In the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions edited by Gerald H. Anderson, there are two entries on the Doke family: J. J. Doke and Clement M. Doke. The former was the father of Olive Doke and the latter was her brother. Although both did much for the work of missions in Central Africa, the work of Olive Carey Doke far surpasses theirs.
Olive Doke came as a missionary to live in the jungles of what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) as a single young lady of twenty-five years, having left the more prosperous city of Johannesburg in 1916. She remained single all her life. She immersed herself in gospel labors in Lambaland (in what is now the Copperbelt Province) until her retirement in 1959 and her death in 1972. She was the first missionary of the South Africa Baptist Missionary Society (SABMS) to remain on the mission field after her official retirement.
So who was Olive Doke? Olive Carey Doke was born in Bristol, England, on September 26, 1891. She was the second-born child and only daughter of the Rev. Joseph John Doke and Agness Hannah Biggs. She had three brothers, William Henry, Clement Martyn, and Vincent Comber. Part of her training in toughness must have come from growing up among three boys. She told a journalist later in life, “You see, I had to be a tomboy at an early age. So I had good training.” [2]
Doke grew up with the theme of missions all around her. On her father’s side, she was related to William Knibb, a nineteenth-century missionary to Jamaica who championed the fight against slavery there. On her mother’s side, she was related to William Carey, the celebrated “founder of modern missions.” Her middle name says it all.
J. J. Doke, Olive’s father, wanted to be a missionary but was prevented from doing so by his poor health. He started his pastoral ministry in England (Chudleigh and Bristol) and then went on to pastor in New Zealand for a few years. It was during these years in New Zealand that Olive Doke was converted to Christ. The family finally settled down in South Africa.
Arriving In Central Africa
Soon after settling in South Africa, in 1913, J. J. Doke and his son, Clement, came to Northern Rhodesia on a fact-finding mission. This was a few years after two British Baptist missionaries, Henry Masters and William Arthur Phillips, opened the first Baptist mission in Kafulafuta, central Africa, in 1905. News had reached J. J. Doke about these two lonely and poorly supplied Baptist missionaries who were seriously thinking about abandoning the mission due to lack of supplies—hence the fact-finding mission.
After spending time with the two missionaries, J. J. Doke and his son Clement returned to South Africa. However, while passing through Southern Rhodesia, J. J. Doke died. Clement arrived home alone. He reported back to the SABMS and offered himself as a missionary to Lambaland. In 1914, he was sent there, together with a few other missionaries.
In February 1915, Olive Doke also offered her services to the SABMS as a missionary to Kafulafuta. It took another year and a half before she finally arrived in Lambaland in July 1916 and joined her brother there. Altogether, about six missionaries were now at the station.
It needs to be noted here that this was a heroic step for Miss Doke. She went from the bright lights of the city in well-developed Johannesburg to live in a mud hut in the central African forests with no electricity or running water. She was the first white woman that most villagers would have ever seen. She also had her own cultural shock. She often referred to the half-naked Africans all around her when she wrote back home at this time.
Writing about her arrival on the mission field, she said, “It was in the early hours of the morning that the train came to a halt at Ndola siding, and I was dumped out with all my bags and baggage in the long grass. I had arrived in the area of my life’s work. A group of half-naked Africans followed my brother, who had come to meet me, and they all came to greet me, a little awestruck.” [3]
One of the “half-naked Africans” was a boy of fourteen years who was to become her domestic servant for the next forty-two years until he died. On her first night in the African jungle, they stopped on the way to the mission station and her brother Clement preached to the villagers. She wrote, “The big fire showed up the naked bodies and gleaming eyes of the people as they gathered and seated themselves ready to listen to the message. It made a lump come into my throat to hear those people singing hymns to familiar tunes away there in the African forest. I longed to be used to bring many to a knowledge of salvation…. Now my new life had really begun.” [4]
Later, upon arriving in Kafulafuta, she wrote, “Oh, how happy I was to be there where the Lord had called me and to realise that at last I was at Kafulafuta. My heart was full of praise and thanksgiving.” [5]
Early Mission Work
When Miss Doke arrived in Lambaland, the Lamba-speaking people were steeped in spirit worship, witchcraft, human sacrifice, live burials, and cannibalism. They were also very scattered because of their fear of slave traders. In the 30,000-square miles covered by Lambaland, the population density was about three to four people per square mile. Hence, the missionaries had to cover large areas in order to evangelize the people.
