Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
At our public religious services in the kotla, the Makololo women always
behaved with decorum from the first, except at the conclusion of
the prayer. When all knelt down, many of those who had children, in
following the example of the rest, bent over their little ones; the
children, in terror of being crushed to death, set up a simultaneous
yell, which so tickled the whole assembly there was often a subdued
titter, to be turned into a hearty laugh as soon as they heard Amen.
This was not so difficult to overcome in them as similar peccadilloes
were in the case of the women farther south. Long after we had settled
at Mabotsa, when preaching on the most solemn subjects, a woman might be
observed to look round, and, seeing a neighbor seated on her dress, give
her a hunch with the elbow to make her move off; the other would return
it with interest, and perhaps the remark, "Take the nasty thing away,
will you?" Then three or four would begin to hustle the first offenders,
and the men to swear at them all, by way of enforcing silence.
Great numbers of little trifling things like these occur, and would
not be worth the mention but that one can not form a correct idea of
missionary work except by examination of the minutiae. At the risk
of appearing frivolous to some, I shall continue to descend to mere
trifles.
The numbers who attended at the summons of the herald, who acted as
beadle, were often from five to seven hundred. The service consisted of
reading a small portion of the Bible and giving an explanatory address,
usually short enough to prevent weariness or want of attention. So long
as we continue to hold services in the kotla, the associations of the
place are unfavorable to solemnity; hence it is always desirable to have
a place of worship as soon as possible; and it is of importance, too,
to treat such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious
attention which religious subjects demand. This will appear more evident
when it is recollected that, in the very spot where we had been engaged
in acts of devotion, half an hour after a dance would be got up; and
these habits can not be at first opposed without the appearance of
assuming too much authority over them. It is always unwise to hurt
their feelings of independence. Much greater influence will be gained by
studying how you may induce them to act aright, with the impression
that they are doing it of their own free will. Our services having
necessarily been all in the open air, where it is most difficult to
address large bodies of people, prevented my recovering so entirely from
the effects of clergyman's sore throat as I expected, when my uvula was
excised at the Cape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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