Carl Jonas was born in 1824, the son of an enslaved man, and was among the first students of the teachers’ training college that opened at Genadendal in 1838 [MS]. In 1842 he became the first student to qualify there as a teacher [MS]. He went on to be a school principal and one of the first South Africans ordained as a minister of the Moravian Church [MS]. His life links the end of slavery at the Cape to the start of teacher training in South Africa.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian records and the histories written from them, above all Genadendal: A Long Walk by Isaac Balie, and the captions of the Moravian mission’s photographs. These often agree with each other because they share an origin.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
At a glance
| Born | 1824, at Duinefontein [MS] |
| Died | 17 March 1906, at Boschmanskloof [MS] |
| Known for | The first qualified teacher of the Genadendal teachers’ college (1842), and one of the first South African Moravian ministers [MS] |
| Link to the valley | Trained at Genadendal, died at Boschmanskloof, and was buried in the old cemetery at Genadendal [MS] |
His life
Jonas was born in 1824 at Duinefontein, the son of an enslaved man [MS]. When slavery was abolished, his family moved to the Moravian mission at Elim [MS]. In September 1838 he was admitted to the new teachers’ training college at Genadendal [MS]. He was one of 11 students, all in their teens and all chosen as able monitors in their mission schools [MS]. Students lived at the college for at least seven years and did not go home to their families during their training [MS]. They studied English, Dutch, mathematics, Bible studies, history, geography, and music, with agriculture and woodwork as practical subjects, and three of the 11 were sent away before they qualified [MS].
In 1842 Jonas became the first of them to qualify as a teacher [MS]. He later became a school principal [MS]. He was ordained in 1883, and served as a minister at Enon (1882 to 1884), Pella (1886 to 1894), and Wittewater (1896 to 1898) [MS]. Balie’s history calls him the first South African ordained a minister of the Moravian Church [MS].
In his autobiography, written a year before he died, Jonas said that being a minister had first made him self-righteous, and that his true conversion came later, on a day when he prayed “as a poor sinner” [MS]. An old resident remembered him as a gifted musician and organist, whom children called “Boeta” [MS].
He died at Boschmanskloof on 17 March 1906, and was buried in the old cemetery behind the high school at Genadendal [MS].
How his story was found
Balie’s history tells how the author searched the neglected old cemetery for two weeks before finding Jonas’s gravestone under pine needles and soil [MS]. He then went from house to house at Boschmanskloof until he met a grandson of Jonas, who gave him the autobiography [MS].
Links to other figures
- Hans Peter Hallbeck founded the college where Jonas trained, and was its first principal.
- His fellow students of 1838 were Alexander Haas, Dawid Lakey, Joshua Plezier, Johannes Absalom, Michael Balie, Jacob Haas, and Petrus Beukman from Genadendal, Nikolaas Oppelt and Josef Hardenberg from Groenekloof, and Wilhelm Klein from Enon [MS].
His legacy in the valley
- Over 90 years the college trained 236 teachers, and Jonas was the first [MS]. Its building now houses the Genadendal Mission Museum [MS].
- His story shows how quickly people freed from slavery, and their children, took up the work of teaching at the missions.
What is still open
- Where his autobiography is kept today, and whether it can be read or published.
- Which Duinefontein he was born at, and who his parents were.
- Where he taught and was principal before he was ordained.
- Whether he was the first South African ordained in the Moravian Church, as Balie’s history says.
Related
- Valley History
- From the Farm to the Classroom
- What Began Here
- Hans Peter Hallbeck
- Genadendal: A Long Walk
- Boschmanskloof
References
- Balie, I. (2023). Genadendal, The Valley of Grace: A Long Walk Through the History of the First Mission Station in South Africa. AuthorHouse. First published 2020. His birth, family, training, ordination, conversion, death, grave, and autobiography, and the students of 1838. Page numbers are on Genadendal: A Long Walk.
- Calisphere. Portrait of Carl Jonas, Genadendal, South Africa, ca. 1865 to 1906. A mission photograph, with a caption giving his years as principal and minister, his ordination in 1883, and his postings.