Revival seeds Germinate Part 2

By Ashley Cloete

The book in your hand is the second part of a trilogy, that depicts how the Cape has been impacting other parts of the world through spiritual renewal. All three parts concentrate on events at the Cape.
Part 2 takes the reader through Cape spiritual dynamics of the 20th century, with a strong autobiographical component. The author was born and raised in Cape Town but lived in Germany and Holland for many years. He met his wife Rosemarie, a German citizen, while studying overseas in 1969 and 1970.
This volume ends chronologically more or less with the preparation for the return of the author from exile with his family in 1992. His residency overseas took place more or less in exile, caused by his friendship and ultimate marriage that was prohibited by an apartheid law.
Just like Part 1, the book highlights the yearning for a clear expression of the unity of the Body of Christ in prayer in the run-up to revival. It is suggested that concern to address injustice towards the poor and needy – along with compassionate sensitivity to those who are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel – could be a good litmus test to discern how deep and effective a revival has been.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashley Cloete
• Release date: Feb 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9780639767451

Ashley Cloete

Ashley Cloete was born and raised in Cape Town, but lived in Germany and Holland for many years. He served as a teacher while studying extramurally at the University College of the Western Cape in the suburb Bellville. At this time he also served on the executive of the national youth union of the Moravian Church.A bursary facilitated by the church sent him to Germany in January 1969, where he met his wife Rosemarie while studying Greek and Biblical Hebrew. After completing theological studies at the Moravian Seminaries in Cape Town and Bad Boll (Western Germany), he served as a pastor in West Berlin and Utrecht (Netherlands), with residence in nearby Zeist.Because of apartheid-related legislation, his marriage led to exile from South Africa. During this period he contended via correspondence with the government of that time to enable a return to the country with his family of seven. A sampleof this correspondence is included in What God Joined Together.After returning to South Africa in January 1992, the family became involved with prayer and evangelism movements. The blessings and positive impacts in Germany and Holland during exile, inspired the vision of such work in his home country of South Africa. Since 2003 the family has been focusing on compassionate outreach to refugees and other foreigners. This ultimately led to the founding of the organization Friends from Abroad, a low-key umbrella organsiation in which mission agencies and a few churches have been networking since 2006.Already as a teenager, during the apartheid era in South Africa , Ashley had been impressed with need for a visual local expression of the unity of followers of Jesus according to the prayer of Jesus that his followers may be one (John 17:21-23). This vision became part and parcel of the inspiration to start an evangelistic agency Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan in the Dutch town of Zeist in 1983 with believers from different denominations. (He felt that it was the rightful responsibility of committed Christians to face the challenge of racial reconciliation in South Africa.)Later, together with Messianic Jewish and Muslim-background followers of Jesus a low profile organisation Isaac Ishmael Ministries was established in 2010. The need for successors as leaders of Friends from Abroad gave rise to the start of a new organisation in 2021, the Born Again Believers Network.Ashley and his wife have been blessed with five children and fourteen grandchildren.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank God especially for a wonderful wife and supportive children, whom God has used in different ways in my life.

I am also grateful for oral information that I have been able to collate over the years from many people. Individual acknowledgement would be impossible. I wish to thank all of those involved generally, but nevertheless very cordially.

A special note of thanks is hereby extended to Alaythea Hamlyn and Anneline de Hout Bezuidenhout for the proof reading, editing and layout of Part 2.

