This Month in Church History
June 1853: The Church Is Established in Africa
On 6 April 1853, the Church’s 23rd anniversary and the first day of spring general conference, President Brigham Young, his counsellors Heber Kimball and Willard Richards, and thousands of gathered Saints joyfully witnessed the laying of the Salt Lake Temple cornerstones. Just two weeks later, Jesse Haven, Leonard Smith, and William Walker arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to set foot on the African continent.
The three elders immediately began preaching the restored gospel to individuals and in town hall meetings. On 23 May, the men hiked up Lion’s Head, a mountain near Cape Town, and organized a mission with Brother Haven as president. It is also believed they dedicated South Africa for the preaching of the gospel. Three days later, Joseph Patterson and John Dodd were baptized, and other baptisms soon followed.
The first branch in Africa was organized in Mowbray, Cape Town on 16 August 1853, only four months after the missionaries arrived. Nicholas Paul, a British businessman who had been baptized in June, served as the first branch president.
Soon after the branch was organized, Haven wrote in a letter to Willard Richards: “Those that have been baptized are well united—are determined to do right. They rejoice they have lived to see this day, and their faces are Zionward.”1
Two years later, in November 1855, the Cape Town Conference (similar to a district) was formed with 176 converts, 6 organized branches, with Brother Paul as its first president.