| Administrative & Biographical History | Born at Aliwal North, Cape Colony [South Africa], 7th September 1876; son of the Rev John Smith (1840-1915) and his second wife Fanny Jeary (married 1874), Primitive Methodist missionaries; studied at Elmfield College, York; accepted for the ministry, 1897; Primitive Methodist missionary in Basutoland [Lesotho], South Africa, 1898-1889; Aliwal North 1899-1902; married Julia Anne (née Fitch), 3rd October 1899; joined the mission to the Baila-Batonga in northern Rhodesia [Zambia], 1902; at Nanzela [Zambia], 1902-1907; at Mexborough, Yorkshire, 1908-1909; pioneered the mission at Kasenga [Zambia], 1909-1915; reduced the Ila language to written form, made a grammar and dictionary, and translated most of the New Testament; returned to England, 1915; military chaplain in France, 1915-1916; seconded to the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1916-1939; initially its secretary in Rome, Italy; later at the Society's headquarters giving editorial supervision to Scripture translations in many languages; editorial superintendent, 1933-1939; a prominent anthropologist and pioneer of the study of indigenous African religious beliefs; founder member of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (later the International African Institute), 1926; President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1933-1935; retired from the church, 1939; taught in north America, at the Kennedy School of Missions, Hartford Seminary, and at Fisk University, 1939-1944; editor of Africa, journal of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1945-1948; honorary Doctor of Divinity from University of Winnipeg, c1937; honorary Doctor of Divinity, University of Toronto, 1942; died at Deal, Kent, 23rd December 1957.
Further Reading (selective):
Smith, E W, A handbook of the Ila language (commonly called the Seshukulumbwe), spoken in north-western Rhodesia, south-central Africa : comprising grammar, exercises, specimens of Ila tables, and vocabularies (1907);
Smith, E W, and Dale, Capt A M, The Ila-speaking peoples of northern Rhodesia (1920);
Smith, E W, The religion of lower races : as illustrated by the African Bantu (1923);
Smith, E W, The Christian mission in Africa : a study based on the work of the international Conference at le Zoute, Belgium, September 14th to 21st, 1926;
Smith, E W, The golden stool : some aspects of the conflict of cultures in modern Africa (1927);
Smith, E W, The way of the white fields in Rhodesia : a survey of Christian enterprise in Northern and Southern Rhodesia (1928);
Smith, E W, The secret of the African (1929);
Smith, E W, Exploration in Africa (1929);
Smith, E W, The shrine of a people's soul (1929);
Smith, E W, African beliefs and Christian faith : an introduction to theology for African students, evangelists and pastors (1936);
Smith, E W, The Mabilles of Basutoland (1939);
Smith, E W, Knowing the African (1946);
Smith, E W, The blessed missionaries : being the Phelps-Stokes Lectures delivered in Cape Town in 1949 (1950);
Smith, E W, Great lion of Bechuanaland : the life and times of Roger Price, missionary (1957);
Smith, J A, Sunshine and shade in central Africa (1907);
Young, W John, The quiet wise spirit : Edwin W. Smith, 1876-1957, and Africa (2002);
Young, W John, They Have Laid Hold of Some Essential Truths: Edwin W. Smith (1876-1957), A Wise Listener to African Voices (2004). |
| Description | Papers, 1877-1949, of Edwin W Smith, comprising Smith's typescript and manuscript translations from religious texts into the Ila language, 1905-c1915, manuscript account of Ila, 1902, and manuscript account of Primitive Methodist missions in Africa, c1929; Smith's general official correspondence files, 1901-1914, the subjects including mission activities and finance; press cuttings, notes, and manuscript by Smith on the Baila-Batonga mission [Zambia], 1890s-1910s; press cuttings on African, missionary, and Methodist affairs, 1897-1907, Smith's journal, 1898-1901, notes, typescripts and printed material, 1877-1924 and undated, by Smith and others on Ila and missionary work, and two manuscripts in Afrikaans, 1877 and undated; copy letters of the Rev John Smith, 1885-1886; undated photographs of misionary work in Aliwal North [South Africa], Basutoland [Lesotho], Nanzela and Kasenga missions [both Zambia]; a letter from Smith in Aliwal North [South Africa] to his mother, 1900; diary concerning Smith's journey to Kasenga [Zambia], 1909; Smith's diaries and journals recording his travels in North, Central & Southern Africa, Middle East and North America, 1929-1949. |