User:DonaldRichardSands/Adventist history, Africa

Introduction

Joseph Booth (Malawi)

 * Review and Herald, May 13, 1902


 * Booth tells of his deep impression that he should serve God in some part of the world. Through a series of events he travels to Nyassaland. His account printed in the Review, May 13, 1902 covers pages 11-14. He speaks of traveling with his four year old daughter and how she trusted him so. He describes sleeping in their canoe and the crocodiles under the canoe.


 * Booth's importance to Malawi missions.


 * 1902, S.N. Haskell describes Booth's visit and subsequent interaction with Adventists at Battle Creek.

J. H. Watson (Malawi)
1903, Watson reports 40 students in the school in Nyassa mission.

1904, January, Watson dies of fever. His death, the first Adventist to die in Nyassaland, inspired an essay from Spicer on missionary deaths.

Joel C. Rogers
1908, Elder J. C. Rogers and wife went to Nyassaland. R. C. Porter visits and writes descriptive account.





Native teachers
Perhaps encouraged by Joseph Booth and W.H. Anderson, the Malamulo Mission trained native teachers to extend the work.

Description of Malamulo Mission
2000 acres, 5 of peanuts, 5 of sweet potatoes, 10 of beans, 10 of other vegetables, 25 of cotton, 50 of corn, rubber, 100 head of cattle,

200 students in attendance.

Liberia
The first Seventh-day Adventist in Liberia was the American missionary Hannah More. In 1863, she sent letters to the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald mentioning that she taught others the Adventist faith. Adventist pioneer Stephen Haskell noted that she helped to found several Sabbathkeeping Adventist groups on the west coast of Africa between 1863 and 1866 before she returned to America.

In 1926 the European Division sent missionaries to Liberia. They established the first formal mission, consisting of a school, church, and dispensary. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Liberia now has a membership of nearly 24,500, worshipping in 103 churches and companies. In the capital, Monrovia, 13 organized churches and eight companies meet weekly for services. The Liberia Mission operates six secondary schools. One of them, Konola Academy, is a boarding school with about 350 students. In addition, 21 primary schools educate more than 8,000 students. The church also operates Cooper Memorial Hospital in Monrovia. Before the political upheaval of the 1980s and 1990s it was one of the flagship hospitals in the country. In an audience with a Seventh-day Adventist delegation soon after her inauguration in 2006, President Johnson-Sirleaf appealed to the church to upgrade the hospital to the standard of its former days. This year the hospital was incorporated into the Adventist Health International (AHI) network and with this new development improvement in the services and facilities is expected. The eye clinic connected with the hospital opened in 2004 and provides some of the best ophthalmologic services in the country, including cataract and other surgeries. Hard economic times in the country have affected the life of the church. Many members are without work. However, things are improving and we are of good courage. Our Lord has promised to be with us until the end of time.

Malawi (Nyasaland)
Adventism began in Malawi, formerly known as Nyassaland, British Central Africa, in 1902. They purchased the Cholo mission station, south of Blantyre, from Seventh Day Baptists. The mission became known as Malamulo. A second station was established, at Matandane, northwest of Blantyre, on the Portuguese border.

The Joseph Booth family, along with the Thomas Branch family, arrived at the Mission location (June or July) of 1902. Between 1897 and 1907 Booth led in the establishing of eight different missions run by seven different denominations. He helped persuade many of the Seventh-day Adventist conferences in the United States to vote their support for the Malawi mission initiative. Booth advocated treating natives with equality and came into the disfavor of the British authorities. They asked him to leave British Central Africa. At this time he and Adventists parted ways.

Dr. Robert Laws describes the role of education in Malawi's missionary work.

Joseph Booth describes schools in BCA. He also mentions his own circumstance as a "fugitive" from authorities.

Swaziland
Joseph N. Hlubi, a Swazi living in Transvaal became an Adventist in 1918. J.C. Rogers convinced him to move to Swaziland. In 1920, a school was started by Hlubi's wife.