Interdenominational schooling and social transformation: The Lemana Training Institution (1906-1968)

Abstract

This article explores what prompted Swiss clerics to establish schools within their mission fields in South Africa. Missionaries regarded education as the main catalyst for social transformation and were aware that social change would occur only if the Missions co-operated. Interdenominationalism was therefore embraced by the Swiss Mission in the former Transvaal Province. The educational and religious influence of the Swiss missionaries spread to the entire South Africa, which meant that the native population of the former British colonies of Natal and the Cape as well as the Boer Republics benefited from their educational endeavours at Lemana Training Institution (1906). After the South African War both the Boer Republics (Transvaal and the Orange Free State) lost their independence and became British Colonies. Subsequently, in 1910, they became provinces of the Union of South Africa together with the Cape Province and Natal. Under the new political dispensation established in 1994 the four provinces have increased to nine.