Contested Religious and Cultural Issues

This article discusses the encounter between the missionaries of the Glasgow Missionary Society (Free Church of Scotland, hence Presbyterians), and the Wesleyans (Methodists) in the nineteenth century and the AmaXhosa in the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony. It specifically highlights the AmaXhosa’s contestations of some European Christian teachings, cultural values, and a way of life, which the Presbyterian and Wesleyan missionaries tried to impose on them in the process of ‘Christianizing’ and ‘civilizing’ them. The study illustrates that contrary to the commonly held conception that the Xhosa readily embraced the gospel, conversion to Christianity was a long and drawn-out process that entailed contestations and resistance on many levels and in many forms.