Description

The complex comprises the stone cottage known as "Schmelen House", the church and the graveyard on which several missionaries lie buried. The cottage is 9 x 3,5m wide and 3,75m high, half from flat stones, half from clay bricks. Inside plastered with cow dung and clay. Roof originally from camelthorn beams, covered with reeds and bulrush mats, capped with a layer of clay, today with corrugated iron. Simple church building with two connected front towers.

Brief History

In 1814 the missionary Johann Heinrich Schmelen of the London Mission Society settled here. He lived in a self-built one-roomed house until 1834. In 1842 the station was taken over by Hans Christian Knudsen of the Rhenish Mission. He rebuilt Schmelen's house that had been burnt down. The Church was built in 1859 by Hermann Heinrich Kreft with support of the parish. It resembles the church of Unterbarmen in Germany due to its two towers that were removed later. When a new church was built in 1899, the old one served as a school and afterwards as a storeroom.