Some of the first Malawians in South Africa were missionaries, and linked to the Adventist Jospeh Booth. JG Phillipps, founded of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion Church in Johannesburg,[1] and Peter Nyambo, who established numerous churches across Malawi, Kenya and South Africa founded the Ethiopian Universal Curch in 1919 in South Africa. (Nyambo was also president of the ANC branch and general secretary of the African Universal Benefit Society in Cape Town).[2]

 

In contrast to South African-based Nyasa associations, which appear to have collapsed by the 1950s under increasingly repressive urban conditions, Malawian church groups continued to grow in strength and would last into the 1980s and beyond. The Nyasaland Church of South Africa founded by Stephen Sanguwe had its first branch founded in 1924 in Krugersdorp, followed by branches in Reetfontein in 1929, Herringklop in 1938, Noseitgedogth in 1952 and Heckfort in 1960. Whilst in 1930 the church only had 30 members, by February 1947 membership totalled 335. In March 1952 the church's headquarters moved from Mata Street, Western Native Township to White City, Jabavu, perhaps a reflection of a growing congregation, which by 1980 had reached at least 3,071 adult members, and a further 6,374 below the age of 15.[3] 

 

Perhaps more representative of Malawians' typical church-going activity in the 1950s however is the history of the United Presbyterian Church. The church was founded in the mid-1950s by Weston JG Kalanga, a Tumbuka from Bala in Mzimba. Kalanga arrived in Johannesburg in 1932 having walked from Malawi. Before founding the church Kalanga worked as a domestic servant in Rivonia and attended a local South African Presbyterian church. The Presbyterian congregation he founded initially prayed under a tree in Rivonia, with Kalanga as the first chairman, supported by Bob Kandawili, the deputy chairman, also from Mzimba, and E.R.K. Lungu, an elder member who eventually became treasurer. The congregation was mainly Malawian, but also had Xhosa and Zulu members – drawn from across Sandhurst, Bryanston, and Rivonia.[4]

 

By the late 1960s, the church had relocated to “the garage of a white man in River Club” – and it remained here until relocating to its current setting at St John the Evangelist’s Ecumenical Church, Parkmore in 1973. This ‘Garage Church’ purchased by South African Presbyterians in early 1966 under the initiative of Pat Everett, which initially formed part of the parish of Rosebank. Mrs Everett led the renovation of the newly-purchased site which contained “a rondavel-type cottage and garage on it, behind what had been a shop and garage” – land which had formerly been occupied by the guard to Benmore Farm. The address was 130 11th Street Parkmore. The ‘Garage Church’ site was initially purchased to house the local ecumenical Sunday School, but Mrs Everett saw the garage’s potential to be converted into a small chapel. This was later extended by Keith Gooch, a master builder and the industrious Mrs Everett. Growing from ecumenical roots, it was agreed that all denominations “should combine to the utmost possible extent and that there should only be one church for use by all denominations.”

 

Services were not taken by Malawians, but local Presbyterian reverends from South Africa, and Parkmore became famous as a Presbyterian church and was the hub for Malawian Presbyterians coming to Johannesburg. Members of the congregation were almost entirely domestic workers – chefs, houseboys, gardeners. Typically, they did not work in industry as apartheid was too heavy. Services were conducted in Tumbuka and drew on Livingstonia traditions, with a reverend, session clerk and elders. Just as in Malawi,[5] independent church groups provided an important space where migrants associated as Nyasas.

 

 

 

 

[1] Shepperson & Price, Independent African, (1957).

 

[2] M. Skota, African Yearly Register, (1931).

Johannesburg, 1932)

[3] NASA DGO 196 P120/4/179.

 

[4] Interview with Boy Moyo, Sandton, 11/05/2014.

 

[5] Shepperson & Price, Independent African.