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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Zambezi Mission and the Residences of Good Hope and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Old Tati |
Author: | Burrett, Rob S. |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | Botswana Notes and Records (ISSN 0525-5090) |
Volume: | 32 |
Pages: | 25-38 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs., ills., maps |
Geographic terms: | Botswana Southern Africa |
Subjects: | missions Christian orders History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History, Archaeology Catholic Church Missionaries Jesuits Tati (Botswana) history |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40980264 |
Abstract: | The present borders of the modern State of Botswana include the remains of the earliest mission station of Jesuit provinces which today continue in Zambia and Zimbabwe. This paper looks at the history of the so-called Zambezi Mission which took the Jesuits into Central Africa, in this context also paying attention to the history of the 'Residence of the Immaculate Heart of Mary' in Tati in northeast Botswana. In 1877, a Belgian Jesuit, Father Henri Depelchin, was appointed the First Superior of the new Zambezi Mission. He arrived in Tati in 1879 and decided to set in motion two additional expeditions - one eastwards to southeastern Zimbabwe, the other northwestward to eastern Zambia. In doing this Depelchin committed the Zambezi missionary enterprise to failure. By early 1880 most of the Jesuits had been relocated to nearby Gubulawayo, in 1882 Depelchin left for Europe. At the Tati mission post Father Prestage took charge and turned his hand to all manner of tasks for which he was later famed: building, cultivation, cattle breeding, etc. He remained at Tati until September 1884. In 1885 it was decided to close Tati mission. Prestage moved to what became Empandeni Mission in southern Matabeleland in 1887. In 1889, the departure of the Jesuits marks the end of the early phase of the Zambezi Mission - a phase of undoubted failure. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract] |