African-American Presbyterian missionary brought reform to the Congo

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African-American Presbyterian missionary brought reform to the Congo

William Sheppard: Missionary to the Belgian Congo, 1890-1910
by Michael Parker | Mission Crossroads

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of Mission Crossroads magazine, which is printed and mailed free to subscribers’ homes three times a year by Presbyterian World Mission.

William H. Sheppard, his wife, Lucy, and their children, ca. 1900. (Photo courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society)

Early in our Presbyterian history of international mission, William Sheppard took on the challenge of evangelism in a distant, unknown land. His faith helped to build the church; his advocacy for the Congolese changed the world.

Though often neglected today, William Sheppard (1865–1927) was an important black leader and the first African-American to serve as a missionary in central Africa. He played a crucial role in exposing the scandal of Belgian King Leopold II’s depredations in the Congo, a story revived in popular culture by Adam Hochschild’s 1998 bestseller, King Leopold’s Ghost.

Sheppard was born in Waynesboro, Virginia, about a month before the end of the Civil War. In 1880, at the age of 15, he attended the Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Industrial Institute (later Hampton University) and then Tuscaloosa Theological Institute (later Stillman College) in Alabama, graduating in 1886. After serving for a year at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, Alabama, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. ordained him as a missionary.

The region of the Congo, which had only recently been explored, caught the attention of King Leopold II of Belgium. The Berlin Conference, held in 1884-85 to regulate European colonization and trade in Africa, officially recognized the king’s rule over the Congo Free State as a personal possession not subject to review by the Belgian government.

Sheppard, who arrived in the Congo in May 1890, was well aware that he was entering a region deadly to Westerners. The rivers and lakes were filled with crocodiles and hippopotami, and the dense forests with elephants and panthers. One was not safe at home, as the houses were invaded by scorpions, chigoes (small fleas or “jiggers”) and snakes. Common illnesses included deadly “blackwater fever” and malaria. Sheppard suffered 22 bouts of malaria in his first two years.

Continued: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/african-american-presbyterian-missionary-brought-reform-congo/