There was no mechanized form of transport and the missionaries had to walk hundreds of miles on foot in the African forests infested with wild animals of every description. African porters would often carry their camping equipment and, from time to time, would also carry them on machilas. This was how Miss Doke spent the best part of her life as a missionary.
Miss Doke was licensed to carry a gun. On these trips, she would often shoot antelopes for food. On one occasion, while very weak from illness, she shot two antelopes with one bullet. For safety, she often shot snakes. The longest she ever shot was a twelve-foot-long python.
Like most missionaries in those days, Miss Doke had to learn the language of the people. She learned Lamba primarily because she wanted to share the Word of Life with the people in their own language. In due season, she learned it proficiently and could share God’s Word fluently in it. By 1921, she had participated in translating the entire New Testament into Lamba.
Miss Doke also participated in the writing of a Lamba grammar, a Lamba phrase book, and a collection of Lamba folklores and proverbs.
In time, the Lord began to honor the ministry of the missionaries, and a number of indigenous men and women came to profess faith in Christ and were baptized. Among the first ones was Kaputula Kasonga, a leper. He was given the name Paul upon his baptism in 1921 and became the foremost indigenous leader of Baptist work in its early years.
Writing about Paul some ten years later in Lambaland, the official newsletter of the mission, Miss Doke said, “Paul, as you know, is invaluable in this work; it is he who is in touch with them all, and it is on him I rely. While I have been away he has been able to make several trips, teaching and helping the people, advising them in their difficulties, staying with them for days at a time.” [6] This teamwork continued until Paul Kasonga died in August 1954.
Progress And Difficulties
At the beginning of the 1920s, Clement Doke had to return to South Africa. He had married a wife from there but her health was poor. She was often sick and it became unwise to remain on the mission field. Hence, he left his sister alone with other missionaries and returned home.
By 1925, only four missionaries were left: Arthur Phillips, Arthur and Frieda Cross, and Olive Doke. Phillips also left in 1926 due to poor health. Thus, whenever the Crosses left for South Africa, Miss Doke would remain as the only missionary on the field.
In the mid-1920s, copper was discovered in Lambaland. People from all over Africa and Europe besieged what was once a sparsely populated part of Northern Rhodesia. New towns were built with various industries providing services to the mines. By the middle of the twentieth century, Lambaland was totally transformed and most of it was now called the Copperbelt.
With these developments came all kinds of moral vices. Prostitution, alcohol abuse, and breakdown of family life became rampant. This new city life had a negative effect on the life of the villages around Lambaland. The missionaries lost a number of their converts to these vices. On one occasion, Miss Doke lost twenty-five girls in her school; they ran away to become concubines for the miners in the nearby mining town of Luanshya. She still soldiered on.
Doke had a strong passion for the women and girls in Lambaland. One reason for this was that she noticed how unconverted and unspiritual wives were having a very negative effect on their converted husbands. She thought that if she could minister to the girls while they were still young, she could have a greater impact on them. Hence, she began a school for girls.
Ira David Meier noted, “The women, Miss Doke realised, were in many cases holding their Christian husbands back in their faith, and began emphasising her work among them. She maintained, and later proved to be correct, that unless Lamba women were won for Christ, little progress would be made.” [7]
Doke threw her weight behind the school project as a way to reach the women. She wrote her own reading books. The school soon became well established and produced some of the first female leaders and teachers in the church in Lambaland. By 1965, about forty years after its commencement, this school had about two hundred girls, with almost half of them in boarding. Meier wrote, “In the school, Miss Doke was able to give continual and sound biblical teaching and it was her privilege to see, years later, many of her ex-pupils standing for Christ and also serving in positions of leadership. There were no other teachers save the missionaries themselves when the mission started.” [8]
The SABMS was often on the brink of handing over the mission to other mission organizations due to financial difficulties. However, Doke and the Crosses soldiered on. One of Doke’s major financial supporters was her mother. Her mother died in August 1929 on her way to South Africa after visiting Doke on the mission field. This was a big blow to Olive.