MAIN ABBREVIATIONS

ANC – African National Congress

APO – African People’s Organisation

CCM – Christian Concern for Muslims

CCFM – Cape Community FM (radio)

CODESA – Convention for a Democratic South Africa

CSV – Christelike Studentevereniging

DRC – Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk)

Ds. – Dominee (equivalent of Reverend)

DTS – Discipleship Training School

IDASA – Institute for Democracy in South Africa

LMS – London Missionary Society

OM – Operation Mobilization

PAGAD – People against Gangsterism and Drugs

PCR – Programme to Combat Racism

SACC – South African Council of Churches

SAMS – South African Missionary Society

UDF – United Democratic Front

UNISA – University of South Africa

UCT – University of Cape Town

UWC – University of the Western Cape

WCC – World Council of Churches

WEC – Worldwide Evangelization for Christ

YWAM – Youth with a Mission

YMCA – Young Men's Christian Association

YWCA – Young Women's Christian Association

TERMINOLOGY USED IN THIS BOOK

Throughout this book, I speak about 'Coloured' people. For this reason, I put ‘Coloured’ consistently between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to the racial group. To the other races I refer as 'Black' and 'White' respectively, with a capital B and W, to denote that it is not normal colours that are being described. In a country as ours where racial classifications have caused a lot of damage, I am aware that the designation 'Coloured' has given offence to many people of the racial group into which I have been classified. I will be referring to South African Indians when I mention the other major racial grouping of the apartheid era.

In this book the distinction is made between a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and other English-speaking churches, by retaining the title ‘Ds.' before the name of a DRC pastor. It is the abbreviation of Dominee (derived from the Latin dominus meaning Lord). This is the equivalent of Rev. (Reverend) in English in practical terms.

PREFACE

God's 'higher ways' are better than our ways! The Bible verse from Isaiah 55:8, 9 was to play a big role in my life.

'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’

How often we say 'what a coincidence'? Something coincides with something else unexpectedly – and we call it a coincidence. Someone said: 'Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.' God is continually working in our lives so in many ways on many levels that we don't see and understand.

This three-part treatise is my attempt to overhaul Seeds Sown for Revival, but with the addition of more autobiographical details and other material that I had researched or that came to my attention later. With believers in different places, I continue to yearn for a big revival that has been prophesied to start here at the Cape. We expect this to impact the whole African continent and possibly even influence areas further afield. Part 2 narrates 'revival seed' of the 20th century, including my own lengthy personal sojourn in Europe.

By January 1969, when I left South Africa for the first time, my own thinking in respect of the subtle indoctrination of our racially segregated country at that time had already had a significant correction.

The Father dealt thoroughly with my racist prejudicial expectation that my future wife had to be a 'Coloured' South African. I was hoping to spare myself the destiny of an exile in that way. Picking up the theme of God's 'higher ways' in my life, they were sometimes linked to deep pain in the lives of other people. I came to learn that adversity and suffering seem to be among God's prime instruments to bring about significant change in the lives of people and even in countries. Leukaemia and the ultimate passing away of my teenage hero, Rev. Daniel Ivan Wessels, were for instance part of the run-up to my calling into ministry in 1968.

It has been quite a humbling experience to discern divine over-ruling in my life. I made some grave mistakes that had tragic consequences and intense pain for many people around me. God thankfully rectified my errors sovereignly.

One of the most striking divine corrections was when the Father turned around my unjustified extreme anger at the actions of our government and at my Church Board in November 1978 during a visit to the country. This led to my initial declining an opportunity to meet Professor Johan Heyns, the Chairman of the Broederbond and the apartheid think tank of that era. A repentant willingness to meet Professor Johan Heyns could possibly have contributed better to a process of change! God used the impactful SACLA conference of July 1979 to that end, notably with Professor Heyns.

My subsequent correspondence with Professor Heyns was tarnished by my arrogant activism. Nevertheless, a change in the views of Prof. Heyns and other Dutch Reformed Church ministers regarding apartheid thankfully ultimately led to a major denominational switch in 1986.

The same sequence as in 1968, namely the same type of cancer and the death of my only sister resulted in a strategic six-month stint in South Africa with my wife Rosemarie and our two eldest children – by special permission of the apartheid government. During those six months we were privileged to do back-stage spadework as a contribution to the ultimate repealing of two pivotal laws that had been pillars of the apartheid edifice: the prohibition of racially mixed marriages and the infamous pass laws were removed from the statute books.

