The battle for Sunday: Missionary work and the Basotho in the gold mine compounds, 1920-1940

Abstract

Missionary and evangelical work among the Africans in the mine compounds took place on Sundays, Good Friday, Boxing, Christmas and New Year's days, when African mine workers in the compounds were allowed a whole day's rest. Attempts by missionaries to have workers come to their religious services on these days, had to face competition from other leisure options that the workers had. This study is going to focus on the activities of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) among the Basotho in the mine compounds. It will attempt to go beyond looking at religion and the working class simply in terms of the role that the church played in instilling workers with an industrial ethic; there is a need to also look at the dynamics of proselytisation and conversion in the compounds, and the importance that religion had for the miners.