The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was a Church of England mission society that in 1867 began seeking converts among the native Bondei people of Bonde, a region in what is now Tanzania. The UMCA's history among the Bondei belied the notion that missions generally only succeeded in converting 'marginal' members of African peoples. Moreover, the Bondei belief in social pluralism combined with the UMCA's emphasis on hierarchy to produce a Bondei elite. The British decision to divide this elite after World War I generated considerable social and political unrest in Bonde.