Jacob L. Döhne, the first missionary from Berlin in Kaffraria, was born in Ziaranberg, Germany, on November 9, 1811. He entered a mission seminary in 1832 and arrived in Cape Town in 1836 as a member of the Berlin Missionary Society‘s second mission to South Africa.

After answering a call to Franschhoek, Döhne reacted to Missionary Kayser’s plea for aid on the Eastern Frontier. He left by ship and arrived in Port Elizabeth after a three week voyage and a month later he was welcomed to Knappeshope by Missionary Kayser. Here he settled down to learn Xhosa and, as he had a flair for languages, he made rapid progress. He wrote down all new words he learnt, together with their meanings and did not rest until he had made sure that each syllable was correct and understandable. In this way a dictionary was born which soon comprised over 8 000 words with a developing syntax.

Döhne commenced his mission work under Chief Gasela. Nothing was easy, he had to take care for himself, fight superstition, and spread the Gospel under appalling conditions. He soon suffered from malnutrition and just as he was settling down to work, the tribe decided to move. On arrival at the new site, Döhne found the ground allotted to him by the Chief had already been occupied by Xhosa who refused to budge and a new site had to be sought. A suitable location with plenty of running water was chosen and Bethel was founded on February 15, 1837.

After a long, lonely struggle to Döhne built himself a study house and settled down to work. A neighbouring chief was converted and the struggle against heathenism continued. Bertha Goehier arrived with the Brothers Pehmöller and Schultheiss from Germany and was married to Döhne amid great festivity on February 6, 1838.

Döhne started a school, held Indabas to preach the Gospel, bought off frightened young girls to free them from undesirable marriages and cared for the poor. When Posseit, Lisreidt, Schmidt arrived to assist him, Mrs Posseit and Mrs Döhne started a sewing school for girls, an attempt to teach Xhosa to utilize their raw materials.

Tragedy struck on the day that Posseit left for another mission. Dohne’s wife gave birth to a son but died in childbirth. His son died four months later.

Chief Gasela now waned to rid himself of Dohne as he felt that he was losing influence over his people because of the new God. This encouraged a man, Zendoki, to cause trouble at the mission and when reprisals were made, the Chief became Dohne’s open enemy. This was a great blow to Dohne as it discredited him in the eyes of other chiefs, Chief Sandile even vowing to kill him.

It was only after death of Gasela that Bethel actually started growing. People who lived in fear of the chief now streamed to the mission and a number of people were baptized, Döhne was soon acting as a guardian of Justice and law and order reigned. The people were becoming productive and built themselves sturdy homes as they had been taught.

When Brothers Liefeld, Lange and Schmidt came to Dohne’s assistance, a new church was built and was inaugurated on October 10, 1841. The number of converts grew and by 1846, 46 true converts had been baptized. The faithful were divided into four groups – Xhosa men, women and girls and Hottentot women. Daily prayer meetings were held along with evening classes.

Dohne’s first publication appeared in 1843 – “Das Kafferland Und saine Bewohner” – after which he devoted himself to the translation of the Bible into Xhosa. The British Bible Society donated 50 rolls of paper to this cause and Dohne’s translation of the Psalms was soon printed. A reprint was ordered in Berlin when the supply diminished. Between them, Döhne and Posseit translated the five books of Mose’s after which it was decided at a Mission Conference that the remainder should be done by joint effort. Dohne was to translate the letters to the Corinthians and to the Hebrews.

Auguste Kembly from Berlin became Dohne’s second wife and she bore him two children.

Theophilus Shepstone was transferred to Natal just before the outbreak of hostilities in 1846. There he found some 100 000 homeless, disoriented Bantu who had fled from the Zulu chiefs Chaka, Dingane and Mpanda. He appealed to the missionaries in Kaffraria to adopt these people and although Dohne’s life was in danger, he volunteered to go with Lenge on the expedition to Natal.

Before the arrangements could be complete, however, the war between the Xhosa and the Whites broke out and all the missionaries had to flee the country. Dohne, Posseit and Guldenpfennig found refuge in Bethany in the Orange Free State, where Dohne lost his second wife.

As the hostilities made it impossible for them to return to the Xhosa, it was decided at a Mission Conference in 1846 that Posseit, Guldenpfennig and Döhne should go to natal. When they arrived in Pietermaritzburg things were still very unsettled and they could not start work immediately. Dohne acceded to a call from the White community without consulting his superiors and this resulted in his membership of the Berlin Mission Society being terminated.

Dohne married his third wife, Charlotte Watermeyer, on June 23, 1847. She bore him nine children. He remained with the White community, also tending their servants, for two years. He started the Table Mountain Mission station near Pietermaritzburg where he got to know a Zulu family very well. Their son was later converted and was of great assistance to Döhne and others in their translation of the bible into Zulu.

At Government request Dohne submitted his Zulu-English dictionary for publication in 1858. The Berlin Missionary Society invited him to rejoin their ranks, which, after due consideration he did, and immediately commenced with the translation of the Bible into Zulu. After working for four years in his house, Wartburg, he had completed the first four books of the New Testament. A committee was then formed to assist him and he finally resigned from the Society as a result of the disputes which arose between them.