In the Light of His Word - Southern Appalachian Cooperative ...

In the Light of

His Word

Volume 1

1958 - 1963

A Memoir of the Buddy and Jean Albright Family

Written by Ray Albright

IN THE LIGHT OF HIS WORD: VOLUME 1 1958-1963 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by: Ray Albright, Ph.D. August, 2006 Revised Edition: October, 2008 Subject: An account of the Buddy and Jean Albright family in Africa and years of service as Southern Baptist missionaries. This is the first volume of these memoirs, covering 1958 to 1963. Document Properties

Application: Microsoft Office Word Date Created: May 18, 2004 Date Publicly Released: November 28, 2006 Last Save Date: November 14, 2008 Last Print Date: November 14, 2008 Number of Pages: 225 Number of Lines: 7328 Number of Words: 90242

Cover Image: 1958. Left to Right: Rodney, Jean, Ray, Buddy, Max Albright Copyright © 2006. This book reserves all rights. It cannot be wholly or partially reproduced by any form or means without the expressed permission from Buddy, Jean, Max, Rod or Ray Albright. Direct all inquiries to Ray Albright, [email protected] The Albright Story website is http://www.freewebs.com/albrightstory

http://cesu.utk.edu/

In the Light of His Word Volume 1 1958 – 1963

TABLE OF CONTENTS Number of Pages Prelude Section 1: At the Ship’s Rail 1-10 Section 2: Settling In 11-27 Section 3: Dual Society 28-35 Section 4: Trouble and Trials Set In 36-49 Section 5: The Pioneers 50-64 Section 6: Big Water Land 65-81 Section 7: In Limbo in Limbe 82-103 Section 8: Move to Lilongwe 104-128 Section 9: Foundations To Build On 129-153 Section 10: A Clear Vision 154-178 Section11: First Furlough 179-206 Index 208-215

In the Light of His Word Volume 1 1958 – 1963

LIST OF MAPS

Page Map No. Map Title 7 Map 1-1 Route of SS African Enterprise from Brooklyn Beira. 1958

11 Map 2-1 Southern Africa with Federation in Red. 1958

19 Map 2-2 Locations of Southern Baptist mission stations in Southern Rhodesia.

1958 53 Map 5-1 Route from Salisbury, Rhodesia to Blantyre – Limbe, Nyasaland. 1959.

66 Map 6-1 Nyasaland base map with major towns.

67 Map 6-2 General elevation of Malawi (and old Nyasaland). 1979.

88 Map 7-1 Senga Bay at Lake Nyasa showing locations of key areas mentioned in

Volume One. 104 Map 8-1 European colonization of Africa by 1939.

110 Map 8-2 Road map of southern and central Nyasaland. Early 1960s.

133 Map 9-1 Street map of Lilongwe, Malawi in early 1960s.

199 Map 11-1 Route from Phoenix to Lilongwe. 1963.

Volume 1 – Section 1

Prelude Family memoirs rarely make the national best sellers’ list. And why is that? It is simply

because a memoir is a history book. A history book of a family. Oh yes, it can be a book of intense drama, stirring emotion, and astute philosophy, but it is mostly of events, places, people, and time. And, such is this book. This is the history of the Buddy and Jean Albright family from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, a Southern Baptist missionary family in south central Africa.

The memoirs are divided into a series of four volumes. Each term of service in Africa is set

into its own volume. This is the first volume of the series covering the years of 1958 to 1963. Before the reader becomes acquainted with the Albright family, these points must be said:

• This book is not about Africa, although it is about some Africans, their African culture and African landmarks;

• This book is not about Christianity, although it is about some Christians, about Christian practices and Christian beliefs; and

• This book is not about Southern Baptist missions, although it is about some Southern Baptist missionary families, Southern Baptist programs and Southern Baptist mission work.

Page iii

• This book is about a real family and the triumphs, the trials and the travels that this family experienced.

For more complete depictions of Africa, Christianity, and Southern Baptist missions, the

reader is asked to refer to other more definitive works than can be expressed through this book. This book represents a narrow slice of time. A few snapshots of the past. A small corner of

the world. The personal memories of a part of Africa, now very different yet never really changed.

These are my memories mostly; the memories of the youngest child of the family, the

memories of my first eighteen years of life. There are also the memories shared by my parents and two brothers. Their accounts and stories are told here as well. But, it is my memories that fill the gaps.

The strength in this book is based on more than just family memories. It is based on

hundreds of family letters written during this 20 year period. It is also based on many hours of tape recordings made in the early 1960s. It was these three sources are what drove me to write

this book. I had to bring the letters, the tapes, and my family’s memories together into a book before the opportunity passed by.

I wrote this book for my descendants, for their enjoyment and edification. I wrote this book for my wife and sons, to share the story of my early life. I wrote this book for my parents and brothers, to show honor and appreciation. Volume One begins in late October, 1958 as the Albright family arrives on the coast of

Africa. The volume ends on the same coast about five years later, as the Albright’s return from their first furlough. This volume paints a picture of a young American family that strives to adapt to Africa, mission rules, language school, illnesses and political conflicts. Frustration and discontent almost ends the fledgling mission career, but an eleventh hour event sets a new light and new vision. For this volume, 226 letters were read, fourteen tapes were annotated, and 28 other references were used to build the content.

This volume of memoirs can also be found at: http://www.freewebs.com/albrightstory

A table of latitude and longitude coordinates for key features in Volume Two is provided for

the reader’s reference (Table A). The coordinates can be inserted as a location into a mapping application with global positioning capabilities (i.e. Google Earth). I greatly appreciate Aunt Eunice Harvey’s help in finding the coordinates for the mission houses in ‘Salisbury’.

Now, let’s step back in time to a world of colonial empires, propeller driven airplanes, black

and white TV, typewriters, Cold War tensions, hula hoops, three billion people, and Eisenhower as US President. Let’s step back to 1958.

Ray Albright

The Goat Keeper

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Hymn of Trust and Obey. Words by John H. Sammis. Music by Daniel B. Towner

Page iv

Page v

Table A. Latitude and Longitude Coordinates (Decimal Degree) for Key Locations in Volume One. Location Latitude (DD) Longitude (DD)

SOUTHERN RHODESIA Salisbury ( center) -17.829502 31.052121 Waterfalls Rental House Mission Houses (4th Avenue) -17.896006 31.025917 Flemming Ward, General Hospital -17.815172 31.043815 Quarry compound -17.820463 30.980537 Lochinvar compound -17.870394 30.988019 Lake McIlwain Camp -17.912449 30.789981

NYASALAND Limbe -15.806274 35.057330 Limbe Flat -15.804763 35.047210 Blantyre -15.795896 35.017600 Chileka Airport -15.678861 34.972509 Zomba -15.402435 35.324939 Chiradzulu (main PIM church) -15.700089 35.143696 Dedza -14.385756 34.333757 Ncheu -14.815188 34.633284 Salima -13.779953 34.454248 Grand Beach Hotel -13.720242 34.626856 Assembly of God Cabin Lilongwe (center) -13.987229 33.768323 First Rental House -14.001768 33.760817 Second Rental House -13.997350 33.761453 Third Rental House -13.995194 33.762096 Fourth Rental House -13.996365 33.759711 Laws Avenue Mission House -13.985975 33.761675 Office (original site) -14.001348 33.782266 Bishop MacKenzie School -14.003493 33.761311 European Hospital -13.993652 33.757537 Theater / Movie House -13.989403 33.770665 Open Air Market -13.993035 33.777762 Airport -13.964343 33.697930

NORTHERN RHODESIA Nyimba -14.559066 30.820419 Kachalola -14.761632 30.596514 Lusaka -15.416288 28.281501 South Luangwa Game Reserve -13.006 31.567 Big Lagoon -12.830216 31.994993 Nsefu Camp -12.933989 31.912247 Kariba Dam -16.522162 28.761575 Tete, Mozambique -16.160668 34.298984

“After all, we did live on this ship for a month and it was an experience…” Jean Albright, Dec 4, 1959 Recorded Tape

It was not a particularly large lion, but large enough to kill a man, or a woman. He had silently ambled out of the night’s darkness and now stood in the doorway, not fifteen feet from the four missionaries. The light from the kerosene lamp illuminated his tawny coat and short mane. His mouth was slightly agape, showing white, pointed teeth. He was a young cat. But was he hungry?

Jean Albright sat up stiffly in her seat and gripped her husband’s forearm. Buddy lifted his

gaze as he heard her hiss, “Buddy…lion!” She was looking towards the doorway of the dining shelter. As Buddy turned in his chair, he caught sight of the alarm in the faces of Marvin and Gwen Cooper, who were sitting nearby. Buddy saw that the lion could be at the throat any one of them with an easy bound. It did not take almost two decades in Africa to know that all four of them were in danger, very serious danger. The evening conversation was suddenly over. An unwanted and unannounced guest had arrived.

Buddy glanced at his wife and their eyes met. Time slowed in those few motions. He saw

Jean was scared, but he also saw courage and calculation in her face. He saw in her the Jean that had attracted him so many years ago. This was the Jean that he loved. He could not envision being in Africa without her. His hand covered hers, which was still clasping his forearm. There had been another time they had folded their hands together like this. It had been at the rail of a ship at the far edge of Africa, many, many years ago.

That day it had been very sunny and hot. It was a day in late October of 1958.

In the Light of His Word Volume 1

At the Ship’s RailSection 1

At the Ship’s Rail Page 2

The Albrights stood together at the deck railing of the ship, watching the African workers scurry around on the dock below them. The small passenger ship S.S. African Enterprise had taken almost a month to carry them from New York city to this remote port on the eastern edge of the African continent, the port of Beira (bye-rah), Mozambique. Now, standing at the ship’s rail, the Albrights could see and hear and smell the land to which they felt called.

