Lubwa Mission

From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia

Lubwa Mission, located in Chinsali District in Muchinga province of Zambia, is a Christian mission established in the early 20th century by the United Church of Zambia (Church of Scotland). The mission was dedicated to providing education, healthcare, and spiritual guidance to the local community. The provision of education was a major method of evangelisation.

Lubwa Mission in Chinsali. Source: ZNBC

History

Education

The mission also operated a vocational training center, which offers courses in practical skills such as carpentry, tailoring, and other trades. By 1967 Lubwa Church had been fully Africanised. It had also relinquished its role in health care and education.

Approach

Lubwa Mission used literacy and intellectual agreement with the contents of the catechism as criteria for admission to church membership. New members were incorporated into the structure of the Mission as teachers, evangelists, catechists, or paid employees of the Mission. The converts were initially mainly young men, exhibiting a westernized style of life (use of language, food habits, clothing, house building, hygiene, child-rearing, relationship with their spouses).[1]

Politics

In the 1940s Lubwa missionaries came under criticism by young mission teachers, who established a Chinsali Branch of the Northern Rhodesia African National Congress at Lubwa. The church was used as a base for the ANC to mobilise political support in Chinsali District.

Also, Lubwa Mission was very important in the area of nationalisation. Its first African minister was David Kaunda, and this was where his son Kenneth Kaunda was born and begun his career. Kaunda was later dismissed from his teaching job and moved to Lusaka to focus on his political career.

Prominent people at Lubwa

Some of the prominent people who went to Lubwa Mission include:

References