Education and London Missionary Society policy in their Cape and Bechuana missions from 1800 to 1925

This study is concerned with the origins and implementation of the London Missionary Society's educational policy in Southern Africa during the nineteenth century. Education is understood in this context to comprehend not only formal schooling, but informal processes of acculturation for African peoples in mission stations and institutions, including the political activity of missionaries facilitating such transformations. This definition is in line with general objectives of Protestant mission education (the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, 1910 - the Burton Commission, 1922 - Goodall, 1954), which were intended to foster personal evangelisation; to produce indigenous Christian leaders; to develop just, moral communities of Christian converts. Van der Kemp, the first L.M.S. missionary leader was "sui generis" but his Khoi (Hottentot) policy was adapted by John Philip (Cape Superintendent from 1821-1854), a "developer" and humanitarian imperialist. Philip advocated formal schooling and informal acculturation of Khoi peoples, so that, occupying "buffer" states (the Kat River Protectorate and Griqualand), their newly-acquired Christian values, and entrepreneurial attitudes could filter through to the African peoples beyond. To clarify Philip's strategy, two L.M.S. proselytising traditions - here termed "dialectic" and "dialogic" - are analysed.