| dc.description.abstract | ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The decision to undertake this study was taken in response to a long-felt
and often expressed need for producing a systematic and comprehensive history of the Synod of Nkhoma and of the Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa in Malawi out of whose work it has grown. Although a number of earlier publications have appeared, these deal mainly with the work of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission as such, cover only the
earlier years of the history of the Mission, are written in a more popular style, and are all written in either Dutch or in Afrikaans, except one translated work, a biography. 1) Otherwise, very little has to date
appeared in English on this Church, with the result that in its own country, Malawi, historians and others interested in its history have very little to go by. The problem is aggravated by the fact that in virtue of the Dutch Reformed Church being an Afrikaans-speaking Church, by far the most of the archival materials, i.e. correspondence, reports, minutes of Home Committees and of the Mission Council and other publications are written in Afrikaans or, initially, Dutch. Again, the Nkhoma Synod's own source materials, i.e. minutes of Church courts, correspondence and other documents are mostly written in Chewa, which is its official
language. | en_ZA |