Who are the Albrights? Who is this family that these memoirs are about? Why did they go

to an unusual place such as Africa? What happened to this ordinary family who lived in such an extraordinary setting?

Buddy Albright is the father of the family, born in the

hills of eastern Kentucky (Bell County) on December 3, 1927. He was not named Buddy at birth. He was named LeRoy, Jr. That was all. No middle name. His father was also named LeRoy, but everyone called him Buddy. LeRoy Sr.’s new son became known as Little Buddy or Bud. Little Buddy’s mother was called Jasmine and he was their second child, their first son. Growing up in Pineville, Kentucky, young Buddy typified a mountain boy: slender, independent, sharp tongued, sharp witted and apprehensive of strangers. He had four sisters, Boots, Bonnie, Doris, and Pat and a brother, Dickie. Young Buddy barely weighed enough to make the high school football team. But he did make it1. When the family of eight moved out of the hills to Georgetown, in the bluegrass area of Kentucky, Buddy was

about fourteen years of age and had to wear glasses to see. Time passed and Buddy had finished a tour of service with the US Navy and was into his second year of college when tragedy struck.

On December 21, 1948, LeRoy Sr. drowned. Hard rains had drenched the countryside and it

was still raining heavy that evening when they found LeRoy’s Bell Telephone service truck parked near Elkhorn Creek, just outside of Georgetown. LeRoy had worked for Bell for decades, starting as a construction worker then becoming a linesman. He was actually a jack of all trades being able to be a mechanic, carpenter, plumber, and electrician2. For the last several years, LeRoy had been an installer and repairman for Bell Telephone. The service truck was parked off the side of the main road when they found it, the driver’s door ajar, the tool compartment in the back flung open. LeRoy’s footprints led them over a fence and through a muddy field to the edge of the Elkhorn Creek. No one knows for sure what Buddy saw in the creek to make him 1 Someone placed a shot put in his hand as he weighed in to help tip the scales. 2 Buddy learned how to be a jack of all trades from his father, a training that served him well in Africa.


Figure1-1. Buddy Albright. 1950s


stop the truck, climb the fence and run across the field in the heavy rain. Maybe he thought he saw someone trapped in the flood waters3. No one knows what caused him to start down the muddy bank, leaving a slick mark where he slid in, his hat and a rope fallen aside. But they all knew that he could not swim very well, certainly not in churning, cold, muddy flood waters.

Buddy buried his father in Georgetown. He bought six plots to claim a family area in the

Georgetown Cemetery and paid the undertaker from what scant savings he had. At the age of 21 he had sorrowfully lost the need for “Little” in front of his name. He was now the oldest male in the Albright family. His mountain culture forbade him from talking very much about the death of his father, about how that changed him or how life became real rough for the family. It was something he did not want to talk much about.

The Holy Spirit began calling Buddy to be a missionary when the boy was less than five

years old. He felt the tug for the first time during the children’s missionary group at his church. The children of the Albright family had been attending the First Baptist Church in Pineville4. It was there that Buddy came under the spiritual shepherding of Reverend Lloyd Caswell Kelly, the pastor of First Baptist Church. The countenance, vision, and teachings of Rev. Kelly inspired Buddy. When he was nine years old, Buddy surrendered his life to God’s calling, accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. The calling weighed heavy on his young mind. He was just another mountain boy in a small, inconsequential Eastern Kentucky town. But he knew without a doubt what God wanted him to do with his life. The words from Reverend Kelly were building in him a foundation for mission work. At eleven years of age, at the very doorstep of adulthood,

Buddy made a very important public decision at a Royal Ambassador camp held at Clear Creek Spring outside Pineville. He announced that he was called to be a missionary. A missionary to Africa no less, after the style of David Livingstone. Everything he did and studied from that point on in his life was directed towards that goal. Reverend Kelly of the First Baptist Church counseled with Buddy, and then talked seriously with LeRoy Sr. He told LeRoy Sr.

that he needed to put in for a transfer to a college town because Buddy had to get a college education in order to be a missionary to Africa. Three years later the Albright family left the mountains of eastern Kentucky and moved to Georgetown where there was a Baptist college.

3 Buddy stands by this claim, testifying that he too saw what looked like a trapped person in the swollen creek the next day after the sad incident. 4 The church was about two blocks away from the Albright house and was the only Baptist church in town. Jasmine had been baptized in the church when she was twelve. Little Buddy started his attendance in the nursery. It was the only church the Albright’s attended in Pineville.


He announced that he was called to be a missionary…to Africa no less, after the style of David Livingstone.


Jean Albright is the mother of the family. The story of her early life is very different than Buddy’s. Of course, it became the same story on June 5, 1950 when they became married.

Jean was born on January 19, 1930 to be the only child of Cecil and Georgia Flowers. She

was named Jean Isobel Flowers by her adoring parents. Cecil was a US mail carrier in his hometown of Decatur, Georgia. They lived in a modest home near the center of town5, the only home that Jean knew. Cecil’s government job sustained them through the Great Depression, a time when neighbors and friends fell to economic ruin. A few years later Jean’s grandmother and two aunts joined the family. Jean was the only child in a home full of adults. It was a true southern home: properly kept with hot bread at every meal and established family customs for every occasion. The closely knit neighborhood around her home was Jean’s play ground. She knew her neighbors so well that they were almost like family. So, it was a great shock when the first ‘Yankee’ family moved in across the street. They might as well have been from Mars. They ate cold bread, did not know anything about southern manners and had the strangest family customs, especially at Christmas. Jean had her first encounter with a foreign culture.

In all respects, Jean grew up as an urban girl in a

stable, supportive family setting surrounded by caring neighbors and family. She was smart at school work, attractive, friendly, and popular. As a teenager, her future was bright. World War II was over and the nation was booming in economic growth. The adjacent town of Atlanta was booming as well, if not even more. Prosperity in abundance was at her fingertips. But, prosperity was not in her heart. Telling others about Jesus Christ was.

The Flowers family had a long history of close association with Baptist churches, even

before the Southern Baptist denomination was formed. The family had helped form and donated property for at least four Baptist churches in Georgia. It was inevitable then that Jean would be raised in a Baptist church. As a young child, Jean felt a calling by the Holy Spirit to go and tell others about Jesus and His love for all of us. A Southern Baptist missionary in China spoke at her church and forever changed a seven year-old girl sitting in the room. She knew from that point on what she was called to be. The testimonies of a neighbor who had also been a missionary to China, reinforced the desire in the child. At fifteen years of age, Jean publicly

5 235 Montgomery Street, Decatur, GA


Figure1-2. Jean Flowers. 1950s


announced to the people in her church that she was called to be a missionary. But to be a missionary where? China seemed a probable choice but Jean was not sure. She felt unable and unsure of going and working in a foreign land. So, as she graduated from High School, she settled in her mind that she would pursue woman’s work and youth work as possibilities of telling others about Jesus.

To be appointed a missionary with the Southern Baptist Mission Board required a college

education and seminary training. (This is not true today, but it was then.) Up to this point, Cecil and Georgia Flowers had financially supported their daughter as best as they could. They were a typical middle class income family. Their daughter was their delight and they tried to afford her as comfortable a life as possible. Their pride swelled as they watched her graduate as the Valedictorian of her high school class with a scholarship to Agnes Scott College, a prestigious all women’s college in Decatur. But now she was talking about going away to a Baptist college in Kentucky and then after that to the Southern Theological Seminary. This was going to take more money than they had the funds for. Cecil and Georgia knew that the missionary calling in their daughter’s life was very real. Without ceremony, Cecil took a loan against his house so that his daughter could attend that far away Baptist college.

Georgetown Kentucky was (and still is) the hometown of Georgetown Baptist College. It

was also the hometown of Buddy Albright. The romantic and somewhat stormy tale of how Buddy and Jean met, fell in love, and married cannot be done justice in this section. Suffice to say, that by the end of Jean’s third year (junior year) at Georgetown Baptist College, she and Buddy were married. It was 1950. The young couple was just starting to share a life story. However, they already shared one driving purpose: to be in service to God. They knew they

were called to be missionaries in a foreign land. As Buddy and Jean stood at the ship’s rail, eight

years later, they were not just a couple any more. They had three sons, three young lives, which they had brought to the land of their calling. This was going to be a family affair, a family business so to speak. Buddy and Jean knew that they faced a task that all missionary families struggle with at varying degrees: striking a balance between the meeting the needs of a growing family and spreading the gospel to a needy people.

As Max, the oldest son, looked past the ship’s rail,

he was mature beyond his six years of age. None of


Figure 1-3. Albright Family. 1958


his experiences with his parents thus far in his young life had been routine. A preacher’s boy from the start. Born during Buddy’s first pastorate in Claflin, Kansas, on February 10, 1952. His full name was Richard Maxwell Albright. Born to a pair of restless parents, two parents determined to get to Africa, two adult role models that were always looking to the horizon, it was no surprise that he developed their eagerness, excitement, and passion. Max was always energized by Africa and intrigued by its peoples. It was not enough for him to be there, he had to be in it, part of it. Like a reporter who gets into the storyline, Max got into Africa. That was his personality.

Rod was only four years old as this book begins. Standing close to his Mom, peering at the

busyness on the dock below. Too young to really know the significance of where he was and what was happening. He was a seminary baby. Born on April 5, 1954 in Louisville, Kentucky. Buddy and Jean were attending the Southern Baptist Southern Seminary in Louisville at that time. Buddy was also pastoring a church in northern Kentucky. Named Maurice Rodney Albright at birth, he officially changed his name to LeRoy Rodney Albright as an eight year-old boy. Rod brought a few remembrances of the states to Africa such as building snowmen, his pet duck, and a couple of scars. For the most part, Africa quickly became his home.