In Holland we were blessed to assist significantly in the formation of the Regiogebed (Regional prayer) in 1988, of which the roots can be found in Dave Bryant's Concerts of Prayer. At a Regiogebed event in Zeist on 4 October 1989 we prayed for a divinely orchestrated move for South Africa, not knowing that the new State President had an important meeting lined up with two Church leaders the following week. How thankful we were when by the beginning of 1992, at our arrival in South Africa as a family, official apartheid was dying fast.

A world-wide prayer army brought down the Communist Iron Curtain. We were blessed to discern divine revival seeds behind the scenes in this regard. In other autobiographical material we report how Rosemarie and I were blessed to contribute in a small way to undermine the despotic reign of Nicolae Ceauçescu of Romania. Before leaving for our missionary candidate's orientation at Bulstrode near London in 1991, I had also been able to arrange for the covert Albania role player Gesina Blaauw to come and speak at a Regiogebed meeting. The dynamic physically small believer would play a big role behind the scenes to bring down the last European Communist stronghold. The back of atheist Communism was broken by then, albeit that fierce repression of all expressions of faith was still present in China and North Korea.

A personal challenge to tackle the Wall of Islam transpired only minimally when I studied at the Moravian Theological Seminary in the early 1970s. The institution was temporarily located in District Six at a time when the former slum area became increasingly Islamic.

All the more, the challenge became strong during a visit to West Africa in the beginning of 1990 as part of our preparation and possible orientation for service there; to serve as a teacher in a school for the children of missionaries in the Ivory Coast.

That trip to West Africa brought divine correction. It also included a significant part of the run-up to engage in prayer ministry in the battle against the Islamic ideology.

On 1 September 2021, I gave a copy of the first edition of Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate to two intercessors who had just flown into Cape Town for a prayer assignment, soon their arrival. Patrick Kuwana immediately noted the three keys on the cover. (When I had phoned Anneline of Sela Publications in August 2019, I expressed my doubts about the suitability of the title Revival Seeds Germinate. She responded that she had completed a painting, a photo of which she would like to send to me. It looks very much as if I had ordered someone to paint something that would depict Revival Seeds Germinate!) I had also not been aware that a South African woman and man of Jewish descent (a Jew/Gentile team) were given a set of three golden keys in Jerusalem on the 21st of November 2019, and that they planted one of those keys at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Lord then gave them instructions to return to South Africa with the other keys, one to be planted at the Drakensberg and the other at what we trust will in due course become generally known as Dove’s Peak. The notion of Durban as the spiritual eastern Gate came to me quite forcefully that day. As this trilogy had a prophetic element at its core, I could not ignore it.

What a pleasure it is to honour the roles of other unheralded Cape spiritual giants in this volume. A few contributions by legends from elsewhere that impacted the Cape like Professor David Bosch and Rev. Michael Cassidy are also included. Briefly even that of someone from another country, such as that of Bishop Festo Kivangere of Uganda, is noted.

I have included information in this book from hitherto unpublished manuscripts like Honger na Geregtigheid, The Mother City of the Nation, Some Things Wrought by Prayer and Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape. For bibliographical detail and the origins of quotations the reader is referred to some of them. Along with other titles, this material is accessible at www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com.

Cape Town, February 2023

Chapter 1

REVIVAL SEED AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

Two spiritual giants who significantly and positively contributed to Cape spiritual dynamics at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century both had the name Andrew: Dr Andrew Murray, the giant of the 19th Century of whose ministry and influence we have written at some length in Part 1, and Andrew le Fleur, the Griqua spiritual giant from East Griqualand's Kokstad in the early 20th century South Africa, was exiled to Cape Town's present Waterfront from 1896 to 1903 as a convict.

Andrew Murray's Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit

The renowned Dwight Moody invited Andrew Murray as a speaker to an ecumenical missionary conference to be held in New York in April 1900. Moody could not attend the conference himself, and after falling ill in November 1899, Dwight Moody died on 22 December 1899.

