1738
Mission station at Baviaanskloof is established
In 1738, Georg Schmidt established a Moravian mission at Baviaanskloof in the Overberg, where Khoikhoi residents received religious instruction and learned reading and farming practices.
View in timelineAfter arriving at the Cape in 1737, Georg Schmidt moved into the Overberg and established a Moravian station at Baviaanskloof in 1738. He built a small resident community, taught Khoikhoi people to read religious texts, provided Christian instruction and encouraged cultivation. The station's work depended on relationships with local residents and on negotiation with colonial officials and the Dutch Reformed clergy.
Significance
The station created an early centre of Khoikhoi literacy and Christian practice and became the setting for the dispute over Schmidt's authority to baptise converts.
Why it matters
The station became an early centre of Khoikhoi literacy, Christian practice and agricultural experimentation, and a site where Moravian and Dutch Reformed authority came into conflict.
Disputed interpretations
Sources vary slightly between 1737 and 1738 for the beginning of settled mission activity.
Perspective notes
Mission records describe instruction, settlement and conversion from the Moravian perspective. Khoikhoi residents made their own decisions about residence, learning and baptism, but their voices are only partially preserved in the surviving records.