Congregation in village, Olayinka, Nigeria, ca. 1910

"No.1 The Congregation at Layinka." [now Olayinka, Nigeria], Lagos District. Large group portrait outside building with thatched roof. Two copies of print appear in files. Methodist Missionary work in West Africa had begun in 1811 with Coke's mission to Sierra Leone. A second station was opened on the River Gambia in 1821, and on the Gold Coast in 1834. The first missionary to arrive in South Africa was Rev. John McKenny, who established a station at Namaqualand in 1814. In 1820, work began amongst the slave population in the Cape Colony, in 1822 at Bechuanaland, and in 1841 a mission accompanied British troops to Natal. The South African Conference was established in 1882, and assumed care of mission work in South Africa (with the exception of Transvaal, Swaziland and Rhodesia).