South Africa Province

History Of The South African Community Organised For Mission 2023

The SNDdeNs living in South Africa became a Community Organised for Mission in May 2021, with an indult issued by the Congregational Leadership Team of the time. Since then, they (a small community of 6 SNDdeNs) have worked vigorously together, with all the resources available, to make this unfamiliar governance structure work for them as one of the smallest groups in the Congregation today.

Four of the current members of the group, Srs Marie Andre Mitchell, Marie Therese McLoughlin, Kay Bridge and Brigid Rose Tiernan have been in ministry in Southern Africa for more than sixty of the 116 years during which SNDdeNs have been in Southern Africa.

The first five Sisters arrived in Kroonstad in 1907

Having been missioned there from the British Province, which had already made a foundation across the Limpopo in 1899, at Empandeni, in what was later known as Southern Rhodesia, and now Zimbabwe. Until 1975, several foundations in Rhodesia (Embakwe and Pumula, Bulawayo), in Chikuni in Northern Rhodesia (1920-1948) and those in South Africa, Somerset West (1932-1944), Martindale (1932-1959), Venterpost West (1947-1969), Constantia 1948-1974), Orlando West (1959-1995), Swaziland (1969-1976), Westonaria (1970-2005), Kanye Botswana 1974-1987) Johannesburg (1975-present) were part of the same ‘mission’ region attached to the British Province. In the mid-1960s, the name given to this unit was first Pro-Province, then Vice-Province, and with the latter came some measure of ‘self-governance’. Before that there had been a heavy reliance on the British Province for human and financial resources, and for decisions about what happened in communities and ministries in the two countries (of Zimbabwe and South Africa).

In 1975, the Sisters in Rhodesia asked to separate from the Vice-Province and come once again under the umbrella of the British Province.

The SNDs in SA remained as an independent unit in the Congregation until 1999, when once again they were united with their Sisters across the Limpopo, in Zimbabwe, as what was known as the ZimSA unit. During this time, in response to their 1972 Mission Statement, the first of its kind in the Congregation, the SNDs in South Africa opened houses in Plumstead (1976-1987), in Melville Johannesburg (1979-2023), in Soweto (1987 – 2003) in Bethlehem (1992-2002) and in Maokeng (1996 – 2018). After 1975 SNDs in South Africa became increasingly conscious of the evil of the Apartheid regime, and actively worked with others for political change. Their house in Melville in the 1980s was often used as a ‘safe’ house for Black and White South Africans being pursued by the Apartheid security forces.

The 1970s saw the largest number of SNDs working in the 3 Southern Africa countries (Botswana, Swaziland, and S Africa), the British and locally born Sisters being joined by several Sisters from the US provinces in this period. From the 1980s, the number of SNDs in this part of the world has steadily declined, and no locally born women have joined the Congregation as vowed members. Sr Chantal Kisimbila, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was the first African sister to come as a missionary to this country, in 1994. Small numbers of South Africans have at different periods linked themselves with Julie Billiart’s spirit and the Sisters’ ministries, as Associates.

The faithful living out of the 1972 Mission Statement, referred to above, and the renewal of Religious Life called for by the Second Vatican Council, found the SNDs in SA embarking on a life-changing journey. They gave up institutional living and moved into small communities for the most part situated among the people they served. The change from a Religious habit into secular dress was an external indication of the interior changes taking place. The story of this transition is documented in JOURNEY UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS, written by Brigid Rose Tiernan and published in 2021.

Currently SNDs are responsible for Notre Dame St Peter’s school in Jordania, Kroonstad.

The school has its own Board of Governors who assist with oversight of policy and ethos. A Sister of Notre Dame serves on this Board as a representative of the Sisters of Notre Dame. The school is housed in the 1908 building which was a boarding school for ‘white’ girls and closed in 1972 in response to the Mission Statement. The building was given back to the SNDs in 2000, in a totally vandalized state, and has been repaired through collaboration with four Religious Congregations and the Diocese to its present fully functional state. It also houses the Maokeng township primary school, established in 1916. Currently 2 Sisters of Notre Dame remain as residents on the school property, serving the school community in various supportive and helpful ways when called upon.

Sr Obehi Ogbeide, a missionary from Nigeria and also resident in Kroonstad, currently directs the Caritas Office for the Diocese of Kroonstad, which incorporates various projects under the Diocese of Kroonstad development Agency.

In Johannesburg, 3 SNDs are resident and have recently purchased a cottage in a Methodist Retirement Village to replace the Melville House which has been their Johannesburg home since 1979.

The legal entity in South Africa that holds the SNDdeN assets, and manages the SA portion of the Jubilee Fund, is known as the Notre Dame Foundation (NDF). Three lay women, with expertise in education, law and finance serve with the SNDs on the Management Committee of the NDF.

The archives with material dating back to 1899 are housed in the renovated Convent in Kroonstad.

Much of the material in the archives has been digitized and is housed in the Cloud.