[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”HEADER – ROW” module_class=”HEADER-FIXXXX” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ collapsed=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text module_class=”ip-text-headers” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ text_font=”||||||||” header_font=”||||||||” z_index_tablet=”500″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” link_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” quote_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.21.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||15px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”History in Kenya” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ header_3_text_color=”#005594″ header_3_font_size=”28px” header_3_line_height=”1.2em” z_index_tablet=”500″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” link_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” quote_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_2_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_2_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_2_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_3_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_3_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_3_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_4_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_4_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_4_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_5_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_5_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_5_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_6_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_6_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_6_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
After a four-day train journey from Cape Town to cover 1100 miles into Africa from the coast, and a three-week sea voyage from Southampton for that journey of 5319 miles. The railway line from Cape Town to Bulawayo had been completed two years earlier so the journey didn\u2019t have to be made by ox wagon. The Sisters had been sent from the British Province, after being blessed by the Mother General in Namur, in response to a request from the Jesuits. In 1895 a similar number of SNDs had gone from Belgium to the Congo, to work with the Jesuits in Kimwenza. In 1899 the Jesuits were trying to evangelise the people of Matabeleland, in what was known as their Zambezi Mission Territory. For many of the Matabele people who lived in that part of the world, these five Sisters were the first European women they had ever seen. Three Jesuits had been living in Empandeni, on land given to them by Matabele Chief Lobengula in 1888 and the Sisters were to be their partners in mission, educating the children of the families who lived there. Lobengula\u2019s central living place was near present day Bulawayo, sixty miles away.<\/p>\n
Very soon the Sisters saw that the people living at Embakwe, some nine miles from Empandeni, an outstation, also needed schooling and evangelizing, and when more sisters arrived from England in 1904 two of them moved there. While Dominican Sisters had accompanied the Pioneer Column from South Africa and settled in Salisbury (present day Harare) in 1890 to educate and care for the children of the settlers, SNDs were the first Women religious in the country to live and work among the indigenous people.<\/p>\n
One of the first missionaries in Embakwe, Josephine Bullen, writer of the beautifully illustrated diary that described the early years therei, became a foundation member of the Kroonstad community in South Africa in 1907. From Embakwe, a group of Sisters went north to Chikuni in 1921, in modern Zambia, again at the invitation of the Jesuits. They were to teach the local girls, and prepare them to be good Christian wives and mothers, alongside the SJs who focused on the boys and men. SNDdeNs were in Chikuni until 1948, and during this time they played a significant part in the foundation of a Congregation of Sisters, the Handmaids of our Blessed lady, that continues to serve the Zambian people in several dioceses in that country.<\/p>\n
A boarding school was opened in Embakwe for Coloured children, and SNDs leaving Empandeni to the Precious Blood Sisters, joined the little group already there and developed the mission at Embakwe with the CMM Fathers. As well as the schools for African and Coloured children, they opened a small clinic which offered basic health and maternity care to the surrounding people. SNDdeNs left Embakwe in 1978, when the mission was attacked and closed during the Liberation war. They did not return to it when it was reopened some years later.<\/p>\n
Sr Ignatius Julie Jackson, was transferred from Kroonstad to Bulawayo to open and be Principal of the newly established St Bernard\u2019s Secondary School in Pumula. She held this position until 1994, and under her leadership the school grew and flourished. Several Sisters of Notre Dame joined her for shorter and longer periods, the most unforgettable of whom was Sr Ann of St Rita Doyle. Sr Ann was a South African by birth who joined St Bernard\u2019s staff in 1970, and who died in Pumula convent in 2021.<\/p>\n
