Clement Martyn Doke

171

Clement Martyn Doke : biography

16 May 1893 – 24 February 1980

Doke served the University of the Witwatersrand until his retirement in 1953. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of letters by Rhodes University and the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1972.

The former missionary always remained devoted to the Baptist Church. He was elected President of the South African Baptist Union in 1949 and spent a year visiting churches and mission stations. He used his presidential address in condemning the recently established apartheid policy: I solemnly warn the Government that the spirit behind their apartheid legislation, and the way in which they are introducing discriminatory measures of all types today, will bring disaster upon this fair land of ours.

Selected publications

  • Ifintu Fyakwe Lesa (The Things of God, a Primer of Scripture Knowledge in Lamba), 1917.
  • The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia: A Study of their Customs and Beliefs. London: George G. Harrap, 1931.
  • Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects. Government of Southern Rhodesia: Government Blue Book, 1931.
  • Bantu linguistic terminology. London; New York Longmans, Green, 1935.
  • Textbook of Lamba Grammar. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1938.
  • Outline grammar of Bantu. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 1943.
  • Zulu–English Dictionary. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1948. (with Benedict Wallet Vilakazi)
  • The Southern Bantu languages. London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
  • Amasiwi AwaLesa (The Words of God in Lamba), 1959.
  • Contributions to the history of Bantu linguistics. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1961 (with D. T. Cole).
  • Trekking in South Central Africa 1913–1919. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1993.

Category:1893 births Category:1980 deaths Category:South African linguists Category:University of Pretoria alumni

Missionary in Lambaland

The Doke family had been engaged in missionary activity for the Baptist Church for some generations. His father Reverend Joseph J. Doke left England and travelled to South Africa in 1882, where he met and married Agnes Biggs. They returned to England, where Clement was born as the third of four children. The family moved to New Zealand and eventually returned to South Africa in 1903, where they later on settled in Johannesburg.

At the age of 18, Clement received a bachelor’s degree from Transvaal University College in Pretoria (now the University of Pretoria). He decided to devote his life to missionary activity. In 1913, he accompanied his father on a tour of north-western Rhodesia, to an area called Lambaland, now known as Ilamba. It is situated at the watershed of the Congo and Zambesi rivers, part of the district lay in Northern Rhodesia and part in the Belgian Congo State. The Cape-Cairo Railway threaded through its eastern portion; otherwise, travelling mostly had to be done on foot.

The Reverend William Arthur Phillips of the Nyasa Industrial Mission in Blantyre had established a Baptist mission there in 1905, serving an area of and 50,000 souls. The Dokes were supposed to investigate, whether the mission in Lambaland could be taken over by the Baptist Union of South Africa. It was on this trip that Doke’s father contracted enteric fever and died soon afterwards (Gandhi attended the memorial service and addressed the congregation). Clement assumed his father’s role.

The South African Baptists decided to take over Kafulafuta Mission, while its founder Reverend Phillips remained as superintendent. Clement Doke returned to Kafulafuta as missionary in 1914, followed by his sister Olive two years later.