Ray was fourteen months old as Jean held him in her arms near that ship’s rail in Beira. A

pacifier in his mouth. Very much a baby. Buddy had graduated seminary and was the pastor of the Baptist Church in Petersburg, Kentucky when Ray was born on August 15, 1957. The fourth child of the family (the third child had miscarried). He was born in Covington, Kentucky because that was the closest hospital to Petersburg. He was named Raymond Cecil Albright. Almost eleven months after his birth, on the 17th of July, 1958, both Buddy and Jean were appointed Foreign Missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ray was Africa bound and did not even know it. Africa became his first real memories of life.

The trip to Africa for the Albrights was by ship (see Map 1-1). Not many traveled by

airplane to Africa at that time. It was very expensive and slow. Trans-Atlantic commercial jet service had not yet started6. Flying to London, England by propeller aircraft would have been simple enough, but flights to south central Africa were infrequent and required numerous stops.

6 Pan American World airlines inaugurated the first trans-Atlantic service with a flight from New York to Paris on October 26, 1958. It was a Boeing 707 aircraft. Source: www.boeing.com


Figure 1-4. Max at ship’s rail in New York. 1958


The deeper into the African continent you went, the small and older the airplanes became. Ships were still the main means of traveling across the seas.

Map 1-1. Route of SS African Enterprise from Brooklyn to Beira. 1958

The Albrights sailed on the S.S. African Enterprise of the South African Farrell Lines from Brooklyn, NY on September 30, 1958, at 11:30 in the morning. Passengers were boarded earlier that morning and the Albrights walked up the gangplank full of excitement7. They were all five in one cabin, B-278. Buddy later called it a ‘glorified freighter’. A brochure of the deck plan for the ship showed it to be a two deck cabin liner with a tiled swimming pool, wading pool and barber/ hair dresser. It could hold 50 passengers. The ship did stop at St. Helena (October 13), the island exile of Napoleon, where small boats came out and ferried the family ashore. During

the three hours they were ashore, the boys rode a 220 year-old turtle and saw Napoleon’s empty grave site. Jean noted that, “The island was beautiful.” Buddy was able to buy some fishing gear9. Ironically, he could not find it in New York city, but did on this tiny island. The next stop was Cape Town, South Africa.

The ship was actually

much better than a freighter. The five Albrights were kind of packed into their cabin, but they were on the deck or swimming or eating most days. The ship had a deep swimming pool (up to eight feet deep) and a wading pool that the boys played in almost every day. Both were filled with salt water pumped from the ocean. When the ship would toss on rough seas, the pool would slosh like a bowl of water. The closer they drew to Cape Town, the cooler the weather became, until it was too chilly for Jean to allow the boys to swim.

Jean recalled that there was a good dinning room on the ship. Dinner menus boasted entrees

such as fresh Cape lobster, rock Cornish game hen, filet mignon, poached Alaska Salmon, and 7 They had been staying at the Henry Hudson Hotel (353 West 57th Street) for the about the last four days. While in New York they went to the top of the Empire State Building and saw a Rodeo at Madison Square Garden. 8 Passage for all five was for US$2,177. This included a 15% ‘missionary’ discount.


9 Buddy tried his luck at fishing during stops at Port Elizabeth and East London, but did not catch anything. He gave up fishing soon after arriving in Africa. Most flowing water had crocodiles while most still water had Belharzia or schistosomiasis, a parasite.


sauté Canadian hare – hunter style. Following an ageless English custom, children always ate the evening dinner long before the adults. The waiter (Percy) for the kids learned his young protégés so well that he would have Max’s dinner already prepared and ice cream on the ready for Ray. A dinner menu states that the Albrights crossed the equator on October 9 and were served Poached Davy Jones Swordfish, Mermaid Corn Niblets, Treasure Island Fruit Cocktail, and Queen’s Delight Ice Cream among other ‘nautical’ entries. There was a ceremony that followed.

A King Neptune sat upon a throne and summoned the children one by one into his presence.

Each child was handed a small cake with a cherry on it. As they reached for their treat, they received a face full of cake instead. The adults were summoned as well, but in couples and wearing necklaces of plastic fish. The little cakes were offered again with secret instructions to clobber the other spouse. They all did with one exception. The wife of an American Consulate hurled her cake at her nearby son. The boy ducked and an unsuspecting woman ended up with face full of cake.

The McKinnley family sailed with the

Albrights. They had earlier been appointed as missionaries to Spain but were later reassigned. They were Hugh and Becky with their two daughters, Marsha (four years at that time) and Margaret (fifteen months). The first Sunday on board buddy preached at a simple service (many attended). Hugh preached the second Sunday. The McKinnleys became the first “relatives” in the

mission family that the Albrights later knew. The first uncle and aunt to the Albright boys. For that reason, they were always special to the Albrights.

It took seventeen days to sail from New York to Cape Town, South Africa. The family

disembarked in Cape Town for a day (October 18, 1958). They rode the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. Jean remarked, “The roofs of the houses are red. This makes a pretty scene against the blue waters.” Then they rode a double decker bus from one end of town to the other. They first had to learn that they were supposed to stand in the “White” bus lines and not the African lines. A kind African man gently explained the difference and begged them to leave the African bus line before they all ended up in trouble. It was their first experience with racism in Africa. They became a little alarmed on the bus ride when they noticed numerous street signs warning to “Beware of Lorries”. They were certain the Lorry African tribe must be a dangerous tribe. Later they found out that lorry was the British word for truck. Back on the ship, it was


Figure 1-5. Albright (R) and McKinnley (L) Families on board S.S. African Enterprise. 1958


another ten more days up the eastern edge of Africa to Beira, Mozambique with stops at Port Elizabeth, East London, and Durbin.

From the deck of the ship, the town of Beira spread out before the family of five. It was a

hot and humid day. A rain storm was building in the distant sky. Gusts of warm air rose off the dock carrying an awful smell. Everything about the town looked strange, unfamiliar, somewhat filthy. The Africans looked impoverished. Some

African dockworkers wore concrete sacks as their only clothing. Their chatter seemed a difficult language. Even

the signs on the buildings were unintelligible. They were in Portuguese. And the white Portuguese were harsh on the African dockworkers, often beating them. So, this was Africa. This was where Buddy and Jean had been called to and brought their young children to. The first impressions were unsettling and very discouraging for them. For five people standing along a ship’s rail in a remote port on the edge of the African continent, the land below them and the people beyond them were to shape their lives in ways that they could not imagine. *** Did the lion pounce on any of the missionaries? The episode with the young lion that started this section ended without harm. It took place in the Luangwa game reserve in Zambia. The four missionaries were talking together in the early evening, after spending a day in reserve. They were sitting in an open air dining shelter at a game camp when the young lion appeared in the doorway. As the four missionaries sat rigidly and cautiously watching the lion, the cat turned and silently walked back into the darkness of the night. He was not interested in the four packaged meals in the dinning shelter. Where there was one lion meant there was probably more, like a pride full. And they were somewhere out in the darkness, maybe between the missionaries and the safe refuge of their cabins. The Cooper’s cabin was the closest, so the four began a hasty walk towards it, carrying the one kerosene lantern. No lions in sight. That was good. Close to the cabin, Buddy angled off towards his own cabin. But, Jean would not follow. She stayed with the lantern and was glad to get into the safety of the Cooper’s cabin. Buddy reached the other cabin and called for Jean. She would not venture outside again, at least not until day light. “Oh, Yes.” The African cook said the next morning. “There have been many lions around this camp for several weeks, that is why we close our gates before dark.” The four missionaries were in their cabins before dark after that.


Location of Beira, Mozambique

The first impressions were unsettling and very discouraging


“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29: 11 NIV

Reference Sources:

1) Certificate of Appointments, FMB SBC for LeRoy Albright and Jean Flowers Albright. July 17, 1958. Richmond, VA.

2) Farrell Lines Deck Plan. SS African Endeavor and SS African Enterprise. Fold out

brochure. 3) Farrell Lines Passage Contract Ticket. Issued Sept. 19, 1958 in NY, NY.

4) International Mission Board Archives and Record Service. Solomon Databases.

http://archives.imb.org/solomon.htm. Minutes of June, 1958. 5) Letters to Cecil and Georgia Flowers from Jean and Buddy. 1958. Sept 30. (Contain pier

pass and sightseeing ticket stubs), Oct 12, Oct 17, Oct 23, Oct 25?, Dec 31.

6) Personal Communications with Buddy and Jean Albright. 2004 – 2006.

7) Personal Interview of Buddy and Jean Albright. 2000. Microcassette #1. Interviewer: Ray Albright

8) Personal Testimonies of Buddy and Jean Albright. 2003. Written for Retirement

Exercises.

9) Recorded Tape to Cecil and Georgia Flowers. December 4, 1959.

10) S.S. African Enterprise Commemoration of Crossing the Equator, Oct. 9, 1958. Full dinner menu included.


11) S.S. African Enterprise Dinner Menus. Oct 16, 24, 25, 26, and 27, 1958.

http://archives.imb.org/solomon.htm

“Africa is certainly different from the average person’s ideas.” Jean Albright, November 1, 1958 letter to her parents

Beira (bye-rah), Mozambique was not the Albright’s destination point in Africa. They had been appointed to serve in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe). Southern Rhodesia was at this time in a Federation with two other British colonies: Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (see Map 2-1). The Albrights had landed in Beira because Southern Rhodesia was a land locked country and depended on the ports of Mozambique for shipping goods and transporting people. It was a relationship that lasted until the late 1960s when political differences between the two countries actually put them at war.