With the passing of years, the churches multiplied all over Lambaland. Doke spent her time training indigenous evangelists and church leaders at Kafulafuta as she knew that this was the only way to make progress. She prepared Bible notes and handled evening classes for them, which would initially last three weeks at a time. These evangelists and leaders would come to the mission station for these training sessions. She also went with them on evangelistic treks. This ministry went on for years.
About these training sessions, R. L. Frey wrote, “Those evening classes developed into three-week courses at Kafulafuta, which were extended to six weeks. The teaching was so essential, that church leaders were brought to the mission station for about six weeks for so-called ‘in-service training,’ after which they were awarded with a certificate.” [9]
For the next seventeen years, Doke had a long-running battle with her sending mission, the SABMS. They decided to move the mission from Kafulafuta to Fiwale Hill in 1934, but Doke could not see herself abandoning her girls’ school. She refused to move when the other missionaries moved to Fiwale Hill. She supported the new mission and often visited there, but she remained behind in Kafulafuta until the SABMS gave up in 1951. In the midst of all this, the SABMS sent Carina Bellin to work with Doke. The two worked very well together until Bellin retired to Australia in 1970, two years before Doke died.
A project that Doke was engaged in during these difficult years was that of leading the Initiation Ceremonies Committee of the General Missionaries Conference in 1939. Its task was that of investigating the initiation ceremonies in Northern Rhodesia and recommending what the churches should do in the light of biblical teaching. The work was completed in 1944. Doke concluded her report with these words: “Only God in their hearts can cast out the awful fear which binds them to this custom. The spreading of the gospel of light and love is the only answer and solution to this problem. Let us not be discouraged but press on.”
Part of Doke’s joy was when she finally witnessed the ordination of the first indigenous Baptist pastors in Northern Rhodesia. The three were Paul Kasonga, Anasi Lupunga, and Bob Litana. The ordination took place in 1953 and was conducted by a minister from South Africa.
Retirement And Final Years
When Doke knew retirement was drawing near, she looked back to the changes that had taken place since she came to serve in Lambaland. She wrote in 1956 in her unpublished autobiography, “When I first came to Lambaland, there was only one Lamba who could meet with us at the Lord’s table—but we praise God that at our recent Jubilee we gathered in His name a company nearly 600 and that was only representative.”
In 1957, Doke and others finished translating the whole Bible into Lamba. It finally came off the printing press in 1960 and was handed over to the church in Lambaland. She felt as if her work was finished. She wrote to the SABMS, asking that she be allowed to “remain at Kafulafuta after her retirement—with no missionary salary or status, just a small house—to carry on with translation work of her own.” [10] She was the only SABMS missionary to make such a request. In the end, it was granted and she remained in Kafulafuta.
In 1959, Doke finally officially retired. Three years later, while on a visit to New Zealand, she looked at the work that was now taking place independent of her involvement and blessed God for the role she had played in the establishment of the Baptist church in Northern Rhodesia. She wrote:
There have been wonderful trophies of grace and strong and dedicated leaders have emerged who are now able to shepherd the flock. A New Testament church is established under the leadership of the Nationals whom God has called out; and it in turn is going out to others. Church government and finance is in the hand of the African himself, and God is blessing the work….
The evangelistic work in the villages is now carried on by the African evangelists themselves and much more effectively than can be done by the Europeans…. The two ordained ministers are doing a grand work as they have the oversight of the many village churches…. It has been a wonderful experience to see the gradual working of the power of God through His Holy Spirit in the lives of those with darkened minds and hearts, and to witness their awakening. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. ‘Not I, but Christ.’ [11]Doke’s labors among the women had also paid off. She wrote in 1966, “In those early days the women were very difficult to reach. They had always had a subservient position and were so dull of understanding that it seemed impossible to arouse them to realise that this message we had brought was for them as well as the men. What a different picture today. The women are taking their part in evangelisation and there are many very fine speakers among them.” [12]
Appreciation Of Miss Doke
When Miss Doke returned from furlough after her eighteenth year on the mission field, she found the fledgling church and its leadership had a surprise for her. On December 24, 1933, they had a special service of thanksgiving for her ministry. They presented her with a letter of appreciation signed by all the church elders. It read,
To whom we love, Walona Olive Doke,
We, the members of the church at the Kafulafuta Mission, want to tell you that we love you very much because of your work in our midst. We thank God that He sent you to help us and live amongst us these eighteen (18) years. We pray that God may bless you abundantly and give you joy and send others to help you.This was repeated in 1941. The Lamba church expressed appreciation for her indefatigable labors after twenty-five years of missionary work in Lambaland. She had come to them when she was only twenty-five years old; she had now reached half a century. They again wrote a letter of recognition, signed it, and framed it. It was given to her on this occasion.
