History of AME church in Southern Africa

Bishop Francis Herman Gow  was born in Cape Town 29 September 1887. He became the 74th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Francis Herman Gow completed both his primary- and secondary education in District Six, Cape Town. He left South Africa in 1904 to further his studies in America. He returned to South Africa to become principal of the Wilberforce Theological School in Johannesburg. On his return to Cape Town in 1934 he served at Bethel Memorial AME Church in District Six, Cape Town.

 

His father, Francis McDonald Gow, was a West-Indian citizen who immigrated to South Africa in the early 1880’s. Gow (Sr.) moved to District Six, Cape Town, where he became a full time photographer. When the AME Church was organised in District Six, Cape Town in 1898, Gow Sr. became a member. He was subsequently ordained as a minister of the AME Church and assigned as the second Pastor of Bethel Memorial in District Six. Until his death in 1931 Francis M Gow served for about two decades

 He married Louise Ballou of Richmond, Virginia. F.H. Gow attended Wilberforce University, Tuskegee Institute, Miami University and Lane Theological Seminary. He received the DD degree from Morris Brown College and the LLD-degree from Allen University. After the completion of his theological studies he served AME congregations in Cincinnati, Charleston, and West Virginia. While in America, Gow taught at Tuskegee Institute as a member of the Department of Music. He also served as pipe organist at the Alabama School.  Gow had become a United States citizen, a first lieutenant who fought in World War I, a pastor in Ohio and West Virginia, and an instructor at Tuskegee Institute, serving in World War 1.

 After the sudden death of Rev. Edward Tolityi Magaya on the 24th August 1924, Wilberforce Institute (later R.R. Wright theological seminary) needed a new principal. David Opperman, a  teacher and the vice principal, acted as a caretaker principal until the church could find a suitable candidate for the long term. While the church was engaged with finding a new principal, Bishop Gregg invited Revd Dr Francis Herman Gow who was, at the time, still in America.

 In 1925, Dr F.H. Gow was officially appointed as the fourth principal of Wilberforce, an office he was to retain for seven years (1925-1932). As headmaster, he was responsible for the overall administration of the school, the recruitment of teachers, the supervision of teaching, the attendance of all meetings of the school board, as well as the supervision of the maintenance of the schoolyard and buildings. Gow also handled the discipline of students and teachers, and complaints and inquiries from students, parents, and the general public.

In collaboration with the church, Gow registered the Wilberforce Postal Agency and established a post office at Wilberforce. Considering the significance and the central role that the postal system played at the time, this was a great achievement. This accomplishment was reported by the Bishop, who proudly said: ‘We have our own Post Office and the government has recently installed telephone and telegraph facilities, making Wilberforce one of its trunk line stations.’43 After the official opening, David Opperman was appointed as the Postmaster.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of Gow’s administration was to promote Wilberforce through music. The new principal raised the level of musical appreciation, wrote musical scores and participated in dramas that he personally wrote and produced. Wilberforce’s choir brought a great deal of prestige to the school and Gow put Wilberforce on the map when Columbia Records54 recorded the Wilberforce Choir singing four spiritual songs, including ‘Mary Don’t You Weep’ and ‘It’s Me O Lord.’ According to Erlmann, ‘these recordings constitute the earliest recorded evidence of spiritual singing in South Africa

Bishop Gow was also instrumental in sending AME missionaries to enhance the process of establishing the church in Namibia, then known as Southwest Africa after coming in contact with a small group of people in Walvis Bay holding services in the house of Martha Utusisise since 1925 and encouraging them to organise an AME Church. The establishment of the AME Church in Namibia took place during 1946 when 3 200 members broke ties with the Rhenish Mission Church to join the AME Church under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi (Sr.).

In 1932, Dr F.H. Gow left Wilberforce and relocated to become Minister of  Bethel AME Church in Cape Town. Gow’s love for music secured him a post as music master at the Zonnebloem College for four years. During his tenure at Zonnebloem College he took liberty in connecting himself with other musical institutions. He established the Coleridge-Taylor Musical Society which was responsible for performing a play called “The Emancipation Pageant”. This play was in commemoration of the centenary celebration of the liberation of slaves in South Africa. Seven hundred people took part in the play which was presented at the Green Point Track in 1935.

In May 1942 Gow was elected President of the African People’s Organisation. Upon his election, Gow‘s commitment to the social welfare of coloured people became the driving force behind his revival of the organisation. He and his secretary toured all four provinces to rebuild the African People’s Organisation. In 1943 Gow and seven African People’s Organisation members joined the Coloured Advisory Board that was introduced by the Parliament for the upliftment of the conditions of the coloured people.

