A historical survey of a failed medical venture? The attempts of the London Missionary Society (LMS) to establish a mission hospital in Sefhare 1934-1952

Abstract

Using primary sources from the Botswana National Archives (BNARS) as well as secondary material, this article argues that the efforts to establish mission hospitals in Africa in general and in Sefhare in the Batswapong district of Botswana in particular were designed to provide the much-needed medical services in mission areas of operation as exemplified by the Batswapong area. Secondly, the article argues that mission endeavours to achieve such noble goals were not without challenges and that, often, such good intentions failed to produce the intended results. Thirdly, the article argues that the establishment of the Sefhare Mission Hospital was a way of competing with other mission bodies in the country so that the London Missionary Society (LMS) should not be misconstrued as being passive in the provision of medical services. Lastly, the article argues that the LMS’s failed venture to achieve its goal of a successful mission hospital was on account of unsound financial capabilities and that it was trying, as it were, to live beyond its means in order to stay in the competition with other mission bodies.