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Series of official or annual reports from LMS mission stations to LMS headquarters, relating to the 'Central Africa' missions, as defined by the London Missionary Society. The reports date from December 1880, four years after the founding of the Central Africa mission. Comprises detailed reports from missionaries in charge of stations, schools and hospitals, as well as their wives and occasionally indigenous teachers or assistants. The reports contain a great deal of information, including statistical data on the number of local converts, the number of indigenous preachers, and the number of local children attending mission schools. They can also provide information on specific institutions. Reports from Kavala Island (c.1880s) contain information on the Marine Department, which was responsible for running missionary ships on Lake Tanganyika [later Lake Tanzania]. Some reports were used in missionary publications, and many have been edited with blue pencil lines. Occasionally, a report has been cut up and areas of text removed. Some reports comprise decennial reviews of the advances or otherwise made by the mission.
Central Africa reports relate primarily to missions in Northern Rhodesia or Zambia. Initial reports, cover the mission field around Lake Tanganyika, including stations at Urambo (to 1897) and Kavala Island (in modern day Zaire). Later reports include details of urban missions in the Copperbelt, including Mindolo (Nkana Mine) and Ndola. Significant missions include: Kafulwe (established 1922); Kambole; Kashinda (or Mpolokoso / Mporokoso, established 1908); Kawimbe (or Fwambo); Mbereshi (established 1900); Niamkolo; Senga or Senga Hills (established 1923).
Some reports relate to specific Institutions, and for Central Africa these include the Livingstone Memorial Girls School at Mbereshi (established 1915), and the Mbereshi Boys Boarding School.
Significant missionaries reporting for the period to 1940 include Ernest Howard Clark (1878-1960, Central Africa mission 1903-36); Walter Draper (1861-1927, Central Africa mission 1888-1927); Charles Benjamin Mather (1858-1898, Central Africa Mission 1888-1898); Griffith Quick (1900-1980, Central Africa Mission 1925-1941); William Govan Robertson (1869-1928, Central Africa Mission 1897-1928); James Arthur Ross (1877-1958, Central Africa Mission 1904-1939) ; Mabel Shaw (1889-1973, Central Africa Mission 1915-1941); Alfred James Swann (1855-1928, Central Africa Mission 1882-1894); Harold Edgar Wareham (1873-1955, Central Africa Mission 1902-1931).
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Reports to 1940 are organised chronologically into yearly files, with duplicate carbon copies in many cases. Reports written in January of each year, or where they specifically refer to the previous year, are included in the previous file. The Central Africa reports were originally arranged into two series (1880-1940 and 1886-1940), the second series containing many duplicates of the first. These reports were rearranged in June 2001 to form one continuous series, and were amalgamated into 7 boxes. The microfiche copies of the material follow the original order. After 1940, reports relating to Central Africa are found amongst the reports of the Africa division. These later reports are arranged alphabetically by author, and grouped approximately by decade.
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