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5 - Christianity, status and respectability
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Summary
That polymath millenarian Dr Johannes van der Kemp, the first missionary to the Eastern Cape, taught his Khoisan converts to sing the psalms. One of the favourites of these men and women struggling to escape from their de facto bondage to European settlers was Psalm 118, which runs in part:
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?/ The Lord taketh my part with them that hate me./ It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man./ It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes./ All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them./ They compassed me about; yea they compassed me about but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them … The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner./ This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
(verses 6–11; 22–3)They also appreciated Psalm 134:
Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord/ Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord./ The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion.
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- Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870A Tragedy of Manners, pp. 94 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999