Johann Ludwig Krapf
Encyclopedia
Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German
missionary
in East Africa
, as well as an explorer, linguist
, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann
. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya
and Kilimanjaro. Krapf also played a key role in exploring the East African coastline.
. From his school days onward he developed his gift for language
s. He initially studied Latin, Greek
, French
and Italian
More languages were to follow throughout his life. After finishing school he joined the Basel Mission
Seminary at age 17 but discontinued his studies as he had doubts about his missionary vocation. He read theology
at Tübingen University and graduated in 1834. While working as an assistant village pastor, he met a Basel missionary who encouraged him to resume his missionary vocation.
. Basel Mission seconded him to the Anglicans and from 1837-1842 he worked in this ancient Christian land. He prepared himself by learning ancient Ge'ez
and the Amharic language of the highlands
. Landing at Tadjura, Krapf followed the trade route to Shewa
where he presented himself to its ruler, Meridazmach Sahle Selassie
, and later accompanied the Meridazmach on a military campaign in southern Shewa. Krapf's pietist background did not help him much to understand and appreciate traditional Ethiopian Christianity, especially their emphasis on saints, liturgy and use of Ge'ez, a language no longer spoken. When he departed Shewa in 1842, he found his way to Gondar
blocked by the aftermath of the Battle of Debre Tabor
, retraced his steps to the court of Adara Bille, a chieftain of the Wollo Oromo who then robbed him. Krapf managed to effect his escape with his servants, and made his way to Massawa
supported by the reluctant charity of the local inhabitants.
Thus he centered his interest on the Oromo
, in his time known as the Galla, people of southern Ethiopia who then were largely traditional believers. He learned their language and started translating parts of the New Testament
into it. While 1842 saw Krapf receive a doctorate from Tübingen University for his research into the Ethiopian languages, it also witnessed the expulsion of all Western missionaries from Ethiopia, which ended his work there. In association with his colleague, Carl Wilhelm Isenberg, he published a memoir of his time in Ethiopia, Journals of Isenberg and Krapf
in 1843. He revised Abu Rumi
's Bible translations into Amharic for BFBS.
hoping to reach the Oromo from what is now the Kenya
n coast. Most of the East African coastline was then part of the Zanzibar
sultanate. Sultan Sayyid Said gave him a permit to start a missionary station at the coastal city of Mombasa
. Krapf started again by learning the languages of the local Mijikenda
people and also Swahili
which is an East Africa
n lingua franca language of communication.
Soon after arrival in Mombasa his wife and young daughter died from malaria
. Krapf moved to the higher grounds of Rabai on the coastal hills and started his station New Rabai. Here he wrote the first dictionary and grammar of the Swahili language. He also started studying other African languages, drafting dictionaries and translating sections of the Bible. Working with a Muslim judge named Ali bin Modehin, he translated Genesis. He went on to translate the New Testament, as well as the Book of Common Prayer. However, most of this was unpublished, though it was later used in revising a translation in a more southern version of Swahili.
In 1846 he was joined by Johannes Rebmann
, another southwest German Lutheran who was in the service of the CMS. Krapf and Rebmann set off to explore the interior of East Africa and they were the first Europeans to see the snowcapped mountains of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya
. They sent reports about them to Europe which were ridiculed by the experts.
Krapf's deteriorating health forced him to return to Germany in 1853. He brought with him several old Swahili manuscripts, including copies of the Book of the Battle of Tambuka
, the earliest Swahili manuscript. In Korntal he continued his linguistic studies and advisory work for the Christian missions.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
in East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
, as well as an explorer, linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann
Johannes Rebmann
Johannes Rebmann was a German missionary and explorer credited with feats including being the first European, along with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf, to enter Africa from the Indian Ocean coast. In addition, he was the first European to find Kilimanjaro...
. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...
and Kilimanjaro. Krapf also played a key role in exploring the East African coastline.
Early life
Krapf was born into a Lutheran family of farmers in southwest GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. From his school days onward he developed his gift for language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s. He initially studied Latin, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
More languages were to follow throughout his life. After finishing school he joined the Basel Mission
Basel Mission
The Basel Mission is a Christian missionary society active from 1815 to 2001, when it was merged into Mission 21, the successor organization of Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione founded in 2001....
