The historic mission of Freemasonry in Africa has been for its Lodges and other Bodies to serve as a center of union and unity in communities of which the majority of citizens belong to a conglomerate of nationalities, languages, and races. The first Lodge in South Africa was Goede Hoop, of Holland origins, constituted in the Transvaal in 1772. (See article in this Supplement under Slavery, etc.) The English founded British Lodge, No. 334, at Cape Town, in 1811. In 1860, a Lodge under Scotland was constituted as Southern Cross, No. 398. The earliest Lodge under an Irish warrant was Abercom No. 159, in 1895. Haille Selassie, the Emperor, was preparing to establish Lodges in Abyssinia shortly before the Italian conquest.
By 1936, there were on the Continent 389 Lodges recognized by Grand Lodges in the United States, and an undiscoverable number not recognized, many of the latter being of French, Spanish, and Italian origin. There were 254 Lodges under English Constitutions, 103 under Scotland, and 31 under Ireland. Since very little of Africa is under any Exclusive Territorial Jurisdiction, the way is open for Lodges for American nationals, of which there are many in port cities—businessmen, sailors, men of the Navy, airmen, etc. In size, African Lodges range from 25 to 301 members.
Egypt and the Sudan had in 1936, 25 Lodges; Province of Natal, 46; Union of South Africa and the Transvaal, 228; Johannesburg, 31; Cape Town, 12; Nigeria, 21; Rhodesia, 24; West Africa, 17; East Africa, 11; Tanganyika Territory, 6; Cape Colony, 9; Orange Free State, 2; etc. The English Lodges have five District Grand Lodges, Ireland has a Provincial Grand Lodge of South Africa, Southern. The Scottish Rite has two Grand Inspectors General among Lodges under English Constitutions. The Knights Templar and the Royal Arch are vigorous. The Transvaal Bodies have a Masonic Home. The majority of Bodies have a Benevolence Fund. A possible United Grand Lodge for South Africa is discussed but appears unlikely.
According to Anderson (*Constitutions*, 1738, page 195), Richard Hull, Esq., was appointed “Provincial Grand Master at Gambay in West Africa” in 1735. In 1736, David Creighton, M.D., was appointed “Provincial Grand Master at Cape Coast Castle in Africa,” and in 1737, Capt. William Douglas was appointed “Provincial Grand Master on the Coast of Africa and in the Islands of America, excepting such places where a Provincial Grand Master is already deputed.” Despite these appointments by the Grand Lodge of England, there is no record of Lodge establishments in West Africa until 1792, when Lodge No. 586 was constituted at Bulam, followed in 1810 by the Torridzonian Lodge at Cape Coast Castle.
In West Africa, Lodges have been warranted by the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge of Ireland (such as Lodge No. 197 at Calabar, founded in 1896), the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and German Grand Bodies. In the Negro Republic of Liberia, a Grand Lodge was constituted in 1867 with nine daughter Lodges subordinate to it, headquartered at Monrovia.
In North Africa, the Grand Lodge of Egypt was established with headquarters at Cairo. Both England and Scotland have established District Grand Lodges in Egypt with consent from the former. Additionally, Italy, France, and Germany have organized Lodges in Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, and Suez.
In Algeria and Morocco, French influence has been predominant, while in Tunis, an independent Grand Lodge was established in 1881.
Freemasonry was introduced into South Africa with the establishment of the Dutch Lodge, De Goede Hoop, at Cape Town in 1772, followed by another under the same Jurisdiction in 1802. The first English Lodge was established in 1811, followed by others. The Dutch and English Freemasons worked harmoniously, with the English Provincial Grand Master appointed in 1829 also serving as Deputy Grand Master for the Netherlands. In 1860, a Scotch Lodge was set up at Cape Town. Thirty-five years later, a Lodge was established at Johannesburg under the Grand Lodge of Ireland, making four independent Masonic Bodies in South Africa: the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and the Grand Orient of the Netherlands.
Under the Grand Lodge of England, subordinate Lodges were arranged in five Districts: Central, Eastern and Western South Africa, Natal, and the Transvaal. At the same time, there were Lodges under the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Scotch Constitution, divided among Districts including Cape Colony, Cape Colony Western Province, Natal, Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, and the Transvaal, along with Lodges under the Grand Orient of the Netherlands and German Lodges at Johannesburg.
The Grand Orient of Belgium chartered a Lodge in 1912 at Elizabethville in Northern Rhodesia. On the East Coast, two Lodges were erected at Nairobi, one English and the other Scotch. An English Lodge was also established at Zanzibar in 1903.
(See also the following references to other geographical divisions of Africa: Abyssinia, Algeria, Belgian Congo, British East Africa, Cape Colony, Cape Verde Islands, Egypt, Eritrea, French Guinea, German Southwest Africa, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Nigeria, Nyasaland, Portuguese East Africa, Portuguese West Africa, Reunion Island, Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, St. Helena, Somaliland, Tripoli, Tunis, and Uganda.)
In the French Rite of Adoption, the South of the Lodge is called Africa.
*
See German Southwest Africa.
One of the degrees of the Rite of the Clerks of Strict Observance, according to Thory (*Acta Latomorum* I, page 291), but it is not mentioned in other lists of the degrees of that Rite.
One of the titles given to the African Architects, which see.
See African Architects
See Negro Lodges