The Church in South Africa
Latter-day Saint missionaries first preached in South Africa in 1852. A few South Africans were baptized by subsequent missionaries, establishing a foothold on the continent. Growth was slow until a revelation in 1978 ended the practice of restricting priesthood ordination for men of African descent. Church membership now reflects the country’s racial diversity.
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History of the Church in South Africa
In 1852 Brigham Young called three missionaries to preach in the Cape of Good Hope. Over the next three years, they established six branches in and around Cape Town, where members kept the faith in the face of intense local opposition. Most early members ultimately emigrated, but a few were still in South Africa when missionaries returned in 1903 after a long absence. Over the next three decades, members established Church programs in their branches and shared the gospel in their communities and in other parts of southern Africa.
In the 1850s and early 1900s, there were a handful of members of the Church in South Africa who were of mixed race despite the Church’s restriction on priesthood ordination for black men, but after apartheid began in 1948, Church contact with non-white South Africans became increasingly rare. In the 1960s, as members in Johannesburg laid the foundation for the country’s first stake, a group of black believers in the Book of Mormon who had not yet been baptized met on their own in Soweto. Racial integration of congregations and official Church activity in townships began only after the 1978 revelation extending priesthood and temple blessings without regard to race.
Black, white, mixed-race, and Asian members celebrated the dedication of the Johannesburg South Africa Temple together in 1985. Members have brought the unique strengths of their diverse life experience to the Church, “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). In 2016, as the Church continued to grow, ground was broken in Durban for the country’s second temple.
Stories of Faith
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Notes
- “‘Break the Soil of Bitterness’: One Woman’s Quest for Healing,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
- Buckley, Jay H. “‘Good News’ at the Cape of Good Hope: Early LDS Missionary Activities in South Africa.” In Go Ye into All the World: The Growth and Development of Mormon Missionary Work, edited by Reid L. Nielson and Fred E. Woods. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, 2012, 253–86.
- McBride, Matt, and James Goldberg, “Learning to Listen: The First Integrated Branches in South Africa.” Ensign, July 2017.
- Haven, Jesse. Journals, 1852–92, manuscript. Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
- Turley, Richard E., Jr., and Jeffrey G. Cannon. “A Faithful Band: Moses Mahlangu and the First Soweto Saints.” BYU Studies 55, no. 1 (2016): 8–38.