On the Day November 21 1866

On the Day November 21 1866

Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress Translated into Xhosa

Khen Lim





Reverend Tiyo Soga (Image source: cslewisinstitute.org)

Sometimes the unlikeliest person no one would ever imagine using would end up being the perfect soldier in Christ. Many a times, we have seen in Christendom that God would choose the weakest, the least powerful or those who are dismissed or mocked to go on to do great things. 

This is the story of one such man whose skills did not allow him to teach and yet in the depth of his humiliation, he became South Africa’s first black pastor who also went on to translate the Bible and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress into his native Xhosa language.

Born in 1829 (no actual recorded date), Tiyo Soga was raised a Christian only after her mother, Nosuthu, managed to annul her marriage to Jotello, on the grounds that she, herself a Christian, wanted a Christian upbringing for their son. With the annulment granted, Nosuthu placed Soga in the Chumie Mission where he then attended schooling under Reverend John A Chalmers.

James Stewart (Image source: University of Glasgow)

When Soga was fifteen years of age, he was offered a scholarship to attend the Lovedale Missionary Institution, located 13 kilometres from where he was attending school at that time. Lovedale was a mission station established by Scottish missionary James Stewart (1831-1905) to teach practical skills to Africans. To qualify for the scholarship, a competitive exam was available, which African applicants – often called by the derogatory term ‘kafirs’ * meaning infidels in Arabic – must pass. It was Soga’s teacher, Rev Chalmers who encouraged him to give it a shot.

The problem was that Soga wasn’t very bright when it came to mathematics. When faced with a simple question on subtraction, all he could do was stare at the blackboard. Seeing he had no answers at hand, a sympathetic examiner suggested to him, “Take away the lower line from the upper.” Encouraged, Soga thought that would solve his problem. So he wetted his thumb and wiped the bottom line to remove it! Needless to say, the scholarship offer was rescinded.

Despite his failure, his teacher, Rev Chalmers was unperturbed. For him, Soga was special. He saw in him a person with exceptional moral and spiritual qualities, someone who could do wonderful things with his future. And with that in mind, he made the special effort to go speak to Stewart and convince him of Soga’s abilities.

Soga repaid Chalmers many times over with his diligence and academic success. He not only attained second place in all his subjects bar mathematics but he was also able to flawlessly recite half of the Shorter Catechism in English complete with proofs and everything. Unfortunately, two years into his education in Lovedale, in 1846, the ‘War of the Axe’ – also known as the Seventh Xhosa War – broke out, forcing Nosuthu to seek refuge in Fort Armstrong.

With the outbreak of war, things at Lovedale came to a grinding halt. Its principal, Reverend William Govan, decided to take leave and return home to Scotland but not before he offered to take Soga along with him so that he could continue his higher education there. The offer was very attractive because Govan was willing to pay for his trip as well. 

For Nosuthu, this was an opportunity too good to not take up although that could mean they might never see each other again. But she had words of wisdom, saying, “My son belongs to God; wherever he goes, God is with him… he is as much in God’s care in Scotland as he is here with me.” And with that, Soga left home with Govan.

In Glasgow, Scotland, Soga attended the Normal School before he went further to the United Presbyterian Church College in Edinburgh where his academic life was as successful as his spiritual growth. There, under the care of the John Street Church in Glasgow, he was baptised in May 1848 when he was nineteen years of age from which point then, he centred his life and future on serving God. Through his short time in Scotland, Soga developed an empathetic understanding of the racial diversities between the blacks and the whites that would go on to serve him for the remainder of his life. 

Soga was only in Scotland for two years before he returned home to commence work as an evangelist and teacher in Chumie where he began his early education. Soon Reverend Robert Niven persuaded him to help set up a new mission station in the Amatole Mountains where he planted the Uniondale Mission in Keiskammahoek. 

With the threatening political tensions, local anti-colonialist rebels viewed the station as pro-colonial and burned it to the ground. Soga almost got himself killed in the melee as he found himself torn between the two warring sides. The rebels demanded that he sided with them just as the colonial government had sought his services as an interpreter.