Four Southern Baptist

missionary women from Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, met the Albrights and McKinnleys in Beira on the day the ship arrived, which was Tuesday, October 28, 1958. The welcoming


Settling In Section 2

Map 2-1. Southern Africa with Federation in Red. 1958

Settling In (1958) Page 12

committee was Mary Ellen Garrett, Monda Marlar, Pauline (Polly) Jackson, and Mary Brooner. Their task was to accompany the two new missionary families back to Salisbury, the capital city of Southern Rhodesia.

The ship docked about six in the morning and its passengers were able to disembark about

three hours later. The Albrights were glad to be off the ship and in the care of these four missionary ladies. To Buddy and Jean it was a tremendous relief to hear encouraging news from these ladies about the mission work in Southern Rhodesia. Their first unsettling impressions of Africa began to change. They felt accepted by these ladies almost immediately. To the three boys, it was one

wonder after another. Before leaving Beira, they swam in the Indian Ocean at a nearby beach. Max heard one of the ladies mention something about needing a ‘costume’ to swim. He soon realized that this was the British word for a swimming suit. It was such an odd word to him. Little did he know that within two years he would be speaking the Queen’s pure English in a flawless British accent.

The four ladies had traveled to Beira in a large station wagon. As they loaded the two

new missionary families into the car, they realized they could not fit everyone into it. Hugh McKinnley, and Buddy remained behind in Beira with most of the luggage10. They took the night train to Salisbury. The car riders left Beira about noon on October 28, heading for Umtali (uhm-tall-ee), Southern Rhodesia where they would stay the night with the Harveys, another Southern Baptist missionary family. Mary Ellen Garrett had to stop not far out of Beira to roll up the back window of the station wagon. In the tree canopies above the stopped car, monkeys chattered and scampered about. Jean and her three boys watched them in delighted awe. This kind of thing had never happened in Kentucky!

Before them lay mile after mile of dirt

road which ran through rolling savannah. This was not a dense jungle at all, like someone might have imagined from a Tarzan movie. But sometimes the trees shaded the road like a tunnel. Other times wide vistas opened up and they could see the distant horizon. Occasionally they would pass an African man walking or riding a bicycle along 10 The children had to ride with their mothers because they were on their mothers’ passports. Once across the Southern Rhodesian border, Max joined the two men on the train.


…within two years he would be speaking the Queen’s pure English…

Figure 1-1. Railroad crossing sign in Southern Rhodesia. 1959


side the road. Most all were dressed in pants and a shirt, clean but very worn. Very few had shoes on. A weighty bundle was tied to the back rack on many of the bikes. The African women were modestly dressed, but usually in a faded dress and a worn cloth wrapped around their waist and legs. Jean noticed the babies tied to their backs. And several women carried large loads, balanced on their heads. Unable to speak their language, all Jean could do was silently look from the car window. The pitiable poverty of the Africans she had seen in Mozambique struck a chord of compassion in her heart.

Jean was a long distance from her childhood home in Decatur where she had grown up

knowing her call to be a missionary. This was her first day to fulfill her calling, her first day as a missionary in Africa. The culture gap she had already seen made her wonder if she would ever be accepted by the Africans. Could she ever build relationships through which to spread the good news? She knew it would take the power of the Holy Spirit to melt away her barriers and bridge the gap. She was right, but it would also require a lot of hard work and preparation on her part.

The two train riders left Beira much later that afternoon and arrived in Umtali in time for

breakfast at the Harveys. Max then joined the train riders the rest of the way to Salisbury. Along the way, the train had to stop and wait for an elephant to amble off the tracks. This was something else that had never happened in Kentucky!

Moving from the small town of Petersburg, Kentucky, USA, to the city of Salisbury,

Southern Rhodesia, Africa, would be a major adjustment for anybody. Jean and Buddy were no exceptions. The family arrived in two installments, with Jean, Rod and Ray being drove into the capital city about noon, then Buddy and Max coming in by train that evening. It was October 29, 1958. Within a couple of weeks, the Albright family was in a rental mission house in a newer subdivision of Salisbury called Waterfalls11. They had been staying with a fellow missionary couple, Sam and Ona Jones, since arriving in Salisbury.

The rental house had three bedrooms, one

bath room, a kitchen, a living room and separate dining room12. A long hallway connected all the rooms. The floors were covered in a pretty wood. The windows did not have screens, but fancy burglar bars. A servant’s quarters was located not

11 164C Northway Drive Prospect, Waterfalls. S52. Township lots of one acre size were selling for £450 (US$ 1,265). There were about 4,000 European residents in Waterfalls. 12 Buddy drew a floor plan of the house in 29 Oct., 1958 letter to Flowers.


Figure 2-2. Rental home in Waterfalls, Southern Rhodesia. Note crates on front porch. 1958


far from the back door. “We just love the house…” Jean crooned. But she had to move into it without much furniture. The furniture shipment from the States was lost somewhere in Southern Rhodesia. It would be several weeks before it showed up.

Now in her own house, Jean had to deal with grocery shopping, housework, and school.

These were daily routines which she was familiar with, except this was a different culture with different ways of doing these things. It started with the money.

Southern Rhodesia was a British colony in 1958 and it was British in all aspects. The

consequences of this are better explained in the next section. Suffice it to say that the currency in Southern Rhodesia was a parallel of Britain’s pound, shilling, and pence. The coinage said Southern Rhodesia on it, but the values of the coins were backed by the English government. The exchange rate in 1958 was roughly three US dollars13 to one Southern Rhodesian pound (£). The Albrights quickly learned that twelve pence made a shilling and 20 shillings made a pound. There was also the half-penny, tuppence, tickie, six pence, farthing, crown, and quid that had to be mastered as well. This says nothing of the bob, florin, half-crown, tenners and fivers. Converting the price of a can of beans that was one bob and seven pence (written as 1/7) to US dollar value while standing in the store was a challenge.

One of the first things Jean found out was that grocery stores were in department stores. She

had to drive on the left side of the road to get anywhere14. Canned goods, called tins, in the grocery stores were very expensive but meat and milk were not. Jellies and jams came in tins, not bottles. Cookies were called biscuits. Biscuits were called scones. One did not buy meat in a grocery store, but at a separate shop called a butchery. Milk was not in a grocery store either; it was delivered to your door step each day as was fresh bread. In fact, there was a procession of Africans coming to your door all day long selling fresh vegetables, live chickens, live ducks, fruit, clay pots, firewood, peanuts, spices, and all assortments of cooked food. Banana leaves were sometimes folded over the food to keep the flies out, with limited success. Usually the goods were fastened to the back of a bicycle, but sometimes carried in a bowl on a head. The ring of a bicycle bell or the soft call of “Odi” (oh-dee, meaning hello to the house) meant someone was standing outside awaiting you. Each face showing hope for a sell. It was extremely rude not to acknowledge a person that came to your door.

13 $2.81 to be exact 14 Buddy and Jean obtained their driver’s licenses on November 18, 1958 from the Southern Rhodesia Licensing and Revenue Office.


Figure 2-3. Ray (L) and Rod (R) eating breakfast. 1958


Through the years, Buddy and Jean bought more things than they really needed from the door to door sellers. The Albrights came to depend on them for mangos, peanuts, sugarcane, vegetables, and an extra chicken for the pot when there were many unexpected visitors. Sadly, most of the sellers were turned away without buying anything. There were far too many to buy something from everybody. Nevertheless, Jean was known to buy everything a man had only because she knew he had brought his goods from a very far off village. The house help never objected to those “compassion” sells because they usually shared in what she bought.

Another adjustment Jean had to make was that house work was rarely done by white women

in Southern Rhodesia. This was true of all the African colonies – French, German, Italian, or British. An African was hired to do the house work, usually an African man. They were called ‘boys’ at that time. A degrading term that was never adopted by the Albrights. A house helper was called by his name, or referred to as ‘the house helper’.

In an early letter to her parents (Cecil and Georgia Flowers), Jean noted that they hired

Mack as a house helper for five pounds a month plus rations. Mack’s monthly salary was higher than most. Rations was a curious custom that meant Mack would be kept supplied with meat, rice, sugar, corn flour, and soap. Jean interpreted rations to also mean clothes, shoes, extra food items, medicine, and whatever else it appeared that the house helper could use. On the average, the Albrights tended to keep the same house helper for a long time. No small wonder. Mack was expected to do the laundry (which included washing clothes and linens, hanging them out to dry, ironing them, and putting them away), wash dishes and clean and straighten the house. Mack lived out back in the servant’s quarters, a one room attachment with space for cooking. A simple “outhouse” style lavatory was near the servant’s quarters. By Southern Rhodesian law, his wife and family could not live with him since it was a white residential section of town.

All the clothes, sheets and towels had to be ironed because of the screw worm fly, or more

commonly called the pootsie fly. This bee sized fly would lay its eggs in wet cloth, especially wet clothes and diapers hanging on the clothes line. Upon contact with the skin, the fly larva would burrow into you, feeding on your flesh until it emerged as an adult fly. To avoid a painful reaction, the larva had to be allowed to grow to maturity before it could be removal (a sore and disgusting process). The heat of the iron killed the fly eggs. Many years later, electric dryers replaced the need for ironing, but until then, ironing the laundry was a very important task.


Figure 2-4. Mack (L) and Gusto (R) with Ray on trike. 1958


The school bell rang early in the morning for the Albrights. In November 1958, Max was enrolled into the Waterfalls Kindergarten School for the first year of school, called Kindergarten One (KG1). KG1 is the equivalent of first grade in the USA. His teacher was Mrs. Van Rooyen. KG1 was for five year olds, so Max was a year older than most. The school officials thought it more important to remain in the proper age group, so Max started KG2 two months later in January.