Seminary at age 17 but discontinued his studies as he had doubts about his missionary vocation. He read theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at Tübingen University and graduated in 1834. While working as an assistant village pastor, he met a Basel missionary who encouraged him to resume his missionary vocation.
Ethiopia
In 1836 he was invited by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) to join their work in EthiopiaEthiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. Basel Mission seconded him to the Anglicans and from 1837-1842 he worked in this ancient Christian land. He prepared himself by learning ancient Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
and the Amharic language of the highlands
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
. Landing at Tadjura, Krapf followed the trade route to Shewa
Shewa
Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...
where he presented himself to its ruler, Meridazmach Sahle Selassie
Sahle Selassie
Sahle Selassie was a Meridazmach of Shewa , an important noble of Ethiopia. He was a younger son of Wossen Seged...
, and later accompanied the Meridazmach on a military campaign in southern Shewa. Krapf's pietist background did not help him much to understand and appreciate traditional Ethiopian Christianity, especially their emphasis on saints, liturgy and use of Ge'ez, a language no longer spoken. When he departed Shewa in 1842, he found his way to Gondar
Gondar
Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder Province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar...
blocked by the aftermath of the Battle of Debre Tabor
Battle of Debre Tabor
The Battle of Debre Tabor was a conflict during the Zemene Mesafint in 1842 initiated by Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam to overthrow Ras Ali II as Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia and gain control of Ethiopia...
, retraced his steps to the court of Adara Bille, a chieftain of the Wollo Oromo who then robbed him. Krapf managed to effect his escape with his servants, and made his way to Massawa
Massawa
Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...
supported by the reluctant charity of the local inhabitants.
Thus he centered his interest on the Oromo
Oromo people
The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...
, in his time known as the Galla, people of southern Ethiopia who then were largely traditional believers. He learned their language and started translating parts of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
into it. While 1842 saw Krapf receive a doctorate from Tübingen University for his research into the Ethiopian languages, it also witnessed the expulsion of all Western missionaries from Ethiopia, which ended his work there. In association with his colleague, Carl Wilhelm Isenberg, he published a memoir of his time in Ethiopia, Journals of Isenberg and Krapf
Journals of Isenberg and Krapf
The Journals of the Rev. Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, Detailing their proceedings in the kingdom of Shoa, and journeys in other parts of Abyssinia, in the years 1839, 1840, 1841 and 1842 is an 1843 journal published in 1843 at London...
in 1843. He revised Abu Rumi
Abu Rumi
Abu Rumi is the name recorded as being the translator for the first complete Bible in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. Previously, only partial Amharic translations existed, and the Ethiopian Bible existed only in Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language of Ethiopia. His story is recorded...
's Bible translations into Amharic for BFBS.
Kenya
Krapf spent some time in Alexandria, Egypt, where he married. From there he set off for East AfricaEast Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
hoping to reach the Oromo from what is now the Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n coast. Most of the East African coastline was then part of the Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
sultanate. Sultan Sayyid Said gave him a permit to start a missionary station at the coastal city of Mombasa
Mombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
. Krapf started again by learning the languages of the local Mijikenda
Mijikenda
The Mijikenda are the nine ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya, from the border of Somalia in the north to the border of Tanzania in the south...
people and also Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
which is an East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
n lingua franca language of communication.
Soon after arrival in Mombasa his wife and young daughter died from malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
. Krapf moved to the higher grounds of Rabai on the coastal hills and started his station New Rabai. Here he wrote the first dictionary and grammar of the Swahili language. He also started studying other African languages, drafting dictionaries and translating sections of the Bible. Working with a Muslim judge named Ali bin Modehin, he translated Genesis. He went on to translate the New Testament, as well as the Book of Common Prayer. However, most of this was unpublished, though it was later used in revising a translation in a more southern version of Swahili.
In 1846 he was joined by Johannes Rebmann
Johannes Rebmann
Johannes Rebmann was a German missionary and explorer credited with feats including being the first European, along with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf, to enter Africa from the Indian Ocean coast. In addition, he was the first European to find Kilimanjaro...