Dr Andrew Murray put into practice what he had taught about ‘waiting on the Lord’ when he was invited to be a speaker at the World Missions Conference in New York, billed as the biggest ever to be held. (At this time the effect of the Enlightenment and Rationalism had significantly diminished belief in unseen forces like the Holy Spirit in the West.)

Andrew Murray had no inner peace about going to New York. He felt morally bound to stay with his people because of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). We may safely surmise that Murray was obedient to the Holy Spirit, only responding to instructions from the Lord.

Prayer As a Special Key

Murray’s subsequent absence at the conference ironically became one of the biggest catalysts of missions at the start of the 20th century. After he received the papers and discussions at the conference, Murray wrote down what he thought was lacking at the event in a booklet: The Key to the Missionary Problem. This booklet was to have an explosive influence on churches in Europe, America and South Africa. It is surely no mere coincidence that revivals broke out in different parts of the world in the years thereafter in such divergent countries as Wales, Norway, India and Chile.

Murray also stated that missionary work is the primary task of the church, and that the pastor should have that as the main goal of his preaching. These sentiments were repeated in another booklet with the title Foreign Missions and the week of Prayer, January 5-12, 1902. He, furthermore, suggested that 'to join in united prayer for God’s Spirit to work in home churches a true interest in, and devotion to missions (is) our first and our most pressing need.' A classic statement of Andrew Murray is found in his book The Kingdom of God in South Africa (1906): 'Prayer is the life of missions. Continual, believing prayer is the secret of vitality and fruitfulness in missionary work. The God of missions is the God of prayer'.

Andrew Murray’s Closing Days

In 1904 Andrew Murray founded the Prayer Union, which was open to believers who had pledged themselves to devote at least a quarter of an hour daily to praying for others and also for the furtherance of the Kingdom.

Andrew Murray ended his life on earth on 18 January 1917 in typical fashion, praying and urging others to pray. Few men have ever impacted more people for the cause of the Spirit-filled life than Andrew Murray. He was, undoubtedly, the Church’s most prolific writer on the subject of prayer and the deeper life, publishing over 240 titles between 1858 and 1917. Several of his penned works have been translated into as many as fifteen different languages.

Soon after the Christian Literature Society for China translated Dr Murray’s book, The Spirit of Christ into Chinese, revival reportedly broke out in inland China. Even today his writings are still shaping the way multitudes of hungry Christians think about prayer and the Spirit-filled life.

Missionary Endeavour as a Worldwide Priority

The Cape was divinely used to establish missionary endeavour as a worldwide priority, an important spur to a big conference at Edinburgh in 1910. This conference can be regarded as a harbinger of the World Council of Churches.

An interesting fact is that the great missionary William Carey had proposed holding a conference on missions at the Cape of Good Hope a hundred years earlier. This was the nudge for the global Lausanne Consultation to be held in Cape Town in 2010. This was possibly the most representative major Christian event to date. A cross section of participants attended – young and old, females treated as equals also in sharing the Word!

An Exceptional Orator

Andrew le Fleur distinguished himself as an exceptional orator among contesting factions as a protest and resistance leader. Through his insatiable hunger for justice and equality in an era where oppressive colonial laws destroyed the morale of his people, Le Fleur collided with the authorities who misinterpreted his strong non-violent stand at times as revolt and incitement.

Andrew Le Fleur, after being chosen as Griqua chief, travelled the length and breadth of the country, reorganizing the strewn Griqua remnants into a new nation, forming treaties with 'Bantu' tribes, and trying to convert other 'Coloured' tribes to the Griqua cause. He would not allow disappointments to deter him. His love for the Lof, the inspirational praise songs, made him strong. The many meetings he held, soon led to the authorities branding him as an agitator. He was taken to court in Kokstad, accused of causing an uprising, and subsequently sentenced to 14 years hard labour. He was sent to prison in Cape Town on the 5th May, 1898.