This was Max’s first time to go to school. He had to wear a proper uniform15, including felt

hat, tie and shiny leather shoes. He had to have proper leather back pack satchel as well for his books and papers. Short, baggy pants and long socks were mandatory. His school went through Standard Three, much like an American elementary school. The school year ran from January to December with holidays in April/May, August/September, and December/January. There were about 60 students. Also, like some American schools at that time, Max’s school was segregated. The school let out about noon for the day. Sports and activities were held in the afternoon.

Buddy and Jean started language school within about a month of their arrival. This is

standard practice for Southern Baptist missionaries. The first year is always spent in language school learning the native language and culture of the area where they will be serving in. For Buddy and Jean, it was Shona (show-nah). Two other new Southern Baptist missionary couples also started language school with them: the McKinnleys (Hugh and Becky), who had been on the ship with the Albrights, and the Thorpes (Terry and Wilma). Classes ran from 8:00 to 10:00

every morning with more focused study from 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon. The school was a converted chicken house in the backyard of the Joneses’ house. The six ‘students’ were taught under the guidance of an African teacher, Mr. Chambati, and worked through a language manual which stressed grammar and vocabulary. The students were required to study on their own three to four hours every day with a test every Friday. They

15 A receipt from Meikles, a clothing store in Salisbury, recorded three shirts, three pants and a felt hat for five pounds and eight shillings (US$ 15)


Figure 2-5. Max ready for school with new bike as Rod watched on. 1958

Figure 2-6. Language school pose. L to R: the Thorpes, the McKinnleys, unknown man, Mr. Chambati, and the Albrights. 1958.


were to read books on African customs, traditions, history and such. They were also supposed to visit the other seven Southern Baptists missionary stations in the country during that year. On the first day of school, Buddy approached the Joneses’ gardener and learned how to say hello and good morning in Shona. This caused some concern with the teacher that Buddy was learning the market place vernacular of the language.

Rod (four years old) and Ray (one year) were placed each morning into the care of an

American Methodist missionary lady, Mrs. Wilkins, while Buddy and Jean studied Shona and Max went to school (KG1). This lady had married a white Southern Rhodesian and had been in Southern Rhodesia for years. She was a very kind lady and kept a few nursery aged children in her home for some extra income. She had never returned to the States.

The mission had provided a car, but it was split between the three new missionary families.

It very soon became obvious that the family was going to need a personal car. The Ford Escort was very popular at that time, but Buddy was swayed by the opinion of Alf Revell, a mechanic from Sanyati (san-yah-tee). They finally bought a car by mid-November for about US$ 600. It was a Hillman Husky, a tiny two-door box coupe with a back door that swung to the side.

Buddy and Jean immediately loved it. Light blue and trimmed in chrome, it was a simple car with absolutely no fancy features. A benched back seat would fold down and open space for hauling furniture and such. The three boys would spend a significant portion of their young lives on that back seat, usually squeezed in and covered with dust. The little car’s six gallon gas tank would get 30 miles to gallon in town and 36 on the road. It did better than that when Buddy was forced to cut the engine going downhill and roll as

far a possible uphill before restarting the engine to stretch that last cup of gas to get home. It did worse than that when an irate elephant backed the car off the road and Buddy kept revving the engine to bluff the massive beast into not crushing it and its five occupants.

The Hillman Husky became the first of several family vehicles that the Albrights owned in

Africa. Each family vehicle became an important part of the family. The importance cannot be overstated. It became the taxi, the work truck, the camper, the bus, the ambulance, and the all-terrain vehicle. It also served as an electric generator, rain shelter, and boy’s hideout. The everyday activities of the family depended on the family vehicle. In many different ways, the


Figure 2-7. New Hillman Husky modeled by Buddy and Jean. Note steering wheel on left side. 1958


family vehicle was a fundamental force that shaped the lives of the Albrights. The week after buying the car, Jean and Buddy had stopped to pick up Rod and Ray after

language school. They were talking with Mrs. Wilkins when they saw the car start to move. Rod’s small face, half hidden behind the car door, stared at them from the driver’s seat. He had turned the keys and started the car in gear. Now it was running and he was riding off. His eyes were wide with alarm. Buddy dashed after it and managed to catch up with the brand new car. He reached into it and turned off the key. Rod’s near brush with harm was not yet done, a few nights later he had another encounter.

It always seems to be at night when children get their sickest. Rod began vomiting shortly

after his bedtime. He vomited twelve times before midnight and then almost every half hour for the rest of the night. Max was vomiting just about as often. Buddy sat up all night with the two sick boys. Neither he nor Jean knew why they were sick. Jean later confided that she had expected them to die at any minute during the night. Buddy was just as equally concerned. This was their first experience with family sickness in Africa. Certainly not their last as the reader will soon note. By morning the sickness had passed, but the anxieties were far from over. It was later that they pieced together that the two boys had eaten some wild, green tomatoes earlier that fateful day.

The Albright family was not just “out there having to fend for themselves in Africa”. Yes,

they lived in a house by themselves (plus Mack) and there were some things that they did have to fend for by themselves, but they were part of a tight community of other Southern Baptist missionary families. This is typical of most all Protestant denominations or missionary organizations: the missionaries form a very close bond. It is like an extended family. Kind of like the Book of Acts Church. There was a tremendous amount of sharing, caring, and socializing. There were also some of the tensions and disagreements that occur within any group of individuals and the Southern Baptist missionary community in Southern Rhodesia was no exception. Overall, it was very cohesive and cooperative group of missionaries. In Southern Baptist tradition, missionary kids call the adults in other missionary families as “Uncle” and “Aunt”. Buddy and Jean were known as Uncle Buddy and Aunt Jean to the missionary children. It is a very ingrained practice that builds the feeling of an extended family within the mission community.


Jean later confided that she expected them to die at any minute…


The Albrights were received into a fairly large Southern Baptist missionary community in Southern Rhodesia. Jean lists several in her early letters and more are added below. The children present in late 1958 are in parentheses. There were seven established mission sites in Southern Rhodesia at that time (see Map 2-2).

• In Salisbury, were Sam and Ona Jones (Byron, Gary, Karen, pregnant with Kay). Sam was the head of the language school. Dr. Sam and Ginny Cannata (none, pregnant with Michael16), who where headed for the mission hospital at Sanyati. John and Marie Cheyne (David, Stephen, Martha and Becky) who were soon to finish language school. Terry and Wilma Thorpe (Penny, Rilla and Danny) were the newest missionaries and were starting language school. Hugh and Becky McKinnley (Marsha and Margaret) were new missionaries as well and starting language school. They had sailed with the Albrights from New York.

• At Sanyati (san-yah-tee, about 145 miles west of Salisbury), were Drs. Giles and Wanda Ann Fort (Giles, Jr., David, Gordon). They were both doctors at the mission hospital. Mondar Marlar was a missionary nurse. Mary Brooner, and Pauline (Polly)

16 Clyde Dotson always called him Michelangelo since the child’s full name was Michael Andrew.


Lusaka Northern Rhodesia

Salisbury

Umtali Sanyati

Gatooma Gokwe

Blantyre - Limbe

Bulawayo Gwelo

Shabani

Map 2-2. Locations of Southern Baptist mission stations in Southern Rhodesia. 1958


Jackson were missionary teachers and women workers at Sanyati. Bud and Jane Fray (Carol, Jerry) also worked in the school and with the local churches. The Revells, Alf and Elsie, were an English couple. He was the station mechanic and equipment manager. She worked in the mission school. Sanyati was a large mission station with both a hospital and school. It was purposefully located in a very remote area.

• In Gatooma (gah-too-mah, about 85 miles southwest of Salisbury) were Marvin and Mary Ellen Garrett. They were involved in numerous things from being purchasing agents, to field evangelists, to maintaining ham radio contact with Sanyati and Gokwe.

• In Gwelo (ga-well-oh, about 170 miles south of Salisbury) were David and Susie Lockhart (Doug). David taught at the mission seminary. Ralph and Betty Bowlin were at the seminary as well. Ralph was the seminary director. Gwelo was chosen as the seminary site because the rural setting of the area was more amenable to Africans and whites interacting than would have been possible in the capital city of Salisbury.

• In Bulawayo (bull-ah-way-oh, about 270 miles southwest of Salisbury) were Logan and Ginny Atnip who served in the publishing house. Milton and Barbara Cunningham (Milton E. and Miller) who were finishing language school. They were studying the Matabele language.

• In Umtali (uhm-tall-ee, about 165 miles southeast of Salisbury) were Gerald and Eunice Harvey (Judy, Janet, Jill). They were studying the Chinyanja language in preparation of starting a new mission in Nyasaland.

• In Shabani (shaw-baa-nee, about 236 miles south of Salisbury) were Gene and Jean Phillips (Mark, John) who were church workers.

• In Gokwe (goak-whe, about 50 miles beyond Sanyati) was Clyde Dotson (Dorothy). Clyde Dotson was the first Southern Baptist missionary in Southern Rhodesia, as mentioned below. Gokwe was not an established mission yet, Clyde Dotson had just recently relocated there.

Another missionary family, Bill and Blanche Wester (Bill, Jr., Esther Kay) were in the

States on furlough17. They had come to Southern Rhodesia in 1955 on a special appointment. They were given regular appointment in 1959 and returned to the field18 the same year.

These were relatively new, young missionary families in Southern Rhodesia. The oldest

missionary kid in the group was just ten years old making Max (seven years) one of the older kids. Many of the missionary kids were babies or toddlers. It was an odd thing, but, by far, most

17 Furlough was a leave of absence from the mission field to allow the missionary to return to their home country (home tribe). Furloughs typically lasted one year. The time span for furloughs became much more flexible later on. A furlough year was a busy year for most missionaries with guest speaking in one or two churches per week and required attendance in state and national conferences. Furloughs are now called State-Side Assignments.