Two SNDdeNs who had been missionaries in Embakwe when the mission was attacked and closed, came to Harare, followed a training programme at Wadzanai, and at the end of it, chose Braeside Parish as their domicile. Both Srs Anne Jeffers and Anthony Larkin gave themselves wholeheartedly to parish and Archdiocesan activities, Sr Anne also being Director for a time of the CATORUZI programme (Catholic Auxiliary Teachers for Rural Zimbabwe). This programme, in the early 1980s was responsible for bringing experienced missionaries to serve in different schools in the rural areas as part of the Catholic Church\u2019s commitment to the post-Liberation War\u2019s reconstruction programme. SNDdeN missionaries came for short term periods from Britain and the USA, and All Souls Mission in Mutoko (1983-88) and Regina Mundi School, Gwaai (1990-1995) were two Catholic rural schools that welcomed SNDdeNs in this period. St Luke\u2019s hospital in Lupane was also the beneficiary of SNDdeN service, the longest serving person there being SNDdeN Associate Clemmy Jean Smith, 1982-1996.<\/p>\n
Seven Sisters of Notre Dame, among whom were Claire Callahan, Fredericka Jacob, Agnes Mary Sheridan, Rosemary Wach, Frances Randall and Therese Gerard Kleh were on the staff of what is now Kenyatta University between 1966 and 1984. Their ministry went beyond the classroom not only with the students but also with other staff, the workers and their families. The last Sisters withdrew when there were graduate Kenyans ready to take their place.<\/p>\n
In Bulawayo, the (Arch)Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Emthonjeni, had been given to SNDdeN for their management and development between the years of 1985 and 2011. At different periods Sr Michelle Henault (Ca) and Sr Chiaki Itoh (Jap) directed it, and many of the courses offered from it.<\/p>\n
The Sisters began to promote local vocations to the Congregation in earnest. Sr Chiaki Itoh from the Japanese province was chosen for formation training, and she acted as novice directress for the first Zimbabwean Sisters. She was later joined by Sr Liliane Seko from the DRC. A small house had been built on the church-owned land in Pumula to serve as novitiate and continued as such until Sr Chiaki\u2019s acquisition of the house and property in Manningdale, Bulawayo East in 2001. It was ill health that finally saw Chiaki return to Japan, and Liliane\u2019s election onto the Congregational Leadership Team in 2008 meant a change was needed in novitiate formation. For a short while Sisters in South Africa stepped into the \u2018initial formation training\u2019 gap, until the Kenya unit, itself with a growing number of local SNDdeN made their novitiate in Nairobi available to the most recent groups of Zimbabwean born Sisters.<\/p>\n
Despite always being a small group of Sisters in the country, SNDdeNs made a significant contribution to Catholic Education in their Embakwe and Pumula schools and have been able to cooperate with other Religious Congregations and Diocesan projects in a variety of ways of evangelization.<\/p>\n
At the level of governance, Zimbabwe and South Africa, both foundations from Britain, were \u2018managed\u2019 together until 1975. For the next twenty-five years Zimbabwe was a separate ND unit, and then in 2001 formed the ZimSA unit with South Africa. This arrangement was judged to be unviable in 2021, and Zimbabwe is now a ND Community organized for Mission.<\/p>\n
i Empandeni Interlude,1899-1903, transcribed by Brigid Rose Tiernan, 2008. Published by Cluster Publications, Pietermaritzburg.<\/p>\n
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Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur In ZimbabweFive SNDdeNs arrived at Plumtree station early on the morning of 24 June1899 After a four-day train journey from Cape Town to cover 1100 miles into Africa from the coast, and a three-week sea voyage from Southampton for that journey of 5319 miles. The railway line from Cape Town to Bulawayo had been completed two years earlier so the journey didn\u2019t have to be made by ox wagon. The Sisters had been sent from the British Province, after being blessed by the Mother General in Namur, in response to a request from the Jesuits. In 1895 a similar number of SNDs had gone from Belgium to the Congo, to work with the Jesuits in Kimwenza. In 1899 the Jesuits were trying to evangelise the people of Matabeleland, in what was known as their Zambezi Mission Territory. For many of the Matabele people who lived in that part of the world, these five Sisters were the first European women they had ever seen. Three Jesuits had been living in Empandeni, on land given to them by Matabele Chief Lobengula in 1888 and the Sisters were to be their partners in mission, educating the children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":14047,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-11659","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11659\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sndden.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}