James Stewart (14 February 1831 – 21 December 1905) was a physician, and a medical missionary. He was also a highly skilled botanist and linguist. Many people view him as a pioneer in medical missions for his founding of the hospital in Lovedale, starting a medical school, and developing the founding scheme of the South African Native College, now the University of Fort Hare.
He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 1899/1900 and oversaw the Union of 1900.
Early life
He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 14 February 1831. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh. After his father remarried the family moved to a farm near Scone and James finished his education at Perth Academy. At the age of 15 he decided that he wanted to be a missionary. He studied at Edinburgh University and St Andrews University then trained as a Free Church minister at New College, Edinburgh. The church considered him suitable as a medical missionary and sent him to Glasgow University to train as a physician. In 1865 he graduated M.B. and C.M. and graduated with distinctions in surgery, material medical, and forensic medicine. He became a missionary in February 1865 for the Free Church of Scotland, sanctioned by the Free Presbytery of Glasgow. Stewart was described by some as "more as a friend than as a doctor" towards his patients.
Stewart grew up with both his mother and father, but his mother died while he was a teenager and his father remarried. His mother was part of the Dudgeon sept of the Noresmen. His mother was thought to be a major influence in Stewart’s life from whom he received his love and appreciation for beauty. He was a cab proprietor and later ran a farm called Pictstonhill near Scone in Perthshire. At the Disruption of 1843 his father allowed the newly created Free Church to preach in his barn while they awaited their church being built. He was a very religious man and influenced Stewart towards missionary work. Stewart had a desire from a young age to go to Africa. He told his cousin, "I shall never be satisfied till I am in Africa with a Bible in my pocket, and a rifle on my shoulder to supply my wants."
Journey to Africa
On 13 August 1861, James Stewart traveled to Cape Town with Livingstone's wife. On his first journey there, he became ill with a fever. When he arrived in Africa he teamed up with David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary who was a national hero in Britain for his medical work. Stewart soon returned to Europe to complete his education, then returned to Lovedale in South Africa in 1867 after marrying his wife, Mina Stephen.
Views on Africa
Stewart thought that Africa was lagging behind other nations. When he first traveled in Africa, he observed that magic and medicine were intertwined, which he felt made African medicine inferior to European medicine. He felt that medicine in Africa had a very large presence, but he also felt that it had many malignant effects. He learned some of the natives’ medicine, but thought that European medicine should take precedence over native medicine.
He also had many negative views about the African natives. He felt there were no moral forces present in the African natives' lives. He warned people who went there of "descent into mere animalism and fixed and hopeless barbarism," showing how he viewed the lives of the Africans as inferior to his life. He was also worried about their moral degradation because of polygamy and witchcraft. Stewart thought that this degradation process was reversible through mission help. He aimed at fixing their decline through his missionary work in Africa. Stewart also implicitly suggested that Africans were racially inferior to Europeans, both physically and biologically. Even though at first James Stewart had many negative views on Africans, he did not treat them as inferiors and did everything he could to help them.