18 Field is missionary jargon for the area of service. The Albright’s field was Southern Rhodesia.


of the kids were boys. There were very few girl missionary kids in the Southern Rhodesian missionary community.

The Southern Baptist mission in Southern Rhodesia was called the Central African Mission

and had an organizational structure which followed all other Southern Baptist missions of that era. In 1958, Ralph Bowlin was the mission Chairman. Gerald Harvey was the mission Treasurer. The positions rotated among the missionaries. Usually, a senior missionary was selected as the Chairman. The Treasurer position carried a sizeable amount of accounting work, so it was not a sought after position. A missionary usually carried this position until they went on furlough or botched up the books so bad that it was handed to another missionary at the next mission meeting. A yearly mission meeting was held during which all the missionaries in an area assembled for about a week. Mission strategy, issues and developments were shared and discussed. Committees gave reports and rotated members. For the kids, it was a mixture of summer camp and Vacation Bible School. It was also very much a week of worship and fellowship.

While on the topic of mission organization, it is in order to offer a very short history of

Southern Baptist mission work in central Africa. Much of this content was taken from the SBC IMB19 on-line archives.

It all began with the Germans, the German Baptists that is. A German Baptist preacher

traveled up from southern Africa about 1917 to minister to a settlement of Germans in the southern portion of the Rhodesian territory. Over the next 30 years, that work remained very low key resulting in two churches and two fellowships of mostly European membership. In 1947, the SBC Foreign Mission Board (FMB) received a letter from Rev. Clyde J. Dotson, a Southern Baptist from Alabama who was an independent missionary (as well as his wife Hattie Dotson) serving as the pastor at a German Baptist fellowship in Gatooma. Clyde Dotson was requesting support from the FMB for him and Hattie to be missionaries in south central Africa. The FMB was at that time deeply invested in mission work in Nigeria and the Gold Coast (later called Ghana), as they had been for about 80 years. This letter from Rev. Clyde J. Dotson was perceived by the FMB as a “Macedonian call” to south central Africa. It was the spark that started all Southern Baptist work in Southern, and even Eastern Africa, that is witnessed today. In 1950, the FMB hired Clyde Dotson under contract to be a missionary. The FMB also purchased him and his wife a mission house in Gatooma and shortly sent him money to buy land

19 SBC = Southern Baptist Convention. IMB = International Mission Board


This letter from Rev. Clyde J. Dotson … was the spark that started all Southern Baptist work in Southern, and even Eastern Africa, that is witnessed today.


and build a church. The Rev. Dotson pulled in the German Baptist work and built the first Southern Baptist

church in Southern Rhodesia at Gatooma. It was a simple building made of sun dried bricks and grass thatched roof. The Lord blessed this humble beginning and within a year there were 398 new professions of faith. By the end of 1951, Clyde Dotson became ‘regularized’ by the FMB, meaning he became a full fledged appointed missionary and not a contract worker. The same year, Ralph T. Bowlin and his wife arrived as new missionaries and Sanyati was established as a mission site. The Southern Baptist work began to grow rapidly.

As missionaries arrived from the States, they were placed into locations where the work had

already been started by Clyde Dotson. By 1955, there were, in order of their arrival, Miss. Marlar, Miss. Brooner, the Forts, the Lockarts, Kratzes, Cheynes, and Harveys on the mission

field. By late1958, when the Albrights and McKinnleys arrived, there were, in order of their arrival, the Joneses, Westers, Garretts, Miss. Jackson, Phillips, Atnips, Frays, Cunninghams, and Cannatas. The mission had a seminary, a hospital, several schools, and seven established mission sites. There were Baptist groups in every town of any size across Southern Rhodesia. And, the Southern Baptist work was poised to be spread to the south, central, and eastern sections of the continent.

December is a hot month in south central Africa. The days are long. Hot winds can whip

dust devils into swirling funnels of blinding dust, and blow them for long distances. Rain clouds can build quickly and deliver soaking downpours. Discarded mango seeds litter the edges of roads and paths, evidence of someone enjoying the delicious fruit which ripens in November and December. The sounds of Christmas were nowhere in the air. But, the smells were everywhere: in the rain, the dust, and the mangos.

December 1958, did not begin well in the Albright house. Their metal barrels of goods

shipped from the US arrived but the locks were gone. So too were family clothes, winter coats, some of Jean’s dresses, Buddy’s suits, and many other things. Somebody had an early Christmas. But the loss did not set the family back too much. Buddy and Jean had been slowly adding pieces of furniture to replace their assortment of borrowed and rented items. One piece of furniture was a wooden coffee table that Ray soon learned to crawl on and stand in the middle


Figure 2-8. Albrights (L) and McKinnleys (R). 1958


of20. A bike was bought for Max. Each day after school was over, he would ride all around the yard and through the neighborhood on his new bike. He was quickly picking up the British accent by hearing it at school everyday. The Foreign Mission Board would provide a discount and pay shipping for large items such as refrigerators, washing machines and such. Buddy had made an order for a GE ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and a Maytag washing machine ($ 209 and $ 168 respectively)21.

Buddy celebrated his 31st birthday on December 3, 1958. There is not a record of a party,

but one can be assured that the family did not let it pass without notice. Most likely, the Thorpes, McKinnleys and Joneses came over for an evening meal to help mark the event. Buddy was the first in the family to celebrate a birthday in Africa.

Southern Baptist missionaries do not get paid a lot, but they receive riches in many other

forms. Buddy and Jean were both appointed as missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board (FMB), but on paper only Buddy received pay. All the Southern Baptist missionary wives were and still are, in essence, volunteers for the FMB (now IMB). Single missionary women were the exception. They were paid. The Albrights were paid $ 345 (US dollars) a month with $ 40 deducted to remain in the States. Seventy dollars went to the car payment. The median family income in the US in 1958 was $ 425 per month. Prices were so high in Southern Rhodesia that the mission had applied for a cost of living adjustment. That would eventually add about $ 50 to the monthly salary. Prices had gone up about 75% in the last seven years. They did not get actual US dollars sent to them every month, rather the salary was wire deposited into a local bank account. Buddy withdrew money in the local pounds and shillings currency. The exchange rate between the US dollar and Southern Rhodesian pound was fairly stable since all currencies were tied to the gold standard at that time.

A gardener, Gusto, was hired and

immediately created a nice garden. Jean wrote that they planted Irish potato patches, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, okra, peas, lima beans, green beans, corn, butter nut squash, yellow squash, and tomatoes. This was to help offset the high cost of food. The garden went right around the ant hill. This ant hill was a volcano shaped mound of brown dirt that

20 The family still has this coffee table and it is still in use. 21 Jean and Buddy had been led to believe that they could buy all their major appliances in Southern Rhodesia and thus did not ship any with them from the States. They found that while the information was true, it was not complete. Appliances in Southern Rhodesia cost twice the US price and were half the quality.


Figure 2-9. Gusto and the garden. 1958


reached higher than the house, built entirely by small, black ants. Such large ant hills were common. Rod and Max would play for hours on the ant hill.

By mid-December, 1958, the Albright family was beginning to settle in. Max’s first term at

school was over and he came home with a Kindergarten Report stating him to be, “…an intelligent and well mannered boy.” The boys were taken for their first haircuts and came out looking like little English boys. This was Ray’s second haircut in his whole life. Ray also lost his pacifier about that time. It quietly ‘disappeared’ one day and was barely missed by the toddler. Rod was given a toy boat (early Christmas present at Max’s school Christmas party) which shot water from a cannon. The entire bathroom would get a soaking during his bath times.

On Sundays, Buddy and Max attended a nearby African church named Harare (Ha-rah-ree,

meaning they do not sleep) Baptist Church. The duo left about 7:30 and arrived back about 10:30 in the morning. The Rev. Abel Mziramsanga22 was the pastor of the church and became a good friend of the family. Then the whole family went to an English speaking church about nine miles away, getting back to the house about 1:00 P.M.. Buddy and Max left again at 2:00 P.M. for an afternoon service at the African church. The English speaking church had evening services, except that children were not welcome, so Buddy usually attended by himself.

An invitation to spend Christmas at Southern Baptist mission site of Sanyati was readily

accepted. The Albrights drove the Hillman to the town of Gatooma and then Buddy and Rod switched to a pickup truck while Jean and the other two boys rode in the Fort’s power wagon the rest of the way. The 60 mile road from Gatooma to Sanyati was rough, too rough for the Hillman. The road from Salisbury to Gatooma was better. It was a two-lane road with a single lane of tarmac (pavement) down the center line. Approaching cars passed by mutually shifting to the sides of the road, leaving one set of wheels on the edge of the tarmac. A cloud of dust billowed out from wheels that were off the tarmac so that once passed, the road was now hidden in a fog of dust for a short time. It was always a heart rate check to see the front of another vehicle emerge from that fog of dust, barreling straight towards you. That is when quick reflexes helped. Occasionally, an oncoming large lorry (truck) or bus would not yield the center paved lane. Bigness is the boss in these situations, so people driving small Hillman Huskies were forced to swerve completely to the far edge of the road and narrowly miss the thundering transgressor. Africans walking or riding bicycles along the edge of the road were common as


22 Harare was the largest African township in Salisbury and the Baptist Church is still there. Rev. Mziramsanga stayed with the Albrights many years later for a week long session at the Bible School. It was the first time he had ever stayed with a white family. He got a double dose of cross culturalization because staying with the Albrights was a transcultural event for anyone. He remained a very good preacher, teacher, and counselor despite being ‘Albrightized’ for a week.


well as cattle and goats which were herded down the road. Dodging the people and livestock while also dodging the oncoming vehicles made driving something less than a leisure activity.