Again, in the midst of political instability, Niven decided to head back to Scotland and took Soga with him so that he could pursue seminary studies at the Theological Hall in Glasgow. There he hoped to develop an acumen for reaching his fellow people to share the Gospel with and with that in mind, to convert them for Christ.

Janet Burnside (Image source: molegenealogy.blogspot.com)

On December 10 1856, Soga made history by becoming the very first black in South Africa to be ordained as a pastor at the United Presbyterian Church and then two months henceforth, on February 27 1857, at the age of twenty-eight, he was married to Janet Burnside, a Scotswoman, by Reverend John Kerr at Ibroxholme, Glasgow. In Soga’s words, Janet was “a most honourable, thrifty, frugal and devoted woman who marched heroically and faithfully by her husband’s side through all the chequered scenes of his short life.” 

Those ‘chequered scenes’ were periods in Soga’s life where he faced constant racist taunts as a ‘kafir’ and was treated as a second-class citizen by many whites he came across. And then on the other side of the divide, he was getting accused by fellow black Africans for being ‘whitewashed’ in a bid to be a ‘black Englishman.’

Shortly after they were married, Soga and Janet returned to the Eastern Cape on April 18 1857 and with Reverend Robert Johnston and his wife whom they travelled together on board the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ they established the Mgwali Mission in which he immersed himself in work among his native Ngqika people. Throughout the period there, Janet delivered each of all the eight children – five boys and three girls, with the second son, Alexander, stillborn – in England.

William Anderson Soga was the eldest, born on January 5 1858. Together with two of his brothers, John Henderson Soga (born February 10 1860) and Allan Kirkland Soga (November 20 1861), they left for their mother’s homeland in 1870, seeking education at the Dollar Academy. 

His mother took John Henderson to Scotland for treatment for his paralysis before returning to South Africa the following year but despite that, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Isabella McFarlane was born on May 10 1864 followed by Jotello Festiri Soga (named after their father’s surviving brother) in 1865, Frances Maria Anna in 1868 and two years later, on August 21, by Jessie Margaret, the youngest.

In the meantime, Soga’s health began its decline but still, he remained fruitful for the Lord by working on his translations so that his people may relate their daily experiences to them. He believed that by doing so, he could win more souls for Christ than anything else he might have done.

On this day, one-hundred and fifty years ago, in 1866, Soga completed such a translation of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (U-Hambo Iom-Hambi), a masterpiece translation in Xhosa, his native tongue that not only remains an indomitable treasure of the local church but became “the most important literary influence in nineteenth-century South Africa after the Bible.”

Apart from that, Soga had kept himself busy, interpreting the four Gospels while also sitting on the advisory board to revise the Xhosa Bible.

For his devotion to Christ, Soga ignored his failing life and doggedly carried on teaching, preaching and raising funds to build churches and various other facilities. He would use many of his days simply walking from kraal to kraal devoting them to the Gospel as he went face to face up close with godless animistic tribal chiefs.

As it turned out, his family’s history with tuberculosis combined with his punishing schedule and poor living conditions took their toll on his health. But as resolute as he was for Christ, nothing appeared to thwart him from his devotion to safe the sous of his fellow Africans. With or without tuberculosis, Soga’s love for his people gave him the courage to leave his own station and move further inland to be closer to them although it would add even greater cost on his own life.

As he neared the end of his short life, Soga opened a new mission station in Somerville (Tutura) in Transkei, after responding to an invitation by Kreli, the Gcaleka tribal chief. The sheer hard work wasn’t just challenging. For someone with his debilitating health conditions, it made things far worse for him. It was evident to him that death wasn’t far away now and with that firmly in his mind, he made his desire heard for his sons to attain their education in Scotland like him:

“For your own sakes, never appear ashamed that your father was a ‘kafir’ and that you inherit some African blood. It is every whit as good and as pure as that which flows in the veins of my fairer brethren… you will ever cherish the memory of your mother as that of an upright, conscientious, thrifty Christian Scots woman. You will ever be thankful for your connection by this tie with the white race.”