In 1953, Doke was presented with the Queen’s Honours Coronation medal. It was a complete surprise to her when the District Officer came to her girls school and asked them to assemble in the church briefly. Then when he was asked to say a few words, he pulled out the medal from the Queen of England and pinned it on her!
Four years later, in May 1957, an even greater honor from the Queen was bestowed on Doke. She was decorated with the insignia of the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). Again, having been immersed in missionary labors in the forests of Africa, this came as a complete surprise to her.
A year later, in 1958, Doke was elected as the president of the South African Baptist Women’s Association (BWA). So, for a whole year she travelled across South Africa and Rhodesia visiting the BWA branches. She also addressed Baptist women’s groups in England.
Perhaps the final appreciation and recognition that Doke received from the nationals in central Africa was on the day that Northern Rhodesia became independent and was renamed “Zambia” in 1964. The new Zambian indigenous leadership asked one white lady to lead the procession into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the commemorative activities; that lady was none other than Olive Carey Doke. This was eloquent proof that she was highly esteemed even at a time when the national sentiment was against whites, who were perceived as colonialists.
In 1966, on the fiftieth anniversary of Doke’s going to Lambaland as a missionary, the national newspaper of Zambia, a secular publication, carried a full page article on Doke. In the same year, she wrote in the South African Baptist magazine recounting fifty years of missionary labors and ended with the words, “What hath God wrought! How great Thou art!” [13]
At the age of eighty, Doke’s health deteriorated rapidly due to a heart condition. Her frame could no longer hold the spirit that had labored tirelessly for well over half a century. On March 17, 1972, she died quietly in her home; her remains were buried in Kafulafuta, the place where she had labored for most of her life. Thus was snuffed out a light that shone in central Africa and gave light to many who once walked in darkness.
In acknowledgment of her labors, Doke’s tombstone reads, “Olive Carey Doke (1891-1972), Baptist Missionary (1916-1972), baliliposele mukubaletela abalamba icebo iciweme caba Yesu Klistu” (“she was committed to bringing to the Lamba people the gospel of Jesus Christ”). Thus ended the life of this remarkable woman—a triumphant close to a great life indeed.
It is a great omission that Doke’s name is not even mentioned in the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Her father was never a missionary and her brother only served on the mission field for about ten years compared to Olive’s fifty-six years. There is yet no single published biography on her life. This omission ought to be rectified.
Notes
- This is part of a PhD study to be submitted to the University of Pretoria, under the supervision of Dr. Linzay Rinquest of the Cape Town Baptist Seminary under whom the study has been done.
- Peggy Jennings, “Little Miss Doke—Missionary Indomitable,” Horizon (July 1965): 13-15, 38.
- Olive C. Doke, “Fifty Years in Lambaland,” South African Baptist Magazine (September 1966): 6.
- Olive C. Doke, “unpublished autobiography” (1964), 4.
- Doke, “unpublished autobiography,” 8.
- P. C. Doke, “Picking up the threads,” Lambaland Newsletter, no. 58 (1931): 2.
- Ira David Meier, “The Dokes’ Contribution to Lambaland” (unpublished diploma, Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa, 1975), 57.
- Meier, “The Dokes’ Contribution to Lambaland,” 69.
- R. L. Frey, History of the Zambia Baptist Association 1905-2005 (Limbe, Malawi: Assemblies of God Press, 2009), 58.
- Roger Francis Kemp, “South African Baptist Missionary Society in Zambia: A Missiological Evaluation” (unpublished dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, 1987), 88.
- Olive C. Doke, “Boreham and the Doke Connection,” New Zealand Baptist (January 1963): 4.
- Doke, “Fifty Years in Lambaland,” 7.
- Doke, “Fifty Years in Lambaland,” 8.
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