From Private Journal to Published Periodical: Gendered Writings and Readings of a Late Victorian Wesleyan's "African Wilderness"

In the winter of 1891 a small party of men embarked on an expedition that would stretch the influence of Wesleyan Methodist Christianity far across the northern boundary of the Transvaal into a "Mashonaland" recently occupied by Cecil John Rhodes's chartered company.¹ The leader of the group was Owen Watkins, Chairman of the Transvaal Synod of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. This would be the last of his many journeys through the interior of southern Africa.² He was accompanied by Hugh Shimmin, another British Wesleyan minister stationed in the Transvaal, and by Michael Bowen, an African Wesleyan evangelist, whose name appears in later sources (he was ordained in Johannesburg eight years later) as Michael Boweni.³ There was also the driver of the wagon, John Peters (described as a "good, reliable native") and the voorloper,⁴ John Walters ("a Cape half-caste" and "a willing, active man").⁵

In several successive episodes, the preparations for the journey, the expedition itself, and the establishment of a mission station in Mashonaland were reported in Wesleyan Missionary Notices (hereafter WMN), the periodical through which the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society had been reporting to their supporters in Britain since 1816. Shimmin initiated the missionary society's negotiations with Rhodes,⁶ but Watkins, who had been a familiar and popular face with missionary supporters in London, wrote most of the reportage on the journey published in WMN. In 1893 one of the editors of WMN compiled Watkins's and Shimmin's correspondence up to that date in book form.⁷ Since Shimmin had remained behind in Mashonaland to see through the founding of the mission with Bowen, his letters cover the latter part of the book. While Bowen, described by Watkins as a "bright, happy Christian" "who speaks several languages,"⁸ was portrayed in pictures in WMN, no travel writing by him was included in Wesleyan publications for British readers.

We do not know whether Shimmin and Bowen had written to their wives while on the journey to Mashonaland (we cannot presume that Peters and Walters were married or literate). However, Watkins's collection of private correspondence, which is in the Cory Library at the University of Grahamstown, South Africa, contains not only letters to his wife and fellow Wesleyan ministers, but also a set of letters written by his wife, Mary Watkins. The prize item in this collection is a manuscript on Watkins's Mashonaland journey, in his own handwriting and marked by himself as his "private journal"—" for the use only of my dear ones."⁹

The following excerpts from Watkins's private journal and the report that appeared in WMN highlight many significant differences between the two versions (some are alluded to in square brackets). Equally important, however, is the similarity in the basic structure of both compositions:

Private journal:

Tuesday 14th July 1891. This is a great day in the history of Wesleyan missions in Africa. My dream of years is fulfilled, & we have crossed the Limpopo, & taken possession of the regions beyond in the name of Christ & Methodism.

I got my first sight of the river where it forms the northern boundary of the Transvaal, this morning about 7C. The river is about 150 yards wide, with very high banks covered with great trees & beautiful tropical plants & creepers. The place we cross is Rhode's Drift—& they have cut down great trees 9&12 feet round to make a passage through the Bush on both sides, down to the river.

My heart was too full for words as I gazed upon this noble river, with its visions of beauty, as it went on its winding way towards the Indian Ocean, & I thanked God I have lived to see this day. I feel Methodism can never go back, after we have once entered this land.¹⁰

Published version in WMN:

Tuesday, 14th July. This is a great day in the history of Wesleyan missions in Africa. We have crossed the Limpopo, and have taken possession of the regions beyond in the name of Christ...