Robert Moffat

Robert Moffat (1795-1883), Scottish missionary to southern Africa and translator of the Bible. Born in Ormiston, Scotland, Moffat went to the Cape Colony, in what is now South Africa, in 1820. He was a gardener by training. He settled first in Lattakoo, then moved to Griquatown, and finally to Kuruman, where he built one of the foremost Protestant mission stations in Africa and a large stone church. He remained there for the rest of his life.

His earliest success was to convert the local chief to Christianity. He also labored to raise the living standards of the indigenous peoples by introducing improved methods of agriculture and irrigation. He had ten children, and his daughter Mary married the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Moffat became a lifelong friend of the Ndebele king, Mzilikazi, whom he visited in 1829 and 1835 in the Transvaal region before the Ndebele settled in Matabeleland (modern Zimbabwe). In 1859 Moffat established a mission in Matabeleland, but it was abandoned in 1870 when he retired.

He translated into Tswana first Saint Luke’s Gospel (published in 1830) and then the whole New Testament (1840), making Tswana one of the first Bantu languages to be written down. Among his writings are Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (1842) and Rivers of Water in a Dry Place (1863).