Bernard Mizeki

Bernard Mizeki (sometimes spelt Bernard Mzeki; c. 1861 – 18 June 1896) was an African Christian missionary and martyr.

He was born Mamiyeri Mitseka Gwambe in Inhambane, Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) and raised in a traditional fashion. As a boy, he did some work in a store run by a Portuguese trader, and learned some Portuguese. Between the ages of ten and fifteen, he moved with a cousin to Cape Town, Cape Colony (South Africa), where he took a new name, "Barns", as well as various jobs as a laborer and house servant.(Noll & Nystrom 2011, p. 23)

Through the work of the Cowley Fathers' mission, and particularly the night school run by German missionary Baroness Paula Dorothea von Blomberg, he became a Christian. He and five others were and some of the first converts, baptized in St Philip's Mission, Sir Lowry Road, on 7 March 1886. Shortly thereafter, Bernard (then about 25 years old) started work at St Columba's Hostel, which was run by the missionaries for African men. Within a few months he was sent to Zonnebloem College to train as a catechist.

In January 1891, Bernard accompanied the new missionary bishop of Mashonaland, George Wyndham Knight-Bruce, as a lay catechist and medical worker among the Shona people in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).(Zvobgo 2009, p. 18) He was sent to work in the Marandellas (Marondera) district among the Nhowe people, and settled in the kraal of Mungati Mangwende. Bernard built his home there, and gained a reputation as a teacher. He also took children who wanted to learn into his home to teach them the gospel, as well as traveled around the countryside, and to the bishop's residence in Umtali to help with translations. Although he sometimes served as an official translator, and could have earned considerable pay in Umtali, Mizeki preferred to work in Theydon.

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