Three angels appeared to him in his cell, and said: 'We are the three angels who appeared to Father Abraham when he was about to offer his son on Moriah. Fear not, for we are sent by God to lead the way.' This eventually led to him prophesy nine years before his sentence was due to expire, that he would walk through the prison doors as a free man on Friday, 3 April 1903 at 3 o’clock. The prophecy was fulfilled to the minute.

Praise as a Uniting Force

After his release, he was held in even greater esteem than before among the Griquas, and many more lost sheep were brought back to the fold. He organised conferences in the city of Cape Town and on the Cape Flats.

After the commemoration of the Lord's resurrection in 1920, in particular, he sent the Griqua message to many corners of the country by means of girls’ choirs, who were called Roepers (callers), inviting all and sundry to follow Jesus, but even more so to join the Griqua cause of nation-building. They travelled many miles on foot. They are the unsung, yet not forgotten Griqua heroes. Some of them (and their off-spring) are still living at Krantzhoek, Knysna, Vredendal and elsewhere, still singing in choirs and working towards Griqua unity.

The planning of new branches took shape in Le Fleur's office in Caledon Street in District Six. Meetings were envisaged in places like Paarl, Retreat and Elsies River, but Le Fleur also preached on public spaces like the Grand Parade.

Sir Frederick de Waal, the Administrator of the Cape Province, made an appeal to assist the impoverished families after the copper mines of Namaqualand had been closed down in 1919 after World War I.

Andrew le Fleur grabbed the chance to put the Griquas on the map with the Roepers. The choirs went onto the busy streets during the week collecting funds. On many a Sunday they went to Cape suburbs in the North and South and on the Cape Flats, bringing their takings to the Grand Parade where he would preach. How surprised Sir Frederick De Waal was when Le Fleur came there the first time with a pillowcase full of money. The movement went into a crescendo when the Griqua Choirs Association was started on the weekend of 5-6 July 1919.

Uniting the Griqua Nation

Andrew le Fleur spent his life campaigning for the restitution of land that the Griquas lost when the British colonial authorities annexed Griqualand East. He sought to unite people called Griqua, Nama and 'Coloured' under the Griqua banner. Emulating Mohandas Ghandi who had started The Indian Opinion in 1903, Andrew le Fleur also started a newspaper, The Griqua and Coloured People's Opinion, in January 1920. As part of his calling, Le Fleur started organizing great treks from all over the country, and notably from Kokstad, Namaqualand and the Orange Free State. Eventually, they were due to come to Krantshoek near Plettenberg Bay. Not all Griquas moved to Krantshoek, however, and many of them still form smaller or larger communities in places as far apart as Kimberley and Griqua Town, Kokstad, Namaqualand and the Cape Peninsula.

Le Fleur started the Griqua Independent Church over the Resurrection Commemoration weekend in 1920 in the Maitland Town Hall, Cape Town, as a counter to the European-controlled mission churches. Very special about the Griqua spirituality was the emphasis on Lof (Praise). Joyful praise accompanied every achievement.

Andrew le Fleur, who became lovingly known to his followers as Die Kneg (Servant of God), had already begun his career as a revivalist in the mid-1890s. Tackling the land issue in various ways and fostering a united Griqua identity by spiritual means, he was to become the most prominent indigenous Khoesan leader of the early 20th century in South Africa.

Le Fleur also founded the Griqua National Conference (GNC), which became the official mouthpiece of the Griqua people, at the time of his appointment as successor to Adam Kok III. He thus became the Paramount Chief of the Griquas. Although all his agricultural resettlement schemes failed, with the exception of Krantzhoek, he was instrumental in fostering Griqua pride in the GNC's spiritual identity. He promoted a 'Coloured' identity, believing that segregation would be the solution to the economic and political problems of the Griquas.

Le Fleur died in a little cottage on a farm in the Robberg Peninsula near Plettenberg Bay on 11 July, 1941. Internationally, Andrew (Andries) Abraham Stockenstrom le Fleur did not gain recognition near to what Nelson Mandela was to gain at the end of the 20th century. The stature of Andrew le Fleur, a great man of God, remained fairly unknown even in South Africa.

