Ruufoo as aspirant for the St. Chrischona Bible School
As early as 1867, Ruufoo was expected to be educated at St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission’s Bible school for a future ministry among the Oromo (preferably on the Gojeb River; see Ledderhose, Ruf, p. 56). He was the first Ethiopian to be admitted to the St Chrischona institute in 1869.
- The first African to graduate from St. Chrischona was Abdallah Dorgam from Kordofan. He attended the Bible school from 1865 to 1869 and served at the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission’s station in Khartoum from 1869 until its closure in 1871.
Krapf’s letter to Jäger, dated 1867-03-17
The name of the author and the date of its writing are not mentioned in the reference.
However, the reference is mentioned in Krapf’s letter to Jäger (Spittler’s assistant) dated March 17, 1867. The following is added above the letter: “Before the committee decides on Rufo, she wants to read the reference.”
Reading of Krapf’s letter in the committee meeting on 1867-05-18
Krapf’s letter (and reference) was read aloud at the committee meeting on May 18, 1867. Accordingly, measures other than the accommodation in Wilhelmsdorf were taken for Ruufoo (i.e., he most likely moved to Maienbühl). The board did not yet make a final decision on Ruufoo’s future.
At its meeting on June 3, 1867, the board decided that Ruufoo should join the institution [i.e., the school for the poor] in Weinheim (near Heidelberg).
Arguments against the reference being written in 1868
Smidt, Quellenübersicht, p. 190, assumes that Krapf wrote his reference for Ruufoo in the summer of 1868. He justifies this by pointing out that the St. Chrischona missionaries Deiß and Stamm left Gubba [in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region] in 1868.
However, Krapf’s testimony mentions Khartoum rather than Gubba as the place where missionaries set out without Ruufoo. Therefore, Krapf probably means the St. Chrischona Pilgrim missionaries Blessing, Levi and Treiber, who had undertaken evangelisation trips from Khartoum along the White and Blue Nile in 1867 (Baumann, Apostelstraße, p. 73).
Further reasons against the reference being written in the summer of 1868 (e.g. the departure of Mr. Christoffel) will not be discussed in detail here.
Further reading
Baumann, Andreas. Die “Apostelstraße”: Eine außergewöhnliche Vision und ihre Verwirklichung. Gießen: Brunnen, 1999. [For the mission station St Thomas in Karthoum, see p. 67-74]
Eber, Jochen. Johann Ludwig Krapf: Ein schwäbischer Pionier in Ostafrika. Riehen: arteMedia; Lahr: johannis, 2006.
Krapf, Travels, researches, and missionary labours, during an eighteen years’ residence in Eastern Africa […]. London: Trübner, 1860. [See chapt. 1; view online]
Ledderhose, Karl Friedrich. Galla-Büchlein. Aus dem Leben der Galla-Negerin Pauline Johanne Fathme (with introduction by J. L. Krapf). 3rd edition. Basel: C. F. Spittler, 1867. [On Ruufo, see p. 55-56; view online]
Rappard, Carl Heinrich. Die Pilger-Mission zu St. Chrischona. 2nd ed. St. Chrischona: Mission Press, 1908. [For the “Pilgerhütte” on Maienbühl and Mr Christoffel, see p. 108-11]
Smidt, Wolbert G. C. “Quellenübersicht zur Biographie des ehemaligen Sklaven und ersten Oromo-Bibelübersetzers Christian Rufo,” Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 67 (2001): 181-98.
Cross-references
» Notes on the content of Krapf’s reference for Ruufoo
» St. Chrischona, Minutes of the board meetings (1867‒73)