Greetings from

The Moravian Church

The first missionary in India, Ziegenbalg, while travelling on a ship of the Dutch-East-Indian Company back home to Germany had to halfway through his journey spend several weeks at the Cape where he witnessed the Dutch settlers’ treatment of the Khoi people (“Hottentot”) as lesser beings. Count Zinzendorf had heard about this situation at the Cape and wanted to send a gospel bringer to the Khoi.

In the year 1737, a young man from Herrnhut, named Georg Schmidt who as a result of his protestant faith had previously spent six years in prison in the Catholic region of Austria where he was sentenced to hard labour and had to build fortresses, came to South Africa. Thus, the Moravian Church were the first missionaries amongst the indigenous people of South Africa.

When he arrived at the Cape, he found Khoi families scattered around Baviaanskloof. He gathered them and started his work. For Georg reading the Bible was essential to understanding the meaning of the gospel.