The Black Priest Who Brought down King Leopold
William Henry Sheppard was one of the earliest African Americans to become a missionary for the Presbyterian Church.
While in Africa he exposed the atrocities of colonialism.
#BHM
kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/p…
William Henry Sheppard was one of the earliest African Americans to become a missionary for the Presbyterian Church.
While in Africa he exposed the atrocities of colonialism.
#BHM
kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/p…
William Henry Sheppard (1865–1927) is often dubbed the "Black Livingstone" after the famed Scottish explorer of Central Africa.
notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplemen…
notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplemen…
William Morrison (left) and Dr. William Sheppard (right) with Bakuba witnesses who traveled to Kinshasa for the Sheppard-Morrison trial in 1909.
(Courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC office)
(Courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC office)
Of the famous Europeans and Americans to work and travel in Central Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Presbyterian missionary William Henry Sheppard has, arguably, one of the most compelling personal histories ..
As an American of African descent born in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, who was educated in an institution conceived during the Reconstruction Era (1868-1880), and who went on to preach the Christian gospel in Africa to Africans ....
... he was joined in his mission by other Blacks who themselves had been slaves or were “free persons of color”.
cairn.info/revue-afrique-…
An Extraordinary Generation : The Legacy of William Henry Sheppard, the “Black Livingstone” of Africa
cairn.info/revue-afrique-…
An Extraordinary Generation : The Legacy of William Henry Sheppard, the “Black Livingstone” of Africa
“He hunted hippos, discovered lost cities, and amassed the West’s first collection of Kuba art at the same time that he fought tropical diseases, survived many attempts on his life, and raised international awareness of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.”
“He is mostly unknown today, partly because in 1910 he was sent home in disgrace by the Presbyterian Foreign Missions, which according to Kennedy was as affronted by Sheppard’s advocacy of human rights as by the illegitimate African child he fathered. “
Mrs. Sheppard’s role in the mission: She wrote, in 1900 concerning efforts at that time among the #Bakuba people:
"The people were in a state of mourning another tribe invaded the capital, killed the royal family, and only one heir to the throne escaped.”
"The people were in a state of mourning another tribe invaded the capital, killed the royal family, and only one heir to the throne escaped.”
The Trial of 1909
In 1909, William Morrison and William Sheppard were sued by the Campagnie du Kasai (CK) for libel.
williammorrisonproject.wordpress.com/morrisons-life…
In 1909, William Morrison and William Sheppard were sued by the Campagnie du Kasai (CK) for libel.
williammorrisonproject.wordpress.com/morrisons-life…
“The libel in question was a short article published by William Sheppard the year before in the Kasai Herald, a small missionary run journal. Sheppard’s article had claimed that injustices were being committed against the Bakuba”.