He was later maligned, because he attempted to obtain stability for first nation people in an independent homeland. (The homelands policy of the apartheid government left a bad taste for a meritorious idea that was implemented, in my view, in an unfair and grossly discriminate way.)

The Start of the Cape Town City Mission

Mr Frederick George Lowe came to Cape Town in 1896, as a concerned Anglican and a businessman who sold cheap clothing. He soon became involved in loving outreach to the poor and needy, especially at the time of the bubonic plague in 1901.

Lowe started what he called the City Slum Mission in 1902, combining compassionate outreach with evangelism. When he moved to Well’s Square, known as a venue for drunkenness and prostitution, he held meetings that drew hundreds.

After Lowe’s death the mission got its present name, the Cape Town City Mission. In later years churches and all sorts of institutions of charity were started across the Peninsula. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which they derived from their models, the Glasgow City Mission and the Salvation Army – became an integral part of their ministry. This remained the case until the 1990s when the evangelistic sector became a part of Kingdom Ministries, led by Pastor Alfie Fabe.

The Cape Town City Mission later became a powerful channel for the gospel throughout the 20th century, notably after Pat Kelly, a British missionary, started night Bible schools at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) premises in Darling Street in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie, the dynamic leader of the late 20th century, along with his wife Joan, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently.

Revival in Villiersdorp

The news of the Welsh revival at the beginning of the new century caused the Dutch Reformed Church commission to issue a call for all churches to join together to pray for South Africa. Dr Andrew Murray, together with Prof. N.J. Hofmeyr and Ds. Botha, organized a conference on revival for ministers, which was held at Stellenbosch Seminary in May 1905. The main topic was the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the church. Soon local awakenings were taking place all over the Cape Province, in both Afrikaans and English-speaking churches.

At a Christian Endeavour service in Villiersdorp on 23 July 1905, about 130 young people were suddenly gripped. Such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place that the whole company became acutely aware of the presence of God and his holiness. The Holy Spirit led them into a concern for sin, which turned into brokenness, tears and a spontaneous calling on the mercy of God. Every evening people gathered in meetings of up to three hours. The number swelled and attendance increased from 350 to 500. Sometimes a number of people could be heard praying simultaneously. Nothing else was talked about and more than a hundred villagers were converted, including the roughest and most reckless men in the district. Hundreds of nominal Christians were transformed into fearless witnesses who testified with great power, and urged their friends to respond, praying for them by name in the open meetings.

The revival transformed the local Kerk Jeug Vereniging (KJV), (Youth Church Society,) which soon became a mission band with 62 members. One of them, Karl Zimmerman, became a missionary in Nigeria. On 7 August 1905, the KJV of Villiersdorp visited Franschhoek, telling a filled church what had happened in their town. Concern and spiritual hunger developed with prayer meetings springing up in different places.

The Revival Spreads

Three months after the revival started, the minister appealed for help from his colleagues, because it was spreading. This move of the Spirit began to influence thirty other Dutch Reformed congregations, chiefly in the Western Cape, the Boland and the Eastern Province. The news of the revival in Villiersdorp nudged the Christians in the Karoo town of Prince Albert to start with prayer meetings in homes. Soon the homes were too small, so they met at the school. One Sunday evening the Holy Spirit caused a spirit of conviction to break out among people of all ages. Even the children of the parish became so concerned that they filled another hall in the village, astounding the leaders and adults with their prayers for their own salvation, their families and friends. Whole households were converted, some of them led to the Lord by their own children.

In September 1905 Rev. William M. Douglas from the Methodist Church, who had ministered powerfully in the Eastern Cape and in the Karoo, was invited to Wellington for a convention. He shared about the ministry with Albert Head, a well-known speaker from England. Dr Andrew Murray presided over the convention. A conviction settled over the gathering and soon scenes of revival surfaced as people sought salvation. A prayer meeting evolved with the two hundred people present and continued into the early hours of the morning and, led by Rev. Douglas, became the focal point of the convention.

