ABSTRACT
Dutch missionary. A pioneering missionary to the Khoikhoi (Hottentot people) of SOUTH AFRICA, van der Kemp was born in Rotterdam on May 7, 1747. After fourteen years in the Dutch Dragoon Guards he decided to study medicine in Edinburgh, graduating in 1782. In 1791, after the accidental death of his first wife and daughter, van der Kemp underwent a CONVERSION experience. Contact with a MORAVIAN CHURCH congregation aroused his interest in MISSIONS and he was sent by the London Missionary Society to South Africa in 1799. In Cape Town he founded the South African Missionary Society and after moving to Graff Reinet began work among the Khoikhoi population.
