Photographs showing the visit of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd (1901-1966), Minister of Bantu Affairs in the South African government (he was later Prime Minister), to the Holy Family Mission at Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip (situated in present-day Namibia but then under South African control). A typescript note is extant in the file. It reads: ‘The purpose of his visit to the Mission was to assess the possible implications of implanting the infamous Bantu Education Act into the Caprivi where, at the time, all the schools were administered by the Capuchins with the aid of a very meagre subsidy from the S.A. government. Dr. Verwoerd (the “architect of apartheid”, was assassinated during his reign as Prime Minister) enforced the Bantu Education Act, in the late 1950s, as a means of preventing black South Africans from receiving an education anywhere near the standard enjoyed by other ethnic groups, e.g. whites and coloureds’. One of the photographs shows Verwoerd (identified with an 'X') with various religious including Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. and Fr. Bartholomew Prendiville OFM Cap., superior of the Katima Mulilo Mission. See also CA AMI/2/10/3/110.
Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. (centre) with Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. (right) and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (left), probably onboard a ship during their first voyage to Africa in late 1931.
The Most Rev. Timothy Phelim O'Shea OFM Cap., Vicar Apostolic of the Livingstone Vicariate, with Capuchin friars in Northern Rhodesia. The group includes Fr. James O'Mahony OFM Cap. (Provincial Minister), Fr. Capistran Singleton OFM Cap., Fr. Albeus MacQuillan OFM Cap., Fr. Salvator Quinn OFM Cap., Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap., and Fr. Albert Hayes OFM Cap.
Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. at a religious retreat in Mongu, Zambia. The group includes religious sisters and (on the right) Fr. Jude McKenna OFM Cap.
The first mission station at Loanja, Barotseland. An annotation on the reverse of the print reads ‘cleared and built in virgin bush. Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. in the foreground / Our habit this was'.
Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., (right), Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. (seated), Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. (second from left), and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (first on left) in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. The annotation on the reverse notes that the original image was taken from an album belonging to Fr. Terence Anglin OFM Cap. On the reverse was written: ‘I think this is not a bad piece of architecture for a school master’s son’.
