Botshabelo, Mpumalanga
The BMS focused on providing schooling and bringing the gospel to people in their own language. Hence the Society’s missionaries were often at the forefront of publishing Bible translations, dictionaries and grammars in indigenous languages. It was as part of this process that Africans, duly trained and sometimes salaried, were accepted into the Society as teachers, catechists and lay-preachers, the so-called Nationalhelferen or national helpers.
One of these was one Jan Sekoto who was sent for further training in Germany. Returning earlier than anticipated, however, he took up a teaching post at Botshabelo. Sekoto’s son Gerard Sekoto, born at Botshabelo in 1913, would later emigrate to Europe, obtaining French citizenship and achieving considerable renown as an artist.
Besides the vestiges of the past, today Botshabelo is a living museum for the Ndebele architecture. Unfortunately, differing opinions on how to manage the site, combined with a lack of resources and expertise, have led to a gradual degradation of a very important historical site and tourist attraction. |other_versions=
Ndebele architecture of Cultural Village
Botshabelo, Middelburg
Notable people
References
- ^ The Berlin Missionary Society
- ^ Van der Merwe, Werner The Berlin Missionary Society
- ^ Zöllner, Linda; Heese, J.A. (1984). The Berlin Missionaries in South Africa and their Descendants. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, Institute for Historial Research. p. 466.
- ^ Heese, Hans Friedrich The Berlin Mission Society and Black Europeans: The cases of Klaus Kuhn, Jan Sekoto and Gerard Sekoto Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ John Peffer.Art and the end of apartheid.1991.University of Virginia Press.p.2.
- ^ Heese, Hans Friedrich The Berlin Mission Society and Black Europeans: The cases of Klaus Kuhn, Jan Sekoto and Gerard Sekoto Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sutton, Maddie (16 June 2023). "The sad beauty of Botshabelo". Middelburg Observer. Archived from the original on 17 June 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
External links
Media related to Botshabelo, Middelburg at Wikimedia Commons