CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Series IV: Africa Missions

Part 18: Kenya Mission, 1880-1934

Continuing on from Part 17, this part concludes the Original Papers for Kenya, 1901-1934, and also includes the Precis Books, 1881-1934. The Original Papers consist of incoming papers sent by the missionaries and mission secretary to headquarters in London, featuring letters, journals, reports and minutes all of which offer an overview of the work undertaken by the mission.

Some of the issues raised in Part 18 include accounts of the East Africa Freed Slave Settlement, the first report of the Africa Inland Mission, missionary probation reports, an account by the Mombasa Medical Officer of a safari in Digo, a report on the success of CMS' Educational Work in Kenya, and an account of an earthquake in the highland district of Kenya. There is also much on the Kikuyu crisis and the implications that it would have for European staff at Maseno as well as notes on an informal conference of the Race Relations Committee.

Issues of The Taveta Chronicle, Awake!, Hearing and Doing, The Mombasa Diocesan Magazine and newscuttings from the African Standard all help to place the material within its cultural and historical context whilst hymns in the Kidabida dialect, a printed autobiography of Rev J R Deimler (native pastor at Rabai), photos of local girls and boys in the Nmkaa Hills and of elderly freed slaves at Frere Town illustrate the diversity of the material included here. Other highlights are:

- a pamphlet on Christianity and Native labours in the British Empire
- a printed despatch to the Governor of the East Africa Protectorate relating to native labour
- a pamphlet on the education policy of the CMS Kenya colony
- correspondence on female circumcision amongst the Kikuyu
- a memo from the Chief Native Commissioner in Nyanza discussing Europeans digging for gold
- a summary of a letter from Dr E J Baxter describing the famine
- information on the African Worker' Council
- Archdeacon J E Hamshere discussing the German missions around Kilimanjaro
- a report on the constitution of the Kikuyu alliance