author
Arthur Shearly Cripps
1869–1952
A poet-priest with a rebellious streak, he spent most of his life in what is now Zimbabwe, where his writing grew out of faith, hardship, and a fierce concern for African land rights.
2 Audiobooks
Primavera: Poems by Four Authors
by Stephen Phillips, Laurence Binyon, Arthur Shearly Cripps, Manmohan Ghose
Cinderella in the South: Twenty-Five South African Tales
by Arthur Shearly Cripps
About the author
Arthur Shearly Cripps was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on June 10, 1869, and was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford. He trained for the Anglican priesthood and first served in Essex before leaving for Southern Rhodesia in the early 1900s, a place that would shape the rest of his life as both a missionary and a writer.
Much of Cripps' reputation comes from the way he joined religion, literature, and public conscience. Sources agree that he spent decades near Enkeldoorn, now Chivhu, living simply, building mission communities, and openly challenging colonial land policies when they harmed African people. He also wrote poetry, stories, and political works, including Africa for Africans (1927), and was known by the Shona name "Mpandi," often translated as "the man who walks like thunder."
His work is remembered not only for its spiritual intensity but also for its moral urgency. Cripps has been described as an activist as well as a poet, and later writers have continued to revisit his life as a complicated, striking figure in the literary and religious history of Zimbabwe.