Knowing all the names: The Ebenezer Congregational Church and the creation of community among the coloured population of Johannesburg 1894-1939
Date
1991-08
Authors
Dugmore, Harry
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Abstract
This paper examines the establishment, growth and influence of the
Ebenezer Congregational Church in Johannesburg, over a period of
almost Fifty years. Although not the largest Coloured congregation
in Johannesburg, Ebenezer played a particular and significant
role in lives of the Reef's early Coloured population. A later
denominational history recalled proudly that Ebenezer became "the
largest [single] Church in the Union, and probably the largest
single organisation of its kind in South Africa, and, maybe, in the
world". From an initial membership of 26 in 1894, the church
grew, by the 1930s, to 5O0O confirmed members, and many more "adherents"
and Sunday school scholars. Lacking the resources of the large
European denominations, Ebenezer nonetheless came to be regarded, in
the words of a latter-day devotee: "the church of the Coloured
people". "Everybody knows", the member continued, "that what the
Ebenezer church did for Coloured people on the Reef no other church
has ever done." An analysis of the Ebenezer Congregational Church
reveals a good deal about how "community" came to be constituted
among Johannesburg's Coloured population before the Second World
War. This in turn helps to contextualise the particular political
responses of the Coloured community on the Reef in this period, which is a major concern of the broader study of which this paper is a part.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August, 1991
Keywords
Ebenezer Congregation Church (Johannesburg, South Africa). History, Colored people (South Africa). South Africa. Johannesburg. Social life and customs, Colored people (South Africa). South Africa. Johannesburg Church History