, another southwest German Lutheran who was in the service of the CMS. Krapf and Rebmann set off to explore the interior of East Africa and they were the first Europeans to see the snowcapped mountains of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...
. They sent reports about them to Europe which were ridiculed by the experts.
Krapf's deteriorating health forced him to return to Germany in 1853. He brought with him several old Swahili manuscripts, including copies of the Book of the Battle of Tambuka
Utendi wa Tambuka
Utend̠i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka , also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali , is an epic poem in the Swahili language dated 1728...
, the earliest Swahili manuscript. In Korntal he continued his linguistic studies and advisory work for the Christian missions.
Krapf's legacy
- The Anglican Church of KenyaAnglican Church of KenyaThe Anglican Church of Kenya is part of the Anglican Communion, and includes 30 dioceses. The Primate of the Church is the Archbishop of Kenya.-Official name:...
counts him as its founding father.
- Linguists have been drawing on his works as he studied languages as diverse as Ge'ezGe'ez languageGe'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
, Amharic, OromoOromo languageOromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...
, SwahiliSwahili languageSwahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, KambaKambaThe Kamba are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the semi-arid Eastern Province of Kenya stretching east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is called Ukambani. Sources vary on whether they are the third, fourth or the fifth largest ethnic group in Kenya...
, MijikendaMijikendaThe Mijikenda are the nine ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya, from the border of Somalia in the north to the border of Tanzania in the south...
and MassaiMassaiMassai was a member of the Mimbres band of Chiricahua Apache. He was warrior who escaped from a train that was sending the scouts and renegades to Florida to be held with Geronimo and Chihuahua.Born to White Cloud and Little Star at Mescal Mountain, Arizona, near Globe...
.
- His house at New Rabai is now part of Museums of Kenya. The building of the German Embassy at NairobiNairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
is called "Ludwig-Krapf-House".
- In his home town of Tübingen-Derendingen there is an elementary school that bears his name.
Sources and further reading
- Eber, Jochen: Johann Ludwig Krapf: ein schwäbischer Pionier in Ostafrika. 2006
- Gütl, Clemens. Johann Ludwig Krapf - "Do' Missionar vo' Deradenga" zwischen pietistischem Ideal und afrikanischer Realität (Beiträge zur Missionswissenschaft und interkulturellen Theologie, Bd. 17). Hamburg 2001.
- Gütl, Clemens. Johann Ludwig Krapf's "Memoir on the East African Slave Trade" - Ein unveröffentlichtes Dokument aus dem Jahr 1853. Mit Einleitung herausgegeben von Clemens Gütl (Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, Bd. 73), Wien 2002.
- Kretzmann, Paul E. (no date, author 1883-1955) John Ludwig Krapf: The Explorer-Missionary of Northeastern Africa. Columbus, Ohio: The Book Concern.
- Raupp, Werner: Gelebter Glaube. Metzingen/Württemberg 1993, pp. 278 - 287: "Johann Ludwig Krapf - Bahnbrecher der ostafrikanischen Mission".
- Raupp, Werner: Johann Ludwig Krapf. Missionar, Forschungsreisender und Sprachforscher (1810-1881). In: Lebensbilder aus Baden-Württemberg, vol. 22. Ed. by Gerhard Taddey and Rainer Brüning, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 182-226.
- Raupp, Werner: Johann Ludwig Krapf, "dr Missionar vo Deradinga". In: Hin und weg. Tübingen in aller Welt. Hrsg. von Karlheinz Wiegmann. Tübingen 2007 (Tübinger Kataloge, 77), S. (90) - 99.
- Raupp, Werner: Morgenroth des Reiches Gottes. In: Tübinger Blätter 96 (2010), S. 70 - 73.
External links and sources
- Church of England in Kenya
- Krapf's life and works
- Kretzmann, Paul E., John Ludwig Krapf: The Explorer-Missionary of Northeastern Africa at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- Kraft auf der Internetseite der Evangelischen Kirche Württemberg
- More pictures of J.L. Krapf