Abstract:
This article covers the time from 1652 onwards when employees of the Dutch East India
Company – most of whom were members of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands –
arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in present South Africa. With time, a new church, the Dutch
Reformed Church, was established in the Cape. In 1836, a number of pioneers moved from the
Cape to the east of South Africa and some of them eventually made Swaziland their new
home. Although most members of the white Dutch Reformed Church opposed any integration
with Christians from other races, there was nevertheless a desire that they should join a
Reformed Church. In 1922, the first Dutch Reformed congregation in Swaziland was established
in Goedgegun in the southern region of the country, intended for the exclusive use of white,
Afrikaans-speaking church members. In 1944, the first Reformed congregation for Swazi
members was formed, which later became known as the Swaziland Reformed Church. This
article documents the history of this church and concludes with a description of the Swaziland
Reformed Church in 1985, with four missionaries from South Africa ministering in the four
regions of Swaziland.
