1747 - 1811

First Missionary among the amaXhosa

Dutch missionary Dr Johannes van der Kemp, born in the Netherlands in 1747, was the first missionary to work among the amaXhosa. His approach to his Christian message broke with missionary tradition by separating his teachings of faith from notions of European civilization.

Van der Kemp trained as a doctor in Scotland before serving as a physician in the Netherlands for 13 years. He committed himself to proselytizing Christianity after his wife and child drowned in a boating accident from which he narrowly escaped. In 1797 he joined the newly formed London Missionary Society and helped found the Netherlands Missionary Society.

Two years later the London Missionary Society sent him to South Africa. He was one of their first three missionaries to arrive in Cape Town and the first missionary to work with amaXhosa on the Eastern frontier in the Eastern Cape.

After a short period with amaXhosa, Van der Kemp turned his attention on the Khoena (Khoi) people. He integrated himself into the world of the Khoena and became a champion of their cause, taking a stand against their racial oppression, economic exploitation, the dispossession of their lands and ill treatment by white farmers.

Whites in the Eastern Cape regarded him as eccentric and he was finally ostracized by the colonial establishment, shocked at him having gone native, because of his advocacy for the Khoena (Khoi). Dr Johannes van der Kemp was almost deported and he was further ostracized when he married Sara Janse, a freed slave 45 years his junior. The couple had four children.

Dr Van der Kemp died of fever in Cape Town in 1811, while carrying out arrangements to pioneer a mission in Madagascar.