Walter Fisher (missionary)

Walter Fisher
Born	29 November 1865 Greenwich, England
Died	30 December 1935(1935-12-30) (aged 70) Zambia
Nationality	English
Education	Guy's Hospital
Occupation	Medical missionary / Surgeon

Walter Fisher (29 November 1865 – 30 December 1935) was an English surgeon and missionary who worked in Africa, specifically Zambia, for over 40 years. Born in Greenwich, Fisher was raised in a large, middle-class home. A Plym, Fisher was passionate about using his faith as a foundation for his service to the people and from a young age was passionate about serving God in the mission field. He completed his medical studies in Guy's Hospital and qualified as a surgeon in 1887.

Fisher established the Kalene Mission Hospital in 1906 in the remote northwest corner of Zambia. The mission expanded to what is today Mwinilnga district in Zambia's North-Western Province and to neighboring areas of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The hospital was known for embracing the local Zandu culture, a unique approach to missionary medical work. A school, orphanage, clinic, and farm were later added to the services at Kalene. The extensive and diversified structure of the Mission have influenced social, religious, economic, and political aspects of daily life in the local population.

Early life and education

Fisher was born on November 29, 1865 in Greenwich, England as the fifth of nine children. His father was a successful businessman and owned a fleet of fishing smacks. His parents had a deep interest in gospel work in England and abroad and often hosted missionaries, such as Robert Chapman and Henry Groves.

Fisher was raised as a "Plym", which was a member of the religious community originally known as the Plymouth Brethren. This community would later be known as CMML, Christian Missions in Many Lands. This group was known for stressing the individual responsibility of spreading Christianity and the individual nature of salvation. Any adult male in the church, often referred to as a "brother", could give a sermon or lead communion; a different approach than most Christian branches that allocate these responsibilities to ordained priests. This foundation heavily motivated Fisher and he knew from a young age that he wanted to be involved in missionary work, later being baptized at the age of fifteen.

Fisher attended Guy's Hospital as a student in 1881 and by 1887 he completed his studies with the qualification of a surgeon and with a gold medal in surgery. Instead of staying in England to complete his studies for the highest surgical qualification, Fisher decided that he would dedicate his life to missionary work in Africa.

Medical work

Mission

In 1888, Fisher met Fred Stanley Arnot, who had spent seven years in Africa at the time. The story about Arnot's seven years in Africa intrigued Fisher and after attending a presentation by Arnot he decided to commit his life to medical and missionary work in Central Africa. In March 1889, Fisher joined Arnot's crew as they sailed to Africa and by December they arrived in Kwanjulala. Kwanjulala would be the center of Fisher's missionary service until 1893. He built temporary lodgings and established a pattern of service that involved him offering the local people medical treatment and then spreading information about God.

In May 1829, Fisher met his wife and moved from Kwanjulala to Kavungu for the next six years. After having three children and being plagued with sicknesses like malaria and backwater fever, Fisher and his family moved to Kazombo, becoming the first Europeans to settle in that area. By the turn of the century the Fishers had established a mission station at Kavungu in Angola by the capital of the local Chieftainess, Nyakatolo.

File:Lunda.jpg

Lunda chief wearing a horned coiffure

Fisher interacted with different branches of the local natives, the Lunda, specifically the Lunda-Ndembu. The local Lunda religion and culture, like most African countries, was influenced by the belief in the supernatural. They were very spiritual and believed that the spirit of ancestors, the priori, and evil spirits, the musalu, determined the quality of life. Therefore, they saw sicknesses and diseases as something that was controlled by the supernatural and didn't believe that medicine could affect these conditions. To drive out these spirits, the Lunda people were known for using herbs to drive the spirits out or through color sympathy treatments.The traditional Lunda medicine used the colors black, white, and red as treatments. White was a good color that signified good health and strength. Black was a bad color that signified sickness and suffering. Red was a complicated color as it could symbolize good things like joy as well as bad things like death. The workings of the color scheme meant that if the sickness contained black, white, or red the cure must also contain something of that color.

In addition to the cultural rejection of medicine by the Lunda, Fisher and the Brethren also had to address a fear of westerners, language barriers, disbelief of the gospel, and imperialistic views. Fisher aimed to address these problems by teaching natives the science behind the illness and living with and like the natives. After Fisher cured the cheftainess of a lingering illness, initial resistance to Fisher's medical practice disappeared and natives started showing interest in his services. Fisher would go on to develop a local vaccine for smallpox and perform painless surgeries with chloroform as anesthesia. Fisher, known as Ndotolu (the doctor) by the natives, quickly reached prominence and natives and missionaries alike often visited his stations for treatment.

