Scotland's early links with South Africa and the Eastern Cape

Scotland's links with Southern Africa span the last two centuries. In 1795, the London Missionary Society was formed and one of its first actions was to send Church of Scotland minister, Johannes van der Kempe to South Africa.
Over the years more Scottish missionaries followed including Robert Moffat, John Philip, David Livingstone, John McKenzie and many others. Of these perhaps the most notable was John Philip.

Philip was a radical who arrived at the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope in 1819. There he campaigned actively for equal civil rights for all the citizens of the Cape. This campaigning resulted in "Cape Ordinance 50" which meant that future legislation in the Cape could not discriminate between citizens on the basis of their colour. The laws of the Cape Colony were to be "colour blind" until it became part of the new Union of South Africa in 1910. Not all of the missionaries were to have such a positive impact on the lives of the African population.  However, when in 1841 William Govan of the Glasgow Missionary Society founded the Lovedale Institute he and his successors were creating a vast educational establishment in the Eastern Cape committed to providing education on the basis of complete equality. Lovedale would eventually comprise a primary school, high school, technical school, a teacher training college, a theological college and the first hospital to train African women as nurses up to full SRN standard. Before it was eventually closed in the 1950s as a result of the Bantu Education Act Lovedale would attract students from all over Southern Africa.

Lovedale would prove to be the mortar which would cement the link between Scotland and the Eastern Cape and has been described as Scotland finest gift to South Africa. In his Foreword to "The End Of A Regime?", Emeka Anyaoku, the Commonwealth General Secretary writes, "Such has been the contribution of Lovedale that it is hardly possible to think of the African renaissance in South Africa without it. When all is said and done and all the passions of the moment have subsided, Lovedale and similar institutions will stand forth as Scotland's lasting contribution to the regeneration of South Africa and, indeed of Southern Africa as a whole."

For more information on the history of Scotland's early links with Southern Africa see "THE END OF A REGIME? - An anthology of Scottish-South African Writing Against Apartheid", particularly the essay, Scotland And South Africa, Blessed Be The Tie That Binds, by Andrew C Ross from which the brief notes above are extracted.