The (D.R.C.) Mission…. made its greatest contribution at the village level. Its aim has always been to establish a local church which would be self supporting, self governing…. For this reason it exerted itself to teach the people to make better use of the natural resources at their very doors. … At the heart of the story of the D.R.C.M. lies its aim: (the production of) a Bible-loving, industrious and prosperous peasantry.
Of all the important mission organizations that came to establish work in Malawi (known as Nyasaland until 1964) from the end of the last century, the Dutch Reformed Church Mission (D.R.C.M.) is perhaps one of the least researched. Unlike most other missions the D.R.C.M. has had no objective historian to analyse in English its activities in Malawi. Oliver's Missionary Factor in East Africa …, designed as a general study of the missions in the Eastern African region, only mentions the D.R.C.M. in passing. In a similar manner researchers like Andrew Ross on Blantyre Missions and John McCracken on Livingstonia Mission allude to the D.R.C.M. mainly to elucidate a point relevant to the analysis of their focal missions. Rotberg's Christian Missions and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia, 1880–1924 mentions the Cape D.R.C.M. only tangentially in connection with Dutch missionary work in the Chipata district of Zambia. Roderick Macdonald's thesis on pre–1945 education in Malawi covers a field too broad for special attention to be given to the Dutch. The single major but subjective published work in English featuring D.R.C.M. educational activity remains Educational Adaptations with Reference to African Village Schools with Special Reference to Central Nvasaland by J.G. Steytler, a former Dutch missionary to Malawi. This is supplemented by subjective articles by another former Dutch missionary, J.L. Pretorius, which include “Introduction to the history of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission 1889–1914,” “The story of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Nyasaland,” and “The story of school education in Malawi for the period 1875–1941.” More research is necessary into the history of this mission which deserves its important place in the historiography of Malawi.