John Mackenzie (30 August 1835 – 23 March 1899) was a Scottish Christian missionary who worked in Southern Africa, and who argued for the rights of the native Africans. Mackenzie was born in Knockando, Moray, Scotland in 1835. He was a member of the London Missionary Society (now, the Council for World Mission) and volunteered with the organisation in 1855. Three years later, he went to Southern Africa and began his missionary work at Kuruman (where David Livingstone had earlier served), at that time in the northern part of Cape Colony. He thereafter continued that work among the Tswana people of what later became the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He became disturbed by encroachments into Tswana territory by Boers (Dutch-speaking European settlers) from the Republic of Transvaal. From 1867, h