Who Are The Mennonites?

In 1524, Menno Simons was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands. Despite being a priest, he had never actually read the Scriptures for himself. Two years later, Simons started questioning the Catholic tradition of transubstantiation--what Catholics believe is the process of bread and wine turning into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Simons started to read the Bible for himself for the first time. He began to reject many of the Catholic traditions and teachings such as transubstantiation and infantile baptism.

In 1535, three hundred Anabaptists were executed. This caused an internal crisis in Simons and he fully broke away from the Catholic Church in 1536. Simons started practicing as an evangelical preacher rather than a sacramental preacher. He joined the Anabaptists--so-called due to their re-baptizing of adults--and encouraged his following to reject violence and separate from the rest of the world. Eventually, his following of northern German and Dutch Anabaptists would become known as "Mennonites".

A Mennonite family poses for a photograph in front of their house. From right to left: Gerhard Klassen, Anna Bren with baby Sarah, Heinrich, Peter, Eva, Catarina, Anna, Gerhard Jr., Elisabet, Elena, and Jacob. Durango Colony, Bolivia. 2006. PHOTOGRAPH BY JORDI BUSQUÉ. Taken from National Geographic.

Pacifism is a major cornerstone of the Mennonite faith. When they were met with persecution in the sixteenth century, the early Mennonites fled to Russia rather than fighting. However, persecution followed the Mennonites and forced them out of Russia in the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Most Mennonites found refuge in Canada, where many have stayed.

As the country modernized, the government began to demand all schools teach lessons in English and hinted at creating a standardized curriculum across Canada. Most Mennonites did not have an issue with this. However, a small group of Mennonites believed they would only be allowed into heaven if they lived simple, non-modern lives like their forefathers. This simple life included speaking only in "Plattdeutsch", or "Low German". This language is a low German dialect combined with some Dutch. This Mennonite group became known as the "Old Colonists".

The Old Colonists left Canada in the 1920s and migrated to Paraguay and Mexico. However, in the 1960s, Mexican educational reform led to more migrations. Old Colonists moved to remote parts of the Americas with a heavy concentration of colonies in Bolivia and Belize. While some Mennonite colonies have modernized, like some of those who remained in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, others have maintained strict simple lives modeled after the lives that Menno Simmons and his original following led. One of these strict colonies is Manitoba Colony, formed in Bolivia in 1991.

A Low German Mennonite family. PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLMAR T. HARDER. Taken from Anabaptistworld.org.

Manitoba Colony is one of the strictest Mennonite colonies in the world. For those who are die-hard Old Colonists, Manitoba is the ultimate safe haven. Manitobans reject cars and any vehicles with rubber tires as those tires are seen as enabling easy contact with the outside world. According to Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, a journalist who visited Manitoba Colony multiple times, "Men are forbidden from growing facial hair and don denim overalls except in church, where they wear slacks. Girls and women wear identically tied intricate braids, and you’d be hard pressed to find a dress with a length or sleeve that varies more than a few millimeters from the preordained design. For Manitoba residents, these aren’t arbitrary rules: They form the one path to salvation and colonists obey because, they believe, their souls depend on it" (Vice Magazine).

Manitoba Colony is left completely to its own devices, just as Old Colonists prefer. The Bolivian government has very little jurisdiction inside the community. Rather, Old Colonists have their own government of nine ministers and a ruling bishop. These men are elected by other men in the colony and will remain in power for life. Manitoba Colony is practically its own sovereign nation.

Presently, Mennonites live all over the world--and not all of them follow their religion as strictly as Old Colonists do. There are approximately 2.03 million Mennonites across 87 countries around the world. 350,000 of those Mennonites are Old Colonists. Bolivia is home to more than 60,000 of those Old Colonists, including those in Manitoba Colony.