The History of Bishopstowe
John William Colenso was consecrated Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Natal in 1853, and two weeks later sailed to South Africa for his tour of inspection of his future home, Natal. He recorded this visit in an informative account ‘Ten Weeks in Natal’ (1854). He and his family lived in Natal from 1855, settling his family and members of the mission in buildings hastily erected at Bishopstowe, the mission station being called Ekukanyeni (Place of Light), some 15 km east of Pietermaritzburg. Here Colenso erected first a simple rectangular thatched wattle and daub cottage to which was added a series of out buildings. The house was extended in the picturesque style. The mission church was a decorative wooden structure. Colenso lived at Bishopstowe until his death in 1883. The house was destroyed by a veldt fire the following year, 1884, the family salvaging what they could and moving to a nearby farm building several hundred yards away. In 1899/1900 a simple brick and iron house was built on the same foundations of the old house by Colenso’s two surviving daughters, Harriette and Agnes, thus retaining Bishop Colenso’s favourite view of Table Mountain which he had called his altar. It remained the family home until 1910, and still survives.
The nature of the new Diocese of Natal had been perceived as mission orientated by Bishop Gray of Cape Town and indeed, the Zulus in Natal immediately became Colenso’s prime concern, earning him the nickname ‘Sobantu’ (‘friend of the people’); two further mission stations were erected during Colenso’s time, at Umlazi near Durban, and at KwaMagwaza near Melmoth. Colenso’s views on several aspects of Anglican doctrine were controversial and caused the Natal Anglicans, and eventually the South African Anglicans, to split into two camps, giving rise to the Church of the Province of South Africa (Bishop Gray), and the Church of England (Bishop Colenso). Colenso remained the Anglican Bishop of Natal until his death, and the cathedral church of St Peter’s in Pietermaritzburg remained his official church (he is buried in front of the altar); Bishop Kenneth Macrorie was ordained Bishop of Maritzburg in 1868, a Bishop Gray appointee, alongside Colenso. The two Bishops both lived in and near Pietermaritzburg for some years.
Early life and education
Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on 24 January 1814 the son of John William Colenso and Mary Ann Blackmore. His surname is Cornish and possibly originates from Colenso in the parish of St Hilary, near Penzance in West Cornwall. It is a place name from the Cornish language Kelyn dhu, meaning “dark hollies”. His father (John William Colenso) invested his capital into a mineral works in Pentewan, Cornwall, but the speculation proved to be ruinous when the investment was lost following a sea flood. His cousin William Colenso was a missionary in New Zealand.
Family financial problems meant that Colenso had to take a job as an usher in a private school before he could attend university. These earnings and a loan of £30 raised by his relatives paid for his first year at St John’s College, Cambridge where he was a sizar. Showing talent in mathematics, in 1836 he was Second Wrangler and Smith’s Prizeman at the University of Cambridge, and in 1837 he became fellow of St John’s.[1] Two years later he went to Harrow School as mathematical tutor, but the step proved an unfortunate one. The school was at its lowest ebb, and Colenso not only had few pupils, but lost most of his property in a fire. He returned to Cambridge burdened by an enormous debt of £5,000. However, within a relatively short period he paid off this debt by diligent tutoring and the sale to Longmans of his copyright interest in the highly successful and widely read manuals he had written on algebra (in 1841) and arithmetic (in 1843).
Life in Africa
Colenso was a significant figure in the history of the published word in 19th-century South Africa. He first wrote a short but vivid account of his initial journeying in Natal, Ten Weeks in Natal: A Journal of a First Tour of Visitation Among the Colonists and Zulu Kaffirs of Natal. Using the printing press he brought to his missionary station at Ekukhanyeni in Natal, and with William Ngidi he published the first Zulu Grammar and English/Zulu dictionary. His 1859 journey across Zululand to visit Mpande (the then Zulu King) and meet with Cetshwayo (Mpande’s son and the Zulu King at the time of the Zulu War) was recorded in his book First Steps of the Zulu Mission. The same journey was also described in the first book written by native South Africans in Zulu – Three Native Accounts by Magema Fuze, Ndiyane and William Ngidi. He also translated the New Testament and other portions of Scripture into Zulu. Colenso’s early theological thinking was heavily influenced by F. D. Maurice to whom he was introduced by his wife and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
In 1846 he became rector of Forncett St Mary, Norfolk, and in 1853 he was recruited by the Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, to be the first Bishop of Natal.
Advocacy of native African causes
Colenso devoted the latter years of his life to further labours as a biblical commentator and as an advocate for native Africans in Natal and Zululand who had been unjustly treated by the colonial regime in Natal. In 1874 he took up the cause of Langalibalele and the Hlubi and Ngwe tribes in representations to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon. Langalibalele had been falsely accused of rebellion in 1873 and, following a charade of a trial, was found guilty and imprisoned on Robben Island. In taking the side of Langalibalele against the Colonial regime in Natal and Theophilus Shepstone, the Secretary for Native Affairs, Colenso found himself even further estranged from colonial society in Natal.
Colenso’s concern about the misleading information that was being provided to the Colonial Secretary in London by Shepstone and the Governor of Natal prompted him to devote much of the final part of his life to championing the cause of the Zulus against Boer oppression and official encroachments. He was a prominent critic of Sir Bartle Frere‘s efforts to depict the Zulu kingdom as a threat to Natal. Following the conclusion of the Anglo-Zulu War he interceded on behalf of Cetshwayo with the British government and succeeded in getting him released from Robben Island and returned to Zululand.
He was known as Sobantu (father of the people) to the native Africans in Natal and had a close relationship with members of the Zulu royal family; one of whom, Mkhungo (a son of Mpande), was taught at his school in Bishopstowe. After his death his wife and daughters continued his work supporting the Zulu cause and the organisation that eventually became the African National Congress.
Later life and death
Colenso died at Durban, South Africa, on 20 June 1883. His daughter Frances Colenso (1849–1887) published two books on the relations of the Zulus to the British (History of the Zulu War and Its Origin in 1880 and The Ruin of Zululand in 1885) that explained recent events in Zululand from a pro-Zulu perspective. His oldest daughter, Harriette Colenso (1847 – 1932), took up Colenso’s mantle as advocate for the Zulus in opposition to their treatment by the authorities appointed by Natal, especially in the case of Dinizulu in 1888–1889 and in 1908–1909.
Personal life
Colenso married Sarah Frances Bunyon in 1846, and they had five children, Harriette Emily, Frances Ellen, Robert John, Francis “Frank” Ernest, and Agnes. (In the marriage register, her name is spelt Bunyan. There had long been variations in the spelling of a surname that goes back at least to the 12th century in England and in Normandy.)Sarah’s sister Harriette McDougall was a missionary.
Source: Wikipedia