FRENCH MISSION OF SENDELINGSPOS

Let us throw ourselves in the footsteps of the first French missionaries located north of the Orange River. Pastors Prosper Lemue and Samuel Rolland were sent to Cape Town in 1829 by the Society of Evangelical Missions of Paris. After a long and perilous journey to the Transvaal, they get the head of the tribe hurutshe permission to build a mission. In February 1832, a solid building is erected near a vegetable garden: the evangelization of the Tswana is on the right track. This is where the terrible Mzilikazi comes from. He and his ndebele warriors réduisent the work of missionaries and hunt the Tswana. Pastor Rolland is soon found in Lesotho.

In 1836, other missionaries, Americans this time, rebuild Sendelingspos with permission from Mzilikazi, which will soon undergo severe correction from the Voortrekkers. The so-called «Mosega» battle will cost 500 warriors and some cows. Today, there is hardly anything left of this powder and blood story. You can go to the site, where some of the ruins are barely visible, near the railway. Leave Zeerust by R 27 to Mmabatho. Approximately 10 km after the exit of the city, take the track on the right side of the "Jagersfontein" sign. After 3 km, turn left following the indication «Sendelingspos». Continue on this track until it crosses an old track. Turn right and follow the rails about 300 meters. Then you can see some ruins in the field on the left and the sign "Sendelingspos", near the path on the right. Trying to imagine the lives of two French missionaries in this lost hole in the th century is not an easy exercise. Nothing recalls their passage. On the other hand, the Martha Washington Club of Joburg built a stele on the edge of the track to celebrate the work of American missionaries to the Ndebele (Matabele) and salute the memory of Mrs Wilson, "the first white woman who gave her life for the Transvaal".