On August 12 1871, in Tutura, at a tragically young age of forty-one years, the University of Glasgow educated Reverend Tiyo Soga died of tuberculosis in the arms of fellow missionary Richard Ross. His mother, Nosuthu, was by his side. 

He left behind Janet Burnside Soga his wife and his siblings Festiri and Tause Soga. Janet did not immediately returned to Scotland. Instead she took the family back to Mgwali to join her aged mother-in-law. There, she made sure all their children would become proficient in Xhosa before they left for Scotland for their education.

For Soga himself, next to his Xhosa version of Pilgrim’s Progress, he had, by then, also successfully completed the translation of all four Gospels and had played an important part in the revision of the so-called ‘Kafir’s’ Bible.

In their father’s absence, the children carried his legacy admirably and with great honour. Three of his four sons married Scotswomen while the fourth, Allan, married Ellen Mba from Kentani in 1923. 

William Anderson (1858-1916), his eldest, graduated from Glasgow University as a fully qualified medical practitioner and then went on to attend the United Presbyterian Church Divinity Hall to be ordained as a missionary in 1885 before returning home to establish the Miller Mission in Bomvanaland. There he served faithfully as a medical missionary until 1903 when he decided to go into private practice.

John Henderson Soga (Image source: University of Pretoria)

The second, John Henderson (1860-1941), like their father, also became a missionary. He went on to establish a mission in Mbonda, near Mount Frere, and then succeeded his elder brother at Miller Mission. He was also an accomplished cultural author in his own right. 

Allan Kirkland Soga (Image source: The Journalist)

The third, Allan Kirkland (1861-1938) took up Law and Humanities at Glasgow University and on returning home, became an assistant resident magistrate in the Transkei before eventually settling down as a newspaper editor.

Jotello Festiri Soga (1865-1906) took to veterinary science, studying at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College in Edinburgh to become the first ever South African vet surgeon. After returning home, he collaborated with David Hutcheon to fight the rinderpest, a viral disease afflicting cattle including antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. Later in his life, he cofounded the Cape Veterinary Association.

Frances Maria Anna Soga (1868-1942) worked at a mission in South Africa and became actively involved in both the Girls Association as secretary and then the Women’s Manyano. Qualified as a music teacher, Jessie Margaret (1870-1954) taught music privately in Glasgow and never returned home. Unfortunately, little is known of Isabella McFarlane except that she could be involved in the Cunningham Mission where she eventually passed away in Transkei in 1884.

Image source: remembered.co.za

Despite his early humble academic beginnings, Tiyo Soga is today considered by many as Africa’s first major modern intellectual as well as one of Christianity’s first leader to strive earnestly for freedom and equality among local blacks. 

Some of Soga’s literary works, while not exact very prolific, are memorable such as one of his hymns in which he prided his Xhosa heritage by borrowing the lyrics of Ntsikana’s (c1760-1821) ‘Great Hymn.’ The Xhosa tribal chief Ntsikana achieved fame and importance by being the first significant African Christian convert. In the ‘Great Hymn,’ he praised God as Creator and Redeemer.

* This was the word commonly used at that time; however, Kafir is from an Arabic word meaning “infidel” and is offensive to South Africans.

Reference sources:

Cousins, Henry Thomas (1899). From Kafir Kraal to Pulpit: The Story of Tiyo Soga. (London: S.W. Partridge). Available at https://antiquarianauctions.com/lots/from-kafir-kraal-to-pulpit-the-story-of-tiyo-soga

Williams, Donovan (Jan 1978). Umfundisi: A Biography of Tiyo Soga, 1829-1871. (Lovedale: Lovedale Press). Available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Umfundisi-biography-Tiyo-Soga-1829-1871/dp/0869860429

Soga Tiyo. Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB). Available at http://www.dacb.org/stories/southafrica/soga5_tiyo.html

Tiyo Soga (1829-1871). The Presidency – Republic of South Africa. Available at http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7828

Janet Burnside Soga. South African History Online (Available at http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/janet-burnside-soga)