The first Christmas in Africa was very special for the Albright family. They stayed with

Monda Marlar, Mary Brooner and Pauline (Polly) Jackson. These missionary ladies had been part of the welcoming committee in Beira. The Albrights toured the hospital complex and the

school compound where some African children still lingered, clad in uniforms. Buddy visited in nearby villages with Clyde Dotson, met a headsman (village chief), and saw the African churches. Buddy recalled spending a night in a village where the headsman offered them a hut to sleep in.

Dotson stepped in to decline the offer, explaining to the rookie missionary on the side that this would make the hut’s usual occupants have to bear the cold night outside with scant covering. Africa is a cold continent under a hot sun, meaning hot days and cold nights. Dotson settled them both down for the night by a cook fire. The next morning a villager enquired if they had slept well by the fire. He went on to say that a rogue lion had carried off a person a few nights ago from a nearby village. This impressed Buddy that there were more things to consider at night in a village than just staying warm. It would not be his last encounter with a rogue lion either.

Three other Southern Baptist

missionary families came with the Albrights, so a sizeable group of missionaries were there23. This was the Albrights’ first trip to a mission station which was not near a town. They were out deep in the African countryside or ‘bush’ as it was called. The family was excited to see their first warthogs just outside Sanyati. The station was a little town in itself complete with water and electricity. The buildings were laid out along streets and organized into zones of residential, hospital and school. Vegetable gardens, fruit trees and cattle pastures helped provide food. Max was impressed by the sufficiency of the mission station. Jean was impressed with the

23 The Frays, Revells, Forts and the three missionary ladies lived at Sanyati year round. The Thorpes, Cannatas, and Garretts came with the Albrights as guests. Clyde Dotson also came, but was such a regular at Sanyati he was hardly considered a guest.


… a rogue lion had carried off a person a few nights ago from a nearby village.

Figure 2-9. First Christmas in Africa at Sanyati. L to R: Monda Marlar, Rod, Pauline (Polly) Jackson, Max, Ray and Jean, Mary Brooner and Buddy. 1958


African bush. She wrote that life in the bush is, “what one thinks of being a missionary”, but she also notes that, “the cities have so many thousands that are confused and lost’.

The boys did indeed find presents on their first Christmas morn in Africa. To six year-old

Max, the familiar sight of a decorated Christmas tree surrounded by presents seemed odd in the settings of Sanyati. He recalled that it awakened in him a realization that Christmas day was not just about opening his presents. It was something about family and something about tradition. But he open presents, they all did. Max was given a boat that shot water (for defense against Rod’s boat maybe), books, a magician set and a pair of grey socks. Rod opened up presents which had a teddy bear, a fort set, color paints, a red double decked bus (later melted by Ray in the stove), and a sand bucket. Ray found a sand bucket as well, a tea set and a toy car. Jean lamented that the high prices of toys really restricted what she bought them. Elizabeth Eden (Jean’s cousin) sent $5 that was spent on a toy piano for all the boys. Mack and Gusto were surprised with presents of new pants. There’s no mention of what Buddy and Jean gave each other. As 1958 drew to a close, one can be sure they gave each other gave smiles of satisfaction. This had been an incredibly busy year for them with several lifelong milestones achieved. The Lord had been faithful and good in countless ways. And one can be sure they gave each other hugs of assurance because their journey had just begun.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 84:11-12 NIV

Reference Sources:

1) International Mission Board Archives and Record Service. Solomon Databases. http://archives.imb.org/solomon.htm. Minutes of 1947 (May), 1950 (May, September, November), 1951 (Feb, June), 1952 (April), 1955 (March), 1958 (November), 1959 (May).

2) Commission. January, 1960 edition. Published by the Foreign Mission Board of the

Southern Baptist Commission.

3) Letter to Cecil and Georgia Flowers from Buddy. 1958. Dec 28, Dec 31.

4) Letters to Cecil and Georgia Flowers from Jean. 1958. Oct 29, Nov 1, Nov 11, Nov 16, Nov 23, Dec 7, Dec 12 and Dec 22. 1959. Jan 9.


5) Meikles Limited. Manica Road, Salisbury. Receipt for £5-8. October 30, 1958.

http://archives.imb.org/solomon.htm


6) Personal Interview of Buddy and Jean Albright. 2000. Microcassette #1. Interviewer:

Ray Albright

7) Personal Communications with Buddy and Jean Albright. 2004 – 2006. 8) Schedule of Activities for Christmas at Sanyati by Jane Fray. 1958. 1 page. 9) Southern Rhodesia Licensing and Revenue Office. Diver’s license for Jean Flowers

Albright. November 18, 1959.

10) US Department of Commerce. 1959. Current Population Reports. Consumer Income. Bureau of the Census. Series P-60, No. 32.

11) US Department of State – Passport No. 1197862. LeRoy Albright. Issued August 8, 1958.

Expired August 8, 1962. 12) US Department of State – Passport No. 1197863. Jean F. Albright. Issued August 8,

1958. Expired August 8, 1962. 13) Waterfalls: A Suburb of Salisbury. 1956. Published by the Town Management Board of

Waterfalls, Powell Road. 8p.


14) Waterfalls Kindergarten Report. December, 1958. For Maxwell Albright.

“We saw very quickly that it was a very divided country...” Jean Albright, Recorded Interview, 2000.

Before going further, it is important for the reader to gain a grasp of the underlying social setting and racial tensions which existed in the country of Southern Rhodesia. A brief history or background is in order. Not a complete history, but an abbreviated version. Just enough to set the stage. Some of this content is drawn from the sources referenced at the end of the chapter and some from what was told and what was seen.


Section 3 Dual Society

Figure 3-1. City of Salisbury. 1960 Source: Brelsford, W. V. 1960. Handbook to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Cassell and Company, Ltd., London, England. 800p.

Dual Society (1958) Page 29

In 1958, Southern Rhodesia was more modernized than would have been expected in a small

country in the heart of Africa. Salisbury, the capital, was a growing city with about 270,000 residents. It showed all the outward signs of a modern European city. It had broad, paved streets, high rise downtown buildings, electricity and water service, parks with monuments, movie theaters, universities, museums, sports leagues, department stores with escalators, fancy restaurants, radio stations, social societies, daily newspapers, a disciplined police force, and a wealthy assortment of businesses and industries. One could find almost all the modern conveniences of the era. The hula hoop was the rage. Other large towns of Gwelo, Gatooma, Bulawayo, Umtali and Victoria Falls were growing as well and, although not nearly as developed as Salisbury, were miniature versions of the capital city. The outward signs boasted modernization, but the inward signs were another matter.

As the American Civil War was winding down in the mid-1860s, the south central region of

Africa, now known by the countries of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia, were virtually unknown to the rest of the world. African tribes existed in uneasy alliances with each other. The wickedness of the slave trade still flourished. The evil of slavery had penetrated the region and caused some tribes to become accustom to raiding other tribes for profit. David Livingstone was returning to Africa from England for his final trip. His explorations along with the tales of other adventurers from England, Portugal, Netherlands, and Germany began unveiling south central Africa to the European continent. The British and Dutch were already becoming established in the southern tip of Africa. They were the Europeans who were most interested in south central Africa.

As the Wright brothers flew their plane into history at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Crown of

England was now firmly entrenched in South Africa and had extended its military protection northward to two new territories: Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Rhodesia was named in honor of a British entrepreneur and politician, Cecil Rhodes. As a Governor in South Africa, Rhodes’ vision was a British empire that extended from Cape Town to Cairo, overshadowing the older British empire in India. Financially wealthy from the South African diamond

industry at Kimberly, Rhodes bankrolled the British government’s expansion into the two northern territories. Under the protective Seal of the Crown, Rhodes quickly moved to turn the territories into profitable economic ventures, especially in the southern portion of Rhodesia. By


Location of Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia

Under the protective Seal of the Crown, Rhodes quickly moved to turn the territories into profitable economic ventures, especially in the southern portion of Rhodesia.


1903, Cecil Rhodes' railroads, mining companies, and administrative structure had established Rhodesia as a permanent and productive protectorate under Britain. His vision of a great British empire in Africa had been denied, however by the Germans, who had colonized Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and by the French, who had colonized the Congo (now DR Congo). In 1910, Rhodesia was divided at the Zambezi River into Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia was about the size of the state of Montana.

The Roaring Twenties swept the US with the flappers, prohibition, and Calvin Coolidge’s

declaration that America's business was business. In late 1922, Southern Rhodesian settlers voted in a referendum to not become part of the Union of South Africa, electing instead to make Rhodesia a self-governing colony under the British Crown—a status that became effective on September 12, 1923. Southern Rhodesia was no longer a territory of South Africa. Elections were held and a new government established. However, Southern Rhodesia was still within the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom, so all the government officials were white, British subjects.

The 1930s was a dismal decade. The crash of the American Stock Market had left the

world’s economy in shambles and the ensuing Great Depression cast a miserable, dark shadow of hardship over everyone. The 1930s added another kind of hardship to the Africans in Southern Rhodesia. In 1930, the Southern Rhodesian government passed a land act which excluded Africans from ownership of the best farming land. A labor law, enacted in 1934, prohibited the Africans from entering skilled trades and professions.

In 1953, the Korean War was over, Eisenhower was elected US President, and the Cold War was in full force. In the same year, the United Kingdom created the Federation of Central Africa which consisted of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Britain had become worried that these three colonies were moving towards independence and consolidated them to better control their allegiance to the Crown. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret visited the new Federation that year to bestow Royal approval.

By 1958, Southern Rhodesia was beginning to enjoy lively

economic growth, expanding infrastructure, a stable social order, and the pride of an emerging nation state. However, all was not as bright and rosy as the picture may seem. The Africans within Southern Rhodesia saw it all from a different perspective. A very different perspective.

