Robert Moffat (missionary)

Robert Moffat ( born December 21, 1795 in Ormiston, East Lothian ( Haddingtonshire ), Scotland; † August 8, 1883 in Leigh, Kent, England) was a Scottish missionary.

After training as a gardener, he joined in 1816 the Congregationalist London Missionary Society, which first sent him into Namaqualand. In 1819 he went back to Cape Town, where he married Mary Smith ( 1795-1870 ), the daughter of a former employer. In 1820, he built the station Kuruman the most important missionary center in Southern Africa during the 19th century.

He translated the first Bible in an African language ( Setswana ), then it was printed in Kuruman. In order to be able to understand, learned first converts to read and write, Kuruman thus became a training center. Moffat had good relations with the Matabele king Mzilikazi.

His daughter Mary married in Kuruman on January 2, 1845 David Livingstone.

In 1870 he returned to Britain, where he worked as a lobbyist for the overseas mission.

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