Kalene Mission Hospital

Fisher sought a modern hospital complex that could support the increasing number of African patients and European missionary families in Zambia. In January 1905, Fisher and his family moved to the British-held territory of Chief Ikelenge in Northern Rhodesia. They found an area on Kalene Hill and began the process of building a hospital. Prior to building the hospital, Fisher and his wife had served various locations near the Hill for about twenty years and therefore were well acquainted with the area.

File:Kalene Hill.png

A map of the original site of Kalene Hill in 1906

Surgery was carried out in Fisher's house before an official operating room was built in 1908. The first Lunda convert from the Hospital was named Nyamavunda. She recovered from paralysis after being treated by Dr. Fisher and served in the fellowship in the assembly at Kalene. Before establishing a nursing school and training nurses, Fisher would treat the patients and Mrs. Fisher would supervise the nursing of the patients.

By 1906, Kalene Mission Hospital was fully established. After seeing the ill practices that Lunda people followed regarding babies that went against traditional practices, Fisher's wife, Anna, opened an orphanage just outside of Ikelenge. A nursing school was also added to the grounds where students would train and then gain employment at the Mission Hospital. In addition to medical services, educational facilities were created to address the widespread illiteracy of the Lunda. The education offered were usually basic but also included training on agriculture and crafts to create a versatile and useful education for the Lunda natives.

Although the missionaries offered these various services, their primary goal was evangelizing. Education was one of the best ways they could reach this goal as they exposed the students to the gospel on a daily basis. Additionally, Fisher took a unique approach to treat the Lunda patients. He and his fellow Brethren realized that to successfully treat the Lunda and preach the gospel they would have to work Lunda medicine and traditional healing practices into their treatments. Fisher and his staff would sing and pray with patients and ask for permission from the family before a surgical procedure.

Missionary activity on Kalene Hill expanded over time. A hospital, schools (including a boarding school for missionary children), an orphanage, a farm, and trading stores were founded. It wasn't long before Kalene Mission Hospital and the services associated with it became a respected hospital in the region. Ultimately, Kalene and the mission stations started by the Fishers exemplify distributing medical aid without Westernization as the end goal.

Personal life

In May 1892, Fisher married Susanna Elizabeth Darling who was a worker in his missionary. In 1893, the couple moved to Kavungu. They had three children in Kaavungu; May and Katolo, and their second died during childbirth.

After the children developed and recovered from blackwater fever, the Fisher's decided to move to Kazombo, becoming the first Europeans to settle there. They had a daughter, Pearl, who was born in Kazombo and died there in 1902.

Fisher's care for the Lunda caused him to give Lunda middles names to his two youngest daughters, Chilombo (seventh) and Katolo (fourth). His two youngest sons were Singleton and Ffoliott who grew up to have active roles in Fisher's missionary services in Zambia. Singleton and Ffoliott understood the Lunda language and spent years translating the Bible to Lunda to better serve the natives.

Later life and death

Toward the end of his career as a medical missionary, Fisher spent most of his time working at Kalene Hospital to expand the missions of the Hospital.

While working in Zambia, Fisher died at the age of 70 in December 1935. His wife died three years after. Fisher's sons, Singleton and Ffolliott, carried on the work of their parent's on Kalene Hill. Singleton became a missionary doctor and Ffolliott started a cattle ranch at Kalene Hill after being wounded during his service in World War I.

Legacy

To Fisher, evangelical medicine had the power not just to cure the sickness of African natives but also to weaken their outdated medical belief systems, which he believed was a barrier to converting natives to Christianity. Before establishing Kalene Mission Hospital, Fisher had spent eighteen years as a missionary doctor and surgeon in Angola and became accustomed to the traditions and culture of the Lunda. Fisher's establishment of Kalene Mission Hospital showed his dedication to bettering the Lunda.

By 1930, Northwestern Zambia was populated with doctors, nurses farmers, teachers, and craftsmen. A network of Brethren families, mission stations, and bible study groups became part of the culture of the local population.

The Kalene Hospital started off as grass huts and now has about 150 beds and provides pediatric, medical, obstetric, and surgical care for those in the area. The work created by the Fisher's has continued to affect the medical and spiritual components of thousands of locals in Zambia. 115 years later, the work of the Fishers can be seen in the remote northwest corner of Zambia, near the border with Angola and the Congo.

See also

• Kalene Hill