Manhique, Lucas

Lucas Maganda Manhique was from the Manhique area. He married Rabeca in 1912 and their first child, Jaime Lucas, was born the following year. In 1917 Manhique went to Joni (Johannesburg) to work and repented while he was there. Upon returning home he became a pastor in the Methodist Church although the church headquarters was far away at Mukhambe, Inhambane. Together with Rev. Harkness, Lucas Manhique laid the foundations for the Tavane Mission located about thirty kilometres north of Manjacaze. Lucas and Rabeca Manhique went to the school for preachers to prepare for pastoring in their home area. They continued in the school at Mukhambe to further their education. In 1930 their missionaries left and the mission at Tavane was purchased by the Church of the Nazarene. The Manhiques joined the Church of the Nazarene and began working with the new missionaries, Rev. Charles “Gaza” and Mrs. Pearl Jenkins.

Rabeca Lucas Manhique (1894-1987) was from Wucopi, Manhique. She was a fine worker for the Lord. Together she and Lucas Manhique pastored churches in the Manhique region. During the early 1950s they served at the Maganda and Matiguane Churches. Year after year they would come to the camp meetings at Tavane. The pastors would ride donkeys and the ladies would all walk together in a group.

Pastor Manhique passed away in the hospital at Xai-Xai and Rabeca, as a widow, lived at home in Manhique. Her daughters looked after her. There were eight children including Rev. Simeão Manhique. In her old age Rabeca came to reside with her children in Maputo where she passed away at the ripe old age of ninety-three.[1]

Paul S. Dayhoff

Notes:

1.Vicente J. Mbanze, “Grandmother Rabeca Lucas Manhique Has Died”, Mutwalisi(The Herald), Shangaan/Tsonga magazine of the Church of the Nazarene in Mozambique and South Africa, (Florida, Transvaal, South Africa: Nazarene Publishing House, December 1987}, 8.

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Africa Nazarene Mosaic: Inspiring Accounts of Living Faith, first edition, (Florida, Gauteng, South Africa: Africa Nazarene Publications, 2002), copyright © 2001, by Paul S. Dayhoff. All rights reserved.