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Literacy at South African Mission Stations

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Johan Fourie; Robert Ross; Russel Viljoen (2012). Literacy at South African Mission Stations. ERSA Working Paper 284. Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA).
Type working paper
Scope Comparative and methods
Method econometric
Period studied 1838–1849
Regions Cape Colony, Western Cape, Eastern Cape
Themes education human capital, origins segregation, agriculture land, labour markets wages, methods data sources, comparative theory
Citation key fourie2012

Argument

Using the 1849 census of Cape Colony mission stations (about 4,400 residents), the paper measures literacy directly and numeracy indirectly through age-heaping. Individual-level linear probability models show that age, arrival before or after emancipation, arrival before age 16, and gender all affect literacy. Even after these controls, the missionary society running the station matters. The LMS, Wesleyan, Rhenish and Free Church stations outperform the South African Missionary Society, and the Wesleyans do best. The authors argue that missions gave ex-slaves and Khoekhoe literacy as a route out of the worst farm labour conditions. They also argue that literacy there compared well with other ex-slave societies in the Americas, so non-white education was not inherently deficient. Variation within Protestantism is flagged as a gap in the Protestant-versus-Catholic literature.

Evidence and method

The 1849 census of mission stations, printed in the Cape Legislative Council's 'Master and Servant: Addenda...' (1849). Magistrates recorded name, age, sex, occupation, residency and literacy. Literacy was tested by having residents read Dutch Bible verses. Numeracy is inferred from age-heaping (Whipple and ABCC indices). Station-level and individual-level data are analysed, with Engerman and Sokoloff (2011) figures for American cities and countries used for comparison.

Findings

  • Literacy falls sharply with age cohort. (p. 6)

    While close to half of all 13 to 22 year-olds could read, less than 10% of individuals older than 63 could.

  • Literacy varied enormously between stations. (p. 6)

    while the 388 individuals at Zoar only attain a literacy rate of 4.9%, the 191 residents of Enon has a 48.7% literacy rate.

  • The South African Missionary Society was the weakest performer. (p. 6)

    clearly paid little attention to education, their subjects attaining a literacy rate of only 5.7%.

  • Literacy and the age-heaping numeracy measure are only weakly related, so age-heaping is a rough proxy for human capital. (p. 7)

    either literacy and numeracy were not generated by the same education processes, or numeracy — measured through age heaping — is only a very rough proxy for human capital acquisition

  • Arriving at a station after emancipation lowers the probability of being literate. (p. 8)

    a person who arrived after 1838 at a station would have 12.6% lower probability of being literate in 1849.

  • Arriving at a station as a child raises the probability of being literate. (p. 8)

    a person arriving at a missionary station before their 16th birthday has a 24% higher likelihood of being literate, ceteris paribus.

  • Wesleyan stations show the largest society effect relative to the South African Missionary Society. (p. 8)

    Wesleyan Methodist station rather than a South African Missionary Society station increases the probability of being literate by 34%, ceteris paribus.

  • Women were more literate than men, which the authors read as consistent with Nunn's finding on female education. (p. 9)

    Males consistently perform worse than females on literacy scores.

  • Most employable residents worked for farmers, even though stations were accused of tying up labour. (p. 10)

    In fact, as the census made clear, most of those on the mission who could work for the farmers did do so

  • Post-emancipation rural labour was bifurcated, and literacy gave access to the better-off segment. (p. 10)

    The years after the emancipations (of both slaves and Khoekhoe, through Ordinance 50) saw an increase in the bifurcation of the rural labour force, which had begun before 1828.

  • Mission residents were not representative of all ex-slaves and Khoekhoe. (p. 10)

    The mission station inhabitants were certainly not typical of the mass of ex-slaves and Khoekhoe in the Cape Colony

  • Four societies outperformed the South African Missionary Society and the Moravians. (p. 12)

    were more successful at delivering literacy to their subjects than the South African Missionary Society (the reference group)