Memories of Mashonaland - G.W.H. Knight-Bruce

Educated at Eton and Oxford, Bishop Knight-Bruce was ordained in 1876. He ministered in the London slums of Bethnal Green before being consecrated Bishop of Bloemfontein in 1886. Two years later, having obtained Lobengulas permission, he walked to the Zambesi River and covered some 1,500 miles visiting chiefs throughout Mashonaland and inviting them to accept teachers. He gained a wide personal experience of the ways of the African people.

His work is especially informative on the domestic life, religious beliefs, customs and character of the Mashona people and their subjugation by the Gaza and Matabele. He refers to other missionary bodies in the field, among them the Dutch Reformed Church and the Americans, and outlines the attitudes of the British South Africa Company and the British public towards missions. He believed that christianising the natives prepared them to face the world of European immigration and he justified his conviction by citing the example of Khama who successfully stood up to Lobengula but who `dreaded the white mans drink more than the assegais of the Matabele.

After the arrival of the Pioneer Column his ministry was extended to the new white settlements, and in 1891 he became first Bishop of the new See of Mashonaland. He served as chaplain to the Column which marched on Lobengula in 1893 - an event which he describes in detail.