RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Africa
carried on by the London Missionary Society, which extended its work to this territory in 1862, and by the Hennannsburg Missionary Society of Germany, which entered the territory in 1864. It is difficult to obtain the exact statistics of either of these societies, since the mission reports of both cover land beyond the borders of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. It is estimated, however, that the number of their adherents is not far from 12,000.
British East Africa Protectorate: A territory under British control in the eastern part of Africa, including coast lands ten miles wide nominally belonging to Zanzibar. The protectorate extends inland to the borders of Uganda. Area about 200,000 sq. miles. While the coast regions are on the whole not healthful, there is a broad belt of highland 300 miles back from the coast which is most suitable for European habitation; and it was upon this belt of highland that the British government invited the Hebrew Zionists to establish a colony. A railway has been constructed from Mombasa to Kisumu on the Victoria Nyanza. The population is estimated at 4,000,000, of whom 500 are Europeans and about 25,000 Hindus, Chinese, Goanese, and other Asiatics. Many Arabs are found in the coast districts, especially in the northern part of the territory; and with them are the mixed race called by the Arabs Suahili (" coast people ")• Inland the larger part of the population is of the Bantu race; but there are some powerful tribes like the Masai and Nandi who are of Nilotic stock. In the northern part of the country Gallas and Somalis are found. The capital, Mombasa, has had a checkered history. It was founded by the Arabs, who were in possession when the Portuguese arrived in 1498. The Portuguese continued in power with various vicissitudes until their colony was destroyed 200 years later by the Arabs. The actual British acquisition of this territory dates from 1886 to 1890.
Roman Catholic missions were established on this coast by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century, the stations being treated as an outlying district of the ecclesiastical province of Goa on the west coast of India. The missions followed the fortunes of the Portuguese occupation. They were reestablished in 1860 at Zanzibar. Protestant missions began with the arrival of Johann Ludwig Krapf, of the Church Missionary Society, in 1844. They were followed by the United Methodist Free Church in 1861, the Leipsic Missionary Society in 1886, the Neukirchen Missionary Institute in 1887, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission of North America in 1892, and the African Inland Mission, an American enterprise, in 1895. The Church of Scotland Foreign Missions Committee is preparing to enter the country also. All of these societies together report 172 missionaries, 92 stations and outstations with schools and hospitals, and about 11,000 adherents. The languages of the tribes of this territory differ greatly from each other; and several versions of the Bible will have to be prepared for them. A beginning has been made in translating the Gospels into the Suahili, Nandi, Masai, Somali, and Galla languages.
The islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, lying off the coast of German East Africa, politically belong I.-5
to this territory. Area of the two islands 1,020 sq. miles; population 200,000, including 10,000 East Indians and about 200 Europeans. Zanzibar has played an important part in the history of East and Central Africa since the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the region was occupied by Arabs of Muscat. It became a great center of African trade, including the slave-trade. The domains of the Sultan of Zanzibar extended along the whole coast from Mozambique nearly to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century the influence of Great Britain has been gradually increasing, and so leading up to the present protectorate. Germany obtained the southern part of the possessions of Zanzibar on the mainland; Italy bought in 1905 its possession on the Somali coast; and a strip ten miles wide on the coast of British East Africa alone remains to the sultan of all his domains on the mainland, he himself being under the tutelage of a British official. Zanzibar is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, with missions conducted by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, in both islands and on the mainland. The mission has about 3,500 adherents. There are ten stations. Schools and hospitals, conducted by Roman Catholic sisters, have been built in the city of Zanzibar. Protestant missions are represented by the Universities Mission which, after abandoning the Shire1 country in 1861, moved its headquarters to the city of Zanzibar. Here Bishops William George Tozer, Edward Steere, and Charles Alan Smythies prepared the way for advance into the interior. The mission has a very fine cathedral and hospitals and schools in the island of Zanzibar, besides a fine of stations on the mainland in German East Africa, which extends to Lake Nyassa. What has already been said of versions of the Bible in British East Africa applies to Zanzibar also. The city of Zanzibar itself is a Babel of all African nations and tribes.
Cape Colony: A British colony occupying the southern part of the African continent; bounded on the north by German Southwest Africa, Bechuanaland, the Orange River Colony, Basutoland, and Natal. The colony was founded by the Dutch in 1652, was taken by the British in 1796, was again given up to Holland in 1803, was reoccupied by the British in 1806, and, finally, was ceded to Great Britain in 1814. Area (1904), including native states and Walfisch Bay on the coast of German Southwest Africa, 276,995 sq. miles; population (1904) 2,405,552, of whom 580,380 are white, and 1,825,172 are colored. Of the colored population about 250,000 are a mixture of various races; 15,000 are Malays; and the rest are Hottentots, Kafirs, Fingoes, Bechuanas, etc. About 1,118,000 of the population are Protestants; 23,000 are Roman Catholics; 20,000 are Mohammedans; 4,000 are Jews; while 1,226,000 are pagans. Roman Catholic missions were represented in the colony before the English occupation, by two priests residing in Cape Town. In 1806, when the British captured the colony, these priests were expelled. Sixteen years later two priests were again stationed at Cape Town, without liberty, however, to go into the surrounding country. The existing
Africa