Human Rights as Revival Seeds

Taking general human rights as revival seeds, the contribution of another giant at the Cape who straddled the centuries has to be mentioned: a female from Scotland. By the 1870s, the movement to expand education to young women had been gaining momentum in the English-speaking world. A committee in the Cape Colony was setting up the first educational establishment for women, and, on their behalf, Reverend Andrew Murray approached Georgiana Thomson in Scotland to lead it. She decided to accept the challenge, and emigrated in 1873 to South Africa. She was the inaugural principal of what is now the Good Hope Seminary High School. At the Cape she met the liberal politician, newspaper proprietor and great 19th century parliamentarian, Saul Solomon. He is known for his belief in equality among creed, colour and class. Their views tallied on many matters, not least girls' education.

The Cape was soon to play a big role indirectly in the fight for voting rights for women globally. Georgiana Solomon, as wife of Saul Solomon, became involved in this movement after their emigration to Great Britain in 1888. 1895 Julia Frances Solly, who came from England in 1890, became active in the move to secure the vote for women. From the beginning of the 20th century she concentrated on this issue after settling at Knorhoek, Sir Lowry's Pass, in 1901. As a close friend of Olive Schreiner, she was one of the chief personalities in the National Council of Women in South Africa.

In 1902 Georgiana Solomon returned to visit South Africa, where she assisted in the campaign for women's suffrage. On 16 October 1904 she co-founded the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie (South African Women's Federation) with Annie Botha, wife of the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. She maintained her involvement in South African developments from her base in London. Solomon offered hospitality to the visiting delegation led by William Schreiner who had come to London to press for equal suffrage for all races. She opposed the South Africa Act of 1909, which limited the franchise (unlike the Cape qualified franchise), which is when she came to know Gandhi. She opposed the Natives Land Act, 1913, thinking the colour bar 'un-British'.

St Monica’s Maternity Home Established

The 1914 Anglican Diocesan Mission Board report to their synod mentioned the establishment of a ‘temporary shelter for women and girls returning to the Christian faith, or who desire to become Christians, but are without Christian friends and relations with whom to take shelter.’

In January 1917 Miss Frances Edwina Shepherd suggested to the Muslim Mission Committee of the Diocesan Mission Board (DMB) that she could begin training suitable ‘Coloured’ females as midwives. She had already instructed several women when they had accompanied her to deliveries. She approached Dr Murray, the Secretary of the Western Cape branch of the Medical Association, in order to get this instruction recognised. He stressed that training should ideally take place in a Maternity Home. A committee was set up by the DMB under the chairmanship of the Rev. Canon S. W. Lavis. They recommended the setting up of a training institution for ‘Coloured’ midwives. This was approved by the DMB, and Garth House at 108 Buitengracht Street was opened on 1 April 1917, relocated later to Bree Street as St Monica's Maternity Home.

Chapter 2

POLITICAL, EVANGELICAL, AND PENTECOSTAL DEVELOPMENTS

The run-up to the South African War (1899 -1902) and its aftermath had many spiritual ramifications, both in the expansion of the Gospel and ambivalently also as a curb to its spread. The imperialist greed displayed by Cape Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes was a major cause of the war. Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer epitomising the very opposite of greed, had a profound influence in South Africa.

A Giant Pioneer for Justice, Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of India’s non-violent independence movement. As a lawyer, he advocated against British rule, and in South Africa for the civil rights of Indians at the turn of the century.

A seminal moment for Gandhi was when, on June 7, 1893, during a train trip to Pretoria, South Africa, a man objected to Gandhi’s presence in the first-class railway compartment, even though Ghandi had a ticket. When he refused to move to the back of the train, Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown from the train in Pietermaritzburg.

Gandhi’s act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to