South Africa: Chronology

Joseph Richards preached in Cape Town while en route to his mission in British India.

Brigham Young called Elders Jesse C. Haven, Leonard I. Smith, and William H. Walker to open a mission in South Africa.

About one month after their arrival in Cape Town, Haven, Smith, and Walker climbed Lion’s Head to dedicate the country for missionary work.

Joseph Patterson and John Dodel, the first converts in South Africa, were baptized.

Johanna Langeveld Provis was baptized. She was the first of a few early converts of mixed race as well as the first of a few early Dutch or Afrikaans–speaking converts in Cape Colony.

The Mowbray Branch, the first branch in Africa, was organized.

Jesse Haven, in his role as mission president, published a Dutch translation of his tract A Warning to All to launch an effort to reach Afrikaners.

Haven organized the Perpetual Emigrating Fund at the Cape of Good Hope. Within two years, about 200 South African converts immigrated to Utah.

As the first group of missionaries to serve in South Africa left the country, they left behind six operating branches.

Additional groups of missionaries continued preaching in Cape Colony. Eli Wiggill, the last missionary to serve in the Cape in the 19th century, left in March 1873.

Missionaries returned. Within three years, they preached in all four of the colonies that would soon merge into the Union of South Africa.

At the urging of a Zulu convert, South African Mission president Ralph Badger wrote a letter seeking permission to begin missionary efforts among black South Africans. Church leaders responded that black converts should be welcomed into the Church but declined to launch active missionary efforts.

The first meetinghouse in South Africa was constructed as an addition on the mission home, a building members called “Cumorah.”

During an influenza pandemic, mission president Nicholas G. Smith and a missionary named Aaron U. Merrill traveled through the city blessing and ministering to members.

The Relief Society was introduced in South Africa under the direction of Annie M. Funk Sessions.

William and Janetta Brummer of Johannesburg served as the first missionary couple called from South Africa.

Johanna Fourie, then unbaptized but interested in the Church, accepted a calling to organize the first Primary in South Africa. Almost two years later Fourie was baptized and set apart to preside over Primaries throughout the mission.

Mission president Richard E. Folland released all missionaries due to war conditions in Europe and elsewhere. In their absence, South African Saints played a larger role in administering the Church and performing missionary work. During the war years, fast offering and tithing donations more than doubled.

The National Party, campaigning on a platform of apartheid, won the general parliamentary election. Four and a half decades of racial segregation and limited rights for nonwhite South Africans followed.

The Church required all male members to certify that their ancestry was completely from outside of Africa before being ordained to the priesthood. President David O. McKay lifted this requirement when he visited South Africa in 1954.

David O. McKay visited South Africa—the first visit by a General Authority to the country.

The first young missionaries from South Africa—Alexander Comrie from Pretoria, Gerald de Wet from Johannesburg, and Brian Miller from Durban—departed on their missions.

Moses Mahlangu, the leader of a small group that had found and accepted the Book of Mormon in the early 1960s, established contact with Church members and mission leaders in Johannesburg.

The Transvaal Stake, the first stake in South Africa, was organized, with Louis P. Hefer as president.

The Book of Mormon was published in Afrikaans.

The Republic of South Africa was rededicated for preaching the gospel. President Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles offered the dedicatory prayer.

The First Presidency announced that all worthy men could “be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color” (Official Declaration 2).

The first majority Indian branch in South Africa was organized in Chatsworth.

The first majority black branch in South Africa was organized in KwaMashu.

President Spencer W. Kimball announced plans for a temple in Johannesburg.

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency dedicated the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. During the dedication, he prayed that “those who rule in the offices of government [would] be inspired to find a basis for reconciliation among those who are now in conflict.”

The Church published selections from the Book of Mormon in Zulu. A full translation was published in 2003.

General elections allowing citizens of all races to vote were held. Nelson Mandela was elected the Republic of South Africa’s first black president.

The Book of Mormon was published in Xhosa.

The Book of Mormon was published in Tswana.

Church membership in South Africa reached 50,000.

T. Jackson Mkhabela of Soweto was sustained as an Area Seventy.

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church, announced plans for a temple in Durban.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland issued a letter to Church leaders and members across Africa, announcing that the Church would recognize customary or traditional monogamous marriages, allowing people in customary marriages to receive ordinances.

Dorah Mkhabela of Soweto was called to the Church’s nine-member Young Women general board—in the same month her daughter Nyikiwe joined the Young Women organization.