Arthur Shearly Cripps (1869-1952) was an English Anglican priest who spent most of his life in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and a poet.

He was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and read history at the University of Oxford. He took holy orders, and from 1894 had the parish Ford End in Essex. He became a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel , intending to work in Mashonaland , after reading criticism of the methods of Cecil Rhodes. From 1902 he had a parish near Enkeldoorn (now know as Chivhu ) in what was then Southern Rhodesia.

He was in conflict with the British South Africa Company over land distribution, taking the side of the African population. He was given the Shona name Mpandi, or 'the man who walks like thunder'. After more than 20 years he returned to England for a time after a quarrel with the British administration; but went back shortly for the rest of his life, having in 1927 published Africa for Africans, on the land issue.

References

• God's irregular: Arthur Shearly Cripps (1973), Douglas V. Steere, London SPCK.
• Arthur Shearly Cripps (1975), John Robert Doyle, Boston, Twayne.
• The Dust Diaries (2004), Owen Sheers.