Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy help: Christians of the Copperbelt

Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy help: Christians of the Copperbelt: Here is a surprising find -- a recent book on the internet archive, in full: Christians of the Copperbelt. For the purposes of this blog, the bonus is that the book has an index including a list of names of people who were influential in the early church on the Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia.

This account by John V. Taylor and Dorothea A. Lehmann was published in 1961 as part of the World Mission Study series. The book is based on an eight and a half month study undertaken in 1958 and particularly at Nchanga Mine in Chingola and in the township of Kansuswa near Mufulira. Although mainly about the Copperbelt, the authors also worked in rural areas elsewhere in the country, including Northern and Luapula Provinces. The authors say that the time they allowed for their work was too little and that suspicion of political motive hampered their success in interviewing local people. Nevertheless, there will be much of interest here to anyone with missionary roots, to help understand the story of the growth of the Christian church in Zambia, particularly at the time of the transition to independence, and to help understand the impacts of urbanisation. Also of interest is the study of Alice Lenshina's Lumpa Church before its bloody clash with UNIP just before independence in 1964.