 In 1950 South Africa decided not to allow any African American bishop to serve in the country for a period exceeding six consecutive months. A letter from the Secretary for the Interior of the Union of South Africa, dated July 1953 to Rev. Francis Herman Gow, then minister of Bethel Memorial,District Six in Cape Town and also General Superintendent of the 14th Episcopal District, made it clear that the request for Bishop F D Jordan, newly assigned bishop for the 14th Episcopal District, to enter the country for a four year period was denied. However, the letter stated that the bishop would be granted a six months permit to enter, but with strict controls attached.

Gow refused to accept this state of affairs between the church and the government. Although he was well aware of the fact that the AME Church had been named in the government’s political warning list, and that the name of one of its ministers, Rev. Nimrod Tantsi, then acting president of the ANC in the Transvaal, was listed under the Riotous Assembly Act of 1930 and could therefore not attend any gatherings, he responded to the letter send by the Secretary for the Interior. Gow explained that the AME Church was not a "Bantu church since it had over 17,000 members that were classified as coloureds". He also explained that the church was not a sect as determined by the Union of South Africa since it had its roots dated back to 1787 in the United States. He concluded his letter by stating that he failed to understand why the AME Church was treated differently to other denominations that came from foreign countries. Gow also applied for an audience with the Secretary for the Interior which was granted on 29 April 1954. Gow led a deputation of ten ministers and laypersons to discuss this matter. He explained the history of the AME Church in America and in South Africa. He made it clear that as General Superintendent of the church in South Africa, he did not have the authority to perform important duties that a bishop had. For instance, he could not ordain ministers of the church. He also pointed out that Bishop Jordan was permitted entrance to Southern Rhodesia to perform his Episcopal duties there. Gow emphatically stated that it seemed as if the government wanted the South African districts to break ties with the American districts. Although the Secretary denied that this was the government’s motive, he refused to change the conditions pertaining to the entrance of Bishop Jordan for a period longer than six months at a time.

A flow of correspondence also took place between Gow and the Council of Bishops to keep the leadership informed of the situation in South Africa. Gow explained that the Secretary for the Interior of the Union of South Africa was unyielding in his attitude towards African Americans entering the country to administer the work of the church and that he could not cope with all the work which was supposed to be done by a resident bishop. Gow’s argument was that should the church neglect to address this crucial issue, the church in South Africa might face further schism.

As a result, AME's responded to pressures from white South Africans who were suspicious of autonomous African American bishops and barred their entry, and from aboriginal Africans increasingly demanded indigenous leadership. Hence, the 1956 General Conference, faced with ongoing difficulties of getting bishops into South Africa, was pushed to elect an African to the episcopacy.

Gow was already familiar with the electoral process for the bishopric. Gow was elected a delegate to every General Conference between 1936 and 1956. He served on various committees at the General Conference. At the 1952 General Conference he tallied on the first ballot a respectable 112 votes, though he fell short of the 529 votes required for election. The 1956 General Conference, however, would be different. The creation of a new district in South Africa and the election of five bishops with three designated for several territories in southern Africa were recommended. A delegate who queried whether “the bishop for Africa would be elected from [the] foreign fields” was answered affirmatively. Bishop Frederick D. Jordan, recently assigned and detained from entering South Africa, explained why Africa needed a jurisdiction separate from other adjacent provinces. The greatest number of congregations in the region, he observed, were located in South Africa and they required their own bishop. The other two areas in southern Africa could function independently.

Gow would be spared the usual rigors of intense and marathon campaigning and the possibility of having to run yet again at a subsequent General Conference. Instead, an election outcome was approved that insured Gow would be elected to the bishopric. On the day of the election Bishop Alexander J. Allen “asked that one person for Bishop would be considered from Africa.” A delegate from the Southern California Annual Conference “moved that the General Conference go on record sharing this thought.” After a second to the motion, the delegates approved. Procedurally, Bishop Bonner stated “that only four American Bishops would be voted for, and one from Africa.” The Chief Secretary reported on the first ballot that 1,625 votes had been cast, with 813 needed for election to the bishopric. D FH Gow received 1355 votes. Though the leading African American candidates received votes ranging from 630 to 471 votes, only Gow polled a sufficient tally to be elected on the first ballot. The other top vote-getters were elected on subsequent ballots. After Bishop Bonner introduced him, Bishop Gow recounted “the intense struggle in South Africa” and declared, “that the loyalty of those in Africa [to the AME Church] would now be stronger than ever.”

Gow served in South Africa and Southwest Africa for eight years. Because of episcopal term limits for all bishops, the General Conference of 1964 assigned Gow to West Africa. The difference between Gow and his episcopal colleagues, however, lay in his restricted service to Africa. Though AME's returned to the familiar pattern of assigning African American bishops to South Africa after Gow’s death on March 20, 1968, the issue of indigenization remained.