Inanda Seminary School

Inanda Seminary School
The original building is on the left
Location
Inanda Durban, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
Information
Motto	Shine Where You Are
Religious affiliation(s)	Christian
Founded	1853
Founder	Daniel and Lucy Lindley
Executive Officer (Head)	JAT Tate
Chaplain	Rev Susan Valiquette
Website	Inanda Seminary School

Inanda Seminary School is one of the oldest schools for girls in South Africa. It was founded in 1853 at Inanda, a settlement just over 20 miles (32 km) north of Durban, by Daniel and Lucy Lindley, an American missionary couple.

On 20 November 1834 Daniel and Lucy Virginia (born Allen) Lindley married and they were sent by the American Board of Missions to South Africa. When they arrived in Cape Town they still had 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to cover. Their journey took a year by ox cart to get to Matabeleland. However, their plans were thwarted by the fighting that was taking place between the descendants of Dutch colonists (also called the Boers) and the Matebele. They successfully ministered to the Boers but they did not find success with native Africans until they set up the mission at Inanda.

In 1869 they realised that the Adams School was successfully creating educated African men but they had no prospect of finding an educated "good wife". They said "who are they going to marry? – these naked girls". The couple thought this was a problem and decided to found a school for nineteen young girls who would board at Inanda. The cost of this was borne by the American Missionary Board. The headteacher, Mary Kelly Edwards, was brought from Ohio and she was to serve the school for nearly sixty years.

When the Lindley family left South Africa in April 1873 they left one of their daughters who went on teach at the school. The Lindleys left the mission that they had established in the hands of the Reverend James Dube. Dube was the son of one of the first Christian converts at the mission. Dube was to die in 1877 but not before he had fathered John Dube who was to found a newspaper, Ohlange High School and take a leading role in creating the African National Congress. Lindley left Inanda having created what would become Inanda Seminary School, the Seminary, a church and several schools based in native huts.