CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section IV: Africa Missions
Part 18: Kenya, 1880-1934

Part 18 continues our microfilm coverage of the papers of the Kenya Mission with:

• Original Papers, 1901-1934.
• Précis Books, 1881-1934.

These documents reveal CMS involvement in the emancipation of women and girls, with issues such as compulsory unpaid labour on public works, circumcision ceremonies, property and the ownership of land (particularly relating to the discovery of gold in the Kavirondo reserve).  Church leaders and missionaries took up these issues on behalf of native Africans – in the 1920s and 1930s
Archdeacon W E Owen of CMS was a leading exponent of this kind of political and social work.

• There are documents covering the Alliance High School in Kikuyu (opened in 1926), the CMS hospital at Maseno (opened in 1920) and the CMS Kenya Board of Education.

The Original Papers contain a wealth of letters, reports, pamphlets, journals, minutes, newspaper cuttings and conference papers.

Examples are:

• A report on CMS work by the Bishop of Mombassa.
• Reports on meetings of the Native Agents Sub-Committee.
• Correspondence about gold mining in the Kavirondo reserve.
• Issues of the Mombassa Diocesan Magazine.
• Extracts from The Taveta Chronicle.
• A report on CMS Educational Work in Kenya.
• Papers on an informal conference of the Race Relations Committee.
• A pamphlet on the Kikuyu scheme of federation.
• A pamphlet on proposals for an alliance of the missionary societies in British East Africa and a draft constitution.
• Autobiography of Rev J R Deimler, native pastor at Rabai.
• The report of C H Brennan, Medical Officer, on medical conditions amongst the natives south of Mombassa in October 1922.
• Letters from W E Owen, the Archdeacon of Kavirondo, about the Hut and Poll Tax collection in 1930 and 1931.