when African printers came into competition with Whites. But the missionaries also used the Press to propagate the Christian message and to promote African literature. An ideological rift began to open up between the missions and the new Black political beliefs of the Second World War. This led to the Lovedale Riot which is considered in the broader framework of sociopolitical unrest within the country. After the 1948 Election an ideological rift also developed between the missions and the State. This study concludes by examining the introduction of the Bantu Education Act and the Lovedale response to this. It was felt that although Bantu Education threatened to undermine their educational endeavour, they should nevertheless cooperate with the system in order to save what they had built up.

Any society is by nature coercive and its institutions are no exception. This was true of mission institutions in South Africa. While acknowledging the invaluable contribution of mission education to the development of black South Africans predominantly, it is clear that Lovedale Missionary Institution exemplifies the concept and reality of a ‘total institution’ which was as susceptible to the problems of power relations as any institution, secular or religious. Idris Shah’s concept of ‘coercive agency’ is apposite for this study. Lovedale’s foundation was laid and developed by the first two Principals. In a very real sense, it was perfected by the third Principal of Lovedale, James Henderson who, like his predecessors, emphasised the ultimate aim of conversion through a thorough process of character formation which infiltrated every aspect of life at Lovedale, especially discipline and the programme of industrial education. Those who studied there internalised its ethos in a manner which could not simply be discarded on leaving the Institution for it had become part of their identity, their indigenous personality and traditional life-style having been largely obliterated and reconstructed according to the ideological ideals of western Christian civilisation and European colonialism. Coercive agency was successful in that it effectively encouraged adaptation to missionary ideology. However, this was not an irreversible process for many Lovedale students came to reject the mores of the religion and education they received both during their stay at Lovedale and in later life in a variety of ways as they challenged and resisted the effects of the coercive agency of internalisation. Institutionalisation is, by nature, resistant to change as can be seen in the policies of the respective Principals. Yet, Henderson was able to initiate change while maintaining essential continuity of purpose. Consequently, black people were alienated by a process of ‘exclusion’. The Christian principles of justice, love and peace have a universal application and are appropriate tools for the development of a new model of education in South African society whose mission is to work towards reconciliation between individuals, within society and with the God who wishes to ‘embrace’ the totality of creation. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

The specific instances of R.H.W. Shepherd and H.I.E. Dhlomo are used in this thesis to investigate some of the many factors that influence the formation of a colonial literature, such as politics, social structures and personal ideals. By isolating the Lovedale Mission Press ~s a "contact zone" - a·place where the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized come into direct contact with each other - it is possible to trace how the interaction between these cultures shaped the writing of a particular African writer, H.I.E. Dhlomo. This is done through an analysis of historical factors that shaped the policy of the Lovedale Mission Press in the twentieth century: the development of liberalism in South Africa, the·role of the missionary in African education, the function ofa liberal magazine such as The South African Outlook and the appointment of an ambitious missionary, R.I.W. Shepherd, to the position of Director of Publications. This necessarily included a study of Shepherd's vision of African literature. On the other hand, this study takes cognisance of the factors that shaped Herbert Dhlomo's vision of literature: the development of African nationalism, the entrenchment of segregation as a politial doctrine, and most importantly, his struggle to have his creative writing published by the Lovedale Press. It is shown how Shepherd's vision of what African literature should entail contrasted with Dhlomo's, and how, as a result, Dhlomo deliberately structured his critical writing as a response to Shepherd's Eurocentric approach to African literature.

Any society is by nature coercive and its institutions are no exception. This was true of mission institutions in South Africa. While acknowledging the invaluable contribution of mission education to the development of black South Africans predominantly, it is clear that Lovedale Missionary Institution exemplifies the concept and reality of a ‘total institution’ which was as susceptible to the problems of power relations as any institution, secular or religious. Idris Shah’s concept of ‘coercive agency’ is apposite for this study. Lovedale’s foundation was laid and developed by the first two Principals. In a very real sense, it was perfected by the third Principal of Lovedale, James Henderson who, like his predecessors, emphasised the ultimate aim of conversion through a thorough process of character formation which infiltrated every aspect of life at Lovedale, especially discipline and the programme of industrial education. Those who studied there internalised its ethos in a manner which could not simply be discarded on leaving the Institution for it had become part of their identity, their indigenous personality and traditional life-style having been largely obliterated and reconstructed according to the ideological ideals of western Christian civilisation and European colonialism. Coercive agency was successful in that it effectively encouraged adaptation to missionary ideology. However, this was not an irreversible process for many Lovedale students came to reject the mores of the religion and education they received both during their stay at Lovedale and in later life in a variety of ways as they challenged and resisted the effects of the coercive agency of internalisation. Institutionalisation is, by nature, resistant to change as can be seen in the policies of the respective Principals. Yet, Henderson was able to initiate change while maintaining essential continuity of purpose. Consequently, black people were alienated by a process of ‘exclusion’. The Christian principles of justice, love and peace have a universal application and are appropriate tools for the development of a new model of education in South African society whose mission is to work towards reconciliation between individuals, within society and with the God who wishes to ‘embrace’ the totality of creation. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)