The African peoples of the south central region of the continent are mostly Bantu. This is a

general classification that means these types of Africans can be distinguished by both their racial


The Africans within Southern Rhodesia saw it all from a different perspective. A very different perspective.


features (they are very Negroid) and their language (the commonalities of their languages, actually, for there are hundreds of Bantu languages). Bantus tend to be of short stature, peaceful, hard workers, and to hold tight to tribal customs. One could enter a Bantu village and receive immediate welcome and accommodation. But, Bantus will fight when provoked to do so.

The main tribes of Southern Rhodesia were (and still are) the Shonas and the Matabeles

(now called Ndebeles). The tribes did not intermingle and time-honored boundary lines defined specific tribal lands. The Shonas were a farming people and consisted of a number of Shona speaking tribes and lived in a large area called in English, Mashonaland. The Matabeles lived in a smaller area called, Matabeleland. There were some other minor tribes such as the LaBemba, Awemba, and the Ngoni who lived in-between the Shona tribes. The Matabeles were an aggressive, pastoral tribe and preyed upon Shona cattle and crops with an irritating regularity.

Bantu tribes had a common social organization. The village community was the nucleus of

the social organization. Villages were composed of numerous huts; the quintessential single room, mud walls capped with a grass thatch roof. No electricity, no running water, and no indoor plumbing. No windows, a single door (often woven grass) and a hard dirt floor. A cluster of huts composed a village. Most villages were families of kin or a clan. Each village had a headman. Each tribe had a “King” or Chief who oversaw tribal military matters, land allocation, and any social or judicial affairs. The tribal Chief’s most important job was maintaining the harmony among the villages. Harmony is a critical element in village life and discord is to be avoided at all costs. Scattered around each village were the crop fields and the pasture woodlands. Row crop agriculture and cattle were the primary sources of food. There was some hunting and fishing, but cows and millet were the basic subsistence. Once the Portuguese introduced maize (corn) in the early 1800s, it rapidly became the main food crop.

The appearance of Europeans in south central Africa did not raise

any concerns among the Africans. Instead, in Bantu fashion, the white people were well hosted. As missionaries, miners, hunters, and adventurers began to trickle into the region and take up residence, tribal Chiefs readily provided land. The Africans were very interested in the technologies of the white people, their medicines, their metal pans, their soft cloth, and their strange plants such as maize and potatoes.

As British rule began to exert itself, the tribal control of land allocation was ignored and

settlers were “given” large tracts of land by the authority of the Crown rather than a tribal Chief. This was an aggravation to the Africans. Three years after Salisbury was established in 1890, the Matabeles rose in armed rebellion against the white 'intruders', but this was quickly quelled in almost a single battle. Then again, three years later, the Matabeles plus many of the Shonas


…in Bantu fashion, the white people were well hosted.


began widespread warfare. For the Shonas to join in meant that their dislike of their antagonistic neighbors, the Matabeles, was overshadowed by their dislike of losing their farm land to large white farms. The whites and the Africans suffered heavy loss of life for over a year until Cecil Rhodes struck a deal with the Matabeles and later the Shonas.

The short term gains to the Africans from Rhodes’ peace terms were lost to the long term

social changes that followed. All the tribes eventually lost their independence and power. The British took full governmental authority over every tribe, reducing the tribal Chief’s power to the equivalent of a lower court judge. The Chief’s authority was restricted to only being allowed to settling minor disputes among the tribe. Africans now had to become accustom to British laws, British social structure and British way of economics. Britain then followed with two more powerful changes: taxes and the control of firearms.

The British clamped down on the firearm trade and jacked up the price of gun powder. For

the guns that remained in African hands, this meant that they soon became outdated, inferior, and expensive to operate. As the British gained military superiority, a peace settled over the territories. Tribal skirmishes lessened and then ceased. Tribes, such as the Matebeles, who had practiced raiding other tribes for profit and power, were now forced to plant crops and tend cattle. The British would not allow such ‘nonsense’ as armed bands of African men out roaming the countryside and stealing Shona cattle. The Shonas surely appreciated this change, but not the next.

Taxes were imposed on all African adults soon after the last remnants of rebellion had been

silenced. Taxes brought on a social change that still persists today. To pay the taxes, Africans had to have money. Tribute in millet, firewood, fish or animal skins would not do for the British as they had done between the tribes. To get money, Africans had to either sell what they could produce by the toil of their hands, or go to work for the whites. The latter required living close to white towns and/or working in white farms and mines. Africans began to move to the outskirts of towns abandoning the village social organization. African males began to leave the villages and move far off to work on farms or in mines. The urbanization of Africans had begun. The distinction of tribal land was on the decline.

By 1958, when the Albrights arrived, there were estimated to be

about two and half million Africans in Southern Rhodesia. Twelve Africans for every white person. One hundred and seventy Africans for every Asian. The Africans had no voice in the government of the colony, no position in the companies that ran the mines, and no rights to purchase agricultural land as did the white settlers. The Africans had no money to invest in commercial ventures, no capital to start a store or factory, and no means to get


By 1958…there were…twelve Africans for every white person.


a bank loan. By law, they were not allowed to learn the technological skills to operate large machinery, design buildings, construct a bridge, practice modern medicine, or invent a new technology. They were subject to the British government, the British military might, and the British systems of laws. But, worse, they were at the mercy of the economy of the white people. And that economy was merciless.

In 1958, there were two very divergent views of the condition of Southern Rhodesia. On the

one end, the British colonists were very proud of the developed and flourishing country that they had built from nothing but the ‘untamed bush and open plains’. Many of the colonists were second or third generation African born and considered Southern Rhodesia their native country by all birth rights. They were British only by blood lineage. Their greatest mistake was making the resident Africans non-citizens and non-skilled workers. They should have been preparing the Africans for a day when they too would be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a military general, a CEO, and a Prime Minister (or President).

But, one cannot fault just the British. The French, Germans, Portuguese, Italians and Dutch

treated Africans almost the same way in their African colonies. It fit the purpose of a colony, which was to extract all the resources as possible and send them to the over lording European country. The European country could not allow the Africans to gain power and stop the flow of wealth out of ‘their’ colony. Yes, what the Europeans did to the resident natives was wrong, but the Americans treated the American Indians even worse. The United States purposefully killed off and relocated entire Native American tribes in order to gain the resources. Some in Congress even wanted to keep Mexico as an American colony after the Mexican-American War. Instead, the US took from Mexico present day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California because of the resources that those lands held. And the treatment of African peoples in America first through slavery, then through segregation, was despicable to say the least. So, one cannot fault just the British on their wrong treatment of the Africans.

On the other end, the Africans shared little pride in

this country that the whites called Southern Rhodesia. To the Africans it was an arrangement that had gone from bad to worse. They first welcomed the European settlers because they realized that their basic subsistence living could be greatly improved through European agriculture,

household goods such as metal pans, medicines, textiles, and technologies with things as simple as matches. Then the Africans began to realize that these improvements came with a cost: the loss of their lands and the loss of their tribal structure. As the Africans were pushed further and further away from the centers of political and economic power, a new reality set in: they were only suppose to be the lowest level worker and never a manager or higher in this new structure.


As the Africans were pushed further and further away from the centers of political and economic power, a new reality set in…


To the African, the broad, paved streets, high rise downtown buildings, electricity and water service, parks with monuments, movie theaters, universities, museums, sports leagues, department stores with escalators, fancy restaurants, radio stations, social societies, daily newspapers, disciplined police force, and a wealthy assortment of businesses and industries meant little because none of these were there for them.

The African’s great mistake was both complacency and materialism. They accepted the

yoke of being a sub-citizen too easily, almost willingly, because material things, such things like bicycles, radios, shoes, fancy clothes, mirrors, and much, much more, were a powerful lure to accept the yoke. Yes, the British did bind them with military superiority, taxes, and laws. But the African should have applied pressure and resistance on all sides with the determination that Gandhi had in India. Their future generations did this with success as the reader will see.

It was into this colony with its dual society (Asians and mixed

races were inconsequential at that time) that the Albright family arrived. Buddy and Jean with the call to minister to the African quickly found out that the African was disregarded in his own land. They saw very quickly that it was a very divided country. They learned that it was acceptable to share Christianity with the African, to teach the African about the Bible and Christian songs, to visit with the African, and to help the African with gifts of food, clothing, and medicine, but it was not acceptable to treat the African as an equal. It stunned them. Buddy noted that the only place of equality in the entire country was at the cash register, they all paid the same prices. It hurt Buddy to see 600 to 700 African children huddled outside the only African high school in the city, trying to claim one of the 150 places offered by the school. Contact with the African had to occur in an African church, African home, African hospital, or African school. Africans were not allowed into white churches, hospitals or schools, unless they worked there. Africans were only suppose to enter into white homes through the back door or servants’ entrance, and they could never spend a night in the home of a white24.

It was a situation that Buddy and Jean detested.

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:12-13 NIV

24 The Albright’s home was reported to the police by the neighbors across the street for having Africans visit too often, and even entering through the front door. Sam Jones smoothed it all over by explaining that the Albrights were learning an African language which required some teaching at the house by an African.


…the only place of equality in the entire country was at the cash register…


Reference Sources:

1) Brelsford, W. V. 1960. Handbook to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Cassell and Company, Ltd., London, England. 800p.

2) Letters to Cecil and Georgia Flowers from Jean. 1958. Nov 1.

3) Personal Interview of Buddy and Jean Albright. 2000. Microcassette #1. Interviewer:

Ray Albright


4) Personal Communications with Buddy and Jean Albright. 2004 – 2006.

In the Light of His Word - Southern Appalachian Cooperative ...

Documents

Transcript of In the Light of His Word - Southern Appalachian Cooperative ...