Johann Ludwig Krapf

Johann Ludwig Krapf (born January 11 1810 in Tübingen-Derendingen; died November 26 1881 in Korntal-Münchingen) was a German missionary in East Africa, an explorer, linguist, and traveler.

Krapf was born into a Lutheran family of farmers in South-West Germany. From school days onward he developped his gift for languages as started with Latin, Greek, French and Italian.

Basel

After school he joined Basel Mission Seminary at age 17 but discontinued his studies as he was in doubt about his missionary vocation. He took up theology at Tübingen university and graduated in 1934. Working as an assistant village pastor he met a Basel missionary who encouraged him to follow up on his missionary vocation.

Ethiopia

1836 he was invited by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) to join their work in Ethiopia. Basel Mission seconded him to the Anglicans and from 1837-1842 he worked in this ancient Christian kingdom. He prepared himself by learning ancient Ge'ez and the Amharic language of the highlands. Krapfs pietist background did not help him much to understand and appreciate traditional orthodox Ethiopian christianity, their emphasis on saints, liturgy and use of Ge'ez, a language no more spoken by anybody.

Thus he centered his interest on the Galla people of southern Ethiopia who then were largely traditional believers. He learned their language and started translating parts of the New Testament into their language. But 1842 saw Krapf receiving a doctorate from Tübingen university for his research into the Ethiopian languages but also the expulsion of all Western missionaries from Ethiopia thus ending his work.

Kenya

Krapf was not to be discouraged by this development. He spent some time in Alexandria (Egypt), received his fiancee, married her and set out to East Africa hoping to reach the Galla from what is now the Kenya coast.

Most of the East African coastline was then part of the Zanzibar sultanate. Sultan Sayyid Said gave him a permit to start a missionary station at the coastal city of Mombasa. Krapf started again by learning the languages of the local Mijikenda people and also Swahili which is the East African language of communication.

Soon after arrival his wife died together with their little daughter from malaria. Krapf moved to the higher grounds of Rabai on the coastal hills and started his station New Rabai. Here he wrote the first dictionary and grammar of the Swahili language. He also took up studies on other African languages, drafting dictionaries and translating Bible parts. 1846 he was joined by Johannes Rebmann, another South-West German Lutheran in the service of the CMS.

Krapf and Rebmann set out to exploratory journeys into the interior and were the first Europeans to see the snowcapped mountains of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya and send reports about them back to Europe which at first were ridiculed by the experts back home. Krapfs deteriorating health forced him to return to Germany in 1853 where he continued with linguistic studies and advisory work for the Christian missions.

Krapfs legacy

Krapf is remembered by different people in different ways.

The Anglican Church of Kenya counts him as its founding father.

Western geographers and dictionaries use to praise him as discoverer of Mt. Kenya until the perception changed to acknowledge that African living around that mountain obviously had been looking at it for quite a while before Krapf.

Linguists have been drawing on his works as he did research languages as diverse as Ge'ez, Amharic, Oromo, Swahili, Kamba, Mijikenda and Massai.

His house at New Rabai is now part of Museums of Kenya. The building of the German Embassy at Nairobi is called "Ludwig-Krapf-House".

In his home town of Tübingen-Derendingen there is an elementary school that bears his name.

External links

• Biography in the Biographic-Bibliographic Church Lexicon (in German)