Willy Ambilla

Life and ministry

The most important source is an excerpt from the autobiography of Wilhelm Duisberg,* a former St. Chrischona employee in Sudan, who brought Willy to southern Germany.

  • On Duisberg, see Frutiger/Eisler, Johannes Frutiger (2008), p. 61, n. 148 [English translation]: “Wilhelm Duisberg (1837-1916). Merchant from Stuttgart. Appointed by C.F. Spittler in 1864 to manage the “Apostles’ Road” Mission Agency in Khartoum. After the station there was dissolved at the end of 1868 […], Duisberg was transferred to the Jerusalem branch in 1870. When that was dissolved, he took over the merchandise business on his own account on January 1, 1873, but was forced to give up the company W. Duisberg & Cie. and leave Palestine in 1885. […]”
Duisberg, Bilder (1896), p. 133 [= Lose Blätter (1912), p. 108]:
1. English translation

“Our mission had received three freed Black boys [probably in 1862 or 1863] from Miss Tinne, who had traveled along the White Nile accompanied by Dr. Heuglin and stayed in Khartoum for an extended period of time. These boys formed the foundation of the school.

Then there was a nice boy, Ambilla, whom a Russian named Toni,* who was employed by the Egyptian Trading Company, had brought to Khartoum from the interior and bequeathed to me upon his death.

  • Toni appears to be a nickname. The formal Russian given name was most likely Anton [Антон] or Anthony, resp. Antonius [Антоний]. One of the main reasons for the Egyptian Khedivate’s annexation of the Sudan was the acquisition of slaves for its army [Sa’id of Egypt].

After some lessons, he was christened Willy, and in 1867 I took him with me to Europe, where he found a loving home with my friends, the Eberbach family in Stuttgart,* for six years [until fall 1872?], enjoying complete parental and sibling love. He attended high school there, and I then placed him in a “boarding house” [German: Pension] in French-speaking Switzerland, where, however, he contracted a lung disease and finally passed away as a child of God in the Deaconess House in Riehen near Basel.” [Emphasis added]”

  • The Eberbach family is not mentioned again in Duisberg’s book.
2. German text

“Unsre Mission hatte von Fräulein Tinne, die in Begleitung von Dr. Heuglin eine Reise am weißen Nil gemacht und sich längere Zeit in Chartum aufgehalten hatte, drei befreite Negerknaben erhalten, die den Grundstock der Schule bildeten.

Dazu kam dann noch ein netter Junge, Ambilla, den ein in der Aegyptischen Handelsgesellschaft angestellter Russe, Toni, aus dem Innern mit nach Chartum gebracht und mir bei seinem Tode vermacht hatte. Er wurde nach einigem Unterricht Willy getauft, und ich nahm ihn im Jahre 1867 mit nach Europa, wo er in der mir befreundeten Familie Eberbach in Stuttgart sechs Jahre lang ein trautes Heim hatte und völlige elterliche und geschwisterliche Liebe genoß. Er besuchte dort das Gymnasium und ich brachte ihn dann in der französischen Schweiz in einer Pension unter, wo er aber eine Lungenkrankheit bekam und schließlich in Riehen bei Basel im Diakonissenhaus als ein Kind Gottes in die obere Heimat einging.” [Herv. ergänzt]

Picture

Willy Ambilla and Wilhelm Duisberg, probably in 1867
(picture adapted from Duisberg, Lose Blätter, 1912, after p. 112 )

Further reading

» View excerpts from literature on Willy Ambilla, a Q & A section, and a bibliography